By Mary Wilder Tileston

      I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.
         --EXODUS 16:12

      SAVE our blessings, Master, save
      From the blight of thankless eye,
      Teach us for all joys to crave
      Benediction pure and high,
      Own them given, endure them gone,
      Shrink from their hardening touch, yet prize them won,
      Prize them as rich odors meet
      For love to lavish at His sacred feet.
         --JOHN KEBLE

      NOTHING so hinders us in what we are doing as to be longing after something else; in so doing, we leave off tilling our own field, to drive the plough through our neighbor's land, where we must not look to reap a harvest; and this is mere waste of time. If our thoughts and hopes are elsewhere, it is im.possible for us to set our faces steadily towards the work required of us.
         --ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

      One thing is indisputable: the chronic mood of looking longingly at what we have not, or thankfully at what we have, realizes two very different types of character. And we certainly can encourage the one or the other.
         --LUCY C. SMITH

      Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
         --ALEXANDER MACLAREN