Do the Nearest Duty That Lies Before You
November 12.
I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.-
JOHN 9, verse 4.
Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task?
EXODUS. 5, verse 14.
He who intermits
The appointed task and duties of the day
Untunes full oft the pleasures of the day;
Checking the finer spirits that refuse
To flow, when purposes are lightly changed.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
By putting off things beyond their proper
times, one duty treads upon the heels of
another, and all duties are felt as irksome
obligations,--a yoke beneath which we
fret and lose our peace. In most cases
the consequence of this is, that we have
no time to do the work as it ought to be
done. It is therefore done precipitately,
with eagerness, with a greater desire
simply to get it done, than to do it well,
and with very little thought of God
throughout.
F. W. FABER.
Sufficient for each day is the good thereof,
equally as the evil. We must do at once,
and with our might, the merciful deed
that our hand findeth to do,--else it
will never be done, for the hand will
find other tasks, and the arrears fall
through. And every unconsummated
good feeling, every unfulfilled purpose
that His spirit has prompted, shall one day
charge us as faithless and
recreant before God.
J. H. THOM.
I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.-
JOHN 9, verse 4.
Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task?
EXODUS. 5, verse 14.
He who intermits
The appointed task and duties of the day
Untunes full oft the pleasures of the day;
Checking the finer spirits that refuse
To flow, when purposes are lightly changed.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
By putting off things beyond their proper
times, one duty treads upon the heels of
another, and all duties are felt as irksome
obligations,--a yoke beneath which we
fret and lose our peace. In most cases
the consequence of this is, that we have
no time to do the work as it ought to be
done. It is therefore done precipitately,
with eagerness, with a greater desire
simply to get it done, than to do it well,
and with very little thought of God
throughout.
F. W. FABER.
Sufficient for each day is the good thereof,
equally as the evil. We must do at once,
and with our might, the merciful deed
that our hand findeth to do,--else it
will never be done, for the hand will
find other tasks, and the arrears fall
through. And every unconsummated
good feeling, every unfulfilled purpose
that His spirit has prompted, shall one day
charge us as faithless and
recreant before God.
J. H. THOM.