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FEBRUARY 27.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Be mine a life of action. I will work in my own sphere, nor wish it other than it is. This alone is health and happiness.

Henry W. Longfellow, born Feb. 27, 1807.

FEBRUARY 28.

Nobody possessing a scientific culture of mind can accept the decrees of the Vatican Council. having gone over the whole ground of ecclesiastical history, the result is that the proofs of the falsehood of the Vatican decrees amount to a demonstration. When I am told that I must swear to the truth of those dogmas, my feeling is as if I were asked to swear that two and two make five and not four. Ignatius von Dollinger, born Feb. 28, 1799.

I would rather the members of the church should be at variance than that they should agree in that which is evil. Isaac Casaubon, 1559-1614.

MARCH 1.

March that blusters, and March that blows,
What color under your footsteps glows!
Beauty you summon from winter snows,
You are the pathway that leads to the rose.

Celia Thaxter.

MARCH 2.

In 1725, I resolved to dedicate my life to God; all my thoughts, words and actions, being thoroughly convinced there was no medium, but that every part of my life must be either a sacrifice to God, or to myself, that is, in effect, to the devil.

In 1726, the religion of the heart appeared to me in a stronger light than before. I saw that simplicity of intention, purity of affection, one design in all we say or do, and one desire, ruling our tempers, are the wings of the soul, without which we can never ascend to the mount of God.

In 1729, I saw in a clearer light the necessity of having the mind which was in Christ, and of walking as he walked, not only in most respects, but in all things.

John Wesley, died March 2, 1781, aged 88.

MARCH 3.

One day an emigrant stopped at my store, and asked me to buy a barrel of odds and ends, of little value, for which he had no room in his wagon. I bought it, and put it away, and never thought of it until, rearranging things, the stuff turned up. I found in it a two-volume copy of Blackstone's Commentaries. I devoured them. I never read anything which so interested and thrilled me. Soon after I began the study of law, and that is how I came to be a lawyer. A. Lincoln.

MARCH 4.

I wish a course of lectures to be given on Natural Religion, showing its conformity to that of our Saviour, disputed points of faith and ceremony to be avoided, the attention of the lecturers to be directed to the moral doctrines of the Gospel. John Lowell, Jr. Founder of the Lowell Lectures, died March 4, 1836, aged 37.

MARCH 5.

Let the Sabbath be honored for the sake of the spiritual nature. The religious life may derive warmth from the few moments of daily devotion, from holy thoughts in the midst of toil and care. But I have yet to learn that daily devotion can be well sustained without the Sabbath. "Make all days alike," is a maxim frequently urged. I would echo it. But level up, not down. Let Sabbath thoughts and feelings flow into the week-days, and render the whole life purer, nobler, more faithful, more heavenly. A. P. Peabody.

MARCH 6.

Some deny the Infinite, as some deny the sun. They are the blind.

Victor Hugo.

MARCH 7.

American slavery died a death of violence, to our shame be it said; for the Nation had not virtue, temperance, and wisdom enough to abolish it peacefully and harmlessly Francis Parkman.

Ignorance and Evil, even in full flight, deal terrible back-handed blows.

Arthur Helps, died March 7, 1857, aged 58.

MARCH 8.

A knowledge of the human mind is of all studies the highest. Says an ancient philosopher, "On earth there is nothing great but man; in man, there is nothing great but his mind."

William Hamilton, born March 8, 1788.

Religion should be like rain, which descends in a million little drops, and is not ashamed to sink into the ground, where the roots are. The way the drop of water comes to swing in the leaf, as it flaunts in the sun and wind all summer long, is by going down into the ground.

Henry Ward Beecher.

Died March 8, 1887, aged 74.

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