September 24

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.—ROM. XV, I.

Seldom can the heart be lonely, If it seek a lonelier still; Self-forgetting, seeking only Emptier cups of love to fill.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

A friend must need sympathy as well as be capable of giving it, else we never have the pleasure of giving, which is the golden side of the shield of gifts.

A. S. HARDY.

We are here to educate our own hearts by deeds of love, and to be the instruments of blessing to our brother men. There are two ways in which this is to be done—by guarding them from danger, and by soothing them in their rough path by kindly sympathies; the two things which the apostles were asked to do for Christ. And it is an encouraging thought that he who cannot do the one has at least the other in his power. If he cannot protect he can sympathize. Let the weakest, the humblest, remember that in his daily course he can shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness—these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value.

F. W. ROBERTSON.