October 30

Fifteenth Wednesday after Trinity

Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. S. Matthew 6:32.

WHAT affection! your heavenly Father knoweth every want. It is not the pressure of want that fills men with faithless cares, but the fear of it; it is not the need of to-day, but of the future. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, every day brings troubles of its own, which it will be enough to bear with meekness and patience; every day brings sins and temptations against which it will require our whole undivided care and attention to contend with. Ye have need of all this to fit you for your home above, that ye may work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is He that "worketh in you both to will and to do." "Henceforth let no man trouble me," says S. Paul, "for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Take up individually the Apostle's stand. His mark I bear, His brand has gone deep into my flesh; I am His. With His Cross was I signed at my baptism in token that I should be for ever His alone; that His Cross should be my study, my pattern, my peace. Jesus is yours, your very own, your inheritance. You have the right to offer His Blood to His Father, His sufferings, His merits; to offer them as your own, and in like manner you have a right to offer His love, His adoration, His humility, His patience, as the fruits of the Vine whereof you are the branch.

Lord, let me cast all thought of care For worldly things on Thee; Thankful that Thou such weight wilt bear For one who has small time to spare For aught but holy strife and prayer, Thine evermore to be.