[032]

Wednesday. Fourth Week in Advent.

The Way of Joy.

Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.--Heb. i. 9.

               In heaven above
And earth below, they best can serve true gladness
Who meet most feelingly the calls of sadness.
Wordsworth.

Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity
   Robbed thee of any faith in happiness,
But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see
   How many simple ways there are to bless.
Lowell.

Renounce joy for my fellows' sake? That's joy
Beyond joy; but renounced for mine, not theirs!
Why, the physician called to help the sick,
Cries 'Let me , first of all, discard my health!'
No, Son! the richness hearted in such joy
Is in the knowing what are gifts we give,
Not in a vain endeavour not to know!
Therefore, desire Joy, and thank God for it.
Browning.

I looked for Evil, stern of face and pale;
     Came Good, too fair to tell.
I leant on God when other joys did fail;
     He gave me these as well.
S. Williams.

The men who met him rounded on their heels
And wonder'd after him, because his face
Shone like the countenance of a priest of old
Against the flame about a sacrifice
Kindled by fire from heaven; so glad was he.
Tennyson.

None here is happy but in part:
     Full bliss is divine;
There dwells some wish in every heart,
     And doubtless one in thine.
Cowper.

Maker and High Priest
I ask Thee not my joys to multiply,--
Only to make me worthier of the least.
E, B. Browning

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[033]

Thursday.

The Way of Joy.

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.--John xvi. 17.

My Master, they have wronged Thee and Thy love!
They only told me I should find the path
A *Via Dolorosa* all the way! . . .
Narrow indeed it is! . . . Oh, why
Should they misrepresent Thy words, and make
'Narrow' synonymous with 'very hard'?
For Thou, divinest Wisdom, Thou hast said
Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
Thy paths are peace; and that the path of him
Who wears Thy perfect robe of righteousness
Is as the light that shineth more and more
Unto the perfect day. And Thou hast given
An olden promise, rarely quoted now,
Because it is too bright for our weak faith:
'If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend
Days in prosperity, and they shall spend
Their years in pleasure.'
Frances Havergal.

For he, and he only, with wisdom is blest
     Who, gathering true pleasures wherever they grow,
Looks up in all places, for joy or for rest,
     To the Fountain whence Time and Eternity flow.
Wordsworth.

               'Tis mine--to boast no joy
Unsobered by such sorrows of my kind
As sully with their shade my life that shines.
Browning.

Thou hast proved that purest Joy is Duty.
H. Coleridge.

'Tis joy enough, my All in All
     At Thy dear feet to lie;
Thou wilt not let me lower fall,
     And none can higher fly!
Cowper.

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[034]

Friday. Fourth Week in Advent.

The Way of Joy.

Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.--Matt, XXV,21.

O Lord! our separate lives destroy!
Merge in Thy gold our soul's alloy,
Pain is our own, and Thou art Joy.
Houghton.

Oh! for the joy Thy presence gives!
   What peace shall reign when Thou art here!
Thy presence makes this den of thieves
   A calm, delightful house of prayer.
Cowper.

But oh! the folly of distracted men
Who griefs in earnest, joys in jest pursue,
Preferring like brute beasts, a loathsome den
Before a Court, e'en that above, so clear,
Where are no sorrows, but delights more true
Than miseries are here!
Herbert.

Life's inadequate to Joy.
Browning.

What pleasures could I want, whose King I served
Where joys my fellows were?
Herbert.

Because the Few with signal virtue crowned,
The heights and pinnacles of human mind,
Sadder and wearier than the rest are found,--
Wish not thy soul less high or less refined!
True that the dear delights which every day
Cheer and distract the pilgrim are not theirs;
True, that, though free from Passion's lawless sway,
A loftier being brings severer cares.
Yet have they hidden pleasures, even mirth
By those undreamt of who have only trod
Life's valley smooth; and if the rolling earth
Tho their nice ear have many a painful tone,
They know, Man does not live by Joy alone,
But by the presence and the power of God.
Houghton.

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[035]

Saints Commemorated in Advent

St. Andrew

Nov. 30th

"The Disciplne of Duty"

St. Thomas

Dec. 21st

"Loyalty in Weakness"

* * St. Andrew's Day accasionally falls in the week preceding Advent.

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[036]

St. Andrew. Saints' Days in Advent.

The Discipline of Duty.

Jesus saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, (for they were fishers;) and He saith unto them, Follow me! and I will make you fishers of men.--Gospel for the Day.

   But two ways are offered to our will--
Toil with rare triumph, Ease with safe disgrace;--
   Nor deem that acts heroic wait on chance!
The man's whole life preludes the single deed
   That shall decide if his inheritance
Be with the sifted few of matchless breed,
Or with the unmotived herd that only sleep and feed.
Lowell.

Year after year , we slide from day to day
Like a sleek stream, from bay to sinuous bay
Wearing the course it evermore hath held.
The crumbling banks, that have so long compell'd
The stream to wind, to haste, to strive, or stay,
Drop down at last, and quite choke up the  way
That once they foil'd.  The river that rebelled
Becomes a marsh, prolific of ill weeds.
   Such is the life of him who streams along
A lazy course, unweeting of his deeds;
Till duty, hope, love, custom, prayers and creeds
Crumble away, and yield to helpless wrong,
That from the mere disuse of right proceeds.
H. Coleridge.

Oh righteous doom, that they who make
   Plesure their only end,
Ordering the whole life for its sake,
   Miss that whereto they tend;
While they who bid stern Duty lead,
   Content to follow,--they
Of duty only taking heed,
   Find pleasure by the way.
Trench.

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[037]

St. Thomas.

Loyalty in Weakness.

Let us also go, that we may die with Him.
John xi. 16.

Who can come near to God with a heart not on fire?
Souls must tire upon earth who in heaven would rest.
Is it hard to serve God, timid soul? Hast thou found
Gloomy forests, dark glens, mountain-tops on thy way?
All the hard would be easy, the tangle unwound,
Wouldst thou only desire as well as obey!
Faber.

The desire of our soul is to Thy name and to the remembrance of Thee.
Isaiah xxvl. 8.

   Is there, on earth, a spirit frail,
          Who fears to take their word,
   Scarce daring, through the twilight pale,
         To think he sees the Lord?
   With eyes too tremblingly awake
   To bear with dimness for His sake!
   Read and confess the Hand Divine
That drew thy likeness here so true in every line!

   For all thy rankling doubts so sore
          Love thou thy Saviour still!
   Him for thy Lord and God adore,
          And ever do His will!
   Though vexing thoughts may seem to last,
   Let not thy soul be quite o'ercast;--
   Soon will He shew thee all His wounds and say
"Long have I known thy name--know thou My
          Face alway!"
Keble.

Oh how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, which is mixed with no self-interest, nor self-love!
Thos. A Kempis.

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