O Thou, who hast kept us safely during the unconsciousness of our slumbering hours and brought us refreshed to this morning light, prepare us for the duties of this day by filling us with the assurance that we are Thine, and that Thou lovest us. Help us to be more like Thee, to love Thee more and serve Thee better. May we manifest our love to Thee by our willingness to be of service to our fellowmen. Make us warm-hearted and true, helpful and kind, reflecting Thy love and doing Thy will. We are glad to live in this beautiful world. And we pray that we may be faithful co-laborers with Jesus Christ, in bringing light, love and joy to all lives. Amen.
_A few more smiles of silent sympathy, a few more tender words, a little more restraint in temper, may make all the difference between happiness and half-happiness to those I live with._
_Others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin, And all I fail to win, What matter, I or they, Mine or another's day, So the right word be said, And life the sweeter made?_
Father, so little of the world in which we live is Thy world, so much our world, the petty, dwarfed world of our own small vision, that we lose heart and fail to do our share. Help us to see that, as in the densest swamps the sweetest flowers grow, so, even in our darkest hours, we still may be sweet at heart, saying the word, doing the deed, giving the sympathy, that will make the world sing and blossom. If there are times when pain and darkness obscure our vision of Thee, help us to look on to the sunset of our day, when the black pall is transfigured at the touch of Thy glory,--when sorrow and failure transcended by gentleness are our beauty and salvation. Amen.
_There is not a man in the world who is not saved by hope every day of his life. Rob one of hope and you have robbed him of his power. Nothing may so quickly unnerve a man and render him helpless as to take hope out of his heart. What is poverty? What is sickness? What is disaster? What are daily burdens? What signifies the desertion of friends, what of death itself so long as a man can hope? The man who hopes will brush every difficulty out of the way. He will put aside every suggestion of failure. Take hope out of a man's heart and you have taken all. Put hope into a man's heart and you have given all._