Daily Thoughts Part 18

"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 cl.u.s.ter on them, all worship, worship, worship with us! Let us go up in the evenings and pray there, with nothing but G.o.d'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 G.o.d! 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 pa.s.ses over the earth and harms us not in its mercy!

_Letters and Memories_. 1844.

G.o.d's Countenance. June 9.

Study nature as the countenance of G.o.d! Try to extract every line of beauty, every a.s.sociation, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 G.o.d's house, the universe, and for G.o.d's work in it; and, in proportion as they do that, they attain salvation, _Letters and Memories_. 1852.

Parent and Child. June 16.

Superst.i.tion is the child of fear, and fear is the child of ignorance.