Daily Strength for Daily Needs by Mary W. Tileston

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DAILY STRENGTH FOR DAILY NEEDS

By Mary Wilder Tileston

_Selected by the Editor of_ "Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim's Day,"
"Quiet Hours," etc.

"As thy days, so shall thy strength be"

PREFACE

This little book of brief selections in prose and verse, with accompanying
texts of Scripture, is intended for a daily companion and counsellor. These
words of the goodly fellowship of wise and holy men of many times, it is
hoped may help to strengthen the reader to perform the duties and to bear
the burdens of each day with cheerfulness and courage.

MARY WILDER TILESTON.

January 1

_They go from strength to strength_.--PS. lxxxiv. 7.

_First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the
ear_.--MARK. iv. 28.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

O. W. HOLMES.

High hearts are never long without hearing some new call, some distant
clarion of God, even in their dreams; and soon they are observed to break
up the camp of ease, and start on some fresh march of faithful service.
And, looking higher still, we find those who never wait till their moral
work accumulates, and who reward resolution with no rest; with whom,
therefore, the alternation is instantaneous and constant; who do the good
only to see the better, and see the better only to achieve it; who are too
meek for transport, too faithful for remorse, too earnest for repose; whose
worship is action, and whose action ceaseless aspiration.

J. MARTINEAU.

January 2

_The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time
forth, and even for evermore_.--PS. cxxi. 8.

_Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations_.--PS. xc. 1.

With grateful hearts the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to Thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before Thy feet.

P. DODDRIDGE.

We are like to Him with whom there is no past or future, with whom a day is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, when we do our work
in the great present, leaving both past and future to Him to whom they are
ever present, and fearing nothing, because He is in our future as much as
He is in our past, as much as, and far more than we can feel Him to be, in
our present. Partakers thus of the divine nature, resting in that perfect
All-in-all in whom our nature is eternal too, we walk without fear, full of
hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting for the endless good
which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in.

G. MACDONALD.

January 3

_As thy days, so shall thy strength be_.--DEUT. xxxiii. 25.

_Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof_.--MATT. vi. 34.

Oh, ask not thou, How shall I bear
The burden of to-morrow?
Sufficient for to-day, its care,
Its evil and its sorrow;
God imparteth by the way
Strength sufficient for the day.

J. E. SAXBY.

He that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with
sorrow and peevishness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit
down upon his little handful of thorns. Enjoy the blessings of this day, if
God sends them; and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly: for this
day only is ours, we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the
morrow. But if we look abroad, and bring into one day's thoughts the evil
of many, certain and uncertain, what will be and what will never be, our
load will be as intolerable as it is unreasonable.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

January 4

_If we sin, we are Thine, knowing Thy power: but--we will not sin, knowing
that we are counted Thine. For to know Thee is perfect righteousness: yea,
to know Thy power is the root of immortality_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON xv. 2,
3.

Oh, empty us of self, the world, and sin,
And then in all Thy fulness enter in;
Take full possession, Lord, and let each thought
Into obedience unto Thee be brought;
Thine is the power, and Thine the will, that we
Be wholly sanctified, O Lord, to Thee.

C. E. J.

Take steadily some one sin, which seems to stand out before thee, to root
it out, by God's grace, and every fibre of it. Purpose strongly, by
the grace and strength of God, wholly to sacrifice this sin or sinful
inclination to the love of God, to spare it not, until thou leave of it
none remaining, neither root nor branch.

Fix, by God's help, not only to root out this sin, but to set thyself to
gain, by that same help, the opposite grace. If thou art tempted to be
angry, try hard, by God's grace, to be _very_ meek; if to be proud, seek to
be _very_ humble.

E. B. PUSEY.

January 5

_That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish_.--EPH. v. 27.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.--I PETER ii. 5.

One holy Church of God appears
Through every age and race,
Unwasted by the lapse of years,
Unchanged by changing place.

S. LONGFELLOW.

A temple there has been upon earth, a spiritual Temple, made up of living
stones; a Temple, as I may say, composed of souls; a Temple with God for
its light, and Christ for the high priest; with wings of angels for its
arches, with saints and teachers for its pillars, and with worshippers for
its pavement. Wherever there is faith and love, this Temple is.

J. H. NEWMAN.

To whatever worlds He carries our souls when they shall pass out of
these imprisoning bodies, in those worlds these souls of ours shall find
themselves part of the same great Temple; for it belongs not to this earth
alone. There can be no end of the universe where God is, to which that
growing Temple does not reach,--the Temple of a creation to be wrought at
last into a perfect utterance of God by a perfect obedience to God.

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

January 6

_In all ages entering into holy souls, she [Wisdom] maketh them friends of
God, and prophets_.--WISDOM OF SOLOMON vii. 27.

Meanwhile with every son and saint of Thine
Along the glorious line,
Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet
We 'll hold communion sweet,
Know them by look and voice, and thank them all
For helping us in thrall,
For words of hope, and bright examples given
To shew through moonless skies that there is light in heaven.

J. KEBLE.

If we cannot live at once and alone with Him, we may at least live with
those who have lived with Him; and find, in our admiring love for their
purity, their truth, their goodness, an intercession with His pity on our
behalf. To study the lives, to meditate the sorrows, to commune with the
thoughts, of the great and holy men and women of this rich world, is a
sacred discipline, which deserves at least to rank as the forecourt of the
temple of true worship, and may train the tastes, ere we pass the very
gate, of heaven. We forfeit the chief source of dignity and sweetness in
life, next to the direct communion with God, if we do not seek converse
with the greater minds that have left their vestiges on the world.

J. MARTINEAU.

Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence which may
bring upon you any noble feeling.

J. RUSKIN.

January 7

_The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to
the working of His mighty power_.--EPH. i. 19.

The lives which seem so poor, so low,
The hearts which are so cramped and dull,
The baffled hopes, the impulse slow,
Thou takest, touchest all, and lo!
They blossom to the beautiful.

SUSAN COOLIDGE.

A root set in the finest soil, in the best climate, and blessed with all
that sun and air and rain can do for it, is not in so sure a way of its
growth to perfection, as every man may be, whose spirit aspires after all
that which God is ready and infinitely desirous to give him. For the sun
meets not the springing bud that stretches towards him with half that
certainty, as God, the source of all good, communicates Himself to the soul
that longs to partake of Him.

WM. LAW.

If we stand in the openings of the present moment, with all the length and
breadth of our faculties unselfishly adjusted to what it reveals, we are in
the best condition to receive what God is always ready to communicate.

T. C. UPHAM.

January 8

_As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men_.--GAL. vi.
10.

_Let brotherly love continue_.--HEB. xiii. 1.

I Ask Thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And to wipe the weeping eyes,
And a heart at leisure from itself,
To soothe and sympathize.

A. L. WARING.

Surely none are so full of cares, or so poor in gifts, that to them also,
waiting patiently and trustfully on God for His daily commands, He will not
give direct ministry for Him, increasing according to their strength and
their desire. There is so much to be set right in the world, there are so
many to be led and helped and comforted, that we must continually come in
contact with such in our daily life. Let us only take care, that, by the
glance being turned inward, or strained onward, or lost in vacant reverie,
we do not miss our turn of service, and pass by those to whom we might have
been sent on an errand straight from God.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

Look up and not down; look forward and not back; look out and not in; and
lend a hand.

EDWARD E. HALE.

January 9

_And in every work that be began in the service of the house of God, and in
the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his
heart, and prospered_.--2 CHRON. xxxi. 21.

_What, shall we do, that we might work the works of God_?--JOHN vi. 28.

Give me within the work which calls to-day,
To see Thy finger gently beckoning on;
So struggle grows to freedom, work to play,
And toils begun from Thee to Thee are done.

J. F. CLARKE.

God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where He wishes us to be
employed; and that employment is truly "our Father's business." He chooses
work for every creature which will be delightful to them, if they do it
simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough,
for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle
ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are
doing, that we cannot be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves.

J. RUSKIN.

January 10

_Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise
Thee_.--PS. lxiii. 3.

_Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall
lose his life shall preserve it_.--LUKE xvii. 33.

O Lord! my best desires fulfil,
And help me to resign
Life, health, and comfort, to Thy will,
And make Thy pleasure mine.

WM. COWPER.

What do our heavy hearts prove but that other things are sweeter to us
than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true
freedom, the full perception of its power, that our sonship is yet but
faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known? Our consent
would turn all our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them our
own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him.

H. E. MANNING.

Nothing is intolerable that is necessary. Now God hath bound thy trouble
upon thee, with a design to try thee, and with purposes to reward and crown
thee. These cords thou canst not break; and therefore lie thou down gently,
and suffer the hand of God to do what He please.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

January 11

_I will be glad, and rejoice in Thy mercy: for Thou hast considered my
trouble; Thou hast known my soul in adversities_.--PS. xxxi. 7.

Nay, all by Thee is ordered, chosen, planned;
Each drop that fills my daily cup Thy hand
Prescribes, for ills none else can understand:
All, all is known to Thee.

A. L. NEWTON.

God knows us through and through. Not the most secret thought, which we
most hide from ourselves, is hidden from Him. As then we come to know
ourselves through and through, we come to see ourselves more as God sees
us, and then we catch some little glimpse of His designs with us, how each
ordering of His Providence, each check to our desires, each failure of our
hopes, is just fitted for us, and for something in our own spiritual state,
which others know not of, and which, till then, we knew not. Until we come
to this knowledge, we must take all in faith, believing, though we know
not, the goodness of God towards us. As we know ourselves, we, thus far,
know God.

E. B. PUSEY.

January 12

_Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable
in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer_.--PS. xix. 14.

The thoughts that in our hearts keep place,
Lord, make a holy, heavenly throng,
And steep in innocence and grace
The issue of each guarded tongue.

T. H. GILL.

There is another kind of silence to be cultivated, besides that of
the tongue as regards others. I mean silence as regards one's
self,--restraining the imagination, not permitting it to dwell overmuch
on what we have heard or said, not indulging in the phantasmagoria of
picture-thoughts, whether of the past or future. Be sure that you have
made no small progress in the spiritual life, when you can control your
imagination, so as to fix it on the duty and occupation actually existing,
to the exclusion of the crowd of thoughts which are perpetually sweeping
across the mind. No doubt, you cannot prevent those thoughts from arising,
but you can prevent yourself from dwelling on them; you can put them aside,
you can check the self-complacency, or irritation, or earthly longings
which feed them, and by the practice of such control of your thoughts you
will attain that spirit of inward silence which draws the soul into a close
intercourse with God.

JEAN N. GROU.

January 13

_Speak not evil one of another, brethren_.--JAMES iv. 11.

_Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking,
be put away from you, with all malice_.--EPH. iv. 31.

If aught good thou canst not say
Of thy brother, foe, or friend,
Take thou, then, the silent way,
Lest in word thou shouldst offend.

ANON.

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom
you ought never to speak.

R. CECIL.

To recognize with delight all high and generous and beautiful actions; to
find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents,
and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have least
sympathy, this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of
calumny.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

January 14

_Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall
appoint_.--2 SAM. xv. 15.

I love to think that God appoints
My portion day by day;
Events of life are in His hand,
And I would only say,
Appoint them in Thine own good time,
And in Thine own best way.

A. L. WARING.

If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King
appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His
appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to
work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me
to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work
out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I
grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I
am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His
command, "Be courteous?" If all my members are really at His disposal, why
should I be put out if to-day's appointment is some simple work for my
hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important
doing of head or tongue?

F. R. HAVERGAL.

January 15

_For this is the will of God, even your sanctification_.--I THESS. iv. 3.

Between us and Thyself remove
Whatever hindrances may be,
That so our inmost heart may prove
A holy temple, meet for Thee.

LATIN MSS. OF 15TH CENTURY.

Bear, in the presence of God, to know thyself. Then seek to know for what
God sent thee into the world; how thou hast fulfilled it; art thou yet what
God willed thee to be; what yet lacketh unto thee; what is God's will for
thee _now_; what thing thou mayest _now_ do, by His grace, to obtain His
favor, and approve thyself unto Him. Say to Him, "Teach me to do Thy will,
for Thou art my God," and He will say unto thy soul, "Fear not; I am thy
salvation." He will speak peace unto thy soul; He will set thee in the way;
He will bear thee above things of sense, and praise of man, and things
which perish in thy grasp, and give thee, if but afar off, some glimpse of
His own, unfading, unsetting, unperishing brightness and bliss and love.

E. B. PUSEY.

January 16

_Now our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and
work_.--2 THESS. ii. 16, 17.

When sorrow all our heart would ask,
We need not shun our daily task,
And hide ourselves for calm;
The herbs we seek to heal our woe
Familiar by our pathway grow,
Our common air is balm.

J. KEBLE.

Oh, when we turn away from some duty or some fellow-creature, saying that
our hearts are too sick and sore with some great yearning of our own, we
may often sever the line on which a divine message was coming to us. We
shut out the man, and we shut out the angel who had sent him on to open the
door. There is a plan working in our lives; and if we keep our hearts quiet
and our eyes open, it all works together; and, if we don't, it all rights
together, and goes on fighting till it comes right, somehow, somewhere.

ANNIE KEARY.

January 17

_Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings_.--I PETER iv. 12, 13.

We take with solemn thankfulness
Our burden up, nor ask it less,
And count it joy that even we
May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee,
Whose will be done!

J. G. WHITTIER.

Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain,
uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a
true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into
a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Saviour. Look at no
inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought
about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed
day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest
faith in, and fullest resignation to God.

WM. LAW.

January 18

_Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given
unto thee_.--DEUT. XXVI. 11.

_Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks_.--I THESS. v. 16, 18.

Grave on thy heart each past "red-letter day"!
Forget not all the sunshine of the way
By which the Lord hath led thee; answered prayers,
And joys unasked, strange blessings, lifted cares,
Grand promise-echoes! Thus thy life shall be
One record of His love and faithfulness to thee.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of
our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills
us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least
event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our
childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in
benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among
the chiefest we have ever received. When this feeling is awakened, the
heart beats with a pulse of thankfulness. Every gift has its return of
praise. It awakens an unceasing daily converse with our Father,--He
speaking to us by the descent of blessings, we to Him by the ascent of
thanksgiving. And all our whole life is thereby drawn under the light of
His countenance, and is filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which
only thankful hearts can know.

H. E. MANNING.

January 19

_Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord_.--PS. cv. 3.

_The joy of the Lord is your strength_.--NEH. viii. 10.

Be Thou my Sun, my selfishness destroy,
Thy atmosphere of Love be all my joy;
Thy Presence be my sunshine ever bright,
My soul the little mote that lives but in Thy light.

GERHARD TERSTEEGEN.

I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have
been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white
cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul
and heaven in my eye... I rejoice in being exactly what I am,--a creature
capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get
up and look for a while out of the window, and gaze at the moon and stars,
the work of an Almighty hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe, and
then sit down, and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.

A POOR METHODIST WOMAN, 18TH CENTURY.

January 20

_The Lord taketh pleasure In His people: He will beautify the meek with
salvation_.--PS. cxlix. 4.

Long listening to Thy words,
My voice shall catch Thy tone,
And, locked in Thine, my hand shall grow
All loving like Thy own.

B. T.

It is not in words explicable, with what divine lines and lights the
exercise of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and
coldest countenance, neither to what darkness their departure will consign
the loveliest. For there is not any virtue the exercise of which, even
momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the features; neither on
them only, but on the whole body the moral and intellectual faculties
have operation, for all the movements and gestures, however slight, are
different in their modes according to the mind that governs them--and on
the gentleness and decision of right feeling follows grace of actions, and,
through continuance of this, grace of form.

J. RUSKIN.

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish
to scatter joy and not pain around us.

R. W. EMERSON.

January 21

_Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and
they shall walk and not faint_.--ISA. xl. 30, 31.

Lord, with what courage and delight
I do each thing,
When Thy least breath sustains my wing!
I shine and move
Like those above,
And, with much gladness
Quitting sadness,
Make me fair days of every night.

H. VAUGHAN.

Man, by living wholly in submission to the Divine Influence, becomes
surrounded with, and creates for himself, internal pleasures infinitely
greater than any he can otherwise attain to--a state of heavenly Beatitude.

J. P. GREAVES.

By persisting in a habit of self-denial, we shall, beyond what I can
express, increase the inward powers of the mind, and shall produce that
cheerfulness and greatness of spirit as will fit us for all good purposes;
and shall not have lost pleasure, but _changed_ it; the soul being then
filled with its own intrinsic pleasures.

HENRY MORE.

January 22

_Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord_.--HOSEA vi. 3.

And, as the path of duty is made plain,
May grace be given that I may walk therein,
Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain,
With backward glances and reluctant tread,
Making a merit of his coward dread,--
But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown,
Walking as one to pleasant service led;
Doing God's will as if it were my own,
Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone!

J. G. WHITTIER.

It is by doing our duty that we learn to do it. So long as men dispute
whether or no a thing is their duty, they get never the nearer. Let them
set ever so weakly about doing it, and the face of things alters. They find
in themselves strength which they knew not of. Difficulties which it seemed
to them they could not get over, disappear. For He accompanies it with the
influences of His blessed Spirit, and each performance opens our minds for
larger influxes of His grace, and places them in communion with Him.

E. B. PUSEY.

That which is called considering what is our duty in a particular case, is
very often nothing but endeavoring to explain it away.

JOSEPH BUTLER.

January 23

_If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul;
then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday;
and the Lord shall guide thee continually_.--ISA. lviii. 10, 11.

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