Daily Thoughts Part 6

Time and Eternity. February 24.

Eternity does not mean merely some future endless duration, but that ever- present _moral_ world, governed by ever-living and absolutely necessary laws, in which we and all spirits are now; and in which we should be equally, whether time and s.p.a.ce, extension and duration, and the whole material universe to which they belong, became nothing this moment, or lasted endlessly.

_Theologica Germanica_. 1854.

Christ's Life. February 25.

What was Christ's life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, and bright visions, but a life of fighting against evil; earnest, awful prayers and struggles within, continued labour of body and mind without; insult, and danger, and confusion, and violent exertion, and bitter sorrow. This was Christ's life. This was St. Peter's, and St. James's, and St. John's life afterwards.

_Village Sermons_. 1849.

The Higher Education. February 26.

In teaching women we must try to make our deepest lessons bear on the great purpose of unfolding Woman's own calling in all ages--her especial calling in this one. We must incite them to realise the chivalrous belief of our old forefathers among their Saxon forests, that something Divine dwelt in the counsels of woman: but, on the other hand, we must continually remind them that they will attain that divine instinct, not by renouncing their s.e.x, but by fulfilling it; by becoming true women, and not bad imitations of men; by educating their heads for the sake of their hearts, not their hearts for the sake of their heads; by claiming woman's divine vocation as the priestess of purity, of beauty, and of love.

_Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_.

1848.

G.o.d's Kingdom. February 27.

Philamon had gone forth to see the world, and he had seen it; and he had learnt that G.o.d's kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics yelling for a doctrine, but of willing, loving, obedient hearts.

_Hypatia_, chap. xxiii. 1852.

Sowing and Reaping. February 28.

So it is, that by every crime, folly, even neglect of theirs, men drive a thorn into their own flesh, which will trouble them for years to come, it may be to their dying day--

Though the mills of G.o.d grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all--

as those who neglect their fellow-creatures will discover, by the most patent, undeniable proofs, in that last great day, when the rich and poor shall meet together, and then, at last, discover too that the Lord is the Maker of them all.

_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871.

The Church Catechism. February 29.

Did it ever strike you that the simple, n.o.ble, old Church Catechism, without one word about rewards and punishments, heaven or h.e.l.l, begins to talk to the child, like a true English Catechism as it is, about that glorious old English key-word Duty? It calls on the child to confess its own duty, and teaches it that its duty is something most human, simple, everyday--commonplace, if you will call it so. And I rejoice in the thought that the Church Catechism teaches that the child's duty is commonplace. I rejoice that in what it says about our duty to G.o.d and our neighbour, it says not one word about counsels of perfection, or those frames and feelings which depend, believe me, princ.i.p.ally on the state of people's bodily health, on the const.i.tution of their nerves, and the temper of their brain; but that it requires nothing except what a little child can do as well as a grown person, a labouring man as well as a divine, a plain farmer as well as the most refined, devout, imaginative lady.

_Sermons for the Times_. 1855.

SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS.

FEBRUARY 2.

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, COMMONLY CALLED The Purification of the Virgin Mary.

Little children may think of Christ as a child now and always. For to them He is always the Babe of Bethlehem. Let them not say to themselves, "Christ is grown up long ago." He is, and yet He is not. His life is eternal in the heavens, above all change of time and s.p.a.ce. . . . Such is the sacred heart of Jesus--all things to all. To the strong He can be strongest, to the weak weakest of all. With the aged and dying He goes down for ever to the grave; and yet with you children Christ lies for ever on His mother's bosom, and looks up for ever into His mother's face, full of young life and happiness and innocence, the Everlasting Christ- child, in whom you must believe, whom you must love, to whom you must offer up your childish prayers.

_The Christ-child_, _Sermons_, (_Good News of G.o.d_).

FEBRUARY 24.

St. Matthias, Apostle and Martyr.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They rest from their labours--all their struggles, failures, past and over for ever. But their works follow them. The good which they did on earth--_that_ is not past and over. It cannot die. It lives and grows for ever, following on in their path long after they are dead, and bearing fruit unto everlasting life, not only in them, but in men whom they never saw, and in generations yet unborn.

_Sermons_ (_Good News of G.o.d_).

Ash Wednesday.

There is a repentance too deep for words--too deep for all confessionals, penances, and emotions or acts of contrition; the repentance, not of the excitable, theatric Southern, unstable as water even in his most violent remorse, but of the still, deep-hearted Northern, whose pride breaks slowly and silently, but breaks once for all; who tells to G.o.d what he will never tell to man, and having told it, is a new creature from that day forth for ever.

_Two Years Ago_, chap. xviii.

The True Fast.

The _rationale_ of Fasting is to give up habitual indulgences for a time, lest they become our masters--artificial _necessities_.

_MS._