o doubt is heroic. True glory is resignation
to the inevitable. But to stand unchained, with perfect liberty to
go away held only by the higher chains of duty, and let the fire
creep up to the heart--that is heroism.

--F.W. Robertson.

We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not
unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not
destroyed.

--2 Corinthians 4. 8, 9.

Gracious Father, thou knowest what I am and the condition of my life.
May I seek thy will for me. Grant that I may never struggle for
consolation through indulgence and indolence, but in my sorrow and
failure may I reach out for thy enduring comfort. Amen.

FEBRUARY FOURTH

Mark Hopkins born 1802.

W. Harrison Ainsworth born 1805.

Jean Richepin born 1849.

Thomas Carlyle died 1881.

Life is not a May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with
principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange
groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by coral muses, and the
rosy hours; it is a stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning,
sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice.

--Thomas Carlyle.

For all sweet and pleasant passages in the great story of life men
may well thank God; for leisure and ease and health and friendship
may God make us truly and humbly grateful; but our chief song of
thanksgiving must be always for our kinship with him, with all that
such divinity of greatness brings of peril, hardship, toil, and
sacrifice.

--Hamilton Mabie.

Thy bars shall be iron and brass;
And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

--Deuteronomy 33. 25.

My Father, help me to choose the road that leads to my work, and may I
not fail to reach it, by wandering away from it. Keep me in touch with
the human side of life, holding in mind that "Truth and honesty are
the noblest works of God." Amen.

FEBRUARY FIFTH

Sir Robert Peel born 1788.

Ole Boreman Bull born 1810.

John Muir born 1810.

Dwight L. Moody born 1837.

When a great man dies, then has the time come for putting us in mind
that he was alive!

--Thomas Carlyle.

If I practice one day, I can see the result. If I practice two days,
my friends can see it. If I practice three days, the great public
can see it.

--Ole Bull.

Those who say they will forgive but can't forget an