"Lifting Up the Heart to God"--H.L. Sidney Lear

It is a good thing

to have fixed seasons

for lifting up the heart

to God,

not merely the appointed hours of prayer, but a momentary act

before and after meals, beginning any occupation, entering into society, leaving the house, etc.

Especially it is a help to make such brief acts after having said or done anything either wrong or foolish,

after any trifling vexation or disappointment,

when the spirit feels, it may be, wounded and desolate,

or when one's vanity is annoyed at having been guilty

of some little folly or unseemliness.

Sometimes we are more really troubled and sore at trifles of this sort than at far weightier things.

But if all such things were met with a momentary uplifting of the heart

to God,

all these little frailties and worries would tend to mold the character

more and more

to

God's

pattern,

and they would assuredly

lose their sting;

for he who thinks much of God

will daily think less

of himself.