[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0803":3},"AUGUST 3\r\nQuit you like men, be strong (1Cor. 16:13).\r\nDo not pray for easy fives! Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your\r\ntasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. --Phillips Brooks\r\nWe must remember that it is not in any easy or self-indulgent fife that Christ will lead us to greatness. The easy fife leads not\r\nupward, but downward. Heaven always is above us, and we must ever be looking up toward it. There are some people who always avoid\r\nthings that are costly, that require self-denial, or self-restraint\r\nand sacrifice, but toil and hardship show us the only way to\r\nnobleness. Greatness comes not by having a mossy path made for you through the meadow, but by being sent to hew out a roadway by your\r\nown hands. Are you going to reach the mountain splendors? --Selected\r\nBe strong!\r\nWe are not here to play, to dream, to drift;  We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.\r\nShun not the struggle; face it. 'Tis God's gift.\r\nBe strong!\r\nSay not the days are evil-Who's to blame?\r\nAnd fold the hands and acquiesce-O shame!\r\nStand up, speak out, and bravely, In God's name.\r\nBe strong!\r\nIt matters not how deep entrenched the wrong, How hard the battle\r\n\r\ngoes, the day how long, Faint not, fight on!\r\nTomorrow comes the song.\r\n--Maltbie D. Babcock",1783499793265]