January 23

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life.—MATT. xix, 29.

By ways not understood,

Out of each dark vicissitude,

God brings us compensating good.

For Faith is perfected by fears,

And souls renew their youth with years,

And Love looks into heaven through tears

PHIEBE CARY.

Never any man forsook anything for his Master's sake, but even in this life he hath a fulfillment of the promise in some unlooked-for compensation; not, it may be, alike in kind, but full of as deep a joy.

JOHN N. NORTON.

And yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius, for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character. It permits or constrains the formation of new acquaintances and the reception of new influences that prove of the first importance to the next years. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.