• “They only did what God permitted them to do, which enabled me always to keep God in sight… When we suffer, we should always remember that God inflicts the blow. Wicked men, it is true, are not infrequently His instruments; and the fact does not diminish, but simply develops their wickedness. But when we are so mentally disposed that we love the strokes we suffer, regarding them as coming from God, and as expressions of what He sees best for us, we are then in the proper state to look forgivingly and kindly upon the subordinate instrument which He permits to smite us.” – Madame Guyon

Joy and Strength 03/26

I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
John xiii. 15.

THERE are often bound to us, in the closest intimacy of social or family ties, natures hard and ungenial, with whom sympathy is impossible, and whose daily presence necessitates a constant conflict with an adverse influence. There are, too, enemies,— open or secret, — whose enmity we may feel yet cannot define. Our Lord, going before us in this hard way, showed us how we should walk. It will be appropriate to the solemn self-examination of the period of Lent to ask ourselves, Is there any false friend or covert enemy whom we must learn to tolerate, to forbear with, to pity and forgive ? Can we in silent oflices of love wash their feet as our Master washed the feet of Judas ? And, if we have no real enemies, are there any bound to us in the relations of life whose habits and ways are annoying and distasteful to us ? Can we bear with them in love ? Can we avoid harsh judgments, and harsh speech, and the making known to others our annoyance ? The examination will probably teach us to feel the infinite distance between us and our divine Ideal, and change censoriousness of others into prayer for ourselves.

Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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  • ”Labor to glorify God upon the earth, and soon your little crosses shall be turned into a great, an immortal crown in heaven.” – Anne Dutton

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Verse of the Day

[Serve God with Spiritual Gifts] For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. — Romans 12:3 (NKJV)

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