March 17

Choose the best

“Mary hath chosen that good part” (Luke 10:42).
“Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31).

It is not always a defect to mind one thing at a time.  And an aptness so to do, to employ the whole vigor of the mind on the thing in hand, may answer excellent purposes.  Only you have need to be exceeding wary, lest the thing you pursue be wrong.  First, be well assured not only that it is good, but that it is the best thing for you at that time, and then, whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might.—John Wesley.

God has His best things for the few
That dare to stand the test;
God has His second choice for those
Who will not have His best.


It is not always open ill
That risks the Promised Rest;
The better, often, is the foe
That keeps us from the best. . . .

Give me, O Lord, Thy highest choice;
Let others take the rest;
Their good things have no charm for me,
For I have got THY best.
—A. B. Simpson.

Life is so short and time so fleeting that much which one would wish to do must fain be omitted.  He is fortunate who perceives at a glance what it will do, and what it will not do, to omit.  This invaluable faculty, if not possessed in a remarkable degree naturally, is susceptible of cultivation to a considerable extent.  Let any one adopt the practice of reflecting, every morning, what must necessarily be done during the day, and then begin by doing the most important things first, leaving the others to take their chance of being done or left undone.  In this way attention first to the things of first importance soon acquires the almost irresistible force of habit, and becomes a rule of life.  There is no rule more indispensable to success.—Character and Conduct.

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