No suffering, while it lasts, is joy, Yet may the chastened child be glad And oh it is not hard to bear What must be borne in Thee! Deep unto deep may call; but I, And let the storm that speeds me home ANNA L. WARING. June 29. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. PHIL. iv. 7. HIS peace is the highest and most strenuous action of the soul, but an entirely harmonious action, in which all our powers and affections are blended in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds; a season when, in the fullest flow of thought and feeling, in the universal action of the soul, an inward calm, profound as midnight silence, yet bright as the still summer noon, full of joy, but unbroken by one throb of tumultuous passion, is breathed through the spirit, and a glimpse and presage given of the serenity of a happier world. Of this character is the peace of religion. It is a conscious harmony with God and the creation, an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe, an entire concord of purpose with its Infinite Original. Human nature has never lost sight of this its great end. It has always sighed for a repose in which energy of thought and will might be tempered with an all-pervading tranquillity. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. PEACE. Is this the peace of God, this strange, sweet calm ? Yet 't is as if, beside some cool, clear rill, *And tranquil gladness reigned with gently soothing sway. It is not that I feel less weak, but Thou Wilt be my strength; it is not that I see Less sin, but there is pardoning love with Thee, I do not think or pray; I only rest And feel that Thou art near, and know that I am blest. June 30. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. HEB. xii. I, 2. LORD God, give peace unto us (for Thou hast given us all things): the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening; yea, give us rest in Thee, the Sabbath of eternal life. For Thou shalt rest in us, as now Thou workest in us; and Thy rest shall be through us, as Thy works are through us. Amen. SAINT AUGUSTINE. PEACE. My soul, there is a country Sweet peace sits crowned with smiles, Commands the beauteous files. He is thy gracious friend, To die here for thy sake. HENRY VAUGHAN (1621). July 1. And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant. GEN. xlix. 15. LE ET your rest be perfect in its season, like the rest of waters that are still. If you will have a model for your living, take neither the stars, for they fly without ceasing; nor the ocean, that ebbs and flows; nor the river, that cannot stay; but rather let your life be like that of the summer air, which has times of noble energy and times of perfect peace. It fills the sails of the ships upon the sea, and the miller thanks it on the breezy uplands; it works generally for the health and wealth of all men, yet it claims its hours of rest. PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. IDLENESS is sweet and sacred. When you have found a day to be idle, be idle for a day. LANDOR. SUMMER REST. SOAR with the birds, and flutter with the leaf; Call not such hours an idle waste of life; Land that lies fallow gains a quiet power; So shall it be with thee if, restful still, Thou rightly studiest in the summer hour; July 2. In returning and rest shall ye be saved. ISA. XXX. 15. A FIRM, assured patience grows upon the Christian, enabling him to hold upon his way undeterred, unchilled, by whatever he may meet upon it; enabling him also, I know not to what inner music, to build up his spirit to a strength of calm, reliant conviction, even with the stones he finds there; as a brook lifts up a more clear and rapid voice for flowing over pebbles. The strain upon the inner life has passed over from self to Christ. The heart has grown wise, instructed, tolerant, tender with weakness, patient of imperfection. How quiet such a life is! how fruitful! fruitful because it is so quiet; it works not, but lives and grows. The uneasy effort has passed out of it. Unresting because it rests always, it has done with task-work and anxiety; it serves, yet is not cumbered with much serving; it has ceased from that sad complaint, "Thou hast left me to serve alone." THE QUIET HOUR. THE quiet of a shadow-haunted pool Where light breaks through in glorious tenderness, Such is this hour, this silent hour with Thee! July 3. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.2 COR. iii. 5. THE 'HE crucial moment is ever the present. The wise man has not far to look to find his future. And when the experience of to-day is deepened and lifted to its limit of current blessedness, from that lofty altitude the mysteries of the Highest will not be too distant. Jesus' consciousness of divine things stands ever in from our commoner circumference of knowledge, drawing us to the heart of the great reality. From the centre streams the light that makes our object and our way plain. It is the illumination of true, perfect life shining into and shaming all poorer experience. EDWARD F. HAYWARD. AL-MUGHNI. HE is sufficient, and He makes suffice; God is enough! Thou who in hope and fear |