Our Father, G.o.d, help us to begin this new day with the right spirit in our hearts,--the spirit of love toward Thee and our fellowmen. Help us to begin the day if possible without mistake. If, in our human weakness we find that we have not succeeded, that we have erred or gone astray, help us not to despair, not to be discouraged; help us to know and to seek and to love the right. Help us never to forget what we owe to Thee, to our friends, and the beautiful world Thou hast given us. Daily bread we have, opportunities open, like books on every hand. Greater than all life"s bitter is its sweet. Ever ready is the Master to bless; ever ready is the spirit to comfort Thy children look up and praise the Father eternal. Amen.
RANSOM A. GREENE.
December 19
_I love Thee, O Son of Man! for Thy strength and Thy sweetness, for Thy simplicity, Thy courage, Thine infinite tenderness, for Thy glance which strengthens and pardons us, quickens us and lifts us up; for all that Thou hast brought us of consolation, of peace and of warmth of heart. Abide Thou with us! Teach us to see the divine spark imprisoned in every stone of the highway._
CHARLES WAGNER.
O Lord, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all Thy manifold mercies to us, for all Thy constant care and watchfulness over us from the beginning of our lives to this day, for the revelations of Thy presence in the world about us, in the shining sky, in the earth beneath our feet, and in the faces of our friends. Bless us, O Lord, this day, with health and strength and a good courage, and grant that we may show our grat.i.tude for all Thy goodness not only with our lips but in our lives, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
GEORGE HODGES.
December 20
_In every "Oh my Father!"
Slumbers deep a "Here, my child."_
THOLUCK.
_This world, with its wonderful creations, its beauties, and mysteries may lead a child up to the father"s throne, if his heart and mind are open to it. Fill the heart with goodness and there is no place for badness. Fill the soul with heaven, and there is no h.e.l.l. And this delightful time will come when "G.o.d is all and in all."_
ABBIE E. DANFORTH.
Our Father, who art in heaven; we know that Thou hast been good to us.
We thank Thee for the daily witnesses of Thy love. And we would walk worthily before Thee. But we are weak. Help us, O Father to see clearly what Thou would"st have us do! Give us strength. Fill us with Thy spirit, that all the way we may be pure and patient. Help us to walk aright. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
CHARLES H. PUFFER.
December 21
_Grand is the seen, the light, to me--grand are the sky and stars, Grand is the earth, and grand are lasting time and s.p.a.ce, And grand their laws, so multiform, puzzling, evolutionary; But grander far the unseen soul of me, comprehending, endowing all those, Lighting the light, the sky and stars, delving the earth, sailing the sea, (What were all those, indeed, without thee, unseen soul? of what amount without Thee?) More evolutionary, vast, puzzling, O my soul!
More multiform far--more lasting Thou than they._
WALT WHITMAN.
O Thou, our Heavenly Father, in spirit we reach out to Thy great spirit.
Quicken within us visions of what things we may do this day, with Thee at hand, Thy love abounding. Give us vision that we may rise to the opportunities of our daily task. Let Thy holy spirit bear witness to the reality of our dreams and aspirations, that we may look not idly upon our opportunities, but rather that each new opportunity shall challenge us to n.o.bler effort. O keep us this day full of faith in ourselves and Thee, each obedient to our vision, until full purposed, winning Thine approval, we shall accomplish the thing for which Thou sendest us, and Thine be the glory. Amen.
JAMES D. TILLINGHAST.
December 22
_I see the wrong that round me lies, I feel the guilt within, With groan and travail cries I hear the world confess its sin._
_Within the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed stake my spirit clings: I know that G.o.d is good._
_I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care._
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.
O Thou, without whose care a sparrow does not fall, who through the pathless sky dost guide the bird seeking its distant nest, Thy trusting children are safe in Thy dear love. We know not the way before us, but Thou dost know; our feet may stumble in rough paths, but Thou wilt hold us up. Glad in this confidence, may we begin the day with song and finish it, whatever may befall us, in the calm a.s.surance that all things work for good. Give us patience in perplexity, hope amid our fears, and faith to trust Thy holy will as best. Thus walking in Thy love may we reach home at last to see our Saviour"s face. Amen.
STEPHEN A. NORTON.
December 23
_Wouldst make thy life go fair and square?
Thou must not for the past feel care; Whatever thy loss, thou must not mourn; Must ever act as if new-born.
What each day wants of thee, that ask; What each day tells thee, that make thy task; With pride thine own performance viewing, With heart to admire another"s doing; Above all, hate no human being, And all the future leave to the All-Seeing._
GOETHE.
Dear Father, grateful for another new-born day, myself new-born, I greet Thee! Yesterday and all other yesterdays are in Thy keeping. _This day is mine!_ For the failures of the past I care not, nor do I mourn the losses of the days gone by. _Today I am new-born!_ Indeed, aspiring to Thy comprehensive wisdom, I may see my past and my present as one, and out of that past I may select--even from failures and losses--such experiences and lessons as will help me live the present--at least this one day which is mine!--more n.o.bly, more fully, more usefully, more beautifully. May I, knowing myself to be Thy Child, respect myself as a creative spirit able to look upon its own work and to say: "Behold, it is good!" And above all, I pray: that, to-day and always, I may grow in grace and loving-kindness,--hating no one, but feeling, thinking, speaking, acting with good will towards all Thy creatures! _This day is mine!_ The future I leave to Thee, All-Seeing Father! but feel myself Thy open-eyed and confident child. Amen.
CHARLES FLEISCHER.
December 24
_"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there"s no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which sought through the world is ne"er met with elsewhere._
_An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain, Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again; The birds singing gaily, that came at my call, Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all._
J. HOWARD PAYNE.
O G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the blessings of home; for the shelter, safety, and hallowed a.s.sociations of our domestic habitation; for the sympathy and helpfulness of family relationship.
Help us we pray thee to make ours an ideal household, bright with cheerfulness, an exemplification of Christian faith and hope. May the happiness of all be the object of each. To that end help us to be patient toward one another, kind and forgiving. May we realize by many beatific experiences that it is better to give than to receive, better to serve than to be served. May we be disposed, as occasion may arise, to share, for a season, the comfort and inspiration of our home with those who are homeless. We thank Thee for the bright a.s.surance that beyond the fading scenes and transitory experiences of this life, there is, awaiting us, an eternal abiding place in "a continuing city" whose maker and builder is G.o.d, where there shall be no more parting, and where the shadows of our present life shall forever flee away. Amen.
CHARLES CONKLIN.
December 25
_That ever-vivid scene of Bethlehem.... A father, a mother, and a child are there. No religion which began like that could ever lose its character. The first unit of human life, the soul, is there, in the new-born personality of the childhood. But the second unit of human life, the family, is just as truly there in the familiar relation of husband and wife and the sacred, eternal mystery of motherhood._
PHILLIPS BROOKS.
"Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth Peace." We take up the angel symphony and give it new breath, this gladsome day of days. Thou who didst send Thy Son in the likeness of a little child, that by His life of increase in love and beauty and wisdom and power He might give us courage to begin as children the obedience that alone leads at last to the measure of the stature of His fulness, accept our unutterable grat.i.tude for all that gift. And oh, may He be born in us and formed in us, the hope of glory, that so we may share His peace, His victory, His exaltation, His union with Thee. Amen.
C. ELLWOOD NASH.
December 26