August 18

For to me to live is Christ. — PHIL. i. 21.

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. — MATT. x. 39.

OUR present life is not an end, but a means to an end. Childhood is but a preparation for manhood and womanhood. If we set up an infantile standard of life, and seek to bring all the years of childhood and youth into subjection to it, we fail to reach the true life. Now, the whole of our earthly existence is but the infancy, the dawn of a life meant to expand and ripen into eternal blessedness. We are here to be educated for eternal life. Whatever of present enjoyment or advantage would interfere with our education for heaven, must be surrendered; and whatever loss of friends or fortune or earthly honor or pleasure may be necessary to maintain our Christian integrity must be accepted. What seems to be gain in the momentary advantages of wrongdoing will prove an eternal loss; and what seems to be loss in adhering to the right will be an everlasting gain.

Isaac Everett

What is my being, but for thee,

Its sure support? Its noblest end

Thine ever-smiling face to see,

And serve the cause of such a Friend.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.