Ministry & Encouragement

TEACH me Thy love to know;
That this new light which now I see,
May both the work and workman show
Then by a sunbeam I will climb to Thee.
GEORGE HERBERT

WHY should we not rejoice in the good things of God? If the day is pure and serene, we enjoy its gladness. Why should we not rejoice in the serene light of truth that shines from Heaven upon us? We find a joy in the presence and cheerful greeting of our friends. Why should we not look up to Heaven, whence so many pure and most loving faces look upon us with divine affection, and with most tender desires to cheer and help us? Having an almighty and most loving Father, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, let us rejoice in Him. Having a most loving Saviour, who has made Himself our brother, and feeds us with His life, we ought surely to rejoice in Him. Having the Holy Spirit of God with us, making us His temples, and pouring His love into our hearts, we ought certainly to answer His love, and rejoice in His overflowing goodness. "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice."
WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE

O LOVE, who formedst me to wear
The image of Thy Godhead here;
Who soughtest me with tender care
Through all my wanderings wild and drear;
O Love! I give myself to Thee,
Thine ever, only Thine to be.
JOHANN SCHEFFLER

WE live not for ourselves, but for God; for some purpose of His; for some special end to be accomplished, which He has willed to be accomplished by oneself, and not by another; something which will be left undone, if we do it not, or not be done as it would have been done, if the one ordained to it had done it. We live gifted with certain forms of spiritual grace embodied in us, for some purpose of Divine Love to be fulfiled by us, some idea of the Divine Mind to be imaged forth in our creaturely state. To devote oneself to God is to concentrate the powers of one's being to their ordained end, and therefore to have the happiest and truest life--happiest, because happiness must be in the accordance of these powers with the law of their creation, and truest, because the attainment of the highest glory must be in the accomplishment of the end for which we were created.
T. T. CARTER

GREEN are the fields of the earth, holy and sweet her joys;
Take, and taste, and be glad--as fruit and blossom and bird,
But still as an exile, Soul; then, hey, with a singing voice,
For the stars and sun and sweet heaven, whose ultimate height is the Lord!
Ripe, lovely, and glad, you shall grow in the light of His face and His word.
KATHERINE TYNAN HINKSON

STAND still awhile, and seriously consider the noble end for which thou wast created, and for which God hath placed thee in this world! Thou wast not created for time and the creature, but for God and eternity, and to employ thyself with God and eternity. And thou art in the world, to the end that thou mayest again seek God, and His countenance which giveth blessedness, from which thou hast turned thyself away by sin; in order that thou mayest become thoroughly sanctified and enlightened, and that God may have joy, delight, peace, and pleasure in thee, and thou in God.
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN

That prayer taught by the saint, "Make me reach, my God, the degree of holiness to which Thou didst call me in creating me!"
LADY GEORGIANA FULLERTON