Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman.

"Quit you like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13).

"Do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks
equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing
of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle." Phillips
Brooks.

We must remember that it is not in any easy or self-indulgent life that
Christ will lead us to greatness. The easy life leads not upward, but
downward. Heaven always is above us, and we must ever be looking up toward
it. These are some people who always avoid things that are costly, that
require self-denial, or self-restraint and sacrifice, but toil and hardship
show us the only way to nobleness. 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 own hands. Are you going to reach the mountain splendors?
--Selected.

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle; face it. 'Tis God's gift.

Be strong!
Say not the days are evil--Who's to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesece--O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, In God's name.

Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long,
Faint not, fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.
--Maltbie D. Babcock