Churches of Christendom look askance. With rare, if any, exceptions, they may be described in the matter of their theological belief as Unitarian; but the ideal of religious fellowship, which their leaders maintain, is Catholic in the true spiritual sense. They would be the very last to limit their devotional reading to any one field, confining it to writers of their own way of thinking; and if this little book had aimed at being the only one of its kind, it would have been compiled on a very different principle. But at the end of a century of religious life it seemed not inappropriate to gather up some such humble memorial as this, recalling the words of revered and beloved teachers, which would speak with peculiar force within the household itself, and might at the same time bear a useful testimony in other quarters to the significance of their religious life.

To the friends who have helped in making these selections, as well as to those from whose writings selections have been made, the Editor desires here to express his heartfelt thanks.

EASTER, 1900.

DAILY STRENGTH.

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.-PSALM ciii. I.

THOU who art of all that is

Beginning both and end,

We follow thee through unknown paths,
Since all to thee must tend:

Thy judgments are a mighty deep
Beyond all fathom-line;

Our wisdom is the childlike heart,
Our strength, to trust in thine.

We bless thee for the skies above,
And for the earth beneath,
For hopes that blossom here below
And wither not with death;
But most we bless thee for thyself,
O heavenly Light within,

Whose dayspring in our hearts dispels
The darkness of our sin.

Be thou in joy our deeper joy,
Our comfort when distressed;
Be thou by day our strength for toil,
And thou by night our rest.
And when these earthly dwellings fail,
And time's last hour is come,

Be thou, O God, our dwelling place,

And our eternal home.

Frederick L. Hosmer.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid ?—PSALM xxvii. I.

TH

Theart may be assured of.

HERE are great truths, which every honest There is such a thing as a serene, immovable conviction. Faith is a deep want of the soul. We have faculties for the spiritual, as truly as for the outward world. God, the foundation of all existence, may become to the mind the most real of all beings. We can and do see in virtue an everlasting beauty. The distinctions of right and wrong, the obligations of goodness and justice, the divinity of conscience, the moral connection of the present and future life, the greatness of the character of Christ, the ultimate triumph of truth and love, are to multitudes not probable deductions, but intuitions accompanied with the consciousness of certainty. They shine with the clear, constant brightness of the lights of heaven. The believer feels himself resting on an everlasting foundation.

W. E. Channing.

HUMILITY does not consist of thinking poorly of our Nature, in thinking meanly of the spirit that God has given us; but in so lifting our eyes to God and to the heights of our Nature, that we think truly of ourselves.-John Hamilton Thom.