Christian Foundations

February 19
My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His
work.--JOHN iv. 34.

I am glad to think
I am not bound to make the world go right;
But only to discover and to do,
With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.
I will trust in Him,
That He can hold His own; and I will take
His will, above the work He sendeth me,
To be my chiefest good.

J. INGELOW.

Don't object that your duties are so insignificant; they are to be reckoned
of infinite significance, and alone important to you. Were it but the more
perfect regulation of your apartments, the sorting-away of your clothes and
trinkets, the arranging of your papers,--"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, _do it_ with all thy might," and all thy worth and constancy. Much
more, if your duties are of evidently higher, wider scope; if you have
brothers, sisters, a father, a mother, weigh earnestly what claim does lie
upon you, on behalf of each, and consider it as the one thing needful, to
pay _them_ more and more honestly and nobly what you owe. What matter
how miserable one is, if one can do that? That is the sure and steady
disconnection and extinction of whatsoever miseries one has in this world.
T. CARLYLE.