Daily Thoughts Part 26

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d and G.o.d'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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d Himself.

_MS._

Lifting of the Veil. August 21.

I seldom pa.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d proved. August 24.

Our love to G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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.