August 23
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeFifth Friday after Trinity
Eschew evil, and do good; seek peace, and ensue it. I S. PETER iii. 11.
LIFE is made up not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart. As the branch produces fruit according to the nature of the vine, so the Christian produces fruit according to the nature of Christ. What the fruits of that nature were in Christ, so they are intended to be in him that is so joined to Him as to be "in" Him. About these fruits there can be no dispute. Try yourself whether in any true sense you "follow Christ." Your Heavenly Father looks for Christians as like as possible to His own Son, Who went about doing good and giving peace. If you are in Christ, you look to Him; you pray earnestly in His Name. If you are in Christ, you mortify the flesh, with its affections and lusts; you strive earnestly, pray heartily to live a godly, righteous, and sober life. A godly life—a life, that is, as in the presence of God; a righteous life—that is, an upright, straightforward, honest, and truthful life; a sober life—that is, a temperate, well-ordered, and if God calls you to it, a mortified, self-denying life.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial;
We should not count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.