July 22

Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.--PS. cvii. 43.

  What channel needs our faith, except the eyes?
    God leaves no spot of earth unglorified;
  Profuse and wasteful, lovelinesses rise;
    New beauties dawn before the old have died.

  Trust thou thy joys in keeping of the Power
    Who holds these changing shadows in His hand;
  Believe and live, and know that hour by hour
    Will ripple newer beauty to thy strand.
T. W. HIGGINSON.

I wondered over again for the hundredth time what could be the principle
which, in the wildest, most lawless, fantastically chaotic, apparently
capricious work of nature, always kept it beautiful. The beauty of holiness
must be at the heart of it somehow, I thought. Because our God is so free
from stain, so loving, so unselfish, so good, so altogether what He wants
us to be, so holy, therefore all His works declare Him in beauty; His
fingers can touch nothing but to mould it into loveliness; and even the
play of His elements is in grace and tenderness of form.
G. MACDONALD.