June 21

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.—JAMES i, 27.

Religion pure, Unchanged in spirit, though its forms and codes Wear myriad modes, Contains all creeds within its mighty span— The love of God, displayed in love of man.

HORACE SMITH.

Let meditation and prayer administer to our good actions, and, like oil to a lamp, give our charity fresh spirits and flame; for as private religion is deficient without public charity, so charity, unless often refreshed by retirement, devotion, and heavenly reflections, will cool and languish.

RICHARD LUCAS, D. D.

No sham work will suffice in religion. A man might as well attempt to cure a dreadful wound in his body by laying a plaster outside his clothes, as to hope to rid himself of inbred corruption by mere outward reformation. Heart-work must be God's work. He who made the heart alone can change it from its natural hardness and stubbornness into one that is broken and contrite.

JOHN N. NORTON.

Religion is not a continual moping over good books; religion is not even prayer, praise, or holy ordinances. These are necessary, and no man can be religious without them. But religion is mainly and chiefly the glorifying God amid the duties and trials of the world: the guiding of our course amid the adverse winds and currents of temptation by the starlight of duty and the compass of Divine truth; the bearing of us wisely, manfully, courageously, for the honor of Christ, our Great Leader in the conflict of life, and the Captain of our salvation.

WILLIAM CAREY.