The Best Preparation Is the Present Well Seen To

December 20.

Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in
that same hour what ye shall speak.

MATTHEW 10, verse 19.

Just to follow hour by hour
As He leadeth;
Just to draw the moment's power
As it needeth.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o'clock.

Do not blacken nine, and ten, and eleven, and all between,

with the color of twelve.

Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace.

So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes

the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and
that light will overcome its darkness.

The best preparation is the present well seen to,

the last duty done. For this will keep the eye so clear and
the body so full of light that the right action will be

perceived at once, the right words will rush from the heart

to the lips, and the man, full of the Spirit of God

because he cares for nothing but the will of God,

will trample on the evil thing in love, and be sent,

it may be, in a chariot of fire to the presence of his Father,

or stand unmoved amid the cruel
mockings of the men he loves.

G. MACDONALD.