Accept Our Daily Bread
By Mary Wilder Tileston

      I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.

      PHILIPPIANS 4:11 (R. V.)

      FORGIVE us, Lord, our little faith;
      And help us all, from morn till e'en,
      Still to believe that lot the best
      Which is,--not that which might have been.
      GEORGE ZABRISKIE GRAY

      THOU givest within and without precisely what the soul needs for its advancement in a life of faith and self-renunciation. I have then only to receive this bread, and to accept, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, whatever Thou shalt ordain, of bitterness in my external circumstances, or within my heart. For whatever happens to me each day is my daily bread, provided I do not refuse to take it from Thy hand, and to feed upon it.
      FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

      Judge that only necessary which God, in His eternal wisdom and love, proportions out unto us. And when thou comest hither, thou wilt come to thy rest; and as thou abidest here, thou wilt abide in thy soul's true rest, and know the preciousness of that lesson, and of whom thou art to learn it, even, in every state to be content.

      ISAAC PENINGTON