or he shall never be disappointed." Say rather,
"Blessed is he who expecteth everything, for he enjoys everything once at
least, and if it falls out true, twice also."

_Prose Idylls_. 1857.

True Sisters of Mercy. October 22.

Ah! true Sisters of Mercy! whom the world sneers at as "old maids," if
you pour out on cats and dogs and parrots a little of the love that is
yearning to spend itself on children of your own. As long as such as you
walk this lower world one needs no Butler's _Analogy_ to prove to us that
there is another world, where such as you will have a fuller and a fairer
(I dare not say a juster) portion.

_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxv. 1856.

The Divine Fire. October 23.

Well spoke the old monks, peaceful, watching life's turmoil,
"Eyes which look heavenward, weeping still we see:
God's love with keen flame purges, like the lightning flash,
Gold which is purest, purer still must be."

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene i.
1847.

The Cross a Token. October 24.

Have patience, have faith, have hope, as thou standest at the foot of
Christ's Cross, and holdest fast to it, the anchor of the _soul_ and
_reason_, as well as of the _heart_. For, however ill the world may go,
or seem to go, the Cross is the everlasting token that God so loved the
world that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for
it. Whatsoever else is doubtful, that at least is sure--that good must
conquer, because God is good, that evil must perish, because God hates
evil, even to the death.

_Westminster Sermons_. 1870.

The True Self-Sacrifice. October 25.

What can a man do more than _die_ for his countrymen?

_Live_ for them. It is a longer work, and therefore a more difficult and
a nobler one.

_Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856.

Now as Then. October 26.

Men can be as original now as ever, if they had but the courage, even the
insight. Heroic souls in old times had no more opportunities than we
have; but they used them. There were daring deeds to be done then--are
there none now? Sacrifices to be made--are there none now? Wrongs to be
redrest--are there none now? Let any one set his heart in these days to
do what is right, and nothing else; and it will not be long ere his brow
is stamped with all that goes to make up the heroical expression--with
noble indignation, noble self-restraint, great hopes, great sorrows;
perhaps even with the print of the marty