We thank Thee, O God, for the light that reveals to us the divine estimate of life, that lifts the veil of mystery from struggle and sacrifice and enables us to interpret their meaning as elements of successful living. We praise Thee for the truth that assures us that we are in this world to win, to overcome, to be more than conquerors. We pray that we may be too busy to dream and too brave to doubt. Strengthen us for life's conflict, help us to carry our burdens cheerfully, fight courageously, strive lawfully, that we may be worthy to be counted among those who shall receive the crown of righteousness and hear at last the "Well done" of the Master. Amen. GEORGE S. SCRIVENER. September 23 _Be diligent and faithful, patient and hopeful, one and all of you; and may we all know, at all times, that verily the Eternal rules above us, and that nothing finally wrong has happened or can happen._ THOMAS CARLYLE. _If you entered the workshop of a blacksmith, you would not dare to find fault with his bellows, anvils and hammers. If you had not the skill of a workman, but the consideration of a man, what would you say? "It is not without cause the bellows are placed there; the artificer knew, though I do not know, the reason." You would not dare to find fault with the blacksmith in his shop, and do you dare to find fault with God in His world?_ ST. BERNARD. We thank Thee, O loving Father, that we are not alone in the universe with longing for the higher life. There are a thousand revelations of Thee in our fellowmen. And when we cannot find Thee, for blindness, in nature or in ourselves, we can see Thee revealed in the lives heroic that surround us. In the abstract Thou art hard to find; in the lives of men Thou art always visible. We thank Thee that there is a contagion of rightness and that love is a vital seed that fills the world with its kind. We are fearful of love sometimes, fearing to waste it on a loveless world. Help us to see that every atom we give becomes an ocean to ourselves. Amen. ALBERT C. GRIER. September 24 _To be at all--what is better than that? I think if there were nothing more developed, the clam in its callous shell in the sand were august enough I am not in any callous shell; I am cased with supple conductors, all over They take every object by the hand, and lead it within me; They are thousands, each one with his entry to himself; They are always watching with their little eyes, from my head to my feet; One no more than a point lets in and out of me such bliss and magnitude, I think I could lift the girder of the house away if it lay between me and whatever I wanted._ WALT WHITMAN.