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A Devotion of a Life in a day.
At each pause please use the bold printed words in the order given.
The morning of life breaks clear. The dew of innocence is unspoilt. The sunshine of delight is shed abroad, and youth chimes the bells of merriment.
In unspoilt innocence let us love and value one another.
The working day has reached its noon. We bear the heat and burden of the busy hours. We voyage over deep seas and dare their dangers. Time flows swiftly, for we have much to do.
In the busy hours let us love and value one another.
The soft evening draws nigh. The beauty of youth returns, though not its strength. The heart is gentle with charity and sweet content. Other worlds gleam on the mind from the deepening sky. There is leisure to think and full liberty to be gracious, and we have knowledge of humankind.
In leisure let us love and value one another.
The night has come. The birds close their wings and hide their heads, for death is near. In the darkness and the cold we tremble, we sink and a moment we are no more.
In the tremble of the night let us love and value one another.
But now are we risen. Our future hope rests not in any vague yearning but on the certain truth that the actions, feelings, and thoughts of each of us, our minds, our characters, our souls, pass on into other lives, and there we live. We each can say, "I have worked and thought, and have been conscious in the flesh, with the toil of thought and the troubles of sensation. I pass into the spiritual community of human souls, and may I be found worthy to be part of the continuing influence of humanity."
Influencing all, let us love and value one another.
(Developed from Youlden, H., Manual of Ethical Devotion, (1914), 20-2)