October 26

Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope. — Zech 9:12

O power to do; O baffled will!
O prayer and action! ye are one.
Who may not strive, may yet fulfil
The harder task of standing still,
And good but wished with God is done.
—J. G. WHITTIER.

That God has circumscribed our life may add a peculiar element of trial, but often it defines our way and cuts off many tempting possibilities that perplex the free and the strong; whilst it leaves intact the whole body of spiritual reality, with the Beatitude thereon, “that if we know these things, happy are we if we do them.” We know that God orders the lot; and to meet it with the energies it requires and permits, neither more nor less,—to fill it at every available point with the light and action of an earnest and spiritually inventive mind, though its scene be no wider than a sick chamber, and its action narrowed to patient suffering, and gentle, cheerful words, and all the light it can emit the thankful quiet of a trustful eye,—without chafing as though God had misjudged our sphere, and placed us wrong, and did not know where we could best serve Him,—this is what, in that condition, we have to do.
—J. H. THOM.