Our Father in Heaven, we bless Thee this morning for all Thy care and love; Thou hast made our houses homes, sweet, quiet dwelling-places. We thank Thee for sleep, for communion with one another in all holy and tender speech. We thank Thee for all our hopes; the worlds are nearer than we thought, heaven's fragrance attempers the winds of earth, we almost hear the upper song: may we listen for it, may our souls delight in sweet anticipations of immortal fellowship, and may we come out of these high reveries determined to work more, suffer more patiently, to accept every discipline more willingly, and to do all our little day's work as men whose citizenship is in heaven. Amen. JOSEPH PARKER. February 27 _Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth,-- This is the making of man, This is his problem of birth; Born to all holiness, born to all crime, Heir of both worlds, on the long slope of time Climbing the path of God's plan; Dust of the earth in his error and fear, Weakness and malice and lust; Yet, quivering up from the dust, Flame of the spirit, unleaping and clear, Yearning to God, since from God is its birth-- This is man's portion, to shape as he can, Flame of the spirit, and dust of the earth-- This is the making of man._ PRISCILLA LEONARD. O God, Thou art the Father of our spirits, but our spirits have come to us through ways of flesh. We are both spiritual and carnal. Our spirits seek Thee evermore, but our flesh turns away from Thee and strives to drag us down. Between our best and our worst is bitter conflict. Help us to the discovery that all that lives is in like conflict, and that there can be no virtue and no glory except in overcoming. Make us see that the spirit is stronger than the flesh because it is of God, and that in the obedience and inspiration of Jesus, Thy Son and our Brother, we may at last be enthroned with Him. Amen. CEPHAS B. CRANE. February 28 _Neither let mistakes nor wrong directions, of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere, falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully, to be right; he will grow daily more and more right. It is at bottom the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves._ THOMAS CARLYLE.