diff options
Diffstat (limited to '20711.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 20711.txt | 7914 |
1 files changed, 7914 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/20711.txt b/20711.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ecca0f --- /dev/null +++ b/20711.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7914 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Daily Thoughts, by Charles Kingsley, Edited +by Fanny Kingsley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Daily Thoughts + selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife + + +Author: Charles Kingsley + +Editor: Fanny Kingsley + +Release Date: February 28, 2007 [eBook #20711] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAILY THOUGHTS*** + + +Transcribed from the 1885 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +DAILY THOUGHTS + + +Selected from the Writings +OF +CHARLES KINGSLEY + +BY HIS WIFE + +SECOND EDITION + +London +MACMILLAN AND CO. +1885 + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. + +_This little Volume_, _selected from the MS. Note-books_, _Sermons and +Private Letters_, _as well as from the published Works of my Husband_, +_is dedicated to our children_, _and to all who feel the blessing of his +influence on their daily life and thought_. + +_F. E. K._ + +_July_ 10, 1884. + + + + +January. + + +Welcome, wild North-easter! + Shame it is to see +Odes to every zephyr: + Ne'er a verse to thee. +. . . . . +Tired we are of summer, + Tired of gaudy glare, +Showers soft and steaming, + Hot and breathless air. +Tired of listless dreaming + Through the lazy day: +Jovial wind of winter + Turn us out to play! +Sweep the golden reed-beds; + Crisp the lazy dyke; +Hunger into madness + Every plunging pike. +Fill the lake with wild-fowl; + Fill the marsh with snipe; +While on dreary moorlands + Lonely curlew pipe. +Through the black fir forest + Thunder harsh and dry, +Shattering down the snow-flakes + Off the curdled sky. +. . . . . +Come; and strong within us + Stir the Viking's blood; +Bracing brain and sinew: + Blow, thou wind of God! + +_Ode to North-east Wind_. + + + +New Year's Day. January 1. {3} + + +Gather you, gather you, angels of God-- + Freedom and Mercy and Truth; +Come! for the earth is grown coward and old; + Come down and renew us her youth. +Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring, and Love, + Haste to the battlefield, stoop from above, + To the day of the Lord at hand! + +_The Day of the Lord_. 1847. + + + +The Nineteenth Century. January 2. + + +Now, and at no other time: in this same nineteenth century lies our work. +Let us thank God that we are here now, and joyfully try to understand +_where_ we are, and what our work is _here_. As for all superstitions +about "the good old times," and fancies that _they_ belonged to God, +while this age belongs only to man, blind chance, and the evil one, let +us cast them from us as the suggestions of an evil lying spirit, as the +natural parents of laziness, pedantry, fanaticism, and unbelief. And +therefore let us not fear to ask the meaning of this present day, and of +all its different voices--the pressing, noisy, complex present, where our +workfield lies, the most intricate of all states of society, and of all +schools of literature yet known. + +_Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. +1848. + + + +Forward. January 3. + + +Let us forward. God leads us. Though blind, shall we be afraid to +follow? I do not see my way: I do not care to: but I know that He sees +His way, and that I see Him. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1848. + + + +The Noble Life. January 4. + + +Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; +Do noble things, not dream them all day long; +And so make life, and death, and that For Ever +One grand sweet song. + +_A Farewell_. 1856. + +Live in the present that you may be ready for the future. + +_MS._ + + + +Duty and Sentiment. January 5. + + +God demands not _sentiment_ but _justice_. The Bible knows nothing of +"the religious sentiments and emotions" whereof we hear so much talk +nowadays. It speaks of _Duty_. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we _ought_ +to love one another." + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +The Everlasting Harmony. January 6. + + +If thou art living a righteous and useful life, doing thy duty orderly +and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou in thy humble place art +humbly copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven; the +everlasting harmony and melody by which God made the world and all that +therein is--and behold it was very good--in the day when the morning +stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy over the new- +created earth, which God had made to be a pattern of His own perfection. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. + + + +The Keys of Death and Hell. January 7. + + +Fear not. Christ has the keys of death and hell. He has been through +them and is alive for evermore. Christ is the _first_, and was loving +and just and glorious and almighty before there was any death or hell. +And Christ is the _last_, and will be loving and just and glorious and +almighty as ever, in that great day when all enemies shall be under His +feet, and death shall be destroyed, and death and hell shall be cast into +the lake of fire. + +_MS. Sermon_. 1857. + + + +A Living God. January 8. + + +Here and there, among rich and poor, there are those whose heart and +flesh, whose conscience and whose intellect, cry out for the _Living_ +God, and will know no peace till they have found Him. For till then they +can find no explanation of the three great human questions--Where am I? +Whither am I going? What must I do? + +_Sermons on the Pentateuch_. 1862. + + + +The Fairy Gardens. January 9. + + +Of all the blessings which the study of Nature brings to the patient +observer, let none, perhaps, be classed higher than this, that the +farther he enters into those fairy gardens of life and birth, which +Spenser saw and described in his great poem, the more he learns the awful +and yet comfortable truth, that they do not belong to him, but to One +greater, wiser, lovelier than he; and as he stands, silent with awe, amid +the pomp of Nature's ever-busy rest, hears as of old, The Word of the +"Lord God walking among the trees of the garden in the cool of the day." + +_Glaucus_. 1855. + + + +Love. January 10. + + +Oh! Love! Love! Love! the same in peasant and in peer! The more +honour to you, then, old Love, to _be_ the same thing in this world which +_is_ common to peasant and to peer. They say that you are blind, a +dreamer, an exaggerator--a liar, in short! They just know nothing about +you, then. You will not see people as they seem--as they have become, no +doubt; but why? Because you see them as they ought to be, and are in +some deep way eternally, in the sight of Him who conceived and created +them! + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xiv. 1856. + + + +Life--Love. January 11. + + +We must live nobly to love nobly. + +_MS._ + + + +The Seed of Good. January 12. + + +Never was the young Abbot heard to speak harshly of any human being. +"When thou hast tried in vain for seven years," he used to say, "to +convert a sinner, then only wilt thou have a right to suspect him of +being a worse man than thyself." That there is a seed of good in all +men, a divine word and spirit striving with all men, a gospel and good +news which would turn the hearts of all men, if abbots and priests could +but preach it aright, was his favourite doctrine, and one which he used +to defend, when at rare intervals he allowed himself to discuss any +subject, from the writings of his favourite theologian, Clement of +Alexandria. + +Above all, Abbot Philamon stopped by stern rebuke any attempt to revile +either heretics or heathens. "On the Catholic Church alone," he used to +say, "lies the blame of all heresy and unbelief; for if she were but for +one day that which she ought to be, the world would be converted before +nightfall." + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxx. 1852. + + + +Danger of Thinking vaguely. January 13. + + +Watch against any fallacies in your ideas which may arise, not from +disingenuousness, but from allowing yourself in moments of feeling to +think vaguely, and not to attach precise meaning to your words. Without +any cold caution of expression, it is a duty we owe to God's truth, and +to our own happiness and the happiness of those around us, to think and +speak as correctly as we can. Almost all heresy, schism, and +misunderstandings, between either churches or individuals who ought to be +one, have arisen from this fault of an involved and vague style of +thought. + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +The Possession of Faith. January 14. + + +I don't want to possess a faith, I want a faith which will possess me. + +_Hypatia_, chap. xvii. 1852. + + + +The Eternal Life. January 15. + + +Eternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says and is and +does what prophets prophesied of Him that He would say and be and do. "I +am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. And let +him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will, let him take of the Water +of Life freely." For ever Christ calls to every anxious soul, every +afflicted soul, to every man who is ashamed of himself, and angry with +himself, and longs to live a gentler, nobler, purer, truer, and more +useful life, "Come, and live for ever the eternal life of righteousness, +holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is the one true +and only salvation bought for us by the precious blood of Christ our +Lord." Amen. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1865 + + + +The Golden Cup of Youth. January 16. + + +Ah, glorious twenty-one, with your inexhaustible powers of doing and +enjoying, eating and hungering, sleeping and sitting up, reading and +playing! Happy are those who still possess you, and can take their fill +of your golden cup, steadied, but not saddened, by the remembrance that +for all things a good and loving God will bring them to judgment! + +Happier still those who (like a few) retain in body and soul the health +and buoyancy of twenty-one on to the very verge of forty, and, seeming to +grow younger-hearted as they grow older-headed, can cast off care and +work at a moment's warning, laugh and frolic now as they did twenty years +ago, and say with Wordsworth-- + + "So was it when I was a boy, + So let it be when I am old, + Or let me die." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. + + + +Work and Duty. January 17. + + +If a man is busy, and busy about his duty, what more does he require for +time or for eternity? + +_Chalk Stream Studies_. 1856. + + + +Members of Christ. January 18. + + +. . . Would you be humble, daughter? +You must look up, not down, and see yourself +A paltry atom, sap-transmitting vein +Of Christ's vast vine; the pettiest joint and member +Of His great body. . . . + +. . . Let thyself die-- +And dying, rise again to fuller life. +To be a whole is to be small and weak-- +To be a part is to be great and mighty +In the one spirit of the mighty whole-- +The spirit of the martyrs and the saints. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene vi. +1847. + + + +Beauty a Sacrament. January 19. + + +Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God's +handwriting--a way-side sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every +fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, who is the Fountain of +all loveliness, and drink it in simply and earnestly with all your eyes; +it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing. + +_True Words to Brave Men_. 1844. + + + +The Ideal of Rank. January 20. + + +With Christianity came in the thought that domination meant +responsibility, that responsibility demanded virtue. The words which +denoted Rank came to denote, likewise, high moral excellencies. The +_nobilis_, or man who was known, and therefore subject to public opinion, +was bound to behave nobly. The gentle-man--gentile-man--who respected +his own gens, or family, or pedigree, was bound to be gentle. The +courtier who had picked up at court some touch of Roman civilisation from +Roman ecclesiastics was bound to be courteous. He who held an "honour," +or "edel" of land, was bound to be honourable; and he who held a +"weorthig," or "worthy," thereof, was bound himself to be worthy. + +_Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1866. + + + +An Indulgent God. January 21. + + +A merely indulgent God would be an unjust God, and a cruel God likewise. +If God be just, as He is, then He has boundless pity for those who are +weak, but boundless wrath for the strong who misuse the weak. Boundless +pity for those who are ignorant, misled, and out of the right way; but +boundless wrath for those who mislead them and put them out of the right +way. + +_Discipline Sermons_. 1867. + + + +The Fifty-First Psalm. January 22. + + +It is such utterances as these which have given for now many hundred +years their priceless value to the little Book of Psalms ascribed to the +shepherd outlaw of the Judean hills, which have sent the sound of his +name into all lands throughout all the world. Every form of human +sorrow, doubt, struggle, error, sin--the nun agonising in the cloister; +the settler struggling for his life in Transatlantic forests; the pauper +shivering over the embers in his hovel and waiting for kind death; the +man of business striving to keep his honour pure amid the temptations of +commerce; the prodigal son starving in the far country and recollecting +the words which he learnt long ago at his mother's knee; the peasant boy +trudging afield in the chill dawn and remembering that the Lord is his +Shepherd, therefore he will not want--all shapes of humanity have found, +and will find to the end of time, a word said here to their inmost +hearts. . . . + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +Waiting for Death. January 23. + + +Death, beautiful, wise, kind Death, when will you come and tell me what I +want to know? I courted you once and many a time, brave old Death, only +to give rest to the weary. That was a coward's wish--and so you would +not come. . . . I was not worthy of you. And now I will not hunt you +any more, old Death. Do you bide your time, and I mine. . . . Only when +you come, give me not rest but work. Give work to the idle, freedom to +the chained, sight to the blind! + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xv. 1856. + + + +The One Refuge. January 24. + + +Safe! There is no safety but from God, and that comes by prayer and +faith. + +_Hypatia_. 1852. + + + +Future Identity. January 25. + + +I believe that the union of those who have loved here will in the next +world amount to perfect identity, that they will look back on the +expressions of affection here as mere meagre strugglings after and +approximation to the union which then will be perfect. Perfect! + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Friendship. January 26. + + +A friend once won need never be lost, if we will be only trusty and true +ourselves. Friends may part, not merely in body, but in spirit, for a +while. In the bustle of business and the accidents of life, they may +lose sight of each other for years; and more, they may begin to differ in +their success in life, in their opinions, in their habits, and there may +be, for a time, coldness and estrangement between them, but not for ever +if each will be trusty and true. For then they will be like two ships +who set sail at morning from the same port, and ere night-fall lose sight +of each other, and go each on its own course and at its own pace for many +days, through many storms and seas, and yet meet again, and find +themselves lying side by side in the same haven when their long voyage is +past. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + + + +Night and Morning. January 27. + + +It is morning somewhere or other now, and it will be morning here again +to-morrow. "Good times and bad times and all times pass over." I learnt +that lesson out of old Bewick's Vignettes, and it has stood me in good +stead this many a year. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. i. 1856. + + + +Communion with the Blessed Dead. January 28. + + +Shall we not recollect the blessed dead above all in Holy Communion, and +give thanks for them there--at that holy table at which the Church +triumphant and the Church militant meet in the communion of saints? Where +Christ is they are; and, therefore, if Christ be there, may not they be +there likewise? May not they be near us though unseen? like us claiming +their share in the eternal sacrifice, like us partaking of that spiritual +body and blood which is as much the life of saints in heaven as it is of +penitent sinners on earth? May it not be so? It is a mystery into which +we will not look too far. But this at least is true, that they are with +Him where He is. + +_MS. Sermon_. + + + +The Great Law. January 29. + + +True rest can only be attained as Christ attained it, through labour. +True glory can only be attained in earth or heaven through +self-sacrifice. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; whosoever +will lose his life shall save it. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. + + + +The Coming Kingdom. January 30. + + +There is a God-appointed theocracy promised to us, and which we must wait +for, when all the diseased and false systems of this world shall be swept +away, and Christ's feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, and the +twelve apostles shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of +Israel! All this shall come, and blessed is that servant whom his Lord +when He cometh shall find ready! All this we shall not see before we +die, but we shall see it when we rise in the perfect material and +spiritual ideal, in the kingdom of God! + +_Letters and Memories_. + + + +Christ's Coming. January 31. + + +Christ may come to us when our thoughts are cleaving to the ground, and +ready to grow earthy of the earth--through noble poetry, noble music, +noble art--through aught which awakens once more in us the instinct of +the true, the beautiful, and the good. He may come to us when our souls +are restless and weary, through the repose of Nature--the repose of the +lonely snow-peak and of the sleeping forest, of the clouds of sunset and +of the summer sea, and whisper Peace. Or He may come, as He comes on +winter nights to many a gallant soul--not in the repose of Nature, but in +her rage--in howling storm and blinding foam and ruthless rocks and +whelming surge--and whisper to them even so--as the sea swallows all of +them which _it_ can take--of calm beyond, which this world cannot give +and cannot take away. + +And therefore let us say in utter faith, Come as Thou seest best--but in +whatsoever way Thou comest, Even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen. + +_Last Sermon_. _MS._ 1874. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +Since we gave up at the Reformation the superstitious practice of praying +to the saints, Saints' Days have sunk--and, indeed, sunk too much--into +neglect. We forget too often still, that though praying to any saint or +angel, or other created being, is contrary both to reason and Scripture, +yet it is according to reason and to Scripture to commemorate them. That +is, to remember them, to study their characters, and to thank God for +them,--both for the virtues He bestowed on them, and the example which He +has given us in them. + +_MS. Sermon_. + + +JANUARY 6. +The Epiphany, +Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. + + +On this day the Lord Jesus was first shown to the Gentiles. The word +Epiphany means "showing." The Wise Men were worshippers of the true God, +though in a dim confused way; and they had learnt enough of what true +faith, true greatness was, not to be staggered and fall into unbelief +when they saw the King of the Jews laid, not in a palace, but in a +manger, tended by a poor village maiden. And therefore God bestowed on +them the great honour that they first of all--Gentiles--should see the +glory and the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God grant that +they may not rise up against us in the Day of Judgment and condemn us! +They had but a small spark, a dim ray, of the Light which lighteth every +man who cometh into the world; but they were more faithful to that little +than many of us, who live in the full sunshine of the Gospel, with +Christ's Spirit, Christ's Sacraments, Christ's Churches,--means of grace +and hopes of glory of which they never dreamed. + +_Town and Country Sermons_. + + +JANUARY 25. +Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr. + + +How did St. Paul look on his past life? There is no sentimental +melancholy in him. He is saved, and he knows it. He is an Apostle, and +he stands boldly on his dignity. He is cheerful, hopeful, joyful. And +yet, when he speaks of the past, it is with noble shame and sorrow that +he calls himself the chief of sinners, not worthy to be called an +Apostle, because he persecuted the Church of Christ. What he is, he will +not deny; what he was, he will not forget; lest he should forget that in +him, that is, in his flesh--his natural character--dwelleth no good +thing; lest he should forget that the good which he does, _he_ does not, +but Christ which dwelleth in him; lest he should grow careless, puffed +up, self-indulgent; lest he should neglect to subdue his evil passions; +and so, after preaching to others, himself become a castaway. + +_Town and Country Sermons_. + + + + +February. + + + . . . Every winter, + When the great sun has turned his face away, + The earth goes down into the vale of grief, + And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, + Leaving her wedding garments to decay; + Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses. + + _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene i. + + Out of the morning land, + Over the snow-drifts, + Beautiful Freya came, + Tripping to Scoring. + White were the moorlands, + And frozen before her; + Green were the moorlands, + And blooming behind her. + Out of her gold locks + Shaking the spring flowers, + Out of her garments + Shaking the south wind, + Around in the birches + Awaking the throstles, + Love and love-giving, + Came she to Scoring. + . . . . . + +_The Longbeard's Saga_. 1852. + + + +Virtue. February 1. + + +The first and last business of every human being, whatever his station, +party, creed, capacities, tastes, duties, is morality; virtue, virtue, +always virtue. Nothing that man will ever invent will absolve him from +the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is +righteous, holy as God is holy. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +Happiness. February 2. + + +God has not only made things beautiful; He has made things happy; +whatever misery there is in the world there is no denying that. Misery +is the exception; happiness is the rule. No rational man ever heard a +bird sing without feeling that the bird was happy, and that if God made +that bird He made it to be happy, and He takes pleasure in its happiness, +though no human ear should ever hear its song, no human heart should ever +share in its joy. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +A Dream of the Future. February 3. + + +God grant that the day may come when in front of the dwellings of the +poor we may see real fountains--not like the drinking-fountains, useful +as they are, which you see here and there about the streets, with a tiny +dribble of water to a great deal of expensive stone, but real fountains, +which shall leap, and sparkle, and plash, and gurgle, and fill the place +with life and light and coolness; and sing in the people's ears the +sweetest of all earthly songs--save the song of a mother over her +child--the song of "The Laughing Water." + +_The Air Mothers_. 1872. + + + +Bondage of Custom. February 4. + + +Strive all your life to free men from the bondage of _custom_ and _self_, +the two great elements of the world that lieth in wickedness. + +_MS. Letter_. l842. + +Henceforth let no man peering down +Through the dim glittering mine of future years +Say to himself, "Too much! this cannot be!" +To-day and custom wall up our horizon: +Before the hourly miracle of life +Blindfold we stand, and sigh, as though God were not. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act i. Scene ii. +1847. + + + +The Childlike Mind. February 5. + + +There comes a time when we must _narrow_ our sphere of thought much, that +we may _truly enlarge_ it! we must, _artificialised_ as we _have_ been, +return to the rudiments of life, to children's pleasures, that we may +find easily, through their transparent simplicity, spiritual laws which +we may apply to the more intricate spheres of art and science. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Unselfish Prayer. February 6. + + +The Lord's Prayer teaches that we are members of a family, when He tells +us to pray not "_My_ Father" but "Our Father;" not "_my_ soul be saved," +but "Thy kingdom come;" not "give _me_" but "give _us_ our daily bread;" +not "forgive me," but "forgive _us_ our trespasses," and that only as we +forgive others; not "lead _me_ not," but "lead _us_ not into temptation;" +not "deliver _me_," but "deliver _us_ from evil." After _that_ manner +our Lord tells us to pray, and in proportion as we pray in that manner, +just so far, and no farther, will God hear our prayers. + +_National Sermons_. 1850. + + + +God is Light. February 7. + + +All the deep things of God are bright, for God is Light. God's arbitrary +will and almighty power may seem dark by themselves though deep, but that +is because they do not involve His moral character. Join them with the +fact that He is a God of mercy as well as justice; remember that His +essence is love, and the thunder-cloud will blaze with dewy gold, full of +soft rain and pure light. + +_MS. Letter_. 1844. + + + +The Veil Lifted. February 8. + + +Science is, I verily believe, like virtue, its own exceeding great +reward. I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of the +man to whom--panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his life in +the tropic forest--Isis shall for a moment lift her sacred veil and show +him, once and for ever, the thing he dreamed not of, some law, or even +mere hint of a law, explaining one fact: but explaining with it a +thousand more, connecting them all with each other and with the mighty +whole, till order and meaning shoots through some old chaos of scattered +observations. Is not that a joy, a prize, which wealth cannot give nor +poverty take away? What it may lead to he knows not. Of what use it may +be he knows not. But this he knows, that somewhere it must lead, of some +use it will be. For it is a truth. + +_Lectures on Science and Superstition_. +1866. + + + +All Science One. February 9. + + +Physical and spiritual science seem to the world to be distinct. One +sight of God as we shall some day see Him will show us that they are +indissolubly and eternally the same. + +_MS._ + + + +Passion and Reason. February 10. + + +Passion and reason in a healthy mind ought to be inseparable. We need +not be passionless because we reason correctly. Strange to say, one's +feelings will often sharpen one's knowledge of the truth, as they do +one's powers of action. + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Enthusiasm and Tact. February 11. + + +. . . People smile at the "enthusiasm of youth"--that enthusiasm which +they themselves secretly look back at with a sigh, perhaps unconscious +that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it. . . . Do not +fear being considered an enthusiast. What matter? But pray for _tact_, +the true tact which love alone can give, to prevent scandalising a weak +brother. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + +Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad, if thou wilt: +Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven, And that thy last deed ere +the judgment-day. +When all's done, nothing's done. There's rest above-- +Below let work be death, if work be love! + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene viii. 1847. + + + +The Eternal Good. February 12. + + +"God hath showed thee what is good," . . . what is good in itself, and of +itself--the one very eternal and absolute good, which was with God and in +God and from God, before all worlds, and will be for ever, without +changing, or growing less or greater, eternally the same good--the good +which would be just as good and just and right and lovely and glorious if +there were no world, no men, no angels, no heaven, no hell, and God were +alone in His own abyss. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Awfulness of Words. February 13. + + +A difference in words is a very awful and important difference; a +difference in words is a difference in things. Words are very awful and +wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and wonderful of all +beings, Jesus Christ, THE WORD. He puts words into men's minds. He made +all things, and He made words to express those things. And woe to those +who use the wrong words about anything. + +_Village Sermons_. 1848. + + + +A Wise Woman. February 14. + + +What wisdom she had she did not pick off the hedge, like blackberries. +God is too kind to give away wisdom after that useless fashion. So she +had to earn her wisdom, and to work hard, and suffer much ere she +attained it. And in attaining she endured strange adventures and great +sorrows; and yet they would not have given her the wisdom had she not had +something in herself which gave her wit to understand her lessons, and +skill and courage to do what they taught her. There had been many names +for that something before she was born, there have been many names for it +since, but her father and mother called it the Grace of God. + +_Unfinished Novel_. 1869. + + + +Charity the one Influence. February 15. + + +The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and histories, +the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the spirit of love; +that the true way to gain influence over our fellow-men is to have +charity towards them. That is a hard lesson to learn; and all those who +learn it generally learn it late; almost--God forgive us--too late. + +_Westminster Sermons_. + + + +The Ascetic Painters. February 16. + + +We owe much (notwithstanding their partial and Manichean idea of beauty) +to the early ascetic painters. Their works are a possession for ever. No +future school of religious art will be able to rise to eminence without +learning from them their secret. They taught artists, and priests, and +laymen, too, that beauty is only worthy of admiration when it is the +outward sacrament of the beauty of the soul within; they helped to +deliver men from that idolatry to merely animal strength and loveliness +into which they were in danger of falling in ferocious ages, and among +the relics of Roman luxury. + +_Miscellanies_. 1849. + + + +Reveries. February 17. + + +Beware of giving way to reveries. Have always some employment in your +hands. Look forward to the future with hope. Build castles if you will, +but only bright ones, and _not too many_. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Woman's Mission. February 18. + + +It is the glory of woman that she was sent into the world to live for +others rather than for herself; and therefore, I should say, let her +smallest rights be respected, her smallest wrongs redressed; but let her +never be persuaded to forget that she is sent into the world to teach +man--what I believe she has been teaching him all along, even in the +savage state, namely, that there is something more necessary than the +claiming of rights, and that is, the performing of duties; to teach him +specially, in these so-called intellectual days, that there is something +more than intellect, and that is--purity and virtue. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +The Heroic Life. February 19. + + +Provided we attain at last to the truly heroic and divine life, which is +the life of virtue, it will matter little to us by what wild and weary +ways, or through what painful and humiliating processes, we have arrived +thither. If God has loved us, if God will receive us, then let us submit +loyally and humbly to His law--"whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and +scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + + +The Wages of Sin. February 20. + + +It is sometimes said, "The greater the sinner the greater the saint." I +do not believe it. I do not see it. It stands to reason--if a man loses +his way and finds it again, he is so much the less forward on his way, +surely, by all the time he has spent in getting back into the way. + +And if any of you fancy you can sin without being punished, remember that +the prodigal son is punished most severely. He does not get off freely +the moment he chooses to repent, as false preachers will tell you. Even +after he does repent and resolves to go back to his father's house he has +a long journey home in poverty and misery, footsore, hungry, and all but +despairing. But when he does get home; when he shows he has learnt the +bitter lesson; when all he dares to ask is, "Make me as one of thy hired +servants,"--he is received as freely as the rest. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1864. + + + +Silent Depths. February 21. + + +Our mightiest feelings are always those which remain most unspoken. The +most intense lovers and the greatest poets have generally, I think, +written very little personal love-poetry, while they have shown in +fictitious characters a knowledge of the passion too painfully intimate +to be spoken of in the first person. + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +True Justification. February 22. + + +God grant us to be among those who wish to be really justified by faith, +by being made just persons by faith,--who cannot satisfy either their +conscience or their reason by fancying that God looks on them as right +when they know themselves to be wrong; and who cannot help trusting that +union with Christ must be something real and substantial, and not merely +a metaphor and a flower of rhetoric. + +_MS._ 1854. + + + +A Present Hell. February 23. + + +"Ay," he muttered, "sing awa', . . . wi' pretty fancies and gran' words, +and gang to hell for it." + +"To hell, Mr. Mackaye?" + +"Ay, to a verra real hell, Alton Locke, laddie--a warse ane than any +fiend's kitchen or subterranean Smithfield that ye'll hear o' in the +pulpits--the hell on earth o' being a flunkey, and a humbug, and a +useless peacock, wasting God's gifts on your ain lusts and pleasures--and +kenning it--and not being able to get oot o' it for the chains of vanity +and self-indulgence." + +_Alton Locke_, chap. viii. 1849. + + + +Time and Eternity. February 24. + + +Eternity does not mean merely some future endless duration, but that ever- +present _moral_ world, governed by ever-living and absolutely necessary +laws, in which we and all spirits are now; and in which we should be +equally, whether time and space, extension and duration, and the whole +material universe to which they belong, became nothing this moment, or +lasted endlessly. + +_Theologica Germanica_. 1854. + + + +Christ's Life. February 25. + + +What was Christ's life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, +and bright visions, but a life of fighting against evil; earnest, awful +prayers and struggles within, continued labour of body and mind without; +insult, and danger, and confusion, and violent exertion, and bitter +sorrow. This was Christ's life. This was St. Peter's, and St. James's, +and St. John's life afterwards. + +_Village Sermons_. 1849. + + + +The Higher Education. February 26. + + +In teaching women we must try to make our deepest lessons bear on the +great purpose of unfolding Woman's own calling in all ages--her especial +calling in this one. We must incite them to realise the chivalrous +belief of our old forefathers among their Saxon forests, that something +Divine dwelt in the counsels of woman: but, on the other hand, we must +continually remind them that they will attain that divine instinct, not +by renouncing their sex, but by fulfilling it; by becoming true women, +and not bad imitations of men; by educating their heads for the sake of +their hearts, not their hearts for the sake of their heads; by claiming +woman's divine vocation as the priestess of purity, of beauty, and of +love. + +_Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. +1848. + + + +God's Kingdom. February 27. + + +Philamon had gone forth to see the world, and he had seen it; and he had +learnt that God's kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics yelling for a +doctrine, but of willing, loving, obedient hearts. + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxiii. 1852. + + + +Sowing and Reaping. February 28. + + +So it is, that by every crime, folly, even neglect of theirs, men drive a +thorn into their own flesh, which will trouble them for years to come, it +may be to their dying day-- + + Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; + Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all-- + +as those who neglect their fellow-creatures will discover, by the most +patent, undeniable proofs, in that last great day, when the rich and poor +shall meet together, and then, at last, discover too that the Lord is the +Maker of them all. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +The Church Catechism. February 29. + + +Did it ever strike you that the simple, noble, old Church Catechism, +without one word about rewards and punishments, heaven or hell, begins to +talk to the child, like a true English Catechism as it is, about that +glorious old English key-word Duty? It calls on the child to confess its +own duty, and teaches it that its duty is something most human, simple, +everyday--commonplace, if you will call it so. And I rejoice in the +thought that the Church Catechism teaches that the child's duty is +commonplace. I rejoice that in what it says about our duty to God and +our neighbour, it says not one word about counsels of perfection, or +those frames and feelings which depend, believe me, principally on the +state of people's bodily health, on the constitution of their nerves, and +the temper of their brain; but that it requires nothing except what a +little child can do as well as a grown person, a labouring man as well as +a divine, a plain farmer as well as the most refined, devout, imaginative +lady. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +FEBRUARY 2. +The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, +COMMONLY CALLED +The Purification of the Virgin Mary. + + +Little children may think of Christ as a child now and always. For to +them He is always the Babe of Bethlehem. Let them not say to themselves, +"Christ is grown up long ago." He is, and yet He is not. His life is +eternal in the heavens, above all change of time and space. . . . Such +is the sacred heart of Jesus--all things to all. To the strong He can be +strongest, to the weak weakest of all. With the aged and dying He goes +down for ever to the grave; and yet with you children Christ lies for +ever on His mother's bosom, and looks up for ever into His mother's face, +full of young life and happiness and innocence, the Everlasting Christ- +child, in whom you must believe, whom you must love, to whom you must +offer up your childish prayers. + +_The Christ-child_, +_Sermons_, (_Good News of God_). + + +FEBRUARY 24. +St. Matthias, Apostle and Martyr. + + +Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They rest from their +labours--all their struggles, failures, past and over for ever. But +their works follow them. The good which they did on earth--_that_ is not +past and over. It cannot die. It lives and grows for ever, following on +in their path long after they are dead, and bearing fruit unto +everlasting life, not only in them, but in men whom they never saw, and +in generations yet unborn. + +_Sermons_ (_Good News of God_). + + +Ash Wednesday. + + +There is a repentance too deep for words--too deep for all confessionals, +penances, and emotions or acts of contrition; the repentance, not of the +excitable, theatric Southern, unstable as water even in his most violent +remorse, but of the still, deep-hearted Northern, whose pride breaks +slowly and silently, but breaks once for all; who tells to God what he +will never tell to man, and having told it, is a new creature from that +day forth for ever. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xviii. + + +The True Fast. + + +The _rationale_ of Fasting is to give up habitual indulgences for a time, +lest they become our masters--artificial _necessities_. + +_MS._ + + + + +March. + + + Early in the Springtime, on raw and windy mornings, + Beneath the freezing house-eaves, I heard the starlings sing-- + Ah! dreary March month, is this then a time for building wearily? + Sad, sad, to think that the year is but begun! + + Late in the Autumn, on still and cloudless evenings, + Among the golden reed-beds I heard the starlings sing-- + Ah! that sweet March month, when we and our mates were courting + merrily; + Sad, sad, to think that the year is all but done. + +_The Starlings_. + + + +Knowledge and Love. March 1. + + +Knowledge and Love are reciprocal. He who loves knows. He who knows +loves. Saint John is the example of the first; Saint Paul of the second. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +A Charm of Birds. March 2. + + +Little do most people know how much there is to learn--what variety of +character, as well as variety of motion, may be distinguished by the +practised ear in a "charm of birds"--from the wild cry of the +missel-thrush, ringing from afar in the first bright days of March a +passage of one or two bars repeated three or four times, and then another +and another, clear and sweet and yet defiant--for the great "storm-cock" +loves to sing when rain and wind is coming on, and faces the elements as +boldly as he faces hawk and crow--down to the delicate warble of the +wren, who slips out of his hole in the brown bank where he has huddled +through the frost with wife and children, all folded in each other's arms +like human beings. Yet even he, sitting at his house-door in the low +sunlight, says grace for all mercies in a song so rapid, so shrill, so +loud, and yet so delicately modulated, that you wonder at the amount of +soul within that tiny body; and then stops suddenly, like a child that +has said its lesson or got to the end of a sermon, gives a self-satisfied +flirt of his tail, and goes in again to sleep. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1866. + + + +Tact of the Heart. March 3. + + +Random shots are dangerous and cruel, likely to hit the wrong person and +hurt his feelings unnecessarily. It is very easy to say a hard thing, +but not so easy to say it to the right person at the right time. + +_MS._ + + + +Special Providences. March 4. + + +I believe not only in "special providences," but in the whole universe as +one infinite complexity of special providences. + +_Letters and Memories_. + +The grain of dust is a thought of God; God's power made it; God's wisdom +gave it whatsoever properties or qualities it may possess. God's +providence has put it in the place where it is now, and has ordained that +it should be in that place at that moment, by a train of causes and +effects which reaches back to the very creation of the universe. The +grain of dust can no more go from God's presence or flee from God's +Spirit than you or I can. + +_Town Geology_. 1871. + + + +Be Calm. March 5. + + +Strive daily and hourly to be calm; to stop yourself forcibly and recall +your mind to a sense of what you are, where you are going, and whither +you ought to be tending. This is most painful discipline, but most +wholesome. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Self-sacrifice and Personality. March 6. + + +What a strange mystery is that of mutual self-sacrifice! to exist for one +moment for another! the perfection of human bliss! And does not love +teach us two things? First, that self-sacrifice, the living for others, +is the law of our perfect being, and next, that by and in self-sacrifice +alone can we attain to the perfect apprehension of ourselves, our own +personality, our own duty, our own bliss. So that the mystics are +utterly wrong when they fancy that self-sacrifice can be attained by self- +annihilation. Self-sacrifice, instead of destroying the sense of +personality, perfects it. + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Follow your Star. March 7. + + +I believe with Dante, "_se tu segui la tua Stella_," that He who ordained +my star will not lead me _into_ temptation but _through_ it. Without Him +all places and methods of life are equally dangerous, with Him all +equally safe. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1848. + + + +Reverence for Books. March 8. + + +This is the age of _books_. And we should reverence books. Consider! +except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book--a +message to us from the dead, from human souls whom we never saw, who +lived perhaps thousands of miles away, and yet in those little sheets of +paper speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their +hearts to us as brothers! + +We ought to reverence books, to look at them as awful and mighty things. +If they are good and true, whether they are about religion or politics, +trade or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all +things, the Teacher of all truth, which He has put into the heart of some +men to speak. And at the last day, be sure of it, we shall have to +render an account--a strict account--of the books which we have read, and +of the way in which we have obeyed what we read, just as if we had had so +many prophets or angels sent to us. + +_Village Sermons_. 1849. + + + +The Unknown Future. March 9. + + +As for the things which God has prepared for those who love Him, the +Bible tells me that no man can conceive them, and therefore I believe +that I cannot conceive them. God has conceived them; God has prepared +them; God is our Father. That is enough. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Secular and Sacred. March 10. + + +I grudge the epithet of "_secular_" to any matter whatsoever. But more; +I deny it to anything which God has made, even to the tiniest of insects, +the most insignificant grain of dust. To those who believe in God, and +try to see all things in God, the most minute natural phenomenon cannot +be secular. It must be divine, I say deliberately, divine, and I can use +no less lofty word. + +_Town Geology_. 1871. + + + +Content or Happy? March 11. + + +My friends, whether you will be the happier for any knowledge of physical +science, or for any other knowledge whatsoever, I cannot tell. That lies +in the decision of a higher Power than I; and, indeed, to speak honestly, +I do not think that any branch of physical science is likely, at first at +least, to make you happy. Neither is the study of your fellow-men. +Neither is religion itself. We were not sent into the world to be happy, +but to be right--at least, poor creatures that we are--as right as we can +be, and we must be content with being right, and not happy. . . . And we +shall be made truly wise if we be made content; content, too, not only +with what we can understand, but content with what we do not +understand--the habit of mind which theologians call (and rightly) faith +in God, true and solid faith, which comes often out of sadness and out of +doubt. + +_Lecture on Bio-geology_. 1869. + + + +Duty of Man to Man. March 12. + + +Each man can learn something from his neighbour; at least he can learn +this--to have patience with his neighbour, to live and let live. + +Peace! peace! Anything which is not _wrong_ for the sake of heaven-born +Peace! + +_Town and Country Sermons_. 1861. + + + +Blessing of a True Friend. March 13. + + +A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human +soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and +who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth +to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind +our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in the days of prosperity +and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in the +day of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our +battle as we can. + +It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends: the mean and +cowardly can never know what true friendship means. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +True Heroines. March 14. + + +What is the commonest, and yet the least remembered form of heroism? The +heroism of an average mother. Ah! when I think of that broad fact I +gather hope again for poor humanity, and this dark world looks bright, +this diseased world looks wholesome to me once more, because, whatever +else it is or is not full of, it is at least full of mothers. + +_Lecture on Heroism_. 1873. + + + +Secret Atheism. March 15. + + +There is little hope that we shall learn the lessons God is for ever +teaching us in the events of life till we get rid of our secret Atheism, +till we give up the notion that God only visits now and then to disorder +and destroy His own handiwork, and take back the old scriptural notion +that God is visiting all day long for ever, to give order and life to His +own work, to set it right where it goes wrong, and re-create it whenever +it decays. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. + + + +Tolerance. March 16. + + +If we really love God and long to do good and work for God, if we really +love our neighbours and wish to help them, we shall have no heart to +quarrel about _how_ the good is to be done, provided _it is_ done. +"Master," said St. John, "we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and +he followeth not us; wilt Thou that we forbid him? And Jesus said, +Forbid him not." + +_Sermons_. + + + +The Hopes of Old Age. March 17. + + +Christianity alone deprives old age of its bitterness, making it the gate +of heaven. Our bodies will fade and grow weak and shapeless, just when +we shall not want them, being ready and in close expectation of that +resurrection of the flesh which is the great promise of Christianity (no +miserable fancies about "pure souls" escaped from matter, but)--of +bodies, _our_ bodies, beloved, beautiful, ministers to us in all our +joys, sufferers with us in all our sorrows--yea, our very own selves +raised up again to live and love in a manner inconceivable from its +perfection. + +_MS._ 1842. + +. . . No! I can wait: +Another body!--Ah, new limbs are ready, +Free, pure, instinct with soul through every nerve, +Kept for us in the treasuries of God! + +_Santa Maura_. 1852. + + + +The Highest Study for Man, March 18. + + +Man is _not_, as the poet said, "the noblest study of mankind." God is +the noblest study of man, and Him we can study in three ways. 1st. From +His image as developed in Christ the Ideal, and in all good men--great +good men. 2dly. From His works. 3dly. From His dealings in history; +this is the real philosophy of history. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Eclecticism. March 19. + + +An eclectic, if it mean anything, means this--one who in any branch of +art or science refuses to acknowledge Bacon's great law, that "Nature is +only conquered by obeying her;" who will not take a full and reverent +view of the whole mass of facts with which he has to deal, and from them +deducing the fundamental laws of his subject, obey them whithersoever +they may lead; but who picks and chooses out of them just so many as may +be pleasant to his private taste, and then constructs a partial system +which differs from the essential ideas of Nature in proportion to the +number of facts which he has determined to discard. + +_Miscellanies_. 1849. + + + +Duty. March 20. + + +Duty, be it in a small matter or a great, is duty still; the command of +Heaven; the eldest voice of God. And it is only they who are faithful in +a few things who will be faithful over many things; only they who do +their duty in everyday and trivial matters who will fulfil them on great +occasions. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +The Great Unknown. March 21. + + +"Brother," said the abbot, "make ready for me the divine elements, that I +may consecrate them." And he asking the reason therefor, the saint +replied, "That I may partake thereof with all my brethren before I depart +hence. For know assuredly that within the seventh day I shall migrate to +the celestial mansions. For this night stood by me in a dream those two +women whom I love, and for whom I pray, the one clothed in a white, the +other in a ruby-coloured garment, and holding each other by the hand, who +said to me, '_That life after death is not such a one as you fancy_: +come, therefore, and behold what it is like.'" + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxx. 1852. + + + +Loss nor Gain, March 22. + + +Nothing is more expensive than penuriousness; nothing more anxious than +carelessness; and every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven +fresh duties at its back. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Ancient Greek Education, March 23. + + +We talk of education now. Are we more educated than were the ancient +Greeks? Do we know anything about education, physical, intellectual, +aesthetic (religious education in our sense of the word of course they +had none), of which they have not taught us at least the rudiments? Are +there not some branches of education which they perfected once and for +ever, leaving us northern barbarians to follow or not to follow their +example? To produce health, that is, harmony and sympathy, proportion +and grace, in every faculty of mind and body--that was their notion of +education. + +Ah! the waste of health and strength in the young! The waste, too, of +anxiety and misery in those who love and tend them! How much of it might +be saved by a little rational education in those laws of nature which are +the will of God about the welfare of our bodies, and which, therefore, we +are as much bound to know and to obey as we are bound to know and to obey +the spiritual laws whereon depend the welfare of our souls. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Body and Soul. March 24. + + +Exalt me with Thee, O Lord, to know the mystery of life, that I may use +the earthly as the appointed expression and type of the heavenly, and, by +using to Thy glory the natural body, may be fit to be exalted to the use +of the spiritual body. Amen. + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +Moderation. March 25. + + +Let us pray for that great--I had almost said that crowning grace and +virtue of Moderation, what St. Paul calls sobriety and a sound mind. Let +us pray for moderate appetites, moderate passions, moderate honours, +moderate gains, moderate joys; and if sorrows be needed to chasten us, +moderate sorrows. Let us not long violently after, or wish too eagerly +to rise in life. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1869. + + + +Poetry in the Slums. March 26. + + +"True poetry, like true charity, my laddie, begins at home. . . . Hech! +is there no the heaven above them there, and the hell beneath them? and +God frowning, and the devil grinning? No poetry there! Is no the verra +idea of the classic tragedy defined to be man conquered by circumstance? +canna ye see it there? And the verra idea of the modern tragedy, man +conquering circumstance? and I'll show ye that too--in many a garret +where no eye but the good God's enters to see the patience, and the +fortitude, and the self-sacrifice, and the love stronger than death, +that's shining in those dark places of the earth." + +"Ah, poetry's grand--but fact is grander; God and Satan are grander. All +around ye, in every gin-shop and costermonger's cellar, are God and Satan +at death-grips; every garret is a haill Paradise Lost or Paradise +Regained." + +_Alton Locke_, chap. viii. 1849. + + + +Time and Eternity. March 27. + + +. . . Our life's floor +Is laid upon Eternity; no crack in it +But shows the underlying heaven. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii. + + + +Work. March 28. + + +Yes. Life is meant for work, and not for ease; to labour in danger and +in dread, to do a little good ere the night comes when no man can work, +instead of trying to realise for oneself a paradise; not even Bunyan's +shepherd-paradise, much less Fourier's casino-paradise, and perhaps, +least of all, because most selfish and isolated of all, our own +art-paradise, the apotheosis of loafing, as Claude calls it. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1849. + + + +Teaching of Pictures. March 29. + + +Pictures raise blessed thoughts in me. Why not in you, my toiling +brother? Those landscapes painted by loving, wise, old Claude two +hundred years ago, are still as fresh as ever. How still the meadows +are! How pure and free that vault of deep blue sky! No wonder that thy +worn heart, as thou lookest, sighs aloud, "Oh, that I had wings as a +dove, then would I flee away and be at rest." Ah! but gayer meadows and +bluer skies await thee _in the world to come_--that fairyland made +real--"the new heavens and the new earth" which God hath prepared for the +pure and the loving, the just, and the brave, who have conquered in this +sore fight of life. + +_True Words for Brave Men_. 1849. + + + +Voluntary Heroism. March 30. + + +Any man or woman, in any age and under any circumstances, who _will_, +_can_ live the heroic life and exercise heroic influences. + +It is of the essence of self-sacrifice, and therefore of heroism, that it +should be voluntary; a work of supererogation, at least, towards society +and man; an act to which the hero or heroine is not bound by duty, but +which is above though not against duty. + +_Lecture on Heroism_. 1872. + + + +The Ideal Holy One. March 31. + + +Have you never cried in your hearts with longing, almost with impatience, +"Surely, surely, there is an ideal Holy One somewhere--or else, how could +have arisen in my mind the conception, however faint, of an ideal +holiness? But where? oh, where? Not in the world around strewn with +unholiness. Not in myself, unholy too, without and within. Is there a +Holy One, whom I may contemplate with utter delight? and if so, where is +He? Oh, that I might behold, if but for a moment, His perfect beauty, +even though, as in the fable of Semele of old, 'the lightning of His +glance were death.'" . . . + +And then, oh, then--has there not come that for which our spirit was +athirst--the very breath of pure air, the very gleam of pure light, the +very strain of pure music--for it is the very music of the spheres--in +those words, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and +is to come"? + +Yes, whatever else is unholy, there is a Holy One--spotless and +undefiled, serene and self-contained. Whatever else I cannot trust, +there is One whom I can trust utterly. Whatever else I am dissatisfied +with, there is One whom I can contemplate with utter satisfaction, and +bathe my stained soul in that eternal fount of purity. And who is He? +Who, save the Cause and Maker and Ruler of all things past, present, and +to come? + +_Sermon on All Saints' Day_. 1874. + +Charles Kingsley's Dying Words, +"HOW BEAUTIFUL GOD IS." + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +MARCH 25. +The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, +COMMONLY CALLED +Lady Day. + + +It is one of the glories of our holy religion, and one of the ways by +which the Gospel takes such hold on our hearts, that, mixed up with the +grandest and most mysterious and most divine matters, are the simplest, +the most tender, the most human. What more grand, or deep, or divine +words can we say than, "I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son our +Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,"--and yet what more simple, +human, and tender words can we say than, "Who was born of the Virgin +Mary"? For what more beautiful sight on earth than a young mother with +her babe upon her knee? Beautiful in itself; but doubly beautiful to +those who can say, "I believe in Him who was born of the Virgin Mary." + +For since He was born of woman, and thereby took the manhood into God, +birth is holy, and childhood holy, and all a mother's joys and a mother's +cares are holy to the Lord; and every Christian mother with her babe in +her arms is a token and a sign from God, a pledge of His good-will +towards men, a type and pattern of her who was highly-favoured and +blessed above all women. Everything has its time, and Lady-Day is the +time for our remembering the Blessed Virgin. For our hearts and reasons +tell us (and have told all Christians in all ages), that she must have +been holier, nobler, fairer in body and soul, than all women upon earth. + +_MS. Sermon_. + + + + +April. + + +Wild, wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing? +Dark, dark night, wilt thou never wear away? +Cold, cold Church, in thy death sleep lying, +Thy Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine Easter Day. + +Peace, faint heart, though the night be dark and sighing, +Rest fair corpse, where thy Lord Himself hath lain. +Weep, dear Lord, above Thy bride low lying, +Thy tears shall wake her frozen limbs to life and health again. + +_The Dead Church_. + + + +The Song of Birds. April 1. + + +St. Francis called the birds his brothers. Perfectly sure that he +himself was a spiritual being, he thought it at least possible that the +birds might be spiritual beings likewise, incarnate like himself in +mortal flesh, and saw no degradation to the dignity of human nature in +claiming kindred lovingly with creatures so beautiful, so wonderful, who +(as he fancied in his old-fashioned way) praised God in the forest even +as angels did in heaven. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1867. + + + +True Reformers. April 2. + + +It is not the many who reform the world; but the few who rise superior to +that Public Opinion which crucified our Lord many years ago. + +_MS. Lecture at Cambridge_. 1866. + + + +High Ideals. April 3. + + +What if a man's idea of "The Church" be somewhat too narrow for the year +of grace 18--, is it no honour to him that he has such an idea at all? +that there has risen up before him the vision of a perfect polity, a +"divine and wonderful order," linking earth to heaven, and to the very +throne of Him who died for men; witnessing to each of its citizens what +the world tries to make him forget, namely, that he is the child of God +Himself; and guiding and strengthening him from the cradle to the grave +to do his Father's work? Is it no honour to him that he has seen that +such a polity must exist, that he believes that it does exist, or that he +thinks he finds it in its highest, if not in its most perfect form, in +the most ancient and august traditions of his native land? True, he may +have much still to learn. . . . + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. iv. 1856. + + + +Divine Knowledge. April 4. + + +That glorious word _know_--it is God's attribute, and includes in itself +all others. Love, truth--all are parts of that awful power of _knowing_ +at a single glance, from and to all eternity, what a thing is in its +essence, its properties, and its relations to the whole universe through +all Time. I feel awestruck whenever I see that word used rightly, and I +never, if I can remember, use it myself of myself. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Woman's Love. April 5. + + +The story of Ruth is the consecration of woman's love. I do not mean of +the love of wife to husband, divine and blessed as that is. I mean that +depth and strength of devotion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice, which God +has put into the heart of all true women; and which they spend so +strangely, and so nobly often, on persons who have no claim on them, and +from whom they can receive no earthly reward--the affection which made +women minister of their substance to our Lord Jesus Christ, which brought +Mary Magdalene to the foot of the cross and to the door of the tomb--the +affection which made a wise man say that as long as women and sorrow are +left in the world, so long will the gospel of our Lord Jesus live and +conquer therein. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + + + +Feeling and Emotion. April 6. + + +Live a life of _feeling_, not of _excitement_. Let your religion, your +duties, every thought and word, be ruled by the _affections_, not by the +_emotions_, which are the expressions of them. Do not consider whether +you are glad, sorry, dull, or spiritual at any moment, but be +yourself--what God makes you. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +The Beasts that perish. April 7. + + +St. Paul says that he himself saw through a glass darkly. But this he +seems to have seen, that the Lord, when He rose from the dead, brought a +blessing even for the dumb beasts and the earth on which we live. He +says the whole creation is now groaning in the pangs of labour, about to +bring forth something, and that the whole creation will rise again--how +and when and into what new state we cannot tell; but that when the Lord +shall destroy death the whole creation shall be renewed. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +Reverence for Age. April 8. + + +Reverence for age is a fair test of the vigour of youth; and, conversely, +insolence towards the old and the past, whether in individuals or in +nations, is a sign rather of weakness than of strength. + +_Lecture on Westminster Abbey_. +1874. + + + +Prayers for the Dead. April 9. + + +We do not in the Church of England now pray for the dead. We are not +absolutely forbidden by Scripture to do so. But we believe they are +where they ought to be--that they are gone to a perfectly just world, in +which is none of the confusion, mistakes, wrong, and oppression of this +world; in which they will therefore receive the due reward of their deeds +done in the body; and that they are in the hands of a perfectly just God, +who rewardeth every man according to his work. It seems therefore +unnecessary, and, so to speak, an impertinence towards God, to pray for +them who are in the unseen world of spirits exactly in the state which +they have deserved. + +_MS. Sermon_. + + + +Diversities of Gifts. April 10. + + + Why expect +Wisdom with love in all? Each has his gift-- +Our souls are organ pipes of diverse stop +And various pitch: each with its proper notes +Thrilling beneath the self-same breath of God. +Though poor alone, yet joined, they're harmony. + +_Saints' Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. +1847. + + + +The Atonement. April 11. + + +_How_ Christ's death takes away thy sins thou wilt never know on +earth--perhaps not in heaven. It is a mystery which thou must believe +and adore. But _why_ He died thou canst see at the first glance, if thou +hast a human heart and will look at what God means thee to look at--Christ +upon His Cross. He died because He was _Love_--love itself, love +boundless, unconquerable, unchangeable--love which inhabits eternity, and +therefore could not be hardened or foiled by any sin or rebellion of man, +but must love men still--must go out to seek and save them, must dare, +suffer any misery, shame, death itself, for their sake--just because it +is absolute and perfect Love which inhabits eternity. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. + + + +A Day's Work. April 12. + + +Make a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, +to lie down at night without being able to say, I have made one human +being at least a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this +day. You will find it easier than you think, and pleasanter. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Self-control. April 13. + + +A well-educated moral sense, a well-educated character, saves from +idleness and ennui, alternating with sentimentality and excitement, those +tenderer emotions, those deeper passions, those nobler aspirations of +humanity, which are the heritage of the woman far more than of the man, +and which are potent in her, for evil or for good, in proportion as they +are left to run wild and undisciplined, or are trained and developed into +graceful, harmonious, self-restraining strength, beautiful in themselves, +and a blessing to all who come under their influence. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Women and Novels. April 14. + + +Novels will be read; but that is all the more reason why women should be +trained, by the perusal of a higher, broader, deeper literature, to +distinguish the good novel from the bad, the moral from the immoral, the +noble from the base, the true work of art from the sham which hides its +shallowness and vulgarity under a tangled plot and a melodramatic +situation. They should learn--and that they can only learn by +cultivation--to discern with joy and drink in with reverence, the good, +the beautiful, and the true, and to turn with the fine scorn of a pure +and strong womanhood from the bad, the ugly, and the false. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Expect Much. April 15. + + +Expect great things from God, and also expect the least things, for the +great test of faith is shown about the least matters. People will +believe their soul is sure to be saved who have not the heart to expect +that God will take away some small burden. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +What is Theology? April 16. + + +Theology signifies the knowledge of God as He is. And it is dying out +among us in these days. Much of what is called theology now is nothing +but experimental religion, which is most important and useful when it is +founded on the right knowledge of God, but which is not itself theology. +For theology begins with God, but experimental religion, right or wrong, +begins with a man's own soul. + +_Discipline and other Sermons_. + + + +Sweetness and Light. April 17. + + +Ah, that we could believe that God is love, and that he that dwelleth in +love dwelleth in God, and God in him! Then we should have no need to be +told to cultivate sweetness and light, for they would seem to us the only +temper which could make life tolerable in any corner of the universe. + +_Essay on the Critical Spirit_. 1871. + + + +The Contemplative Life. April 18. + + +"Woman is no more capable than man of living on mere contemplation. We +must have an object to whom we may devote the fruits of thought, and +unless we have a real one in active life we shall be sure to coin one for +ourselves, and spend our spirits on a dream." + +"True, true," chimed in the counsellor, "spirit is little use without +body, and a body it will find; and therefore, unless you let people's +brains grow healthy plants, they will grow mushrooms." + +_MS. unfinished Story_. 1843. + + + +Sudden Death. April 19. + + +"What better can the Lord do for a man, than take him home when he has +done his work?" + +"But, Master Yeo, a sudden death?" + +"And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life +and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death +and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo!" + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xxxii. 1855. + + + +Prayer and Praise. April 20. + + +Pray night and day, very quietly, like a little weary child, to the good +and loving God, for everything you want, in body as well as soul--the +least thing as well as the greatest. Nothing is too much to ask God +for--nothing too great for Him to grant: glory be to Thee, O Lord! And +try to thank Him for everything . . . I sometimes feel that eternity +will be too short to praise God in, if it was only for making us live at +all! And then not making us idiots or cripples, or even only ugly and +stupid! What blessings we have! Let us work in return for them--not +under the enslaving sense of paying off an infinite debt, but with the +delight of gratitude, glorying that we are God's debtors. + +_Letters_. 1843. + + + +The Divine Spark. April 21. + + +Man? I am a man, thou art a woman--not by reason of bones and muscles, +nerves and brain, which I have in common with apes, and dogs, and +horses--I am a man, thou art a man or woman, not because we have a flesh, +God forbid! but because there is a spirit in us, a divine spark and ray +which nature did not give, and which nature cannot take away. And +therefore, while I live on earth, I will live to the spirit, not to the +flesh, that I may be indeed a man. + +_Lecture on Ancient Civilisation_. +1873. + + + +The Worst Calamity. April 22. + + +The very worst calamity, I should say, which could befall any human being +would be this--to have his own way from his cradle to his grave; to have +everything he liked for the asking, or even for the buying; never to be +forced to say, "I should like that, but I cannot afford it. I should +like this, but I must not do it." Never to deny himself, never to exert +himself, never to work, and never to want--that man's soul would be in as +great danger as if he were committing great crimes. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + + +Men and Women. April 23. + + +"The Lord be with you, dearest lady," said Adrian Gilbert. "Strange how +you women sit at home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to +break our hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah! hech! +were it not for Scripture I should have thought that Adam, rather than +Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. 1855. + + + +Faith in the Unseen. April 24. + + +He was not one of those "ungodly" men of whom David speaks in his Psalms, +who rob the widow and the fatherless. His morality was as high as that +of the average, his honour higher. But of "godliness" in its true +sense--of belief that any Being above cared for him, and was helping him +in the daily business of life: that it was worth while asking that +Being's advice, or that any advice would be given if asked for--of any +practical notion of a heavenly Father or a Divine educator--he was as +ignorant as thousands of persons who go to church every Sunday, and read +good books, and believe firmly that the Pope is Antichrist. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. i. 1856. + + + +Death--Resurrection. April 25. + + +As we rose to go, my eye caught a highly-finished drawing of the +Resurrection painted above the place where the desk and faldstool and +lectern, holding an open missal book, stood. I should have rather +expected, I thought to myself, a picture of the Crucifixion. She seemed +to guess my thought, and said, "There is enough in an abode of heavy +hearts, and in daily labours among poverty and suffering, to keep in our +minds the Prince of Sufferers. We need rather to be reminded that pain +is not the law but the disease of our existence, and that it has been +conquered for us in body and soul by Him in whose eternity of bliss a few +years of sadness were but as a mote within the sunbeam's blaze." + +_MS. unfinished Story_. l843. + + + +Woman's Work. April 26. + + +Woman is the teacher, the natural and therefore divine guide, purifier, +inspirer of man. + +_MS._ + + + +Passion--Easter--Ascension. April 27. + + +Good Friday, Easter Day, and Ascension, are set as great lights in the +firmament of the spiritual year;--to remind us that we are not animals +born to do what we like, and fulfil the simple lusts of the flesh--but +that we are rational moral beings, members of Christ, children of God, +and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, and that, therefore, like +Christ, we must die in order to live, stoop in order to conquer. They +remind us that honour must grow out of humility; that freedom must grow +out of discipline; that sure conquest must be born of heavy struggles; +righteous joy out of righteous sorrow; pure laughter out of pure tears; +true strength out of the true knowledge of our own weakness; sound peace +of mind out of sound contrition. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +How to keep Passion-Week. April 28. + + +Can we go wrong if we keep our Passion-week as Christ kept His? And how +did He keep it? Not by shutting Himself up apart, not by the mere +thinking over the glory of self-sacrifice. He taught daily in the +temple; instead of giving up His work, He worked more earnestly than ever +as the terrible end drew near. Why should not we keep Passion-week, not +by merely hiding in our closets to meditate even about Him, but by going +about our work each in his place, dutifully, bravely, as Christ went? + +_Town and Country Sermons_. 1859. + + + +Self-Sacrifice. April 29. + + +Without self-sacrifice there can be no blessedness either in earth or in +heaven. He that loveth his life will lose it. He that hateth his life +in this paltry, selfish, luxurious world shall keep it to life eternal. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. + + + +Help from our Blessed Dead. April 30. + + +And so with those who are Christ's whom we love. Partakers of His death, +they are partakers of His resurrection. Let us believe the blessed news +in all its fulness, and be at peace. A little while and we see them, and +again a little while and we do not see them. But why? Because they are +gone to the Father, to the Source and Fount of all life and power, all +light and love, that they may gain life from His life, power from His +power, light from His light, love from His love; and surely not for +nought. Surely not for nought. For if they were like Christ on earth, +and did not use their powers for themselves alone; if they are to be like +Christ when they see Him as He is, then, more surely, will they not use +their powers for themselves, but as Christ uses His, for those they love. + +_MS. Sermon_. 1866. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. +Passion-tide. + + +From the earliest times the Cross has been the special sign of +Christians. St. Paul tells us his great hope, his great business, what +God had sent him into the world to do, was this--to make people know the +love of Christ; to look at Christ's Cross, and take in its breadth and +length and depth and height. + +And what is the _breadth_ of Christ's Cross? My friends, it is as broad +as the whole world, for He died for the whole world; as it is written, +"He is a propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sins of the +whole world." And that is the _breadth_ of Christ's Cross. + +And what is the _length_ of Christ's Cross? Long enough to last through +all time. As long as there is a sinner to be saved; as long as there is +ignorance, sorrow, pain, death, or anything else which is contrary to God +and hurtful to man in the universe of God, so long will Christ's Cross +last. And that is the _length_ of the Cross of Christ. + +And how _high_ is Christ's Cross? As high as the highest heaven, and the +throne of God and the bosom of the Father--that bosom out of which for +ever proceed all created things. Ay, as high as the highest heaven; for, +if you will receive it, when Christ hung upon the Cross heaven came down +on earth, and earth ascended into heaven. And that is the _height_ of +the Cross of Christ. + +And how _deep_ is the Cross of Christ? This is a great mystery which +people are afraid to look into, and darken it of their own will. But if +the Cross of Christ be as high as heaven, then it must be as deep as +hell, deep enough to reach the deepest sinner in the deepest pit to which +he may fall, for Christ descended into hell, and preached to the spirits +in prison. Let us hope, then, that is the _depth_ of the Cross of +Christ. + +"_The Measure of the Cross_," +_Sermons_ (_Good News of God_). + + +Good Friday. + + +Listen! and our God shall whisper, as we hang upon the cross, {97} +"Children! love! and loving, faint not! great your glory, light your +loss! +_Ye_ are bound--ye may be loosed--_I_ was nailed upon the tree, +Of the pangs I suffered for you--bear awhile a few for me! +Fear not, though the waters whelm you; fear not, though ye see no land! +Know ye not your God is with you, guiding with a Father's hand? +Cords may wring, and winds may freeze you, shivering on the sullen sea, +Yet the life that burns within you liveth ever hid with Me!" + +_MS._ 1842. + +Christ must suffer before He entered into His glory. He must die before +He could rise. He must descend into hell before He could ascend into +heaven. For this is the law of God's kingdom. Without a Good Friday +there can be no Easter Day. Without self-sacrifice there can be no +blessedness. + +My Saviour! My King! Infinite, Eternal Love--alone of all beings devoid +of self-love! Glory be to Thee for Thy humiliation, for Thy Cross and +Passion! + +_MS._ + + +Easter Even. + + +Christ went down into hell and preached to the spirits in prison. It is +written that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made +alive;" and again, "When the wicked man turns from his wickedness he +shall save his soul alive." And we know that in the same chapter God +tells us that His ways are not unequal. It is possible, therefore, that +He has not one law for this life and another for the life to come. Let +us hope, then, that David's words may be true after all, when, speaking +by the Spirit of God, he says not only "if I ascend up to heaven, thou +art there," but "if I go down to hell, thou art there also." + +_MS. Sermon_. + + +Easter Day. + + +The Creed says, "I believe in the Resurrection of the flesh." I believe +that we, each of us, as human beings, men and women, shall have a share +in that glorious day; not merely as ghosts and disembodied spirits, but +as real live human beings, with new bodies of our own, on a new earth, +under a new heaven. "Therefore," David says, "my flesh shall rest in +hope;" not merely my soul, my ghost, but my flesh. For the Lord, who not +only died but rose again with His body, shall raise our bodies according +to His mighty working, and then the whole manhood of us--body, soul, and +spirit--shall have our perfect consummation and bliss in His eternal and +everlasting glory. + +_National Sermons_. + + +APRIL 25. +St. Mark, Evangelist and Martyr. + + +God's apostles, saints, and martyrs are our spiritual ancestors. They +spread the Gospel into all lands, and they spread it, remember always, +not only by preaching what they knew, but by being what they were. Their +characters, their personal histories, are as important to us as their +writings. + +_Sermons_. + + + + +May. + + +Is it merely a fancy that we are losing that love for Spring which among +our old forefathers rose almost to worship? That the perpetual miracle +of the budding leaves and the returning song-birds awakes no longer in us +the astonishment which it awoke yearly among the dwellers in the old +world, when the sun was a god who was sick to death each winter, and +returned in spring to life, and health, and glory; when Freya, the +goddess of youth and love, went forth over the earth while the flowers +broke forth under her tread over the brown moors, and the birds welcomed +her with song? To those simpler children of a simpler age winter and +spring were the two great facts of existence; the symbols, the one of +death, the other of life; and the battle between the two--the battle of +the sun with darkness, of winter with spring, of death with life, of +bereavement with love--lay at the root of all their myths and all their +creeds. Surely a change has come over our fancies! The seasons are +little to us now! + +_Prose Idylls_. + + + +Past and Present. May 1. + + +Now see the young spring leaves burst out a-maying, +Fill with their ripening hues orchard and glen; +So though old forms pass by, ne'er shall their spirit die, +Look! England's bare boughs show green leaf again. + +_Poems_. 1849. + + + +The Earth is the Lord's. May 2. + + +The earth is holy! Can there be a more glorious truth to carry out--one +which will lead us more into all love and beauty and purity in heaven and +earth? One which must have God's light of love shining on it at every +step. God gives us souls and bodies exquisitely attuned for this very +purpose--the aesthetic faculty, our sensibilities to the beautiful. All +events of life, all the workings of our hearts, should point to this one +idea. As I walk the fields, the trees and flowers and birds, and the +motes of rack floating in the sky, seem to cry to me: "Thou knowest us! +Thou knowest we have a meaning, and sing a heaven's harmony by night and +day! Do us justice! Spell our enigma, and go forth and tell thy fellows +that we are their brethren, that their spirit is our spirit, their +Saviour our Saviour, their God our God!" + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +The Great Question. May 3. + + +Is there a living God in the universe, or is there not? That is the +greatest of all questions. Has our Lord Jesus Christ answered it, or has +He not? + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. + + + +Our Father. May 4. + + +Look at those thousand birds, and without our Father not one of them +shall fall to the ground; and art thou not of more value than many +sparrows--thou for whom God sent His Son to die? . . . Ah! my friend, we +must look out and around to see what God is like. It is when we persist +in turning our eyes inward, and prying curiously over our own +imperfections, that we learn to make a god after our own image, and fancy +that our own hardness and darkness are the patterns of His light and +love. + +_Hypatia_, chap. xi. + + + +Want of Sympathy. May 5. + + +If we do not understand our fellow-creatures we shall never love them. +And it is equally true, that if we do not love them we shall never +understand them. Want of charity, want of sympathy, want of good feeling +and fellow-feeling--what does it, what can it breed but endless mistakes +and ignorances, both of men's characters and men's circumstances? + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1873. + + + +A Religion. May 6. + + +If all that a man wants is "a _religion_," he ought to be able to make a +very pretty one for himself, and a fresh one as often as he is tired of +the old. But the heart and soul of man wants more than that; as it is +written, "My soul is athirst for GOD, even for the living God." I want a +living God, who cares for men, forgives men, saves men from their sins: +and Him I have found in the Bible, and nowhere else, save in the facts of +life which the Bible alone interprets. + +_Sermons on the Pentateuch_. 1863. + + + +True Civilisation. May 7. + + +Do the duty which lies nearest to you; your duty to the man who lives +next door, and to the man who lives in the next street. Do your duty to +your parish, that you may do your duty by your country and to all +mankind, and prove yourselves thereby civilised men. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1866. + + + +Nature and Grace. May 8. + + +Why speak of the God of Nature and the God of grace as two antithetical +terms? The Bible never in a single instance makes the distinction, and +surely if God be the eternal and unchangeable One, and if all the +universe bears the impress of His signet, we have no right, in the +present infantile state of science, to put arbitrary limits of our own to +the revelation which He may have thought good to make of Himself in +Nature. Nay, rather, let us believe that if our eyes were opened we +should fulfil the requirement of genius and see the universal in the +particular by seeing God's whole likeness, His whole glory, reflected as +in a mirror in the meanest flower, and that nothing but the dulness of +our simple souls prevents them from seeing day and night in all things +the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling His own saying, "My Father worketh +hitherto, and I work." + +_Glaucus_. 1855. + + + +Wisdom the Child of Goodness. May 9. + + +Goodness rather than talent had given her a wisdom, and goodness rather +than courage a power of using that wisdom, which to those simple folk +seemed almost an inspiration. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. ii. 1857. + + + +Rule of Life. May 10. + + +Two great rules for the attainment of heavenly wisdom are simple +enough--"Never forget what and where you are," and "Grieve not the Holy +Spirit." + +_MS. Letter_. 1841. + + + +Music the Speech of God. May 11. + + +Music--there is something very wonderful in music. Words are wonderful +enough, but music is more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as +words do, it speaks straight to our hearts and spirits, to the very core +and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts noble +feelings into us; it melts us to tears, we know not how; it is a language +by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words; just as +divine, just as blessed. Music has been called the speech of angels; I +will go farther, and call it the speech of God Himself. + +The old Greeks, the wisest of all the heathen, made a point of teaching +their children music, because, they said, it taught them not to be self- +willed and fanciful, but to see the beauty of order, the usefulness of +rule, the divineness of law. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. + + + +Facing Realities. May 12. + + +The only comfort I can see in the tragedies of war is that they bring us +all face to face with the realities of human life, as it has been in all +ages, giving us sterner and yet more loving, more human, and more divine +thoughts about ourselves, and our business here, and the fate of those +who are gone, and awakening us out of the luxurious, frivolous, and +unreal dream (full nevertheless of hard judgments) in which we have been +living so long, to trust in a living Father who is really and practically +governing this world and all worlds, and who willeth that none should +perish. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1855. + + + +Street Arabs. May 13. + + +One has only to go into the streets of any great city in England to see +how we, with all our boast of civilisation, are yet but one step removed +from barbarism. Is that a hard word? Only there _are_ the barbarians +round us at every street corner--grown barbarians, it may be, now all but +past saving, but bringing into the world young barbarians whom we may yet +save, for God wishes us to save them. . . . Do not deceive yourselves +about the little dirty, offensive children in the street. If they be +offensive to you, they are not to Him who made them. "Take heed that ye +despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, their angels do +always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven." + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +Fellowship of Sorrow. May 14. + + +How was He, +The blessed One, made perfect? Why, by grief-- +The fellowship of voluntary grief-- +He read the tear-stained book of poor men's souls, +As we must learn to read it. Lady! lady! +Wear but one robe the less--forego one meal-- +And thou shalt taste the core of many tales, +Which now flit past thee, like a minstrel's songs, +The sweeter for their sadness. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. +1847. + + + +Heaven and Hell. May 15. + + +Heaven and hell--the spiritual world--are they merely invisible places in +space which may become visible hereafter? or are they not rather the +moral world of right and wrong? Love and righteousness--is not that the +heaven itself wherein God dwells? Hatred and sin--is not that hell +itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to God? + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + + + +The Awfulness of Life. May 16. + + +Our hearts are dull, and hard, and light, God forgive us! and we forget +continually what an earnest, awful world we live in--a whole eternity +waiting for us to be born, and a whole eternity waiting to see what we +shall do now we are born. Yes, our hearts are dull, and hard, and light. +And therefore Christ sends suffering on us, to teach us what we always +gladly forget in comfort and prosperity--what an awful capacity of +suffering we have; and more, what an awful capacity of suffering our +fellow-creatures have likewise. . . . + +We sit at ease too often in a fool's paradise, till God awakens us and +tortures us into pity for the torture of others. And so, if we will not +acknowledge our brotherhood by any other teaching, He knits us together +by the brotherhood of suffering. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +Hope and Fear. May 17. + + +Every gift of God is good, and given for our happiness, and we sin if we +abuse it. To use your fancy to your own misery is to abuse it and to +sin. The realm of the possible was given to man to _hope_ and not to +_fear_ in. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Cry of the Heart and Reason. May 18. + + +A living God, a true God, a real God, a God worthy of the name, a God who +is working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He +has made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a God who satisfies not only +the head but the heart, not only the logical intellect but the highest +reason--that pure reason which is one with the conscience and moral +sense! For Him we cry out, Him we seek, and if we cannot find Him we +know no rest. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1867. + + + +Speaking the Truth in Love. May 19. + + +Whenever we are tempted to say more than is needful, let us remember St. +John's words (in the only sermon we have on record of his), "Little +children, love one another," and ask God for His Holy Spirit, the spirit +of love, which, instead of weakening a man's words, makes them all the +stronger in the cause of truth, because they are spoken in love. + +How difficult it is to distinguish between the loving _tact_, which +avoids giving offence to a weaker brother, and the fear of man, which +bringeth a snare! + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Peasant Souls. May 20. + + +. . . Dull boors +See deeper than we think, and hide within +Those leathern hulls unfathomable truths, +Which we amid thought's glittering mazes lose. +They grind among the iron facts of life, +And have no time for self-deception. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii. +1847. + + + +Death and Everlasting Life. May 21. + + +Do not rashly count on some sudden radical change happening to you as +soon as you die to make you fit for heaven. There is not one word in the +Bible which gives us reason to suppose that we shall not be in the next +world the same persons that we have made ourselves in this world. . . . +What we sow here we shall reap there. And it is good for us to know and +face this. Anything is good for us, however unpleasant it may be, which +drives us from the only real misery, which is sin and selfishness, to the +only true happiness, which is the everlasting life of Christ, a pure, +loving, just, generous, useful life of goodness. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. + + + +Science and Virtue. May 22. + + +Science is great; but she is not the greatest. She is an instrument and +not a power--beneficent or deadly, according as she is wielded by the +hand of virtue or vice. But her lawful mistress, the only one which can +use her aright, the only one under whom she can truly grow and prosper +and prove her divine descent, is Virtue, the likeness of Almighty God. + +_Roman and Teuton_. 1860. + + + +A Child's Heart. May 23. + + +"I saw at last! I found out that I had been trying for years which was +stronger, God or I; I found out I had been trying whether I could not do +well enough without Him; and there I found that I could not--could not! I +felt like a child who had marched off from home, fancying it can find its +way, and is lost at once. I did not know that I had a Father in heaven +who had been looking after me, when I fancied I was looking after myself. +I don't half believe it now." . . . And so the old heart passed away +from Thomas Thurnall, and instead of it grew up the heart of a little +child. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. 1857. + + + +Self-Security. May 24. + + +Strange it is how mortal man, "who cometh up and is cut down like the +flower," can harden himself into a stoical security, and count on the +morrow which may never come. Yet so it is, and perhaps if it were not so +no work would get done on earth--at least by the many who know not that +God is guiding them, while they fancy they are guiding themselves. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. i. + +There is a Providence which rules this earth, whose name is neither +Political Economy nor Expediency, but the Living God, who makes every +right action reward, and every wrong action punish, _itself_. + +_History Lecture_, _Cambridge_. 1866. + + + +Loss and Gain. May 25. + + +"He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. Bad +men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans at home +teach little else) that it is the one great business of every man to save +his own soul after he dies; every one for himself; and that that, and not +divine self-sacrifice, is the one thing needful, and the better part +which Mary chose." + +"I think," said Amyas, "men are enough inclined to be selfish without +being taught that." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. vii. 1854. + + + +The Law of Righteousness. May 26. + + +What if I had discovered that one law of the spiritual world, in which +all others were contained, was Righteousness? and that disharmony with +that law, which we call unspirituality, was not being vulgar, or clumsy, +or ill-taught, or unimaginative, or dull; but simply being unrighteous? +that righteousness, and it alone, was the beautiful, righteousness the +sublime, the heavenly, the God-like--ay, God Himself? + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxvii. 1852. + + + +Human and Divine Love. May 27. + + +Believe me that he who has been led by love to a human being to +understand the mystery of that divine love which fills all heaven and +earth, and concentrates itself into an articulate manifestation in the +person of Christ, will soon begin to find that he cannot enter into the +perfect bliss of that truth without going further, and seeing that the +human heart requires some standing-ground for its affection, even for the +love of wife and child, deeper and surer than that love, namely, in utter +loyalty, resignation, adoring affection to Him in whom all loveliness is +concentrated. It is a great mystery. It is a hard lesson. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1847. + + + +A High Finish. May 28. + + +A high artistic finish is important for more reasons than for the mere +pleasure it gives. There is something sacramental in perfect metre and +rhythm. They are outward and visible signs (most seriously we speak as +we say it) of an inward and spiritual grace, namely, of the +self-possessed and victorious temper of one who has so far subdued nature +as to be able to hear that universal sphere-music of hers, speaking of +which Mr. Carlyle says, that "all deepest thoughts instinctively vent +themselves in song." + +_Miscellanies_. 1849. + + + +Our Prayers. May 29. + + +There can be no objection to praying for certain special things. God +forbid! I cannot help doing it, any more than a child in the dark can +help calling for its mother. Only it seems to me that when we pray, +"Grant this day that we run into no kind of danger," we ought to lay our +stress on the "run" rather than on the "danger," to ask God not to take +away the danger by altering the course of nature, but to give us light +and guidance whereby to avoid it. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1860. + + + +Clearing Showers. May 30. + + +When a stream is swelled by a flood, a shower of rain _clears_ it. So in +trouble, when the heart is turbid from the world's admixtures, and the +stirring up of the foul particles which will lie at the bottom, nothing +but the pure dew of heaven can restore its purity, when God's spirit +comes down upon it like a gentle rain! + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Vineyards in Spring. May 31. + + +Look at the rows of vines, or what will be vines when the summer comes, +but are now black, knotted and gnarled clubs, without a sign of life in +the seemingly dead stick. One who sees that sight may find a new beauty +and meaning in the mystic words, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." It +is not merely the connection between branch and stem common to all trees; +not merely the exhilarating and seemingly inspiring properties of the +grape, which made the very heathen look upon it as the sacred and +miraculous fruit, the special gift of God; not merely the pruning out of +the unfruitful branches, to be burned as firewood--not merely these, but +the seeming death of the Vine, shorn of all its beauty, its fruitfulness, +of every branch and twig which it had borne the year before, and left +unsightly and seemingly ruined, to its winter sleep; and then bursting +forth again by an irresistible inward life into fresh branches, spreading +and trailing far and wide, and tossing their golden tendrils to the sky. +This thought surely--the emblem of the living Church, springing from the +corpse of the dead Christ, who yet should rise to be alive for +evermore--enters into, it may be forms an integral part of, the meaning +of that prophecy of all prophecies. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1864. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +MAY 1. +St. Philip and St. James, Apostles and Martyrs. + + +Christ's cross says still, and will say to all Eternity, "Wouldst thou be +good? Wouldst thou be like God? Then work and dare, and if need be, +suffer for thy fellow-men." On the Cross Christ consecrated, and as it +were offered to the Father in His own body, all loving actions, unselfish +actions, merciful actions, heroic actions, which man has done or ever +will do. From Him, from His spirit, their strength came; and therefore +He is not ashamed to call them brethren. He is the King of the noble +army of martyrs; of all who suffer for love and truth and justice' sake; +and to all such He says, thou hast put on My likeness; thou hast suffered +for My sake, and I too have suffered for thy sake, and enabled thee to +suffer likewise, and in Me thou too art a Son of God, in whom the Father +is well pleased. + +_Sermons_. + + +Feast of the Ascension. + + +"Lo, I am with you always," said the Blessed One before He ascended to +the Father. And this is the Lord who we fancy is gone away far above the +stars till the end of time! Oh, my friends, rather bow your heads before +Him at this moment! For here He is among us now, listening to every +thought of our poor simple hearts. He is where God is, in whom we live, +and move, and have our being, and that is everywhere. Do you wish Him to +be any nearer? + +_National Sermons_. + +. . . Oh, my Saviour! +My God! where art Thou? That's but a tale about Thee, +That crucifix above--it does but show Thee +As Thou wast once, but not as Thou art now. . . . + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iv. Scene i. + + + + +June. + + +Three o'clock, upon a still, pure, Midsummer morning. . . . The white +glare of dawn, which last night hung high in the north-west, has +travelled now to the north-east, and above the wooded wall of the hills +the sky is flushing with rose and amber. A long line of gulls goes +wailing inland; the rooks come cawing and sporting round the corner at +Landcross, while high above them four or five herons flap solemnly along +to find their breakfast on the shallows. The pheasants and partridges +are clucking merrily in the long wet grass; every copse and hedgerow +rings with the voice of birds; but the lark, who has been singing since +midnight in the "blank height of the dark," suddenly hushes his carol and +drops headlong among the corn, as a broad-winged buzzard swings from some +wooded peak into the abyss of the valley, and hangs high-poised above the +heavenward songster. The air is full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown +hay, the fragrant breath of kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed, and fresh +wet sand. Glorious day, glorious place, "bridal of earth and sky," +decked well with bridal garments, bridal perfumes, bridal songs. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xii. + + + +Open Thou mine Eyes. June 1. + + +I have wandered in the mountains mist-bewildered, +And now a breeze comes, and the veil is lifted; +And priceless flowers, o'er which I trod unheeding, +Gleam ready for my grasp. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act i. Scene ii. +1847. + + + +The Spirit of Romance. June 2. + + +Some say that the spirit of romance is dead. The spirit of romance will +never die as long as there is a man left to see that the world might and +can be better, happier, wiser, fairer in all things than it is now. The +spirit of romance will never die as long as a man has faith in God to +believe that the world will actually be better and fairer than it is now, +as long as men have faith, however weak, to believe in the romance of all +romances, in the wonder of all wonders, in that of which all poets' +dreams have been but childish hints and dim forefeelings--even + + "That one divine far-off event + Towards which the whole creation moves, + +that wonder which our Lord Himself has bade us pray for as for our daily +bread, and say, "Father, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as +it is done in heaven." + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1865. + + + +The Everlasting Music. June 3. + + +All melody and all harmony upon earth, whether in the song of birds, the +whisper of the wind, the concourse of voices, or the sounds of those +cunning instruments which man has learnt to create, because he is made in +the image of Christ, the Word of God, who creates all things; all music +upon earth, I say, is beautiful in as far as it is a pattern and type of +the everlasting music which is in heaven, which was before all worlds and +shall be after them. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. + + + +Gifts are Duties. June 4. + + +Exceeding gifts from God are not blessings, they are duties, and very +solemn and heavy duties. They do not always increase a man's happiness; +they always increase his responsibility, the awful account which he must +render at last of the talents committed to his charge. They increase, +too, his danger. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + + + +Summer Days. June 5. + + +Now let the young be glad, +Fair girl and gallant lad, +And sun themselves to-day +By lawn and garden gay; +'Tis play befits the noon +Of rosy-girdled June; +. . . . . +The world before them, and above +The light of Universal Love. + +_Installation Ode_, _Cambridge_. 1862. + + + +"Sufficient for the Day." June 6. + + +Let us not meddle with the future, and matters which are too high for us, +but refrain our souls, and keep them low like little children, content +with the day's food, and the day's schooling, and the day's play-hours, +sure that the Divine Master knows that all is right, and how to train us, +and whither to lead us; though we know not and need not know, save this, +that the path by which He is leading each of us, if we will but obey and +follow step by step, leads up to everlasting life. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +Secret of Thrift. June 7. + + +The secret of thrift is knowledge. The more you know the more you can +save yourself and that which belongs to you, and can do more work with +less effort. Knowledge of domestic economy saves income; knowledge of +sanitary laws saves health and life: knowledge of the laws of the +intellect saves wear and tear of brain, and knowledge of the laws of the +spirit--what does it not save? + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Out-door Worship. June 8. + + +In the forest, every branch and leaf, with the thousand living things +which cluster on them, all worship, worship, worship with us! Let us go +up in the evenings and pray there, with nothing but God's cloud temple +between us and His heaven! And His choir of small birds and night +crickets and booming beetles, and all happy things who praise Him all +night long! And in the still summer noon, too, with the lazy-paced +clouds above, and the distant sheep-bell, and the bee humming in the beds +of thyme, and one bird making the hollies ring a moment, and then all +still--hushed--awe-bound, as the great thunder-clouds slide up from the +far south! Then, then, to praise God! Ay, even when the heaven is black +with wind, the thunder crackling over our heads, then to join in the paean +of the storm-spirits to Him whose pageant of power passes over the earth +and harms us not in its mercy! + +_Letters and Memories_. 1844. + + + +God's Countenance. June 9. + + +Study nature as the countenance of God! Try to extract every line of +beauty, every association, every moral reflection, every inexpressible +feeling from it. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Certain and Uncertain. June 10. + + +"Life is uncertain," folks say. Life is certain, say I, because God is +educating us thereby. But this process of education is so far above our +sight that it looks often uncertain and utterly lawless; wherefore fools +conceive (as does M. Comte) that there is no Living God, because they +cannot condense His formulas into their small smelling-bottles. + +O glorious thought! that we are under a Father's education, and that _He_ +has promised to develop us, and to make us go on from strength to +strength. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1868. + + + +Sensuality. June 11. + + +What is sensuality? Not the enjoyment of holy glorious matter, but +blindness to its meaning. + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +The Journey's End. June 12. + + +Let us live hard, work hard, go a good pace, get to our journey's end as +soon as possible--then let the post-horse get his shoulder out of the +collar. . . . I have lived long enough to feel, like the old post-horse, +very thankful as the end draws near. . . . Long life is the last thing +that I desire. It may be that, as one grows older, one acquires more and +more the painful consciousness of the difference between what _ought_ to +be done and what _can_ be done, and sits down more quietly when one gets +the wrong side of fifty, to let others start up to do for us things we +cannot do for ourselves. But it is the highest pleasure that a man can +have who has (to his own exceeding comfort) turned down the hill at last, +to believe that younger spirits will rise up after him, and catch the +lamp of Truth, as in the old lamp-bearing race of Greece, out of his hand +before it expires, and carry it on to the goal with swifter and more even +feet. + +_Speech at Lotus Club_, _New York_. 1874. + + + +Punishment Inevitable. June 13. + + +It is a fact that God does punish here, in this life. He does not, as +false preachers say, give over this life to impunity and this world to +the devil, and only resume the reigns of moral government and the right +of retribution when men die and go into the next world. Here in this +life He punishes sin. Slowly but surely God punishes. If any of you +doubt my words you have only to commit sin and then see whether your sin +will find you out. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +The Problem Solved. June l4. + + +After all, the problem of life is not a difficult one, for it solves +itself so very soon at best--by death. Do what is right the best way you +can, and wait to the end to _know_. + +_MS. Letter_. + +But remember that though death may alter our place, it cannot alter our +character--though it may alter our circumstances, it cannot alter +ourselves. + +_Discipline and other Sermons_. + + + +The Father's Education. June 15. + + +Sin, [Greek text], is the missing of a mark, the falling short of an +ideal; . . . and that each miss brings a penalty, or rather is itself the +penalty, is to me the best of news and gives me hope for myself and every +human being past, present, and future, for it makes me look on them all +as children under a paternal education, who are being taught to become +aware of, and use their own powers in God's house, the universe, and for +God's work in it; and, in proportion as they do that, they attain +salvation, +_Letters and Memories_. 1852. + + + +Parent and Child. June 16. + + +Superstition is the child of fear, and fear is the child of ignorance. + +_Lectures on Science and Superstition_. +1866. + + + +A Charm of Birds. June 17. + + +Listen to the charm of birds in any sequestered woodland on a bright +forenoon in early summer. As you try to disentangle the medley of +sounds, the first, perhaps, which will strike your ear will be the loud, +harsh, monotonous, flippant song of the chaffinch, and the metallic +clinking of two or three sorts of titmice. But above the tree-tops, +rising, hovering, sinking, the woodlark is fluting tender and low. Above +the pastures outside the skylark sings--as he alone can sing; and close +by from the hollies rings out the blackbird's tenor--rollicking, +audacious, humorous, all but articulate. From the tree above him rises +the treble of the thrush, pure as the song of angels; more pure, perhaps, +in tone, though neither so varied nor so rich as the song of the +nightingale. And there, in the next holly, is the nightingale himself; +now croaking like a frog, now talking aside to his wife, and now bursting +out into that song, or cycle of songs, in which if any man find sorrow, +he himself surely finds none. . . . In Nature there is nothing +melancholy. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1866. + + + +Notes of Character. June 18. + + +Without softness, without repose, and therefore without dignity. + +_MS._ + + + +Our Blessed Dead. June 19. + + +Why should not those who are gone be actually nearer us, not farther from +us, in the heavenly world, praying for us, and it may be influencing and +guiding us in a hundred ways of which we, in our prison-house of +mortality, cannot dream? Yes! Do not be afraid to believe that he whom +you have lost is near you, and you near him, and both of you near God, +who died on the cross for you. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1871. + + + +Silent Influence. June 20. + + +Violence is not strength, noisiness is not earnestness. Noise is a sign +of want of faith, and violence is a sign of weakness. + +By quiet, modest, silent, private influence we shall win. "Neither +strive nor cry nor let your voice be heard in the streets," was good +advice of old, and is still. I have seen many a movement succeed by it. +I have seen many a movement tried by the other method of striving and +crying and making a noise in the streets, but I have never seen one +succeed thereby, and never shall. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1870. + + + +Chivalry. June 21. + + +Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never +past as long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, and a man or +woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the +attempt." The age of chivalry is never past as long as men have faith +enough in God to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or if not +me, surely He will help those that come after me. For His eternal will +is to overcome evil with good." + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1865. + + + +Nature and Art. June 22. + + +When once you have learnt the beauty of little mossy banks, and tiny +leaves, and flecks of cloud, with what a fulness the glories of Claude, +or Ruysdael, or Berghem, will unfold themselves to you! You must know +Nature or you cannot know Art. And when you do know Nature you will only +prize Art for being like Nature. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Simple and Sincere. June 23. + + +There are those, and, thanks to Almighty God, they are to be numbered by +tens of thousands, who will not perplex themselves with questionings; +simple, genial hearts, who try to do what good they can in the world, and +meddle not with matters too high for them; people whose religion is not +abstruse but deep, not noisy but intense, not aggressive but laboriously +useful; people who have the same habit of mind as the early Christians +seem to have worn, ere yet Catholic truth had been defined in formulae, +when the Apostles' Creed was symbol enough for the Church, and men were +orthodox in heart rather than exact in head. + +For such it is enough if a fellow-creature loves Him whom they love, and +serves Him whom they serve. Personal affection and loyalty to the same +unseen Being is to them a communion of saints both real and actual, in +the genial warmth of which all minor differences of opinion vanish. . . . + +_Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. + + + +God's Words. June 24. + + +Do I mean, then, that this or any text has nothing to do with us? God +forbid! I believe that every word of our Lord's has to do with us, and +with every human being, for their meaning is infinite, eternal, and +inexhaustible. + +_MS. Letter_. + + + +Taught by Failure. June 25. + + +So I am content to have failed. I have learned in the experiment +priceless truths concerning myself, my fellow-men, and the city of God, +which is eternal in the heavens, for ever coming down among men, and +actualising itself more and more in every succeeding age. I only know +that I know nothing, but with a hope that Christ, who is the Son of Man, +will tell me piecemeal, if I be patient and watchful, what I am and what +man is. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1857. + + + +Presentiments. June 26. + + +"I cannot deny," said Claude, "that such things as presentiments may be +possible. However miraculous they may seem, are they so very much more +so than the daily fact of memory? I can as little guess why we remember +the past, as why we may not at times be able to foresee the future." . . +. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. + +A thing need not be unreasonable--that is, contrary to reason--because it +is above and beyond reason, or, at least, our human reason, which at best +(as St. Paul says) sees as in a glass darkly. + +_MS. Letter_. 1856. + + + +Common Duties. June 27. + + +But after all, what is speculation to practice? What does God require of +us, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him? The +longer I live this seems to me more important, and all other questions +less so--if we can but live the simple right life-- + +Do the work that's nearest, +Though it's dull at whiles; +Helping, when we meet them, +Lame dogs over stiles. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1857. + + + +Lost and Found. June 28. + + +"My welfare? It is gone!" + +"So much the better. I never found mine till I lost it." + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxvii. 1852. + + + +How to bear Sorrow. June 29. + + +I believe that the wisest plan is sometimes not to try to bear sorrow--as +long as one is not crippled for one's everyday duties--but to give way to +it utterly and freely. Perhaps sorrow is sent that we _may_ give way to +it, and in drinking the cup to the dregs, find some medicine in it +itself, which we should not find if we began doctoring ourselves, or +letting others doctor us. If we say simply, "I am wretched--I ought to +be wretched;" then we shall perhaps hear a voice, "Who made thee wretched +but God? Then what can He mean but thy good?" And if the heart answers +impatiently, "My good? I don't want it, I want my love;" perhaps the +voice may answer, "Then thou shalt have both in time." + +_Letters and Memories_. 1871. + + + +A certain Hope. June 30. + + +Let us look forward with quiet certainty of hope, day and night; +believing, though we can see but little day, that all this tangled web +will resolve itself into golden threads of twined, harmonious life, +guiding both us, and those we love, together, through this life to that +resurrection of the flesh, when we shall at last know the reality and the +fulness of life and love. Even so come, Lord Jesus! + +_Letters and Memories_. 1844. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +Whit Sunday. + + +Think of the Holy Spirit as a Person having a will of His own, who +breatheth whither He listeth, and cannot be confined to any feelings or +rules of yours or of any man's, but may meet you in the Sacraments or out +of the Sacraments, even as He will, and has methods of comforting and +educating you of which you will never dream; One whose will is the same +as the will of the Father and of the Son, even a good will. + +_Discipline Sermons_. + + +Trinity Sunday. + + +Some things I see clearly and hold with desperate clutch. A Father in +heaven for all, a Son of God incarnate for all, and a Spirit of the +Father _and_ the Son--who works to will and to do of His own good +pleasure in every human being in whom there is one spark of active good, +the least desire to do right or to be of use--the Fountain of all good on +earth. + +_Letters and Memories_. + + +JUNE 11. +St. Barnabas, Apostle and Martyr. + + +. . . Which is Love? +To do God's will, or merely suffer it? +. . . . . +No! I must headlong into seas of toil, +Leap far from self, and spend my soul on others. +For contemplation falls upon the spirit, +Like the chill silence of an autumn sun: +While action, like the roaring south-west wind, +Sweeps laden with elixirs, with rich draughts +Quickening the wombed earth. + +_Saint's Tragedy_. + + +JUNE 21. +St. John the Baptist. + + +How shall we picture John the Baptist to ourselves? Great painters have +exercised their fancy upon his face, his figure, his actions. The best +which I can recollect is Guido's--of the magnificent lad sitting on the +rock, half clad in his camel's-hair robe, his stalwart hand lifted up to +denounce he hardly knows what, save that things are going all wrong, +utterly wrong to him--his beautiful mouth open to preach he hardly knows +what, save that he has a message from God, of which he is half conscious +as yet--that he is a forerunner, a prophet, a foreteller of something and +some one who is to come, and which is very near at hand. The wild rocks +are round him, the clear sky over him, and nothing more, . . . and he, +the noble and the priest, has thrown off--not in discontent and +desperation (for he was neither democrat nor vulgar demagogue), but in +hope and awe--all his family privileges, all that seems to make life +worth having; and there aloft and in the mountains, alone with God and +Nature, feeding on locusts and wild honey and clothed in skins, he, like +Elijah of old, preaches to a generation sunk in covetousness, party +spirit, and superstition--preaches what?--The most common--Morality. Ah, +wise politician! ah, clear and rational spirit, who knows and tells +others to do the duty which lies nearest to them! . . . who in the hour +of his country's deepest degradation had divine courage to say, our +deliverance lies, not in rebellion but in _doing right_. + +_St. John the Baptist_, +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + +JUNE 29. +St. Peter, Apostle and Martyr. + + +God is revealed in the Crucified; +The Crucified must be revealed in me:-- +I must put on His righteousness; show forth +His sorrow's glory; hunger, weep with Him; +Taste His keen stripes, and let this aching flesh +Sink through His fiery baptism into death. + +_Saint's Tragedy_. + +St. Peter, as he is drawn in the Gospels and the Acts, is a grand and +colossal human figure, every line and feature of which is full of meaning +and full of beauty to us. + +_Sermons_, _Discipline_. + + + + +July. + + +It was a day of God. The earth lay like one great emerald, ringed and +roofed with sapphire: blue sea, blue mountain, blue sky overhead. There +she lay, not sleeping, but basking in her quiet Sabbath joy, as though +her two great sisters of the sea and air had washed her weary limbs with +holy tears, and purged away the stains of last week's sin and toil, and +cooled her hot worn forehead with their pure incense-breath, and folded +her within their azure robes, and brooded over her with smiles of pitying +love, till she smiled back in answer, and took heart and hope for next +week's weary work. + +Heart and hope for next week's work.--That was the sermon which it +preached to Tom Thurnall, as he stood there alone, a stranger and a +wanderer like Ulysses of old: but, like him, self-helpful, cheerful, fate +defiant. He was more of a heathen than Ulysses--for he knew not what +Ulysses knew, that a heavenly guide was with him in his wanderings; still +less that what he called the malicious sport of fortune was, in truth, +the earnest education of a Father. . . . "Brave old world she is after +all," he said; "and right well made; and looks right well to-day in her +go-to-meeting clothes, and plenty of room and chance for a brave man to +earn his bread, if he will but go right on about his business, as the +birds and the flowers do, instead of peaking and pining over what people +think of him." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xiv. + + + +Nature and Grace. July 1. + + +God is the God of Nature as well as the God of Grace. For ever He looks +down on all things which He has made; and behold they are very good. And +therefore we dare to offer to Him in our churches the most perfect works +of naturalistic art, and shape them into copies of whatever beauty He has +shown us in man or woman, in cave or mountain-peak, in tree or flower, +even in bird or butterfly. But Himself? Who can see Him except the +humble and the contrite heart, to whom He reveals Himself as a Spirit to +be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and not in bread nor wood, nor +stone nor gold, nor quintessential diamond? + +_Lecture on Grots and Groves_. 1871. + + + +Love and Book-Learning. July 2. + + +I see more and more that the knowledge of one human being, such as love +alone can give, and the apprehension of our own private duties and +relations, is worth more than all the book-learning in the world. + +_MS._ + + + +The Ancient Creeds. July 3. + + +Blessed and delightful it is when we find that even in these new ages the +Creeds, which so many fancy to be at their last gasp, are still the +finest and highest succour, not merely of the peasant and the outcast, +but of the subtle artist and the daring speculator. Blessed it is to +find the most cunning poet of our day able to combine the rhythm and +melody of modern times with the old truths which gave heart to the +martyrs at the stake, to see in the science and the history of the +nineteenth century new and living fulfilments of the words which we +learnt at our mother's knee! + +_Miscellanies_. 1850. + + + +A Master-Truth. July 4. + + +Every creature of God is good, if it be sanctified with prayer and +thanksgiving! This to me is the master-truth of Christianity, the +forgetfulness of which is at the root of almost all error. It seems to +me that it was to redeem man and the earth that Christ was made man and +used the earth!--that Christianity has never yet been pure, because it +never yet, since St. Paul's time, has stood on _this_ as the fundamental +truth, and that it has been pure or impure, just in proportion as it has +_practically_ and _really_ acknowledged this truth. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +English Women. July 5. + + +Let those who will sneer at the women of England. We who have to do the +work and fight the battle of life know the inspiration which we derive +from their virtue, their counsel, their tenderness--and, but too often, +from their compassion and their forgiveness. There is, I doubt not, +still left in England many a man with chivalry and patriotism enough to +challenge the world to show so perfect a specimen of humanity as a +cultivated British woman. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Life retouched again. July 6. + + +Even in the saddest woman's soul there linger snatches of old music, +odours of flowers long dead and turned to dust,--pleasant ghosts, which +still keep her mind attuned to that which may be in others, though in her +never more; till she can hear her own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones +of every girl who loves, and see her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the +eyes of every bride. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xxix. + + + +Mystery of Life. July 7. + + +"All things begin in some wonder, and in some wonder end," said St. +Augustine, wisest in his day of mortal men. It is a strange thing, and a +mystery, how we ever got into this world; a stranger thing still to me +how we shall ever get out of this world again. Yet they are common +things enough--birth and death. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. + + + +Beauty of Life. July 8. + + +The Greeks were, as far as we know, the most beautiful race which the +world ever saw. Every educated man knows that they were the cleverest of +all nations, and, next to his Bible, thanks God for Greek literature. Now +the Greeks had made physical, as well as intellectual education a science +as well as a study. Their women practised graceful, and in some cases +even athletic exercises. They developed, by a free and healthy life, +those figures which remain everlasting and unapproachable models of human +beauty. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + +Study the human figure, both as intrinsically beautiful and as expressing +mind. It only expresses the broad natural childish emotions, which are +just what we want to return to from our over subtlety. Study "natural +language"--I mean the language of attitude. It is an inexhaustible +source of knowledge and delight, and enables one human being to +understand another so perfectly. Therefore learn to draw and paint +figures. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +True Civilisation. July 9. + + +Civilisation with me shall mean--not more wealth, more finery, more self- +indulgence, even more aesthetic and artistic luxury--but more virtue, +more knowledge, more self-control, even though I earn scanty bread by +heavy toil. + +_Lecture on Ancient Civilisation_. 1874. + + + +The Church. July 10. + + +"The Church is a very good thing, and I keep to mine," said Captain +Willis, "having served under her Majesty and her Majesty's forefathers, +and learned to obey orders, I hope; but don't you think, sir, you're +taking it as the Pharisees took the Sabbath Day?" + +"How then?" + +"Why, as if man was made for the Church, and not the Church for man." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. ii. 1856. + + + +What does God ask? July 11. + + +What is this strange thing, without which even the true knowledge of +doctrine is of no use? without which either a man or a nation is poor, +and blind, and wretched, and naked in soul, notwithstanding all his +religion? Isaiah will tell, "Wash you, make you clean, saith the Lord. +Do justice to the fatherless, relieve the widow." Church-building and +church-going are well, but they are not repentance. Churches are not +souls. I ask for your hearts, and you give me fine stones and fine +words. I want souls, I want _your_ souls. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +Work or Want. July 12. + + +Remember that we are in a world where it is not safe to sit under the +tree and let the ripe fruit drop into your mouth; where the "competition +of species" works with ruthless energy among all ranks of being, from +kings upon their thrones to the weed upon the waste; where "he that is +not hammer is sure to be anvil;" and "he who will not work neither shall +he eat." + +_Ancien Regime_. 1867. + + + +True Insight. July 13. + + +It is easy to see the spiritual beauty of Raffaelle's Madonnas, but it +requires a deeper and more practised, all-embracing, loving, simple +spirituality, to see the same beauty in the face of a worn-out, painful, +peasant woman haggling about the price of cottons. + +Form and colour are but the vehicle for the spirit-meaning. In the +"spiritual body" I fancy they will both be united _with_ the meaning--all +and every part and property of man and woman instinct with spirit! + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Retribution inevitable. July 14. + + +Know this--that as surely as God sometimes punishes wholesale, so surely +is He always punishing in detail. By that infinite concatenation of +moral causes and effects, which makes the whole world one mass of special +Providences, every sin of ours will punish itself, and probably punish +itself in kind. Are we selfish? We shall call out selfishness in +others. Do we neglect our duty? Then others will neglect their duty to +us. Do we indulge our passions? Then others who depend on us will +indulge theirs, to our detriment and misery. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + + +Antinomies. July 15. + + +Spiritual truths present themselves to us in "antinomies," apparently +contradictory pairs, pairs of poles, which, however, do not really +contradict, or even limit, each other, but are only correlatives, the +existence of the one making the existence of the other necessary, +explaining each other, and giving each other a real standing ground and +equilibrium. Such an antinomic pair are, "He that loveth not knoweth not +God," and "If a man hateth not his father and mother he cannot be My +disciple." + +_Letters and Memories_. 1848. + + + +False Refinement. July 16. + + +God's Word, while it _alone_ sanctifies rank and birth, says to all +_equally_, "Ye are brethren, _work_ for each other." Let us then be +above rank, and look at men as men, and women as women, and all as God's +children. There is a "refinement" which is the invention of that sensual +mind, which looks only at the outward and visible sign. + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Music's Meaning. July 17. + + +Some quick music is inexpressibly mournful. It seems just like one's own +feelings--exultation and action, with the remembrance of past sorrow +wailing up, yet without bitterness, tender in its shrillness, through the +mingled tide of present joy; and the notes seem thoughts--thoughts pure +of words; and a spirit seems to call to me in them and cry, "Hast thou +not felt all this?" And I start when I find myself answering +unconsciously, "Yes, yes, I know it all! Surely we are a part of all we +see and hear!" And then, the harmony thickens, and all distinct sound is +pressed together and absorbed in a confused paroxysm of delight, where +still the female treble and the male bass are distinct for a moment, and +then one again--absorbed into each other's being--sweetened and +strengthened by each other's melody. . . . + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Vagueness of Mind. July 18. + + +By allowing vague inconsistent habits of mind, almost persuaded by every +one you love, when you are capable by one decided act of _leading_ them, +you may be treading blindfold a terrible path to your own misery. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +A Faith for Daily Life. July 19. + + +That is not faith, to see God only in what is strange and rare; but this +is faith, to see God in what is most common and simple, to know God's +greatness not so much from disorder as from order, not so much from those +strange sights in which God seems (but only seems) to break His laws, as +from those common ones in which He fulfils His laws. + +_Town and Country Sermons_. + + + +Charms of Monotony. July 20. + + +I delight in that same monotony. It saves curiosity, anxiety, +excitement, disappointment, and a host of bad passions. It gives a man +the blessed, invigorating feeling that he is at home; that he has roots +deep and wide struck down into all he sees, and that only the Being who +can do nothing cruel or useless can tear them up. It is pleasant to look +down on the same parish day after day, and say I know all that is +beneath, and all beneath know me. It is pleasant to see the same trees +year after year, the same birds coming back in spring to the same shrubs, +the same banks covered by the same flowers. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1857. + + + +How to attain. July 21. + + +If our plans are not for time but for eternity, our knowledge, and +therefore our love to God, to each other, to everything, will progress +for ever. And the attainment of this heavenly wisdom requires neither +ecstacy nor revelation, but prayer and watchfulness, and observation, and +deep and solemn thought. + +Two great rules for its attainment are simple enough--Never forget what +and where you are, and grieve not the Holy Spirit, for "If a man will do +God's will he shall know of the doctrine." + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +The Divine Discontent. July 22. + + +I should like to make every one I meet discontented with themselves; I +should like to awaken in them, about their physical, their intellectual, +their moral condition, that divine discontent which is the parent first +of upward aspiration and then of self-control, thought, effort to fulfil +that aspiration even in part. For to be discontented with the divine +discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ and +first upgrowth of all virtue. + +_Lecture on Science of Health_. 1872. + + + +Dra et labora. July 23. + + +"Working is praying," said one of the holiest of men. And he spoke +truth; if a man will but do his work from a sense of duty, which is for +the sake of God. + +_Sermons_. + + + +Distrust and Anarchy. July 24. + + +Over the greater part of the so-called civilised world is spreading a +deep distrust, a deep irreverence of every man towards his neighbour, and +a practical unbelief in every man whom you do see, atones for itself by a +theoretic belief in an ideal human nature which you do not see. Such a +temper of mind, unless it be checked by that which alone can check it, +namely, the grace of God, must tend towards sheer anarchy. There is a +deeper and uglier anarchy than any mere political anarchy,--which the +abuse of the critical spirit leads to,--the anarchy of society and of the +family, the anarchy of the head and of the heart, which leaves poor human +beings as orphans in the wilderness to cry in vain, "What can I know? +Whom can I love?" + +_The Critical Spirit_. 1871. + + + +A Future Life of Action. July 25. + + +Why need we suppose that heaven is to be one vast lazy retrospect? Why +is not eternity to have action and change, yet both like God, compatible +with rest and immutability? This earth is but one minor planet of a +minor system. Are there no more worlds? Will there not be incident and +action springing from these when the fate of this world is decided? Has +the evil one touched this alone? Is it not self-conceit which makes us +think the redemption of this earth the one event of eternity? + +_Letters_. 1842. + + + +An Ideal Aristocracy. July 26. + + +We may conceive an Utopia governed by an aristocracy that should be +really democratic, which should use, under developed forms, that method +which made the mediaeval priesthood the one great democratic institution +of old Christendom; bringing to the surface and utilising the talents and +virtues of all classes, even the lowest. + +_Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. + + + +Our Weapons. July 27. + + +God, who has been very good to us, will be more good, if _we allow Him_! +Worldly-minded people think they can manage so much better than God. We +must _trust_. Our weapons must be prayer and faith, and our only +standard the Bible. As soon as we leave these weapons and take to +"knowledge of the world," and other people's clumsy prejudices as our +guides, we must inevitably be beaten by the World, which knows how to use +its own arms better than we do. What else is meant by becoming as a +little child? + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Uneducated Women. July 28. + + +Take warning by what you see abroad. In every country where the women +are uneducated, unoccupied; where their only literature is French novels +or translations of them--in every one of those countries the women, even +to the highest, are the slaves of superstition, and the puppets of +priests. In proportion as women are highly educated, family life and +family secrets are sacred, and the woman owns allegiance and devotion to +no confessor or director, but to her own husband or her own family. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1860. + + + +Pardon and Cure. July 29. + + +After the forgiveness of sin must come the cure of sin. And that cure, +like most cures, is a long and a painful process. + +But there is our comfort, there is our hope--Christ the great Healer, the +great Physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us, from the remains of +our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not, indeed, at once, +or by miracle, but by slow education in new and nobler motives, in purer +and more unselfish habits. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1861. + + + +Eternal Law. July 30. + + +The eternal laws of God's providence are still at work, though we may +choose to forget them, and the Judge who administers them is the same +yesterday, to-day, and for ever, even Jesus Christ the Lord, the +Everlasting Rock, on which all morality and all society is founded. +Whosoever shall fall on that Rock, in repentance and humility, shall +indeed be broken, but of him it is written, "A broken and a contrite +heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." + +_Discipline and other Sermons_. 1866. + + + +God's Mercy or Man's? July 31. + + +"He fought till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero, with +all his wounds in front; and may God have mercy on his soul." + +"That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank," said old Mr. Carey. + +"Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God _not_ to have mercy +on his soul?" + +"No--Eh? Of course not, for that's all settled by now, for he is dead, +poor fellow!" + +"And you can't help being a little fond of him still?" + +"Eh? Why, I should be a brute if I were not. Fond of him? why, I would +sooner have given my forefinger than that he should have gone to the +dogs." + +"Then, my dear sir, if _you_ feel for him still, in spite of all his +faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him in spite of all his +faults? For my part," said Frank, in his fanciful way, "without +believing in that Popish purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato that +such heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness here, +are hereafter, by strait discipline, brought to a better mind." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. v. 1854. + + + +The Chrysalis State. + + +You ask, "What is the Good?" I suppose God Himself is the Good; and it +is this, in addition to a thousand things, which makes me feel the +absolute certainty of a resurrection, and a hope that this, our present +life, instead of being an ultimate one, which is to decide our fate for +ever, is merely some sort of chrysalis state in which man's faculties are +so narrow and cramped, his chances (I speak of the millions, not of +units) of knowing the Good so few, that he may have chances hereafter, +perhaps continually fresh ones, to all eternity. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1852. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +JULY 25. +St. James, Apostle and Martyr. + + +And they will know his worth +Years hence . . . +And crown him martyr; and his name will ring +Through all the shores of earth, and all the stars +Whose eyes are sparkling through their tears to see +His triumph, Preacher and Martyr. . . +. . . . . +. . . It is over; and the woe that's dead, +Rises next hour a glorious angel. + +_Santa Maura_. + + + + +August. + + +"I cannot tell what you say, green leaves, + I cannot tell what you say; +But I know that there is a spirit in you, + And a word in you this day. + +"I cannot tell what ye say, rosy rocks, + I cannot tell what ye say; +But I know that there is a spirit in you, + And a word in you this day. + +"I cannot tell what ye say, brown streams, + I cannot tell what ye say; +But I know, in you too, a spirit doth live, + And a word in you this day." + +"Oh! rose is the colour of love and youth, +And green is the colour of faith and truth, + And brown of the fruitful clay. +The earth is fruitful and faithful and young, +And her bridal morn shall rise erelong, +And you shall know what the rocks and streams + And the laughing green woods say." + +_Dartside_, _August_ 1849. + + + +Sight and Insight. August 1. + + +Do the work that's nearest, +Though it's dull at whiles, +Helping, when you meet them, +Lame dogs over stiles; +See in every hedgerow +Marks of angels' feet, +Epics in each pebble +Underneath our feet. + +_The Invitation_. 1857. + + + +Genius and Character. August 2. + + +I have no respect for genius (I do not even acknowledge its existence) +where there is no strength and steadiness of character. If any one +pretends to be more than a man he must begin by proving himself a man at +all. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xv. + + + +Nature's Student. August 3. + + +The perfect naturalist must be of a reverent turn of mind--giving Nature +credit for an inexhaustible fertility and variety, which will keep him +his life long, always reverent, yet never superstitious; wondering at the +commonest, but not surprised by the most strange; free from the idols of +sense and sensuous loveliness; able to see grandeur in the minutest +objects, beauty in the most ungainly: estimating each thing not carnally, +as the vulgar do, by its size, . . . but spiritually, by the amount of +Divine thought revealed to him therein. . . . + +_Glaucus_. 1855. + + + +The Masses. August 4. + + +Though permitted evils should not avenge themselves by any political +retribution, yet avenge themselves, if unredressed, they surely will. +They affect masses too large, interests too serious, not to make +themselves bitterly felt some day. . . . We may choose to look on the +masses in the gross as objects for statistics--and of course, where +possible, for profits. There is One above who knows every thirst, and +ache, and sorrow, and temptation of each slattern, and gin-drinker, and +street-boy. The day will come when He will require an account of these +neglects of ours--not in the gross. + +_Miscellanies_. 1851. + +We sit in a cloud, and sing like pictured angels, +And say the world runs smooth--while right below +Welters the black, fermenting heap of life +On which our State is built. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. + + + +Love and Knowledge. August 5. + + +He who has never loved, what does he know? + +_MS._ + + + +Siccum Lumen. August 6. + + +How shall I get true knowledge? Knowledge which will be really useful, +really worth knowing. Knowledge which I shall know accurately and +practically too, so that I can use it in daily life, for myself and +others? Knowledge too, which shall be clear knowledge, not warped or +coloured by my own fancies, passions, prejudices, but pure and calm and +sound; Siccum Lumen, "Dry Light," as the greatest of philosophers called +it of old. + +To all such who long for light, that by the light they may live, God +answers through His only begotten Son: "Ask and ye shall receive, seek +and ye shall find." + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1873. + + + +This World. August 7. + + +What should the external world be to those who truly love, but the garden +in which they are placed, not so much for sustenance or enjoyment of +themselves and each other, as to dress it and to keep it--_it_ to be +their subject-matter, not they its tools! In this spirit let us pray +"Thy kingdom come." + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +The Life of the Spirit. August 8. + + +The old fairy superstition, the old legends and ballads, the old +chronicles of feudal war and chivalry, the earlier moralities and +mysteries--these fed Shakespeare's youth. Why should they not feed our +children's? That inborn delight of the young in all that is marvellous +and fantastic--has that a merely evil root? No, surely! it is a most +pure part of their spiritual nature; a part of "the heaven which lies +about us in our infancy;" angel-wings with which the free child leaps the +prison-walls of sense and custom, and the drudgery of earthly life. It +is a God-appointed means for keeping alive what noble Wordsworth calls +those + + ". . . . obstinate questionings, + . . . . . . + Blank misgivings of a creature + Moving about in worlds not realised." + +_Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_. +1848. + + + +A Quiet Depth. August 9. + + +The deepest affections are those of which we are least conscious--that +is, which produce least _startling_ emotion, and most easy and +involuntary practice. + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Acceptable Sacrifices. August 10. + + +Every time we perform an act of kindness to any human being, ay, even to +a dumb animal; every time we conquer our worldliness, love of pleasure, +ease, praise, ambition, money, for the sake of doing what our conscience +tells us to be our duty,--we are indeed worshipping God the Father in +spirit and in truth, and offering Him a sacrifice which He will surely +accept for the sake of His beloved Son, by whose Spirit all good deeds +and thoughts are inspired. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. + + + +Chivalry. August 11. + + +Chivalry; an idea which, perfect or imperfect, God forbid that mankind +should ever forget till it has become the possession--as it is the God- +given right--of the poorest slave that ever trudged on foot; and every +collier lad shall have become + + "A very gentle, perfect knight." + +_Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. + + + +God waits for Man. August 12. + + +Patiently, nobly, magnanimously, God waits; waits for the man who is a +fool, to find out his own folly; waits for the heart that has tried to +find pleasure in everything else, to find out that everything else +disappoints, and to come back to Him, the fountain of all wholesome +pleasure, the well-spring of all life, fit for a man to live. + +God condescends to wait for His creature; because what He wants is not +His creature's fear, but His creature's love; not only his obedience, but +his heart; because He wants him not to come back as a trembling slave to +his master, but as a son who has found out at last what a father he has +still left him, when all beside has played him false. Let him come back +thus. + +_Discipline and other Sermons_. + + + +Thrift. August 13. + + +The secret of thriving is thrift; saving of force; to get as much work as +possible done with the least expenditure of power, the least jar and +obstruction, the least wear and tear. And the secret of thrift is +knowledge. In proportion as you know the laws and nature of a subject, +you will be able to work at it easily, surely, rapidly, successfully, +instead of wasting your money or your energies in mistaken schemes, +irregular efforts, which end in disappointment and exhaustion. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Revelations. August 14. + + +Only second-rate hearts and minds are melancholy. When we become like +little children, our very playfulness tells that we are _seeing deep_, +when we see that God is love in His _works_ as well as in Himself, and we +look at Nature as a baby does, as a beautiful mystery which we scarcely +wish to solve. And therefore deep things, which the intellect in vain +struggles after, will reveal themselves to us. + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +Christ comes in many ways. August 15. + + +Often Christ comes to us in ways in which the world would never recognise +Him--in which perhaps neither you nor I shall recognise _Him_; but it +will be enough, I hope, if we but hear His message, and obey His gracious +inspiration, let Him speak through whatever means He will. He may come +to us by some crisis in our life, either for sorrow or for bliss. He may +come to us by a great failure; by a great disappointment--to teach the +wilful and ambitious soul that not in _that_ direction lies the path of +peace; or He may come in some unexpected happiness to teach that same +soul that He is able and willing to give abundantly beyond all that we +can ask or think. + +_MS. Sermon_. 1874. + + + +Lesson of the Cross. August 16. + + +On the Cross God has sanctified suffering, pain, and sorrow, and made +them holy; as holy as health and strength and happiness are. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +The Ideal Unity. August 17. + + +"Oh, make us one." All the world-generations have but one voice! "How +can we become One? at harmony with God and God's universe! Tell us this, +and the dreary, dark mystery of life, the bright, sparkling mystery of +life, the cloud-chequered, sun-and-shower mystery of life, is solved! for +we shall have found one home and one brotherhood, and happy faces will +greet us wherever we move, and we shall see God! see Him everywhere, and +be ready to wait for the Renewal, for the Kingdom of Christ perfected! We +came from Eden, all of us: show us how we may return, hand in hand, +husband and wife, parent and child, gathered together from the past and +the future, from one creed and another, and take our journey into a far +country, which is yet this earth--a world-migration to the heavenly +Canaan, through the Red Sea of Death, back again to the land which was +given to our forefathers, and is ours even now, could we but find it!" + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +Body and Soul. August 18. + + +The mystics considered the soul, _i.e._ the intellect, as the "_moi_" and +the body as the "_non moi_;" and this idea that the body is not _self_, +is the fundamental principle of mysticism and asceticism, and +diametrically opposed to the whole doctrines and practice of Scripture. +Else why is there a resurrection of the body? and why does the Eucharist +"preserve our body and soul to everlasting life?" + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Childlikeness. August 19. + + +If you wish to be "a little child," study what a little child could +understand--Nature; and do what a little child could do--love. Feed on +Nature. It will digest itself. It did so when you were a little child +the first time. + +Keep a common-place book, and put into it not only facts and thoughts, +but observations on form, and colour, and nature, and little sketches, +even to the form of beautiful _leaves_. They will all have their charm . +. . all do their work in consolidating your ideas. Put everything into +it. . . . + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Inspiration. August 20. + + +Every good deed comes from God. His is the idea, His the inspiration, +and His its fulfilment in time; and therefore no good deed but lives and +grows with the everlasting life of God Himself. + +_MS._ + + + +Lifting of the Veil. August 21. + + +I seldom pass those hapless loungers who haunt every watering-place +without thinking sadly how much more earnest, happier, and better men and +women they might be if the veil were but lifted from their eyes, and they +could learn to behold that glory of God which is all around them like an +atmosphere, while they, unconscious of what and where they are, wrapt up +each in his little selfish world of vanity and interest, gaze lazily +around them at earth, sea, and sky-- + + And have no speculation in those eyes + Which they do glare withal + +_Glaucus_. 1855. + + + +The Cross--its meaning. August 22. + + +To take up the cross means, in the minds of most persons, to suffer +patiently under affliction. It is a true and sound meaning, but it means +more. Why did Christ take up the cross? Not for affliction's sake, or +for the cross's sake, as if suffering were a good thing in itself. No. +But that He might thereby _do good_. That the world through Him might be +saved. That He might do good at whatever cost or pain to Himself. + +_Sermons_. + + + +The Crucifix. August 23. + + +If I had an image in my room it should be one of Christ _glorified_, +sitting at the right hand of God. The crucifix has been THE image, +because the idea of torture and misery has been THE idea in the +melancholy and the ferocious (for the two ultimately go together),. . . +and thus ascetics became inquisitors. . . . + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Love to God proved. August 24. + + +Our love to God does not depend upon the emotions of the moment. If you +fancy you do not love Him enough, above all when Satan tempts you to look +inward, go immediately and minister to others; visit the sick, perform +some act of self-sacrifice or thanksgiving. Never mind how _dull_ you +may feel while doing it; the fact of your feeling excited proves nothing; +the fact of your _doing_ it proves that your will, your spiritual part, +is on God's side, however tired or careless the poor flesh may be. The +"flesh" must be brought into harmony with the spirit, not only by +physical but by intellectual mortification. + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Training of Beauty. August 25. + + +There is many a road into our hearts besides our ears and brains; many a +sight and sound and scent even, of which we have never _thought_ at all, +sinks into our memory and helps to shape our characters; and thus +children brought up among beautiful sights and sweet sounds will most +likely show the fruits of their nursing by thoughtfulness and affection +and nobleness of mind, even by the expression of the countenance. + +_True Words to Brave Men_. 1848. + + + +Ignorance of the Cynic. August 26. + + +Be sure that no one knows so little of his fellow-men as the cynical, +misanthropic man, who walks in darkness because he hates his brother. Be +sure that the truly wise and understanding man is he who by sympathy puts +himself in his neighbours' place; feels with them and for them; sees with +their eyes, hears with their ears; and therefore understands them, makes +allowances for them, and is merciful to them, even as his Father in +heaven is merciful. + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1872. + + + +Penitential Prayer. August 27. + + +Faith in God it is which has made the fifty-first Psalm the model of all +true penitence for evermore. Penitential prayers in all ages have too +often wanted faith in God, and therefore have been too often prayers to +avert punishment. This, this--the model of all true penitent prayers--is +that of a man who is to be punished, and is content to take his +punishment, knowing that he deserves it, and far more besides. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +A Real Presence. August 28. + + +Believe the Holy Communion is the sign of Christ's perpetual presence; +that when you kneel to receive the bread and wine, Christ is as near +you--spiritually, indeed, and invisibly, but really and truly as near you +as those who are kneeling by your side. + +And if it be so with Christ, then is it so with those who are Christ's, +with those whom we love. . . . Surely, like Christ, they may come and go +even now, though unseen. Like Christ they may breathe upon our restless +hearts and say, "Peace be unto you," and not in vain. For what they did +for us when they were on earth they can more fully do now that they are +in heaven. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1862. + + + +A Living God. August 29. + + +Man would never have even dreamed of a Living God had not that Living God +been a reality, who did not leave the creature to find his Creator, but +stooped from heaven, at the very beginning of our race, to find His +creature. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +Thine, not mine. August 30. + + +Whensoever you do a thing which you know to be right and good, instead of +priding yourself upon it as if the good in it came from you, offer it up +to your Heavenly Father, from whom all good things come, and say, "Oh, +Lord! the good in this is Thine and not mine; the bad in it is mine and +not Thine. I thank Thee for having made me do right, for without Thy +help I should have done nothing but wrong. For mine is the laziness, and +the weakness, and the selfishness, and the self-conceit; and Thine is the +kingdom, for Thou rulest all things; and the power, for Thou doest all +things; and the glory, for Thou doest all things well, for ever and ever. +Amen." + +_Sermons_. + + + +The Unquenchable Fire. August 31. + + +A fire which cannot be quenched, a worm which cannot die, I see existing, +and consider them among the most blessed revelations of the gospel. I +fancy I see them burning and devouring everywhere in the spiritual world, +as their analogues do in the physical. I know that they have done so on +me, and that their operation, though exquisitely painful, is most +healthful. I see the world trying to quench and kill them; I know too +well that I often do the same ineffectually. But, in the comfort that +the worm cannot die and the fire cannot be quenched, I look calmly +forward through endless ages to my own future, and the future of that +world whereof it is written, "He shall reign until He hath put all +enemies under His feet, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of +fire." + +* * * * * + +The Day of the Lord will be revealed in flaming fire, not merely to give +new light and a day-spring from on high to those who sit in darkness and +the shadow of death, but to burn up out of sight, and off the universe, +the chaff, hay, and stubble which men have built on the One Living +Foundation, Christ, in that unquenchable fire, of which it is written +that _Death_ and _Hell_ shall one day be cast into it also, to share the +fate of all other unnatural and abominable things, and God's universe +be--what it must be some day--_very good_. + +* * * * * + +Because I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded love, therefore I +believe in a loving anger of His, which will and must devour and destroy +all which is decayed, monstrous, abortive, in His universe, till all +enemies shall be put under His feet, to be pardoned surely, if they +confess themselves in the wrong and open their eyes to the truth. And +God shall be All in All. Those last are wide words. + +_Letters and Sermons_. 1856. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +AUGUST 24. +St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr. + + +Blessed are they who once were persecuted for righteousness' sake, for +theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Great indeed is their reward, for it is +no less than the very beatific vision to contemplate and adore that +supreme moral beauty, of which all earthly beauty, all nature, all art, +all poetry, all music, are but phantoms and parables, hints and hopes, +dim reflected rays of the clear light of everlasting day. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + + + +September. + + +That poet knew but little of either streams or hearts who wrote-- + + "Nor ever had the breeze of passion + Stirred her heart's clear depths." + +The lonely fisher, the lover of streams and living fountains, knows that +when the stream stops it is turbid. The deep pools and still flats are +always brown--always dark--the mud lies in them, the trout _sleep_ in +them. When they are clearest they are still tinged brown or gray with +some foreign matter held in solution--the brown of selfish sensuality or +the gray of morbid melancholy. But when they are free again! when they +hurry over rock and weed and sparkling pebble-shallow, then they are +clear! Then all the foreign matter, the defilement which earth pours +into them, falls to the ground, and into them the trout work up for life +and health and food; and through their swift yet yielding +eddies--_moulding themselves to every accident_, _yet separate and +undefiled_--shine up the delicate beauties of the subaqueous world, the +Spirit-glories which we can only see in this life through the medium of +another human soul, but which we can never see unless that soul is +stirred by circumstance into passion and motion and action strong and +swift. Only the streams which have undergone long and _severe struggles_ +from their very fountain-head have clear pools. + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Goodness. September 1. + + +Always say to yourself this one thing, "Good I will become, whatever it +cost me; and in God's goodness I trust to make me good, for I am sure He +wishes to see me good more than I do myself." And you will find that, +because you have confessed in that best and most honest of ways that God +is good, and have so given Him real glory, and real honour, and real +praise, He will save you from the sins which torment you, and you shall +never come, either in this world or the world to come, to that worst +misery, the being ashamed of yourself. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Be good to do Good. September 2. + + +What we wish to do for our fellow-creatures we must do first for +ourselves. We can give them nothing save what God has already given us. +We must become good before we can make them good, and wise before we can +make them wise. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. + + + +The Undying I. September 3. + + +The youngest child, by faith in God his Father, may look upon all heaven +and earth and say, "Great and wonderful and awful as this earth and those +skies may be, I am more precious in the sight of God than sun and moon +and stars; for they are things, but I am a person, a spirit, an immortal +soul, made in the likeness of God, redeemed into the likeness of God. +This great earth was here thousands and thousands of years before I was +born, and it will be here perhaps millions of years after I am dead. But +it cannot harm _Me_, it cannot kill _Me_. When earth, and sun, and stars +have passed away I shall live for ever, for I am the immortal child of an +immortal Father, the child of the everlasting God." + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +Love and Time. September 4. + + +Love proves its spiritual origin by rising above time and space and +circumstance, wealth and age, and even temporary beauty, at the same time +that it alone can perfectly _use_ all those material adjuncts. Being +spiritual, it is Lord of matter, and can give and receive from it glory +and beauty when it will, and yet live without it. + +_MS._ 1843. + + + +Common Duties. September 5. + + +The only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest +us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves. If each +drop of rain _chose_ where it should fall, God's showers would not fall +as they do now, on the evil and the good alike. I know from the +experience of my own heart how galling this doctrine is--how, like +Naaman, one goes away in a rage, because the prophet has not bid us do +some great thing, but only to go wash in the nearest brook and be clean. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1854. + + + +Despair--Hope. September 6. + + +Does the age seem to you dark? Do you feel, as I do at times, the awful +sadness of that text, "The time shall come when you shall desire to see +one of the days of the Lord, and shall not see it"? Then remember that + + The night is never so long + But at last it ringeth for matin song. + +. . . Even now the dawn is gilding the highest souls, and _we_ are in the +night only because we crawl below. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1850. + + + +The Critical Spirit. September 7. + + +"Judge nothing before the time." This is a hard saying. Who can hear +it? There never was a time in which the critical spirit was more +thoroughly in the ascendant. Every man now is an independent critic. To +accept fully, or as it is now called, to follow blindly; to admire +heartily, or as it is now called, fanatically--these are considered signs +of weakness or credulity. To believe intensely; to act unhesitatingly; +to admire passionately; all this, as the latest slang phrases it, is "bad +form"; a proof that a man is not likely to win in the race of this world +the prize whereof is, the greatest possible enjoyment with the least +possible work. + +_The Critical Spirit_. 1871. + + + +Toil and Rest. September 8. + + +Remember always, toil is the condition of our being. Our sentence is to +labour from the cradle to the grave. But there are Sabbaths allowed for +the mind as well as the body, when the intellect is stilled, and the +emotions alone perform their gentle and involuntary functions. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Storm and Calm. September 9. + + +Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the +storms came on heavier than ever, with terrible seas breaking short and +pyramid-wise, till, on the 9th of September, the tiny _Squirrel_ nearly +foundered, and yet recovered, and the General (Sir Humphrey Gilbert), +sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out to us in the _Hind_, "We +are as near heaven by sea as by land," reiterating the same speech well +be-seeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. + + + +On the Heights. September 10. + + +It is good for a man to have holy and quiet thoughts, and at moments to +see into the very deepest meaning of God's word and God's earth, and to +have, as it were, heaven opened before his eyes; and it is good for a man +sometimes actually to _feel_ his heart overpowered with the glorious +majesty of God--to _feel_ it gushing out with love to his blessed +Saviour; but it is not good for him to stop there any more than for the +Apostles in the Mount of Transfiguration. + +_Village Sermons_. 1849. + + + +In the Valley. September 11. + + +The disciples had to come down from the Mount and do Christ's work, and +so have we. Believe me, one word of warning spoken to keep a little +child out of sin,--one crust of bread given to a beggar-man because he is +your brother, for whom Christ died,--one angry word checked on your lips +for the sake of Him who was meek and lowly of heart; any the smallest +endeavour to lessen the amount of evil which is in yourselves and those +around you,--is worth all the speculations, and raptures, and visions, +and frames, and feelings in the world; for these are the good fruits of +faith, whereby alone the tree shall be known whether it be good or evil. + +_Village Sermons_. 1849. + + + +Self-Conceit. September 12. + + +Self-conceit is the very daughter of self-will, and of that loud crying +out about _I_, and me, and mine, which is the very bird-call for all +devils, and the broad road which leads to death. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. i. + + + +Facing Fact. September 13. + + +It is good for a man to be brought once, at least, in his life, face to +face with _fact_, ultimate fact, however horrible it may be, and to have +to confess to himself shuddering, what things are possible on God's +earth, when man has forgotten that his only welfare is in living after +the likeness of God. + +_Miscellanies_. 1858. + + + +The Heroical Rest. September 14. + + +Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already is to have +more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things must find his +account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and +heroical rest which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for +those who either in this world or in the world to come look for idleness, +and hope that God will feed them with pleasant things, as it were with a +spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call +themselves saints and elect. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. vii. 1855. + + + +Body and Soul. September 15. + + +Remember that St. Paul always couples with the resurrection and ascension +of our bodies in the next life the resurrection and ascension of our +souls in this life, for without that, the resurrection of our bodies +would be but a resurrection to fresh sin, and therefore to fresh misery +and ruin. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. + + + +Love in Absence. September 16. + + +Absence quickens love into consciousness. + +_MS._ + +The baby sings not on its mother's breast; +Nor nightingales who nestle side by side; +Nor I by thine: but let us only part, +Then lips which should but kiss, and so be still, +As having uttered all, must speak again. + +_Sonnet_. 1851. + + + +Special Providence. September 17. + + +If I did not believe in a special Providence, in a perpetual education of +men by evil as well as good, by small things as well as great, I could +believe nothing. + +_Letters and Memories_. + + + +Love of Work. September 18. + + +"Can you tell me, my pastor, what part of God's likeness clings to a man +longest and closest and best? No? Then I will tell you. It is the love +of employment. God in heaven must create Himself a universe to work on +and love. And now we sons of Adam, the sons of God, cannot rest without +our _mundus peculiaris_ of some sort--our world subjective, as Doctor +Musophilus has it. But we can create too, and make our little sphere +look as large as a universe." + +_MS. Novel_. 1844. + + + +Fret not. September 19. + + +Fret not, neither be anxious. What God intends to do He will do. And +what we ask believing we shall receive. Never let us get into the common +trick of calling unbelief resignation, of asking and then, because we +have not faith to believe, putting in a "Thy will be done" at the end. +Let us make God's will our will, and _so_ say Thy will be done. + +_MS._ 1843. + +Peace! Why these fears? +Life is too short for mean anxieties: +Soul! thou must work, though blindfold. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene x. + + + +Battle before Victory. September 20. + + +Whenever you think of our Lord's resurrection and ascension, remember +always that the background of His triumph is a tomb. Remember that it is +the triumph over suffering; a triumph of One who still bears the prints +of the nails in His sacred hands and feet, and the wound of the spear in +His side; like many a poor soul who has followed Him, triumphant at last, +and yet scarred, and only not maimed in the hard battle of life. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. + + + +Night and Growth. September 21. + + +As in the world of Nature, so it is in the world of men. The night is +peopled not merely with phantoms and superstitions and spirits of evil, +but under its shadow all sciences, methods, social energies, are taking +rest, and growing, and feeding, unknown to themselves. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1850. + + + +Passion. September 22. + + +Self-sacrifice! What is love worth that does not show itself in action? +and more, which does not show itself in _passion_ in the true sense of +that word: namely, in suffering? in daring, in struggling, in grieving, +in agonising, and, if need be, in dying for the object of its love? Every +mother will give but one answer to that question. + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1870. + + + +Worth of Beauty. September 23. + + +It is a righteous instinct which bids us welcome and honour beauty, +whether in man or woman, as something of real worth--divine, heavenly, +ay, though we know not how, in a most deep sense Eternal; which makes our +reason give the lie to all merely logical and sentimental maunderings of +moralists about "the fleeting hues of this our painted clay;" and tell +men, as the old Hebrew Scriptures told them, that physical beauty is the +deepest of all spiritual symbols; and that though beauty without +discretion be the jewel of gold in the swine's snout, yet the jewel of +gold it is still, the sacrament of an inward beauty, which ought to be, +perhaps hereafter may be, fulfilled in spirit and in truth. + +_Hypatia_, chap. xxvi. 1852. + + + +Empty Profession. September 24. + + +What is the sin which most destroys all men and nations? High religious +profession, with an ungodly, selfish life. It is the worst and most +dangerous of all sins; for it is like a disease which eats out the heart +and life without giving pain, so that the sick man never suspects that +anything is the matter with him till he finds himself, to his +astonishment, at the point of death. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +True Poetry. September 25. + + +Let us make life one poem--not of dreams or sentiments--but of actions, +not done Byronically as proofs of genius, but for our own self-education, +alone, in secret, awaiting the crisis which shall call us forth to the +battle to do just what other people do, only, perhaps, by an utterly +different self-education. That is the life of great spirits, after, +perhaps, many many years of seclusion, of silent training in the lower +paths of God's vineyard, till their hearts have settled into a still, +deep, yet swift current, and those who have been faithful over a few +things are made rulers over many things. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Office of the Clergy. September 26. + + +There is a Christian as well as political liberty quite consistent with +High Church principles, which makes the clergy our teachers--not the +keepers of our _consciences_ but of our _creeds_. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +Opinions are not Knowledge. September 27. + + +. . . As to self-improvement, the true Catholic mode of learning is to +"prove all things," as far as we can, without sin or the danger of it, to +"hold fast that which is good." Let us never be afraid of trying +anything new, learnt from people of different opinions to our own. And +let us never be afraid of changing our opinions. The unwillingness to go +back from once declared opinion is a form of pride which haunts some +powerful minds: but it is not found in great childlike geniuses. Fools +may hold fast to their scanty stock through life, and we must be very +cautious in drawing them from it--for where can they supply its place? + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +The Worst Punishment. September 28. + + +God reserves many a sinner for that most awful of all punishments +(here)--impunity. + +_Sermons_. + + + +The Divine Order. September 29. + + +Ah, that God's will were but done on earth as it is in the material +heaven overhead, in perfect order and obedience, as the stars roll in +their courses, without rest, yet without haste--as all created things, +even the most awful, fire and hail, snow and vapour, wind and storm, +fulfil God's word, who hath made them sure for ever and ever, and given +them a law which shall not be broken. But above them; above the divine +and wonderful order of the material universe, and the winds which are +God's angels, and the flames of fire which are His messengers; above all, +the prophets and apostles have caught sight of another divine and +wonderful order of _rational_ beings, of races loftier and purer than +man--angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and +powers, fulfilling God's will in heaven as it is not, alas! fulfilled on +earth. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. + + + +True Resignation. September 30. + + +. . . Christianity heightens as well as deepens the human as well as the +divine affections. I am happy, for the less hope, the more faith. . . . +God knows what is best for us; we do not. Continual resignation, at last +I begin to find, is the secret of continual strength. "Daily _dying_," +as Boehmen interprets it, is the path of daily _living_. . . . + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +SEPTEMBER 21. +St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist, and Martyr. + + +There is something higher than happiness. There is blessedness; the +blessedness of being good and doing good, of being right and doing right. +That blessedness we may have at all times; we may be blest even in +anxiety and in sadness; we may be blest, even as the martyrs of old were +blest, in agony and death. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + + +SEPTEMBER 29. +Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. + + +The eternal moral law which held good for the sinless Christ, who, though +He were a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered, +must hold good of you and me, and all moral and rational beings--yea, for +the very angels in heaven. They have not sinned. That we know; and we +do not know that they have ever suffered. But this at least we know, +that they have submitted. They have obeyed, and have given up their own +wills to be ministers of God's will. In them is neither self-will nor +selfishness; and, therefore, by faith, that is, by trust and loyalty, +they stand. And so, by consenting to lose their individual life of +selfishness, they have saved their eternal life in God, the life of +blessedness and holiness, just as all evil spirits have lost their +eternal life by trying to save their selfish life and be something in +themselves and of themselves without respect to God. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. + + + + +October. + + +A beautiful October morning it was; one of those in which Dame Nature, +healthily tired with the revelry of summer, is composing herself, with a +quiet satisfied smile, for her winter's sleep. Sheets of dappled cloud +were sliding slowly from the west; long bars of hazy blue hung over the +southern chalk downs, which gleamed pearly gray beneath the low south- +eastern sun. In the vale below, soft white flakes of mist still hung +over the water meadows, and barred the dark trunks of the huge elms and +poplars, whose fast-yellowing leaves came showering down at every rustle +of the western breeze, spotting the grass below. The river swirled +along, glassy no more, but dingy gray with autumn rains and rotting +leaves. All beyond the garden told of autumn, bright and peaceful even +in decay; but up the sunny slope of the garden itself, and to the very +window-sill, summer still lingered. The beds of red verbena and geranium +were still brilliant, though choked with fallen leaves of acacia and +plane; the canary plant, still untouched by frost, twined its delicate +green leaves, and more delicate yellow blossoms, through the crimson lace- +work of the Virginia creeper; and the great yellow noisette swung its +long canes across the window, filling all the air with fruity fragrance. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. i. + + + +Blessing of Daily Work. October 1. + + +Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do +that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to +work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self- +control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a +hundred virtues which the idle will never know. + +_Town and Country Sermons_. 1861. + + + +The Forming Form. October 2. + + +As the acorn, because God has given it "a forming form," and life after +its kind, bears within it not only the builder oak but shade for many a +herd, food for countless animals, and at last the gallant ship itself, +and the materials of every use to which Nature or Art can put it, and its +descendants after it, throughout all time, so does every good deed +contain within itself endless and unexpected possibilities of other good, +which may and will grow and multiply for ever, in the genial light of Him +whose eternal mind conceived it, and whose eternal spirit will for ever +quicken it, with that life of which He is the Giver and the Lord. + +_Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. + + + +Special Providences. October 3. + + +And as for special Providences. I believe that every step I take, every +person I meet, every thought which comes into my mind--which is not +sinful--comes and happens by the perpetual Providence of God watching for +ever with Fatherly care over me, and each separate thing that He has +made. + +_MS. Letter_. + + + +Virtue. October 4. + + +Nothing, nothing can be a substitute for purity and virtue. Man will +always try to find substitutes for it. He will try to find a substitute +in superstition, in forms and ceremonies, in voluntary humility and +worship of angels, in using vain repetitions, and fancying he will be +heard for his much speaking; he will try to find a substitute in +intellect, and the worship of intellect and art and poetry, . . . but let +no man lay that flattering unction to his soul. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +God-likeness. October 5. + + +"We can become like God--only in proportion as we are of use," said ---. +"I did not see this once. I tried to be good, not knowing what good +meant. I tried to be good, because I thought it would pay me in the +world to come. But at last I saw that all life, all devotion, all piety, +were only worth anything, only Divine, and God-like and God-beloved, as +they were means to that one end--to be of use." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. + + + +The Refiner's Fire. October 6. + + +"Not quite that," said Amyas. "He was a meeker man latterly than he used +to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any whom he had on +board had followed him close all the seas over, and purified him in the +fire. And gold seven times tried he was when God, having done His work +in him, took him home at last." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. + + + +The Prayer of Faith. October 7. + + +With the prayer of faith we can do anything. Look at Mark xi. 24--a text +that has saved more than one soul from madness in the hour of sorrow; and +it is so _simple_ and _wide_--wide as eternity, simple as light, true as +God Himself. If we are to do great things it must be in the spirit of +that text. Verily, when the Son of God cometh shall He find faith in the +earth? + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +Mountain-Ranges. October 8. + + +We fancy there are many independent sciences, because we stand half-way +up on different mountain-peaks, calling to each other from isolated +stations. The mists hide from us the foot of the range beneath us, the +depths of primary analysis to which none can reach, or we should see that +all the peaks were but offsets of one vast mountain-base, and in their +inmost root but One! And the clouds which float between us and the +heaven shroud from us the sun-lighted caps themselves--the perfect issues +of synthetic science, on which the Sun of Righteousness shines with +undimmed lustre--and keep us from perceiving that the complete practical +details of our applied knowledge is all holy and radiant with God's +smile. And so, half-way up, on the hillside, beneath a cloudy sky, we +build up little earthy hill-cairns of our own petty synthesis, and fancy +them Babel-towers whose top shall reach to heaven! + +_MS. Note-book_. 1843. + + + +The Temper for Success in Life. October 9. + + +The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful +and hopeful men, who went about their business with a smile on their +faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men, +facing rough and smooth alike as it came, and so found the truth of the +old proverb that "good times and bad times and all times pass over." + +_MS._ + + + +Want of Simplicity. October 10. + + +Faith and prayer are simple things, . . . but when we begin to want +faith, and to assist prayer by our own inventions and to explain away +God's providence, then faith and prayer become intricate and uncertain. +We cannot serve God and mammon. We must either utterly depend on God +(and therefore on our own reason enlightened by His spirit after prayer), +or we must utterly depend on the empirical maxims of the world. Choose! + +_MS. Letter_. + + + +True Rest. October 11. + + +What is true rest? To rest from sin, from sorrow, from doubt, from care; +this is true rest. Above all, to rest from the worst weariness of +all--knowing one's duty and not being able to do it. That is true rest; +the rest of God who works for ever, and yet is at rest for ever; as the +stars over our heads move for ever, thousands of miles a day, and yet are +at perfect rest, because they move orderly, harmoniously, fulfilling the +law which God has given them. Perfect rest in perfect work; that surely +is the rest of blessed spirits till the final consummation of all things. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1867. + + + +God's Image. October 12. + + +. . . "Honour all men." Every man should be honoured as God's image, in +the sense in which Novalis says--that we touch Heaven when we lay our +hand on a human body! . . . The old Homeric Greeks, I think, felt that, +and acted up to it, more than any nation. The Patriarchs too seem to +have had the same feeling. . . . + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +Woman's Work. October 13. + + +Let woman never be persuaded to forget that her calling is not the lower +and more earthly one of self-assertion, but the higher and diviner one of +self-sacrifice; and let her never desert that higher life which lives in +and for others, like her Redeemer and her Lord. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Self-Enjoyment. October 14. + + +"How do ye expect," said Sandy, "ever to be happy, or strong, or a man at +a', as long as ye go on only looking to enjoy yersel--_yersel_? Mony was +the year I looked for nought but my ain pleasure, and got it too, when it +was a' + + "'Sandy Mackaye, bonny Sandy Mackaye, + There he sits singing the lang simmer day; + Lassies gae to him, + And kiss him, and woo him-- + Na bird is so merry as Sandy Mackaye.' + +An' muckle good cam' o't. Ye may fancy I'm talking like a sour, +disappointed auld carle. But I tell ye nay. I've got that's worth +living for, though I am downhearted at times, and fancy a's wrong, and +there's na hope for us on earth, we be a' sic liars--a' liars, I +think--I'm a great liar often mysel, especially when I'm praying." + +_Alton Locke_, chap. vii. + + + +Temptations of Temperament. October 15. + + +A man of intense sensibilities, and therefore capable, as is but too +notorious, of great crimes as well as of great virtues. + +_Sermons on David_. + +The more delicate and graceful the organisation, the more noble and +earnest the nature, the more certain it is, I fear, if neglected, to go +astray. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Egotism of Melancholy. October 16. + + +Morbid melancholy results from subjectivity of mind. The +self-contemplating mind, if it be a conscientious and feeling one, must +be dissatisfied with what it sees within. Then it begins unconsciously +to flatter itself with the idea that it is not the "_moi_" but the "_non +moi_," the world around, which is evil. Hence comes Manichaeism, +Asceticism, and that morbid tone of mind which is so accustomed to look +for sorrow that it finds it even in joy--because it will not confess to +itself that sorrow belongs to _sin_, and that sin belongs to _self_; and +therefore it vents its dissatisfaction on God's earth, and not on itself +in repentance and humiliation. + +The world looks dark. Shall we therefore be dark too? Is it not our +business to bring it back to light and joy? + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Poetry of Doubt. October 17. + + +The "poetry of doubt" of these days, however pretty, would stand us in +little stead if we were threatened by a second Armada. + +_Miscellanies_. 1859. + + + +Work of the Physician. October 18. + + +The question which is forcing itself more and more on the minds of +scientific men is not how many diseases _are_, but how few are _not_, the +consequences of men's ignorance, barbarism, folly, self-indulgence. The +medical man is felt more and more to be necessary in health as he is in +sickness, to be the fellow-workman not merely of the clergyman, but of +the social reformer, the political economist, and the statesman; and the +first object of his science to be prevention, and not cure. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +Love Many-sided. October 19. + + +There are many sides to love--admiration, reverence, gratitude, pity, +affection; they are all different shapes of that one great spirit of +love--the only feeling which will bind a man to do good, not once in a +way but habitually. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +The only Path to Light. October 20. + + +The path by which some come to see the Light, to find the Rock of Ages, +is the simple path of honest self-knowledge, self-renunciation, +self-restraint, in which every upward step towards right exposes some +fresh depth of inward sinfulness, till the once proud man, crushed down +by the sense of his own infinite meanness, becomes a little child once +more, and casts himself simply on the generosity of Him who made him. And +then there may come to him the vision, dim, perhaps, and fitting ill into +clumsy words, but clearer, surer, nearer to him than the ground on which +he treads, or than the foot which treads it--the vision of an Everlasting +Spiritual Substance, most Human and yet most Divine, who can endure; and +who, standing beneath all things, can make their spiritual substance +endure likewise, though all worlds and eons, birth and growth and death, +matter and space and time, should melt indeed-- + + And like the baseless fabric of a vision, + Leave not a rack behind. + +_Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. + + + +Proverbs False and True. October 21. + + +There is no falser proverb than that devil's beatitude, "Blessed is he +who expecteth nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." Say rather, +"Blessed is he who expecteth everything, for he enjoys everything once at +least, and if it falls out true, twice also." + +_Prose Idylls_. 1857. + + + +True Sisters of Mercy. October 22. + + +Ah! true Sisters of Mercy! whom the world sneers at as "old maids," if +you pour out on cats and dogs and parrots a little of the love that is +yearning to spend itself on children of your own. As long as such as you +walk this lower world one needs no Butler's _Analogy_ to prove to us that +there is another world, where such as you will have a fuller and a fairer +(I dare not say a juster) portion. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxv. 1856. + + + +The Divine Fire. October 23. + + +Well spoke the old monks, peaceful, watching life's turmoil, +"Eyes which look heavenward, weeping still we see: +God's love with keen flame purges, like the lightning flash, +Gold which is purest, purer still must be." + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene i. +1847. + + + +The Cross a Token. October 24. + + +Have patience, have faith, have hope, as thou standest at the foot of +Christ's Cross, and holdest fast to it, the anchor of the _soul_ and +_reason_, as well as of the _heart_. For, however ill the world may go, +or seem to go, the Cross is the everlasting token that God so loved the +world that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for +it. Whatsoever else is doubtful, that at least is sure--that good must +conquer, because God is good, that evil must perish, because God hates +evil, even to the death. + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1870. + + + +The True Self-Sacrifice. October 25. + + +What can a man do more than _die_ for his countrymen? + +_Live_ for them. It is a longer work, and therefore a more difficult and +a nobler one. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. + + + +Now as Then. October 26. + + +Men can be as original now as ever, if they had but the courage, even the +insight. Heroic souls in old times had no more opportunities than we +have; but they used them. There were daring deeds to be done then--are +there none now? Sacrifices to be made--are there none now? Wrongs to be +redrest--are there none now? Let any one set his heart in these days to +do what is right, and nothing else; and it will not be long ere his brow +is stamped with all that goes to make up the heroical expression--with +noble indignation, noble self-restraint, great hopes, great sorrows; +perhaps even with the print of the martyr's crown of thorns. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. vii. 1856. + + + +One Anchor. October 27. + + +In such a world as this, with such ugly possibilities hanging over us +all, there is but one anchor which will hold, and that is utter trust in +God; let us keep that, and we may yet get to our graves without _misery_ +though not without _sorrow_. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1871. + + + +Self-Control. October 28. + + +Settle it in your minds, young people, that the first and the last of all +virtues and graces which God can give is Self-Control, as necessary for +the saint and the sage lest they become fanatics and pedants, as for the +young in the hey-day of youth and health. + +_Sermons on David_. 1866. + + + +Nature's Permanence. October 29. + + +We abolish many things, good and evil, wisely and foolishly, in these +fast-going times; but, happily for us, we cannot abolish the blue sky, +and the green sea, and the white foam, and the everlasting hills, and the +rivers which flow out of their bosoms. They will abolish themselves when +their work is done, but not before. And we, who, with all our boasted +scientific mastery over Nature, are, from a merely mechanical and carnal +point of view, no more than a race of minute parasitic animals burrowing +in the fair Earth's skin, had better, instead of boasting of our empire +over Nature, take care lest we become too troublesome to Nature, by +creating, in our haste and greed, too many great black countries, and too +many great dirty warrens of houses, miscalled cities, peopled with +savages and imps of our own mis-creation; in which case Nature, so far +from allowing us to abolish her, will by her inexorable laws abolish us. + +_MS. Presidential Address_. 1871. + + + +The Only Refuge. October 30. + + +Prayer is the only refuge against the Walpurgis-dance of the witches and +the fiends, which at hapless moments whirl unbidden through a mortal +brain. + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xix. 1856. + + + +England's Forgotten Worthies. October 31. + + +Among the higher-hearted of the early voyagers, the grandeur and glory +around them had attuned their spirits to itself and kept them in a lofty, +heroical, reverent frame of mind; while they knew as little about what +they saw in an "artistic" or "critical" point of view as in a scientific +one. . . . They gave God thanks and were not astonished. God was great: +but that they had discovered long before they came into the tropics. + +Noble old child-hearted heroes, with just romance and superstition enough +about them to keep from that prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm +which is simply, one often fears, a product of our scepticism! We do not +trust enough in God, we do not really believe His power enough, to be +ready, as they were, as every one ought to be on a God-made earth, for +anything and everything being possible; and then when a wonder is +discovered we go into ecstasies and shrieks over it, and take to +ourselves credit for being susceptible of so lofty a feeling--true index, +forsooth, of a refined and cultivated mind!! + +Smile if you will: but those were days (and there never were less +superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, and +were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His help, and +providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, which we now, in +our covert atheism, term "secular and carnal." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xxiii. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +OCTOBER 18. +St. Luke, Physician and Evangelist. + + +It is good to follow Christ in one thing and to follow Him utterly in +that. And the physician has set his mind to do one thing--to hate +calmly, but with an internecine hatred, disease and death, and to fight +against them to the end. In his exclusive care for the body the +physician witnesses unconsciously yet mightily for the soul, for God, for +the Bible, for immortality. Is he not witnessing for God when he shows +by his acts that he believes God to be a God of life, not of death; of +health, not of disease; of order, not of disorder; of joy and strength, +not of misery and weakness? Is he not witnessing for Christ when, like +Christ, he heals all manner of sickness and disease among the people, and +attacks physical evil as the natural foe of man and of the Creator of +man? + +"_Water of Life_," _and other Sermons_. + + +OCTOBER 28. +St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles and Martyrs. + + +He that loseth his life shall save it. The end and aim of our life is +not happiness but goodness. If goodness comes first, then happiness may +come after; but if not, something better than happiness may come, even +blessedness. + +Oh! sad hearts and suffering! look to the Cross. There hung your King! +The King of sorrowing souls; and more, the King of Sorrows. Ay, pain and +grief, tyranny and desertion, death and hell,--He has faced them one and +all, and tried their strength and taught them His, and conquered them +right royally. And since He hung upon that torturing Cross sorrow is +divine,--godlike, as joy itself. All that man's fallen nature dreads and +despises God honoured on the Cross, and took unto Himself, and blest and +consecrated for ever. . . . And now--Blessed are tears and shame, +blessed are agony and pain; blessed is death, and blest the unknown +realms where souls await the Resurrection-day. + +_National Sermons_. + + + + +November. + + +"The giant trees are black and still, the tearful sky is dreary gray. All +Nature is like the grief of manhood in its soft and thoughtful sternness. +Shall I lend myself to its influence, and as the heaven settles down into +one misty shroud of 'shrill yet silent tears,' as if veiling her shame in +a cloudy mantle, shall I, too, lie down and weep? Why not? for am I not +'a part of all I see'? And even now, in fasting and mortification, am I +not sorrowing for my sin and for its dreary chastisement? But shall I +then despond and die? + +"No! Mother Earth, for then I were unworthy of thee and thy God! We may +weep, Mother Earth, but we have Faith--faith which tells us that above +the cloudy sky the bright clear sun is shining, and will shine. And we +have Hope, Mother Earth--hope, that as bright days have been, so bright +days soon shall be once more! And we have Charity, Mother Earth, and by +it we can love all tender things--ay, and all rugged rocks and dreary +moors, for the sake of the glow which _has_ gilded them, and the +fertility which will spring even from their sorrow. We will smile +through our tears, Mother Earth, for we are not forsaken! We have still +light and heat, and till we can bear the sunshine we will glory in the +shade!" + +_MS._ 1842. + + + +Sympathy of the Dead. November 1. + + +Believe that those who are gone are nearer us than ever; and that if (as +I surely believe) they do sorrow over the mishaps and misdeeds of those +whom they leave behind, they do not sorrow in vain. Their sympathy is a +further education for them, and a pledge, too, of help--I believe of +final deliverance--for those on whom they look down in love. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1852. + + + +Nature's Parable. November 2. + + +There is a devil's meaning to everything in nature, and a God's meaning +too. As I read nature's parable to-night I find nothing in it but hope. +What if there be darkness, the sun will rise to-morrow; what if there +seem chaos, the great organic world is still living and growing and +feeding, unseen by us all the night through; and every phosphoric atom +there below is a sign that in the darkest night there is still the power +of light, ready to flash out wherever and however it is stirred. + +_Prose Idylls_. 1849. + + + +Passing Onward. November 3. + + +Liturgies are but temporary expressions of the Church's heart. The Bible +is the immutable story of her husband's love. _She_ must go on from +grace to grace, and her song must vary from age to age, and her ancient +melodies become unfitted to express her feelings; but He is the same for +ever. + +_MS._ 1842. + +See how the autumn leaves float by decaying, + Down the wild swirls of the dark-brimming stream; +So fleet the works of men back to their earth again-- + Ancient and holy things pass like a dream. + +_A Parable_. 1848. + + + +The Divine Intention. November 4. + + +I am superstitious enough, thank God, to believe that not a stone or a +handful of mud gravitates into its place without the will of God; that it +was ordained, ages since, into what particular spot each grain of gold +should be washed down from an Australian quartz reef, that a certain man +might find it at a certain moment and crisis of his life. + +_Science Lectures_. + + + +Christ Weeping over Jerusalem. November 5. + + +That which is true of nations is true of individuals, of each separate +human brother of the Son of man. Is there one young life ruined by its +own folly--one young heart broken by its own wilfulness--or one older +life fast losing the finer instincts, the nobler aims of youth, in the +restlessness of covetousness, of fashion, of ambition? Is there one such +poor soul over whom Christ does not grieve? One to whom, at some supreme +crisis of their lives, He does not whisper--"Ah, beautiful organism--thou +too art a thought of God--thou too, if thou wert but in harmony with +thyself and God, a microcosmic _City of God_! Ah! that thou hadst +known--even thou--at least in this thy day--the things which belong to +thy peace"? + +_MS. Sermon_. 1874. + + + +Love Expansive. November 6. + + +The mystics think it wrong to love any created thing, because our whole +love should be given to God. But as flame increases by being applied to +many objects, so does love. He who loves God most loves God's creatures +most, and them for God's sake, and God for their sake. + +_MS. Note-book_. 1843. + + + +Still the same. November 7. + + +Those who die in the fear of God and in the faith of Christ do not really +taste death; to them there is no death, but only a change of place, a +change of state; they pass at once into some new life, with all their +powers, all their feelings, unchanged; still the same living, thinking, +active beings which they were here on earth. I say active. Rest they +may, rest they will, if they need rest. But what is true rest? Not +idleness, but peace of mind. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. 1862. + + + +An absolutely Good God. November 8. + + +Fix in your minds--or rather ask God to fix in your minds--this one idea +of an absolutely good God; good with all forms of goodness which you +respect and love in man; good, as you, and I, and every honest man, +understand the plain word good. Slowly you will acquire that grand and +all-illuminating idea; slowly and most imperfectly at best: for who is +mortal man that he should conceive and comprehend the goodness of the +infinitely good God! But see, then, whether, in the light of that one +idea, all the old-fashioned Christian ideas about the relation of God to +man--whether Providence, Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation, the +Incarnation, the Passion, and the final triumph of the Son of God--do not +seem to you, not merely beautiful, not merely probable, but rational, and +logical, and necessary, moral consequences from the one idea of an +Absolute and Eternal Goodness, the Living Parent of the universe? + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1873. + + + +Nature's Lesson. November 9. + + +Learn what feelings every object in Nature expresses, but do not let them +mould the tone of your mind; else, by allowing a melancholy day to make +you melancholy, you worship the creature more than the Creator. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Morals and Mind. November 10. + + +Not upon mind, not upon mind, but upon morals, is human welfare founded. +The true subjective history of man is not the history of his thought, but +of his conscience: the true objective history of man is not that of his +inventions, but of his vices and his virtues. So far from morals +depending upon thought, thought, I believe, depends on morals. In +proportion as a nation is righteous--in proportion as common justice is +done between man and man, will thought grow rapidly, securely, +triumphantly; will its discoveries be cheerfully accepted and faithfully +obeyed, to the welfare of the whole common weal. + +_Inaugural Lecture_, _Cambridge_. 1860. + + + +Fastidiousness. November 11. + + +Do not let us provoke God (though that is _really_ impossible) by +complaining of His gifts because they do not come just in the form _we_ +should have wished. . . . + +_MS. Letter_. 1844. + + + +Unconscious Faith. November 12. + + +For the rest, Amyas never thought about thinking or felt about feeling; +and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother, +getting by honest means the maximum of "red quarrenders" and mazard +cherries, and going to sea when he was big enough. Neither was he what +would be nowadays called by many a pious child, for though he said his +Creed and Lord's Prayer night and morning, and went to service at the +church every forenoon, and read the day's Psalms with his mother every +evening, and had learnt from her and his father that it was infinitely +noble to do right and infinitely base to do wrong, yet he knew nothing +more of theology or of his own soul than is contained in the Church +Catechism. + +_Westward Ho_! chap. i. 1855. + + + +Silence. November 13. + + +There are silences more pathetic than all words. + +_MS._ + + + +The Nineteenth Century. November 14. + + +. . . What so maddening as the new motion of our age--the rush of the +express train, when the live iron pants and leaps and roars through the +long chalk cutting, and white mounds gleam cold a moment against the sky +and vanish; and rocks and grass and bushes fleet by in dim blended lines; +and the long hedges revolve like the spokes of a gigantic wheel; and far +below meadows and streams and homesteads, with all their lazy old-world +life, open for an instant, and then flee away; while awestruck, silent, +choked with the mingled sense of pride and helplessness, we are swept on +by that great pulse of England's life-blood rushing down her iron veins; +and dimly out of the future looms the fulfilment of our primeval mission +to conquer and subdue the earth, and space too, and time, and all +things--even hardest of all tasks, yourselves, my cunning brothers; ever +learning some fresh lesson, except the hardest one of all, that it is the +Spirit of God which giveth you understanding? + +Yes, great railroads, and great railroad age, who would exchange you, +with all your sins, for any other time? For swiftly as rushes matter, +more swiftly rushes mind; more swiftly still rushes the heavenly dawn up +the eastern sky. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." "Blessed +is the servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." + +_Prose Idylls_. + + + +Unreality. November 15. + + +Those who have had no real sorrows can afford to play with imaginary +ones. + +_MS._ + + + +The indwelling Light. November 16. + + +The doctrine of Christ in every man, as the indwelling Word of God, the +Light who lights every one who comes into the world, is no peculiar tenet +of the Quakers, but one which runs through the whole of the Old and New +Testaments, and without which they would both be unintelligible, just as +the same doctrine runs through the whole history of the Early Church for +the first two centuries, and is the only explanation of them. + +_Theologica Germanica_. 1854. + + + +Woman's Calling. November 17. + + +What surely is a woman's calling but to teach man? and to teach him what? +To temper his fiercer, coarser, more self-assertive nature by the contact +of her gentleness, purity, self-sacrifice. To make him see that not by +blare of trumpets, not by noise, wrath, greed, ambition, intrigue, +puffery, is good and lasting work to be done on earth; but by wise self- +distrust, by silent labour, by lofty self-control, by that charity which +hopeth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things; by such an +example, in short, as women now in tens of thousands set to those around +them; such as they will show more and more, the more their whole +womanhood is educated to employ its powers without waste and without +haste in harmonious unity. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +Waste. November 18. + + +Thrift of the heart, thrift of the emotions--how are they wasted in these +days in reading sensation novels! while British literature--all that the +best hearts and intellects among our forefathers have bequeathed to us--is +neglected for light fiction, the reading of which is the worst form of +intemperance--dram-drinking and opium-eating, intellectual and moral. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. + + + +True Penance. November 19. + + +"Senor," said Brimblecombe, "the best way to punish oneself for doing ill +seems to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God +means you well is to find out whether He will help you to do well." + +_Westward Ho_! chap. xxv. + + + +Political Economy of the Future. November 20. + + +I can conceive a time when, by improved chemical science, every foul +vapour which now escapes from the chimney of a manufactory, polluting the +air, destroying the vegetation, shall be seized, utilised, converted into +some profitable substance, till the black country shall be black no +longer, the streams once more crystal clear, the trees once more +luxuriant, and the desert, which man has created in his haste and greed, +shall in literal fact once more blossom as the rose. And just so can I +conceive a time when by a higher civilisation, formed on a political +economy more truly scientific, because more truly according to the will +of God, our human refuse shall be utilised like our material refuse; when +man as man, down to the weakest and most ignorant, shall be found (as he +really is) so valuable that it will be worth while to preserve his +health, to develop his capabilities, to save him alive, body, intellect, +and character, at any cost; because men will see that a man is, after +all, the most precious and useful thing on the earth, and that no cost +spent on the development of human beings can possibly be thrown away. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1870. + + + +God's Pleasure. November 21. + + +The world was not made for man: but man, like all the world, was made for +God. Not for man's pleasure merely, not for man's use, but for God's +pleasure all things are, and for God's pleasure they were, created. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1869. + + + +The Hospital Nurse. November 22. + + +Fearless, uncomplaining, she "trusted in God and made no haste." She did +her work and read her Bible; and read, too, again and again at stolen +moments of rest, a book which was to her as the finding of an unknown +sister--Longfellow's "Evangeline." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxviii. + +Let us learn to look on hospitals not as acts of charity, supererogatory +benevolences of ours towards those to whom we owe nothing, but as +confessions of sin, and worthy fruits of penitence; as poor and late and +partial compensation for misery which _we_ might have prevented. + +_National Sermons_. 1851. + + + +No Work Lost. November 23. + + +If you lose heart about your work, remember that none of it is +_lost_--that the good of every good deed remains and breeds and works on +for ever, and that all that fails and is lost is the outside shell of the +thing, which, perhaps, might have been better done; but better or worse +has nothing to do with the real spiritual good which you have done to +men's hearts. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1862. + + + +True Temperance. November 24. + + +What we all want is inward rest; rest of heart and brain; the calm, +strong, self-contained, self-denying character, which needs no +stimulants, for it has no fits of depression; which needs no narcotics, +for it has no fits of excitement; which needs no ascetic restraints, for +it is strong enough to use God's gifts without abusing them; the +character, in a word, which is truly temperate, not in drink and food +merely, but in all desires, thoughts, and actions. + +_Essays_. 1873. + + + +A Present Veil. November 25. + + +What is there in this world worth having without religion? Do you not +feel that true religion, even in its most imperfect stage, is not merely +an escape from hell after death but the only _real state_ for a man--the +only position to live in in this world--the only frame of mind which will +give anything like happiness here. I cannot help feeling at moments--if +there were _no Christ_, everything, even the very flowers and insects, +and every beautiful object, would be hell _now_--dark, blank, hopeless. + +_MS. Letter_. 1843. + + + +Cowardice. November 26. + + +There is but one thing which you have to fear in earth or heaven--being +untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to God. If you will +not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be +true, then indeed you are weak. You are a coward; you desert God. + +_True Words for Brave Men_. + + + +Blind Faith. November 27. + + +In Him--"The Father"--I can trust, in spite of the horrible things I see +happen, in spite of the fact that my own prayers are not answered. I +believe that He makes all things work together for the good of the human +race, and of me among the rest, as long as I obey His will. I believe He +will answer my prayer, not according to the letter, but according to the +spirit of it; that if I desire good, I shall find good, though not _the_ +good I longed for. + +_MS. Letter_. 1862. + + + +Small and Great. November 28. + + +Begin with small things--you cannot enter into the presence of another +human being without finding there more to do than you or I or any soul +will ever learn to do perfectly before we die. Let us be content to do +little if God sets us little tasks. It is but pride and self-will which +says, "Give me something huge to fight and I shall enjoy that--but why +make me sweep the dust?" + +_Letters and Memories_. 1854. + + + +True and False. November 29. + + +We must remember that dissatisfaction at existing evil (the feeling of +all young and ardent minds), the struggle to escape from the +"circumstance" of the evil world, has a carnal counterfeit--the love of +novelty, and self-will, and self-conceit, which may thrust us down into +the abysses of misrule and uncertainty; as it has done such men as +Shelley and Byron; trying vainly every loophole, beating against the +prison bars of an imperfect system; neither degraded enough to make +themselves a fool's paradise within it, nor wise enough to escape from it +through Christ, "the door into the sheepfold," to return when they will, +and bring others with them into the serene empyrean of spiritual +truth--truth which explains, and arranges, and hallows, and subdues +everything. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1842. + + + +The Mind of Christ. November 30. + + +How can we attain to the blessed and noble state of mind--the mind of +Christ, who must needs be about His Father's business, which is doing +good? Only by prayer and practice. There is no more use in praying +without practising than there is in practising without praying. You +cannot learn to walk without walking; no more can you learn to do good +without trying to do good. + +_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +NOVEMBER 1. +All Saints' Day. +Commemoration of the Blessed Dead. + + +"If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour," said the Blessed One. +And if God honours His servants, shall not we honour them likewise? We +may not, as our forefathers did blindly, though lovingly, worship them as +mediators and lesser gods, and pray to them instead of to their Father in +heaven to whose throne of grace we may all come boldly through Christ +Jesus, or believe that their relics will work miracles in our behalf, +thus honouring the creature instead of the Creator. This we may not do, +but we may honour the Creator in His creature, and honour God in those +who have lived godly and God-like lives; and when they have passed away +from among us--souls endued by God with manifold virtues and precious +gifts of grace--we may give thanks and say, These, O God, are the fruits +of Thy Spirit. Thou honourest them in heaven with Thy approving smile. +We will honour them on earth, not merely with our lips, but in our lives. +What they were we too might be, if we were as true as they to the +inspiration of Thy Spirit. Help us to honour their memories, as Thou and +they would have us do, by following their example; by setting them before +us, and not only them, but every holy and noble personage of whom we have +ever heard, as dim likenesses of Christ--even as Christ is the likeness +of Thee. Amen. + +_MS. Sermon_. + + +NOVEMBER 30. +St. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr. + + +Form your own notions about angels and saints in heaven--as you will, . . +. but bear this in mind: that if the saints in heaven live the +everlasting life, they must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and +of good works. The everlasting life cannot be a selfish, idle life, +spent only in individual happiness. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. + + + + +December. + + +It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve, + I went sighing past the Church across the moorland dreary: +"Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave, + And the bells but mock the wailing sound, they sing so cheery. +How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again? + Still in cellar and in garret, and on moorland dreary, +The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain: + Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be +cheery." + +Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild-fowl on the mere, + Beneath the stars across the snow, like clear bells ringing, +And a voice within cried, "Listen! Christmas carols even here! + Though thou be dumb, yet o'er their work the stars and snows are +singing. +Blind! I live, I love, I reign, and all the nations through + With the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing; +Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild-fowl do, + Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it the angels' +singing." + +_A Christmas Carol_. + + + +The Final Victory. December 1. + + +I believe that the ancient creed, the eternal gospel, will stand and +conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every other for +eighteen hundred years, by claiming and subduing and organising those +young anarchic forces which now, unconscious of their parentage, rebel +against Him to whom they owe their being. + +_Yeast_, Preface. 1851. + + + +Drifting away. December 2. + + + They drift away--Ah, God! they drift for ever. + . . . . . . + I watch them drift--the old familiar faces, + Till ghosts, not men, fill old beloved places. + . . . . . . + Shores, landmarks, beacons drift alike. + Yet overhead the boundless arch of heaven + Still fades to night, still blazes into day. +Ah, God! My God! _Thou_ wilt not drift away! + +_A Fragment_. 1867. + + + +Our Father. December 3. + + +Take your sorrows not to man, but to your Father in heaven. If that +name, Father, mean anything, it must mean that He will not turn away from +His wandering child in a way in which you would be ashamed to turn away +from yours. If there be pity, lasting affection, patience in _man_, they +must have come from Him. They, above all things, must be His likeness. +Believe that God possesses them a million times more fully than any human +being. + +_Letters and Memories_. + + + +Circumstance. December 4. + + +Our wanton accidents take root, and grow +To vaunt themselves God's laws, until our clothes, +Our gems, and gaudy books, and cushioned litters +Become ourselves, and we would fain forget +There live who need them not. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v. +1847. + + + +Duty. December 5. + + +When a man has once said _honestly_ to himself, "It is my duty;" when +that glorious heavenly thought has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon +the earth, warming his heart and enlightening it, and making it bring +forth all good and noble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come +to him and a courage come from God which will conquer all his fears, his +selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear pain and +poverty and death itself, provided he can do what is right, and be found +by God working His will where He has put him. + +_Sermons_. + + + +Humanity and the Bible. December 6. + + +He who has an intense perception of humanity must know that Christianity +is divine, because it is the only religion which has a perfect perception +of human relations, wants, and feelings. None but He who made the heart +could have written the Bible. + +_MS. Note-book_. 1843. + + + +Music. December 7. + + +There is music in heaven, because in music there is no self-will. Music +goes on certain laws and rules. Man did not make those laws of music, he +has only found them out, and if he be self-willed and break them, there +is an end of his music instantly; all he brings out is discord and ugly +sounds. + +Music is fit for heaven. Music is a pattern and type of heaven, and of +the everlasting life of God which perfect spirits live in heaven; a life +of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with each other and +with God. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. + + + +Waiting. December 8. + + +Ay--stay awhile in peace. The storms are still. +Beneath her eider robe the patient earth +Watches in silence for the sun: we'll sit +And gaze up with her at the changeless heaven, +Until this tyranny be overpast. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene iii. +1847. + + + +True or False Toleration? December 9. + + +"One thing at least I have learnt," he said, "in all my experiments on +poor humanity--never to see a man do a wrong thing without feeling I +could do the same in his place. I used to pride myself on that once, +fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness. I used to make it an +excuse for sitting by and seeing the devil have it all his own way, and +call that toleration. I will see now whether I cannot turn the said +knowledge to a better account, as common sense, patience, and charity, +and yet do work of which neither I nor my country need be ashamed." + +_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxiii. 1856. + + + +Success and Defeat. December 10. + + +In many things success at first is dangerous, and _defeat_ an excellent +medicine for testing people's honesty--for setting them honestly to work +to see what they want, and what are the best modes of attaining it. Our +sound thrashing, as a nation, in the first French war was the making of +our armies; and it is good for an idea, as well as for a man, to bear the +yoke in his youth. + +_Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867. + + + +Passing Emotions. December 11. + + +Beware of depending on your own _emotions_, which are often but the +fallings and risings of the frail flesh, and mistaking them for spiritual +feelings and affections! + +* * * * * + +Think less of what you _feel_--even of trying _to be_ anything. Look out +of yourself at God. Pray and praise, and God will give you His Spirit +often when you feel most dull. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Christ's Church. December 12. + + +. . . What a thought it is that there is a God! a Father, a King! a +Husband not of individuals, that is a Popish fancy, which the Puritans +have adopted--but of the Church--of collective humanity. Let us be +content to be members; let us be, if we may, the feet, lowest, hardest +worked, trodden on, bleeding, brought into harshest contact with the evil +world! Still we are members of Christ's Church! . . . + +_Letters and Memories_. 1843. + + + +Confound me not. December 13. + + +Have charity, have patience, have mercy. Never bring a human being, +however silly, ignorant, or weak, above all, any little child, to shame +and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, +even by selfish and silly haste, never, above all, by indulging in the +devilish pleasure of a sneer, crush what is finest, and rouse up what is +coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature. + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1872. + + + +The Divine Hunger and Thirst. December 14. + + +God grant us to be among "those who really hunger and thirst after +righteousness," and who therefore long to know what righteousness is, +that they may copy it--those who long to be freed not merely from the +punishment of sin after they die, but from sin itself while they live on +earth, and who therefore wish to know what sin is that they may avoid it. + +_Preface to Tauler's Sermons_. 1854. + + + +Religion or Godliness? December 15. + + +This is the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean, as it +used, the service of God--the being like God and showing forth God's +glory. No, religion means nowadays the art of getting to heaven when we +die, and saving our own miserable souls, and getting God's wages without +doing God's work--as if that was godliness, as if that was anything but +selfishness, as if selfishness was any the better for being everlasting +selfishness! + +_Village Sermons_. 1849. + + + +Christ's Coming. December 16. + + +Christ may come to us when we are fierce and prejudiced, with that still +small voice--so sweet and yet so keen, "Understand those who +misunderstand thee. Be fair to those who are unfair to thee. Be just +and merciful to those whom thou wouldst like to hate. Forgive and thou +shalt be forgiven." He comes to us surely, when we are selfish and +luxurious, in every sufferer who needs our help, and says, "If you do +good to one of these, my brethren, you do it unto Me." + +_Last Sermon_. _MS._ 1874. + + + +God's Nature. December 17. + + +When will men open their eyes to the plain axiom that nothing is +impossible with God, save that He should transgress His own nature by +being unjust and unloving? + +_Preface to Tauler_. 1854. + + + +Educators of Men. December 18. + + +There are those who consider--and I agree with them--that the education +of boys under the age of twelve years ought to be entrusted, as much as +possible, to women. Let me ask--of what period of youth and manhood does +it not hold true? I pity the ignorance and conceit of the man who +fancies that he has nothing left to learn from cultivated women. I +should have thought that the very mission of woman was to be, in the +highest sense, the educator of man, from infancy to old age; that that +was the work towards which all the God-given capacities of women pointed. + +_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869. + + + +The Earthly Body. December 19. + + +Let us remember that if the body does feel a burden now (as it must at +moments), what a happiness it is to have a body at all: how lonely, cold, +barren, would it be to be a "disembodied spirit." As St. Paul says, "Not +that we desire to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon"--to have a +spiritual, deathless, griefless life instilled into the body. + +_MS. Letter_. 1842. + + + +Home at Last. December 20. + + +When all the world is old, lad, + And all the trees are brown, +And all the sport is stale, lad, + And all the wheels run down; +Creep home and take your place there, + The spent and maimed among: +God grant you find one face there + You loved when all was young. + +_The Water Babies_. 1862. + + + +The Bible. December 21. + + +The hearts and minds of the sick, the poor, the sorrowing, the truly +human, all demand a living God who has revealed Himself in living acts; a +God who has taught mankind by facts, not left them to discover Him by +theories and sentiments; a Judge, a Father, a Saviour, an Inspirer; in a +word, their hearts demand the historic truth of the Bible--of the Old +Testament no less than the New. + +_Sermons on Pentateuch_. 1863. + + + +Shaking of Heaven and Earth. December 22. + + +"Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven" (Hebrews xii. 26- +29). This is one of the royal texts of Scripture. It declares one of +those great laws of the kingdom of God which may fulfil itself once and +again at many eras and by many methods; which fulfilled itself most +gloriously in the first century after Christ; again in the fifth century; +again at the time of the Crusades; and again at the great Reformation in +the sixteenth century,--and is fulfilling itself again at this very day. + +_Westminster Sermons_. 1872. + + + +Self-Respect the Voice of God. December 23. + + +Never hurt any one's self-respect. Never trample on any soul, though it +may be lying in the veriest mire; for that last spark of self-respect is +as its only hope, its only chance; the last seed of a new and better +life; the voice of God which still whispers to it, "You are not what you +ought to be, and you are not what you can be. You are still God's child, +still an immortal soul. You may rise yet, and fight a good fight yet, +and conquer yet, and be a man yet, after the likeness of God who made +you, and Christ who died for you." Oh! why crush that voice in any +heart? If you do the poor creature is lost, and lies where he or she +falls, and never tries to rise again. + +_Good News of God Sermons_. 1859. + + + +Christmas Eve. December 24. + + +We will have no sad forebodings on the eve of the blessed Christmas-tide. +He lives, He loves, He reigns; and all is well; for we are His and He is +ours. + +_Two Years Ago_, Introduction. 1856. + + + +The Miracle of Christmas Night. December 25. + + +After the crowning miracle of this most blessed night all miracles are +possible. The miracle of Christmas night was possible because God's love +was absolute, infinite, unconquerable, able to condescend to anything +that good might be done. . . . This Christmas night is the one of all +the year which sets a physicist on facing the fact of miracle, and which +delivers him from the bonds of sense and custom by reminding him of God +made Man. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1858. + + + +Redemption. December 26. + + +All things are blessed now, but sin; for all things, excepting sin, are +redeemed by the life and death of the Son of God. Blessed are wisdom and +courage, joy and health and beauty, love and marriage, childhood and +manhood, corn and wine, fruit and flowers, for Christ redeemed them by +His life. . . . Blessed is death, and blest the unknown realms where +souls await the Resurrection Day, for Christ redeemed them by His death. +Blessed are all days, dark as well as bright, for all are His, and He is +ours; and all are ours, and we are His for ever. + +_National Sermons_. 1848. + + + +Fellow-workers with Christ. December 27. + + +To abolish the superstition, the misrule, the vice, the misery of this +world. That is what Christ will do in the day when He has put all +enemies under His feet. That is what Christ has been doing, step by +step, ever since that day when first He came to do His Father's will on +earth in great humility. Therefore, that is what we must do, each in our +place and station, if we be indeed His subjects, fellow-workers with Him +in the improvement of the human race, fellow-soldiers with Him in the +battle against evil. + +_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867. + + + +The bright Pathway. December 28. + + +There is a healthy ferment of mind in which one struggles through chaos +and darkness, by means of a few clues and threads of light--and--of one +great bright pathway, which I find more and more to be _the_ only escape +from infinite confusion and aberration, _the_ only explanation of a +thousand human mysteries--I mean the Incarnation of our Lord--the fact +that there really is--a God-Man! + +_MS. Letter_. 1844. + + + +New Worship. December 29. + + +Blessed, thrice blessed, is it to find that hero-worship is not yet +passed away! that the heart of man still beats young and fresh; that the +old tales of David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Socrates and +Alcibiades, Shakespeare and his nameless friend, of love "passing the +love of woman," ennobled by its own humility, deeper than death and +mightier than the grave, can still blossom out, if it be but in one heart +here and there, to show man still how, sooner or later, "he that loveth +knoweth God, for God is love." + +_Miscellanies_. 1850. + + + +Links in the Chain. December 30. + + +The heart will cry out at times, Oh! blissful future! Oh, dreary +present! But let us not repine. What is dreary need not be barren. +Nothing need be barren to those who view all things in their real light, +as links in the great chain of progression both for themselves and for +the Universe. To us all Time should seem so full of life: every moment +the grave and the father of unnumbered events and designs in heaven and +earth, and the mind of our God Himself--all things moving smoothly and +surely in spite of apparent checks and disappointments towards the +appointed end. + +_Letters and Memories_. 1844. + + + +Past, Present, Future. December 31. + + +Surely as the years pass on they ought to have made us better, more +useful, more worthy. We may have been disappointed in our lofty ideas of +what ought to be done, but we may have gained more clear and practical +notions of what can be done. We may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet +gained in earnestness. We may have lost in sensibility, yet gained in +charity, activity, and power. We may be able to do far less, and yet +what we do may be far better done. And our very griefs and +disappointments--have they been useless to us? Surely not. We shall +have gained instead of lost by them if the Spirit of God has been working +in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us patience, our patience +experience, and that experience hope--hope that He who has led us thus +far will lead us farther still, that He who has taught us in former days +precious lessons--not only by sore temptations but most sacred joys--will +teach us in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations, which we shall +be more able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old +times, are no less sacred, but sent as lessons to our souls by Him from +whom all good gifts come. + +_Water of Life Sermons_. + +Out of God's boundless bosom, the fount of life, we came; through +selfish, stormy youth, and contrite tears--just not too late; through +manhood, not altogether useless; through slow and chill old age, we +return whence we came, to the bosom of God once more--to go forth again, +it may be, with fresh knowledge and fresh powers, to nobler work. Amen. + +_The Air Mothers_. 1869. + + + +SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS. + + +DECEMBER 21. +St. Thomas, Apostle and Martyr. + + +The spirits of just men made perfect, freed from the fetters of the gross +animal body, and now somewhere in that boundless universe in which this +earth is but a tiny speck, doing God's will as they longed to do it on +earth, with clearer light, fuller faith, deeper love, mightier powers of +usefulness! Ah, that we were like unto them! + +_All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. + + +DECEMBER 25. +Christmas Day. + + +Thank God, that One was born, at this same time, +Who did our work for us: we'll talk of Him: +We shall go mad with thinking of ourselves-- +We'll talk of Him, and of that new-made star, +Which, as He stooped into the Virgin's side, +From off His finger, like a signet-gem, +He dropped in the empyrean for a sign. +But the first tear He shed at this His birth-hour, +When He crept weeping forth to see our woe, +Fled up to Heaven in mist, and hid for ever +Our sins, our works, and that same new-made star. + +_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iv. Scene iv. + + +DECEMBER 26. +St. Stephen, the Martyr. + + +These are the holy ones--the heroes of mankind, the elect, the +aristocracy of grace. They are those who carry the palm branch of +triumph, who have come out of great tribulation, who have dared and +fought and suffered for God and truth and right; who have resisted unto +blood, striving against sin. What should easy-going folk like you and me +do but place ourselves with all humility, if but for an hour, where we +can look afar off upon our betters, and see what they are like and what +they do. + +_All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. + + +DECEMBER 27. +St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. + + +And what do they do, these blessed beings? They longed for, toiled for, +it may be died for, the true, the beautiful, and the good; they entered +while on earth into the mystery and glory of self-sacrifice, and now they +find their bliss in gazing on the one perfect and eternal sacrifice, and +rejoicing in the thought that it is the cause and ground of the whole +universe, even the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. + +_All Saints' Day and other Sermons_. + + +DECEMBER 28 +Holy Innocents' Day. + + +Christ comes to us in many ways. But most surely does Christ come to us, +and often most happily, and most clearly does He speak to us--in the face +of a little child, fresh out of heaven. Ah, let us take heed that we +despise not one of these little ones, lest we despise our Lord Himself. +For as often as we enter into communion with little children, so often +does Christ come to us. So often, as in Judaea of old, does He take a +little child and set him in the midst of us, that from its simplicity, +docility, and trust--the restless, the mutinous, and the ambitious may +learn the things which belong to their peace--so often does He say to us, +"Except ye be changed and become as this little child, ye shall in no +wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Take my yoke upon you and learn +of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto +your souls." + +_MS. Last Sermon_, +_Westminster Abbey_, _Nov._ 30, 1874. + + + + +INDEX. + + +ABSENCE, 209 + +Acorn, 223 + +Action, 146, 167 + +Affections, 79, 179, 217, 279 + +Age, old, 63, 285 + +--reverence for, 81 + +Anarchy, 165 + +Angels, 175, 217, 218, 219, 269 + +Anger, God's loving, 195 + +Animals, dumb, 81, 181 + +Antinomies, 159 + +Anxiety, 211 + +Aristocracy, ideal, 167 + +Art, 31, 71, 119, 141, 151 + +Ascension, 93, 123, 211 + +Asceticism, 185, 189, 233, 263 + +Ascetic painters, 39 + +Atonement, the, 83 + +Attitude, language of, 155 + +Augustine, St., 155 + +Autumn, 51, 221 + +BARBARISM, 109 + +Beatific Vision, 73, 196, 295 + +Beauty, 15, 39, 73, 101, 175, 196, 213 + +--moral, 196, 213 + +--spiritual, 159 + +Bible, the, 103, 141, 167, 249, 259, 275, 285 + +Birds, 53, 77, 99, 101, 103, 125, 127, 137, 271 + +Blessedness, 218, 245 + +Body, sacredness of, 63, 67, 185, 229, 244, 285 + +--the spiritual, 159 + +Books, 57, 85, 169, 259 + +Book-learning, 151 + +Butler's Analogy, 237 + +CALMNESS, 55, 263 + +Character, 98, 175, 191 + +Charity, 37, 281 + +Cheerfulness, 149, 223, 227 + +Childhood and wonder, 179 + +Childlikeness, 31, 183, 187, 235 + +Children, 48, 109, 295 + +Chivalry, 139, 153, 179, 181 + +Christ-child, the, 48 + +Christ's life, 45, 97, 267 + +--Church, 121 + +--compassion, 251 + +--descent into hell, 98 + +--resurrection, 95, 98, 211 + +--the Word, 37, 127 + +Christianity, Divine, 273 + +Christmas, 271, 287, 289, 294 + +Chrysalis state, 171 + +Church, the, 75, 77, 121, 157 + +--Catechism, 47, 255 + +Civilisation, 105, 155, 261 + +Clergy, the, 215 + +Coming of Christ, 21, 23, 183, 283, 295 + +Communion of saints, 141, 193 + +--Holy, 193 + +Contemplation, 87, 146 + +Content, 59 + +Courage, 275 + +Cowardice, 207, 265 + +Creeds, the, 141, 151, 215, 273 + +Critical spirit, 165, 203 + +Cross, the, 83, 96, 97, 122, 185, 189, 237, 245 + +Crucifix, the, 123, 189 + +Custom, 31 + +Cynicism, 191 + +DARK days, 19, 201, 211, 233, 249, 289 + +Day of the Lord, 3, 195 + +Dead, the blessed, 21, 49, 95, 139, 193, 249, 253, 289 + +--prayers for, 24, 81 + +--work of, 95, 139, 249 + +Death, 17, 113, 135, 253 + +--sudden, 89 + +--and hell, 7, 195 + +Defeat, 279 + +Dignity, 137 + +Discontent, Divine, 165 + +Disease, 233, 244 + +Distrust, 165 + +Doctrines, 157 + +Doubt, poetry of, 233 + +Drifting away, 273 + +Duty, 5, 13, 65, 105, 129, 147, 165, 181, 201, 275 + +Dying, to live, 13, 55, 93, 97, 117, 217, 295 + +EARNESTNESS, 35, 139, 293 + +Earth, God's, 101, 149, 153, 247 + +Earthly and heavenly, 179 + +Easter, 93, 98 + +Eclecticism, 65 + +Education, 67 + +--of character, 85 + +--Divine, 91, 133, 135, 149, 209 + +--self, 215 + +--of boys, 283 + +--after death, 171, 249 + +Emotions, 5, 49, 79, 85, 179, 189, 203, 259, 279 + +Enthusiasm, 35 + +Epiphany, 24 + +Eternal life, 11, 43 + +Eternity, 43, 69, 167 + +Eucharist, the, 21, 65, 185 + +Excitement, 79, 163 + +FACTS of life, 103, 113, 207, 285 + +Failure, 143 + +Faith, 11, 59, 85, 127, 163, 191, 199, 227, 229 + +Fasting, 49 + +Fatherhood of God, 103, 107, 115, 133, 135, 149, 181, 223, 265, 273 + +Fear, 137, 265, 275 + +Fellowship of sorrow, 109, 111, 279 + +Fire of God, 195 + +--cleansing, 195, 225, 237 + +Flesh and spirit, 189 + +Flowers, 15, 99, 101, 105, 127, 151, 221 + +Fool's paradise, 111, 267 + +Forgiveness, 169 + +Forward, 3 + +Francis, St., 103 + +Friendship, 19, 61, 291 + +Future, the, 129, 195 + +--identity, 19, 253 + +--life, 57, 65, 71, 81, 113, 171, 237, 253, 293 + +GENIUS, 105, 175, 215 + +Gifts, 83, 111, 129 + +Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 203 + +God, the Living, 7, 101, 103, 111, 133, 193, 243, 285 + +--the Ideal, 73 + +--an indulgent, 15 + +--of Nature, 103, 131, 151, 183 + +God's character, 33, 87, 111, 181, 195, 253, 273, 283 + +--countenance, 131 + +Godliness, 91, 281 + +Good, the eternal, 35, 171, 253 + +Good in all, 9, 287 + +Good deeds, 187, 263 + +Good Friday, 93, 97 + +Goodness, 5, 105, 113, 199, 245 + +Gratitude, 89 + +Greeks, the old, 67, 107, 133, 155, 229 + +HAPPINESS, 29, 59, 245, 265 + +Harmony, 5, 67, 83, 127, 161, 277 + +Hearts and streams, 119, 197 + +Heaven, 109, 167 + +Hell, 96, 98, 109, 195, 265 + +--keys of, 7 + +--a present, 43 + +Hero worship, 291 + +Heroism, 41, 61, 71, 207, 239, 294 + +History, philosophy of, 63 + +Hope, 39, 111, 145, 149, 237, 247 + +Hospitals, 263 + +Humanity, 275 + +Humility, 13, 41, 169, 193 + +I AM I, 55, 89, 185, 199 + +Ideal, the, 63, 73, 117 + +Ideals, high, 77 + +Idleness, 91, 157, 207 + +Impunity, 217 + +Incarnation, the, 146, 253, 291 + +Influence, silent, 139, 259 + +Intermediate state, 98, 245, 289 + +JOHN the Baptist, 147 + +John, St., 45, 53, 63, 113 + +Justification, 43 + +KINDNESS, 181, 205 + +Kingdom, coming, 21, 179; of God, 45, 185 + +Knowledge, 53, 79, 131, 135, 163, 177, 183 + +LAMP race, 133 + +Laws of God, 98, 117, 163, 169, 229, 277, 287 + +Lesson of life, 61, 293 + +Liberty, 215 + +Life everlasting, 11, 113, 219, 277 + +--long, 133 + +--value of, 61 + +Light, 33, 177, 249, 291 + +Liturgies, 249 + +Love, 9, 37, 41, 53, 55, 79, 117, 201, 209, 235, 251, 289, 219 + +--Divine, 117 + +--and beauty, 201 + +MAN in God's image, 89, 127, 199, 229 + +March, 51, 53 + +Martyrs, 17, 98, 172, 218, 294, 295 + +Masses, the, 177 + +May, 99 + +Melancholy, 137, 183, 233, 253 + +Melody, 5, 127, 277 + +Men and women, 39, 91, 93, 153, 259, 283 + +Metre, 119 + +Midsummer, 125 + +Miracles, 31, 99, 289 + +Moderation, 69 + +Monotony, 163 + +Morality, 29, 147, 255 + +Morbid mind, 233 + +Morning, 19, 125, 201, 249 + +Mother earth, 247 + +Mothers, 61, 74, 213 + +Music, 23, 107, 127, 161, 277 + +Mystery of life, 117, 155, 185, 291 + +Mystics, 55, 185, 251 + +NATURALIST, 175 + +Nature, 141, 183, 187, 221, 241, 247, 253 + +--study of, 7, 105, 131, 141, 175, 183, 187 + +Nature's worship, 131 + +Night, 201, 211 + +Nineteenth century, 3, 151, 257 + +Noble life, 5, 9 + +Noble studies, 63 + +North-east wind, 1 + +Novel reading, 85, 169, 259 + +OCTOBER, 221 + +Old truths, 151 + +Opinions, 215 + +Originality, 239 + +Orthodox, 141 + +PAINTERS, 39, 71, 141, 159 + +Parables, Nature's, 5, 99, 101, 127, 173, 175, 196, 197, 249 + +Passion, 35, 197, 213 + +--Week, 95 + +Patience, 59, 143, 237, 277, 281 + +Paul, St., 25, 53, 207 + +Peace, 23, 59, 193 + +Penitence, 191 + +Penuriousness, 67 + +Peter, St., 45, 148 + +Philamon, 9, 45 + +Physician, 233, 244 + +Pictures, 39, 71, 141 + +Plato, 171 + +Poetry, 23, 41, 69, 215 + +Political economy, 115, 261 + +Practice, 143, 267 + +Prayer, 89, 119, 163, 167, 227, 229, 241, 267 + +--the Lord's, 31 + +--unselfish, 31 + +Prayers for dead, 81 + +Present time, 3, 5 + +Presentiments, 143 + +Pride and humility, 193, 215, 235, 267 + +Problem of life, 135, 291 + +Profession, empty, 157, 213 + +Progress, 101, 163, 257, 291 + +Proverbs, 235 + +Providence, 115, 169, 243 + +--special, 55, 159, 209, 251 + +Psalms, 17, 191 + +Public opinion, 77 + +Punishment, 41, 135, 159, 191, 261, 281 + +Purgatory, 171 + +RAILROADS, 257 + +Rank, 15, 161 + +Reason, 35, 111, 143, 237 + +Redemption of earth and man, 153 + +Refinement, false, 161 + +Reformers, 77 + +Religion, 103, 265, 281 + +Renewal, the, 71, 81, 127, 185 + +Repentance, 41, 49, 157 + +Resignation, 117, 211, 217 + +Rest, 21, 49, 229, 253, 263 + +Resurrection, 63, 81, 93, 95, 98, 141, 145, 171, 185, 207 + +Retribution, 47, 81, 113, 135, 177 + +Reverence, 81, 175, 243 + +Reveries, 39 + +Righteousness, 117, 255, 281 + +Rights and duties, 39 + +Rock of Ages, 169, 235 + +Romance, 127 + +Rules of life, 83, 107, 163 + +Ruth, 79 + +SACRAMENTALISM, 15, 39, 101, 119, 213 + +Sacraments, 21, 146 + +Safety, 17, 57 + +Saints' Days, 24 + +Saints, the, 24, 98, 122, 141, 193, 268, 269, 294, 295 + +Salvation, 135 + +Sanitary science, 29, 261 + +Science, 33, 59, 115, 151, 227, 233, 261 + +Secular, 59 + +Self, 31, 233 + +Selfishness, 159, 219, 231, 281 + +Self-conceit, 205 + +Self-control, 165, 223, 241, 259, 263 + +Self-improvement, 215 + +Self-indulgence, 91, 275 + +Self-respect, 287 + +Self-sacrifice, 13, 21, 55, 71, 79, 95, 117, 146, 148, 189, 213, 231, 295 + +Security, false, 115 + +Sensuality, 133 + +Sentiment, 5 + +Shakespeare, 179 + +Shame, 199 + +Shelley, 267 + +Silence, 41, 139, 257, 259 + +Sin, 41, 135, 159, 169, 213, 233, 281 + +Sisters of Mercy, 237 + +Sneering, 281 + +Sorrow, 145, 183, 185, 227, 273 + +Spirit, the Holy, 146 + +Spiritual world, 179 + +Spring, 27, 51, 99, 101 + +Starlings, 51 + +Stream and shower, 119, 197 + +Strength, 263 + +Substitutes, 225 + +Success, 139, 227, 279 + +Summer days, 125, 129, 131, 137, 149 + +Superstition, 3, 137, 169, 175 + +Suspicion, 281 + +Symbols, 99, 101, 105, 127, 131, 151, 173, 196 + +Sympathy, 103, 151, 153 + +TACT, 35, 53, 113 + +Temperament, 231 + +Temperance, true, 223, 263 + +Temptation, 57 + +Theology, 87 + +Thrift, 131, 183, 259 + +Toleration, 63, 141, 277 + +Training, God's, 115, 129, 215 + +Transfiguration, the, 205 + +Trinity, the, 146 + +Trust, 239, 265 + +UNITY, 185 + +Usefulness, 225 + +Utopia, 167 + +VAGUENESS, 11, 161 + +Vineyards, 121 + +Violence, 139 + +Virgin, Blessed, 74 + +Virtue, 29, 41, 225 + +Visitation of God, 61 + +Voyagers, early, 243 + +WAITING, 135, 277 + +--of God, 181 + +War tragedies, 107 + +Water, 29, 119, 197 + +Welfare, 145, 255 + +Winter, 1, 27, 99 + +Wisdom, 37, 83, 105, 107, 163 + +Woman, 45, 153, 87 + +Woman's work, 39, 45, 79, 93, 231, 259 + +Women, educated, 85, 169 + +Word Christ, the, 7, 37 + +--the indwelling, 259 + +Words, 37, 113 + +--hard, 53 + +--of God, 141 + +Work, 71, 83, 133, 143, 157, 165, 175, 203, 209, 223, 263 + +World, the, 167 + +Worm, the undying, 195 + +Worship, 131 + +YOUTH, 13, 129 + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{3} The paper edition of this book has blank pages where the owner can +write diary notes, etc. This is why the page numbers in the eText often +miss out numbers.--DP. + +{97} Lines written under a pen and ink drawing of a stormy shoreless +sea, with two human beings lashed to a cross floating on the crest of the +waves. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAILY THOUGHTS*** + + +******* This file should be named 20711.txt or 20711.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/7/1/20711 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |