Daily Thoughts Part 22

"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 G.o.d 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 "compet.i.tion 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 G.o.d 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 ma.s.s 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 pa.s.sions? 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 G.o.d," and "If a man hateth not his father and mother he cannot be My disciple."

_Letters and Memories_. 1848.

False Refinement. July 16.

G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 ba.s.s 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 G.o.d only in what is strange and rare; but this is faith, to see G.o.d in what is most common and simple, to know G.o.d's greatness not so much from disorder as from order, not so much from those strange sights in which G.o.d 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 pa.s.sions. 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.