The Optimist's Good Morning Part 6

GEORGE L. PERIN.

February 14

_We go through life as some tourists go through Europe,--so anxious to see the next sight, the next cathedral, the next picture, the next mountain peak, that we never stop to fill our sense with the beauty of the present one. Along all our pathways sweet flowers are blossoming, if we will only stop to pluck them and smell their fragrance. In every meadow, birds are warbling, calling to their mates, and soaring into the blue, if we will only stop our grumbling long enough to hear them._

MINOT J. SAVAGE.

Give us, O G.o.d, the vision to see the way where duty lies and strength to walk in it, to ever keep the forward look and never to lose heart today because of the stumblings and fallings in the yesterdays that are forever gone. Let us remember that we are in Thy hands and we are faithless to Thee and to ourselves if knowingly we fail to do Thy work.

Though we cannot see Thee, we now see our fellow men and we shall best serve Thee if, in love and patience, we help our fellows. Amen.

ALMON GUNNISON.

February 15

_May I reach That purest Heaven--be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be that sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense!

So shall I join the choir invisible, Whose music is the gladness of the world._

GEORGE ELIOT.

Our heavenly Father, we bless Thee for the gift of another day with all its opportunities for service. And we pray that our hearts may respond in sympathy with the heartbeats of those who love and toil and suffer around us today. May we learn to make their joys and sorrows our own. Do not let our unfeeling hands strike the heart-strings of others harshly, nor allow our feet to go crus.h.i.+ng roses of love, without thought. Help us, we pray Thee, to walk tenderly and reverently among our fellow men.

May their hopes and n.o.ble endeavors ring within us the prayer bells of the soul. Make us thus to grow large and tender and n.o.ble through our helpful ministries. Amen.

JOHN WESLEY CARTER.

February 16

_Ah, love and love alone at last will solve All the vast, threatening questions that distract Mankind; that fellow-men in strife array, And the whole world with fierce contentions rend.

Still keep your idle millions under arms-- Fed on the hard-earned substance of the poor-- Still watch each other with keen jealousy, Still slaughter thousands on the field of war, Or strive with statesman's craft to arbitrate; Thread the sly mazes of diplomacy, Try communistic cures for every ill, And when all fails at last, for lack of love, Try love--the mightiest of them all--and win!_

HENRY NEHEMIAH DODGE.

G.o.d of the light,--within, without, who hast lifted the curtain of night from our abodes, perfect now Thy blessing unto us, and take the veil from all our hearts, and make clear to us Thy holy presence. Filled with the everlasting light, may we look on each other, and on our work here below, and on the strifes and conditions of humanity, with a love and hope that are not of this world. May Faith, Hope and Love abide with us--and may we realize that the greatest of these is Love. Hasten Thou the time when by love alone Thy kingdom shall come, and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

WILLIAM B. EDDY.

February 17

_If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more starry, more immortal,--that is your success. All nature is your congratulation and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself._

HENRY DAVID Th.o.r.eAU.

Father, I have found Thy gift of life, a sweet and beautiful thing. It has known cloud and rain, but these have nourished it, and the darkness has sheltered it. It has felt driving storms, but these have strengthened it. It has known suns.h.i.+ne too. And now every day is a transfiguration and every night a benediction. Let thanksgiving be my prayer. What I need Thou wilt give. My hands Thou wilt touch with the soft petals of Thy flowers; and the arms of Thy strong care shall be about me. By the voices of brooks and rivers and winds and birds and little children Thou wilt speak to me, and in the deeper silences I shall hear Thy still small voice. Father, I thank Thee. Amen.

O. C. S. WALLACE.

February 18

_Let us not care too much for what happens: Let us not leave our peace of mind at the mercy of events._

CHARLES G. AMES.

_Let us lay hold of the happiness of today. Do we not go through life blindly, thinking that some fair tomorrow will bring us the gift we miss today?... Know thou, my heart, if thou art not happy today, thou shalt never be happy._

ANNA ROBERTSON BROWN.

We thank Thee, our Father, that the Satisfaction of righteousness is present as well as future. Help us, we beseech Thee, to live this day so that earth shall seem like heaven. In the proof of our adequacy to the demands of duty may we find a delight that shall more than compensate us for any pleasure or profit surrendered for its sake. May the sense of Thine approval sanctify our joys and comfort our sorrows. May we win love by deserving it, and find happiness in bestowing it. Through obedience to Thy will may we add strength and spiritual beauty to our own character and carry into the evening shadows the sweet a.s.surance that other lives have been enriched by our kind words and helpful deeds.

We ask it as Thy children. Amen.

J. FRANK THOMPSON.

February 19

_'Tis always morning somewhere, and above The awakening continents from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e.

Somewhere the birds are singing evermore._

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

_The inconveniences and the petty annoyances, the pains and the sorrows, do we ever forget them? Indeed, no; we grumble and groan continually. The blue sky and the suns.h.i.+ne, the everyday mercies and the wonderful blessings that we accept as a matter of course, do we remember to rejoice because of them? Only too seldom. On this one day, do let us be sincerely and expressedly thankful._

ANONYMOUS.

Our Father, we rejoice to believe that Thy love is the eternal sun which knows no eclipse and that in its pure s.h.i.+ning, we Thy children can go forward with brave hearts and radiant hopes, a.s.sured that Thy wisdom hath left nothing unfinished and that "Thy goodness faileth never." We greet this new day with newness of joy in Thy Fatherhood as our personal right, and with ascending ideals of a service whose gracious light shall kindle other souls into a larger hopefulness and a deeper tenderness. We would fill this day with all sunny thoughts, with all cheering words and with all generous deeds, and thus the more effectually bring the divine light into the human and make clearer the outlines of a heaven on earth.

Amen.

ARNOLD S. YANTIS.

February 20

_No blast of air or fire of sun Puts out the light whereby we run With girdled loins our lamplit race, And each from each takes heart of grace And spirit till his turn be done, And light of face from each man's face In whom the light of trust is one; Since only souls that keep their place By their own light, and watch things roll, And stand, have light for any soul._

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.

O Thou, Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment, even the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world, s.h.i.+ne Thou in us, putting to flight all the powers of darkness, and guilt of sin, and selfishness. s.h.i.+ne also through us to any that live in the shadow; and so fill us with Thy radiant Spirit, that we may be a lamp unto a neighbor's feet and a light unto his path. And when this day is done may every face we have met be the brighter for our meeting, and every heart braver with new joy and cheer and grace and strength. For in Thee O Lord, is life, and Thy life is the light of men. Amen.

THEODORE PARKER.

February 21

_The longer on this earth we live And weigh the various qualities of men The more we feel the high, stern-featured beauty Of plain devotedness to duty, Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise, But finding amplest recompense For life's ungarlanded expense In work done squarely and unwasted days._

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.