English Lessons

from the days when

Meaning was Conveyed Gracefully

December 4

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called.--I TIM. vi. 12.

Oh, dream no more of quiet life;
Care finds the careless out; more wise to vow
Thy heart entire to faith's pure strife;
So peace will come, thou knowest not when or how.

LYRA APOSTOLICA.

Who art thou that complainest of thy life of toil? Complain not. Look up, my wearied brother; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God's Eternity; surviving there, they alone surviving; sacred band of the Immortals, celestial body-guard of the empire of mankind. To thee Heaven, though severe, is _not_ unkind; Heaven is kind,--as a noble mother; as that Spartan mother, saying while she gave her son his shield, "With it, my son, or upon it." Thou too shall return _home_ in honor; to thy far-distant Home, in honor; doubt it not,--if in the battle thou keep thy shield! Thou, in the Eternities and deepest death-kingdoms art not an alien; thou everywhere art a denizen. Complain not.

T. CARLYLE.