Daily Thoughts Part 29

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 G.o.d's earth, when man has forgotten that his only welfare is in living after the likeness of G.o.d.

_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 G.o.d. As for those who either in this world or in the world to come look for idleness, and hope that G.o.d 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 G.o.d's likeness clings to a man longest and closest and best? No? Then I will tell you. It is the love of employment. G.o.d in heaven must create Himself a universe to work on and love. And now we sons of Adam, the sons of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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.