Page:Withgodbookofpra00las.djvu/877

 So, for  to-morrow  and  its  needs I do  not  pray; But keep  me. guide me,  love  me. Lord, Just for  to-day. — Sister Xavier.

ne secret  of  a  sweet  and  happy  Christian  life  is  learning to  live  by  the  day. It is  the  long  stretches  that tire us. We think  of  life  as  a  whole,  running  on  for  us. We can not  carry  this  load  until  we  are  threescore  and  ten. We can  not  fight  this  battle  continually  for  half  a  century. But really  there  are  no  long  stretches. Life does  not  come to us  all  at  one  time;  it  comes  only  a  day  at  a  time. Even to-morrow is  never  ours  until  it  becomes  to-day. and we have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it  but  to  pass  down  to  it a  fair  and  good  inheritance  in  to-day's  work  well  done,  and to-day's life  well  lived.

It is  a  blessed  secret  this,  of  living  by  the  day. Any one can carry  his  burden,  however  heavy,  till  nightfall. Any one can  do  his  work,  however  hard,  for  one  day. Any one can  live  sweetly,  patiently,  lovingly,  purely,  until  the sun goes  down. And this  is  all  life  ever  means  to  us  — just one  little  day. "Do to-day's  duty;  fight  to-day's temptations,  and  do  not  weaken  or  distract  yourself  by looking  forward  to  things  you  can  not  see,  and  could  not understand  if  you  saw  them." God gives  us  nights  to shut  down  upon  our  little  days. We can  not  see  beyond. Short horizons  make  life  easier  and  give  us  one  of  the blessed secrets  of  brave,  true,  holy  living.

Jesus! Thou the  beauty  art Of angel  worlds  above; Thy name  is  music  to  the  heart. Enchanting it  with  love.