Daily Thoughts Part 12

_Discipline and other Sermons_.

Sweetness and Light. April 17.

Ah, that we could believe that G.o.d is love, and that he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in G.o.d, and G.o.d 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. x.x.xii. 1855.

Prayer and Praise. April 20.

Pray night and day, very quietly, like a little weary child, to the good and loving G.o.d, for everything you want, in body as well as soul--the least thing as well as the greatest. Nothing is too much to ask G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 grat.i.tude, glorying that we are G.o.d'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, G.o.d 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 "unG.o.dly" 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 "G.o.dliness" 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._