re are four things which are little upon the earth,
But they are exceeding wise:
The ants are a people not strong,
Yet they provide their food in the summer;
The conies are but a feeble folk,
Yet make they their houses in the rocks;
The locusts have no king,
Yet go they forth all of them by bands;
The lizard taketh hold with her hands,
Yet is she in king's palaces.

--Proverbs 30. 24-28.

Creator of all, lead me to see the light, and instruct me that I may
be able to reason. Guard me against spectacular endeavors, that I may
be genuine. Amen.

FEBRUARY SECOND

Candlemas Day.

Nell Gwynn born 1650.

Hannah More born 1745.

William Henry Burleigh born 1812.

'Twas doing nothing was his curse--
Is there a vice can plague us worse?
The wretch who digs the mine for bread,
Or plows, that others may be fed,
Feels less fatigue than that decreed
To him who cannot think, or read.
Not all the peril of temptations,
Not all the conflict of the passions,
Can quench the spark of Glory's flame,
Or quite extinguish Virtue's name.

--Hannah More.

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.

--Sir Walter Scott.

He went out, and found others standing; and he saith unto them, Why
stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man
hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard.

--Matthew 20. 6, 7.

Eternal God, who hath weighed the mountains and measured the seas, I
pray that I may not be satisfied to wait in idleness, and let thy
wisdom pass away from me as the days. Steady me in my weakness, and
reveal to me my strength as I draw near and ask of thee. Amen.

FEBRUARY THIRD

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy born 1809.

Horace Greeley born 1811.

Frederick William Robertson born 1816.

Sidney Lanier born 1842.

My soul is sailing through the sea,
But the past is heavy and hindereth me.
The past hath crusted cumbrous shells
That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells
About my soul.
The huge waves wash, the high waves roll,
Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole
And hindereth me from sailing.

--Sidney Lanier.

To stand with a smile upon your face, against a stake from which you
cannot get away--that n