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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13677-0.txt b/13677-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85282c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/13677-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2568 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13677 *** + +"Beautiful Thoughts" From Henry Drummond + +Arranged by Elizabeth Cureton + +{Project Gutenberg Editorial note: Many quotes from "The Greatest Thing +in the World" did not provide a page number.} + + +1892 + + +The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly +seen, being understood by the things that are made.--Rom. i. 20. + + +To My Dear Friend + +Helen M. Archibald + +This Book + +Is Affectionately Inscribed. + + + +Preface. + +My first thought of writing out this little book of brief selections +sprang from the desire to assist a dear friend to enjoy the Author's +helpful books. + +The epigrammatic style lends itself to quotation. Taste of the spring +brings the traveller back to the same fountain on a day of greater +leisure. Many times these "Beautiful Thoughts" have enlightened my +darkness, and I send them forth with a hope and prayer that they may find +echo in other hearts. E. C. + +January 1st. Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny +people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread, and the Oil of +Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor on with a Garment of +Praise it will be better for them than blankets. The Programme of +Christianity, p. 33. + +January 2d. No one who knows the content of Christianity, or feels the +universal need of a Religion, can stand idly by while the intellect of +his age is slowly divorcing itself from it. Natural Law, Preface, p. 22 + +January 3d. A Science without mystery is unknown; a Religion without +mystery is absurd. However far the scientific method may penetrate the +Spiritual World, there will always remain a region to be explored by a +scientific faith. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 28. + +January 4th. Among the mysteries which compass the world beyond, none is +greater than how there can be in store for man a work more wonderful, a +life more God-like than this. The Programme of Christianity, p. 62. + +January 5th. The Spiritual Life is the gift of the Living Spirit. The +spiritual man is no mere development of the Natural man. He is a New +Creation born from Above. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 65. + +January 6th. Love is success, Love is happiness, Love is life. God is +Love. Therefore LOVE. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 7th. Give me the Charity which delights not in exposing the +weakness of others, but "covereth all things." The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +January 8th. There is a sense of solidity about a Law of Nature which +belongs to nothing else in the world. Here, at last, amid all that is +shifting, is one thing sure; one thing outside ourselves, unbiassed, +unprejudiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by doubt or fear. . . . +This more than anything else makes one eager to see the Reign of Law +traced in the Spiritual Sphere. Natural Law, Preface, p. 23. + +January 9th. With Nature as the symbol of all of harmony and beauty that +is known to man, must we still talk of the supernatural, not as a +convenient word, but as a different order of world, . . . where the Reign +of Mystery supersedes the Reign of Law? Natural Law, Introduction, p. 6. + +January 10th. The Reign of Law has gradually crept into every department +of Nature, transforming knowledge everywhere into Science. The process +goes on, and Nature slowly appears to us as one great unity, until the +borders of the Spiritual World are reached. Natural Law, Introduction, p. +13. + +January 11th. No single fact in Science has ever discredited a fact in +Religion. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 30. + +January 12th. I shall never rise to the point of view which wishes to +"raise" faith to knowledge. To me, the way of truth is to come through +the knowledge of my ignorance to the submissiveness of faith, and then, +making that my starting-place, to raise my knowledge into faith. Natural +Law, Introduction, p. 28. Quotation from Beck: Bib. Psychol. + +January 13th. If the purification of Religion comes from Science, the +purification of Science, in a deeper sense, shall come from Religion. +Natural Law, Introduction, p. 31. + +January 14th. With the demonstration of the naturalness of the +supernatural, scepticism even may come to be regarded as unscientific. +And those who have wrestled long for a few bare truths to ennoble life +and rest their souls in thinking of the future will not be left in doubt. +Natural Law, Introduction, p. 32. + +January 15th. The religion of Jesus has probably always suffered more +from those who have misunderstood than from those who have opposed it. +Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 67. + +January 16th. It is impossible to believe that the amazing successions of +revelations in the domain of Nature, during the last few centuries, at +which the world has all but grown tired wondering, are to yield nothing +for the higher life. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 32. + +January 17th. Is life not full of opportunities for learning love? Every +man and woman every day has a thousand of them. Greatest Thing in the +World. + +January 18th. What is Science but what the Natural World has said to +natural men? What is Revelation but what the Spiritual World has said to +Spiritual men? Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 73. + +January 19th. Life depends upon contact with Life. It cannot spring up +out of itself. It cannot develop out of anything that is not Life. There +is no Spontaneous Generation in religion any more than in Nature. Christ +is the source of Life in the Spiritual World; and he that hath the Son +hath Life, and he that hath not the Son, whatever else he may have, hath +not Life. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 74. + +January 20th. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, +uncharitable world, there should still be left a few rare souls who think +no evil. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 21st. The physical Laws may explain the inorganic world; the +biological Laws may account for the development of the organic. But of +the point where they meet, of that strange borderland between the dead +and the living, Science is silent. It is as if God had placed everything +in earth and heaven in the hands of Nature, but reserved a point at the +genesis of Life for His direct appearing. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +69. + +January 22d. Except a mineral be born "from above"--from the Kingdom just +ABOVE it--it cannot enter the Kingdom just above it. And except a man be +born "from above," by the same law, he cannot enter the Kingdom just +above him. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 72. + +January 23d. If we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see +that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. +Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 24th. The world is not a play-ground; it is a school-room. Life +is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all +is how better we can love. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 25th What a noble gift it is, the power of playing upon the souls +and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds. +Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 26th. The test of Religion, the final test of Religion, is not +Religiousness, but Love. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 27th. There are not two laws of Bio-genesis, one for the natural, +the other for the Spiritual; one law is for both. Where-ever there is +Life, Life of any kind, this same law holds. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +75. + +January 28th. The first step in peopling these worlds with the +appropriate living forms is virtually miracle. Nor in one case is there +less of mystery in the act than in the other. The second birth is +scarcely less perplexing to the theologian than the first to the +embryologist. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 76. + +January 29th. There may be cases--they are probably in the majority-- +where the moment of contact with the Living Spirit, though sudden, has +been obscure. But the real moment and the conscious moment are two +different things. Science pronounces nothing as to the conscious moment. +If it did, it would probably say that that was seldom the real moment-- +The moment of birth in the natural world is not a conscious moment--we +do not know we are born till long afterward. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +93. + +January 30th. The stumbling-block to most minds is perhaps less the mere +existence of the unseen than the want of definition, the apparently +hopeless vagueness, and not least, the delight in this vagueness as mere +vagueness by some who look upon this as the mark of quality in Spiritual +things. It will be at least something to tell earnest seekers that the +Spiritual World is not a castle in the air, of an architecture unknown +to earth or heaven, but a fair ordered realm furnished with many familiar +things and ruled by well-remembered Laws. Natural Law, Introduction, p. +26. + +January 31st. Character grows in the stream of the world's life. That +chiefly is where men are to learn love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +February 1st. If a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps +muscle; and if a man does not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in +his soul, no strength of character, no vigour of moral fibre, nor beauty +of Spiritual growth. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +February 2d. A Religion without mystery is an absurdity. Even Science has +its mysteries, none more inscrutable than around this Science of Life. It +taught us sooner or later to expect mystery, and now we enter its domain. +Let it be carefully marked, however, that the cloud does not fall and +cover us till we have ascertained the most momentous truth of Religion-- +that Christ is in the Christian. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 88. + +February 3d. Religion in having mystery is in analogy with all around it. +Where there is exceptional mystery in the Spiritual World it will +generally be found that there is a corresponding mystery in the natural +world. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 91. + +February 4th. Even to earnest minds the difficulty of grasping the truth +at all has always proved extreme. Philosophically, one scarcely sees +either the necessity or the possibility of being born again. Why a +virtuous man should not simply grow better and better until in his own +right he enter the Kingdom of God is what thousands honestly and +seriously fail to understand. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 80. + +February 5th. Lavish Love upon our equals, where it is very difficult, +and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +February 6th. Spiritual Life is not something outside ourselves. The idea +is not that Christ is in heaven and that we can stretch out some +mysterious faculty and deal with Him there. This is the vague form in +which many conceive the truth, but it is contrary to Christ's teaching +and to the analogy of nature. Life is definite and resident; and +Spiritual Life is not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant in the +soul. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 87. + +February 7th. If we neglect almost any of the domestic animals, they will +rapidly revert to wild and worthless forms. Now, the same thing exactly +would happen in the case of you or me. Why should man be an exception to +any of the laws of nature? Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 99. + +February 8th. The law of Reversion to Type runs through all creation. If +a man neglect himself for a few years he will change into a worse and a +lower man. If it is his body that he neglects, he will deteriorate into a +wild and bestial savage. . . . If it is his mind, it will degenerate into +imbecility and madness. . . . If he neglect his conscience, it will run +off into lawlessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, it must +inevitably atrophy, drop off in ruin and decay. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 99. + +February 9th. Three possibilities of life, according to Science, are open +to all living organisms--Balance, Evolution, and Degeneration. Natural +Law, Degeneration, p. 100. + +February 10th. The life of Balance is difficult. It lies on the verge of +continual temptation, its perpetual adjustments become fatiguing, its +measured virtue is monotonous and uninspiring. Natural Law, Degeneration, +p. 101. + +February 11th. More difficult still, apparently, is the life of ever +upward growth. Most men attempt it for a time, but growth is slow; and +despair overtakes them while the goal is far away. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 12th. Degeneration is easy. Why is it easy? Why but that already +in each man's very nature this principle is supreme? He feels within his +soul a silent drifting motion impelling him downward with irresistible +force. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 13th. This is Degeneration--that principle by which the +organism, failing to develop itself, failing even to keep what it has +got, deteriorates, and becomes more and more adapted to a degraded form +of life. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 14th. It is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold and +examine separately, that on purely natural principles the soul that is +left to itself unwatched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall away into +death by its own nature. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 104. + +February 15th. If a man find the power of sin furiously at work within +him, dragging his whole life downward to destruction, there is only one +way to escape his fate--to take resolute hold of the upward power, and be +borne by it to the opposite goal. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 108. + +February 16th. Neglect does more for the soul than make it miss +salvation. It despoils it of its capacity for salvation. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 110. + +February 17th. Give pleasure. Lose no chance in giving pleasure. For that +is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. Greatest +Thing in the World. + +February 18th. If there were uneasiness there might be hope. If there +were, somewhere about our soul, a something which was not gone to sleep +like all the rest; if there were a contending force anywhere; if we would +let even that work instead of neglecting it, it would gain strength from +hour to hour, and waken up, one at a time, each torpid and dishonoured +faculty, till our whole nature became alive with strivings against self, +and every avenue was open wide for God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +112. + +February 19th. Where is the capacity for heaven to come from if it be not +developed on earth? Where, indeed, is even the smallest appreciation of +God and heaven to come from when so little of spirituality has ever been +known or manifested here? Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 116. + +February 20th. Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as an +atheist. There must be. There are some men to whom it is true that there +is no God. They cannot see God because they have no eye. They have only +an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +115. + +February 21st. Escape means nothing more than the gradual emergence of +the higher being from the lower, and nothing less. It means the gradual +putting off of all that cannot enter the higher state, or heaven, and +simultaneously the putting on of Christ. It involves the slow completing +of the soul and the development of the capacity for God. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 117. + +February 22d. If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not to come to +us somehow, vaguely. We are not to hope for anything startling or +mysterious. It is a definite opening along certain lines which are +definitely marked by God, which begin at the Cross of Christ, and lead +direct to Him. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117. + +February 23d. Each man, in the silence of his own soul, must work out +this salvation for himself with fear and trembling--with fear, realizing +the momentous issues of his task; with trembling, lest, before the tardy +work be done, the voice of Death should summon him to stop. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 118. + +February 24th. So cultivate the soul that all its powers will open out to +God, and in beholding God be drawn away from sin. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 118. + +February 25th. There is a Sense of Sight in the religious nature. Neglect +this, leave it undeveloped, and you never miss it. You simply see +nothing. But develop it and you see God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +118. + +February 26th. Become pure in heart. The pure in heart shall see God. +Here, then, is one opening for soul-culture--the avenue through purity of +heart to the spiritual seeing of God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 119. + +February 27th. There is a Sense of Sound. Neglect this, leave it +undeveloped, and you never miss it. Develop it, and you hear God. And the +line along which to develop it is known to us. Obey Christ. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 119. + +February 28th He who loves will rejoice in the Truth, rejoice not in what +he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's doctrine or in that; +not in this issue, or in that issue; but "in the Truth." He will accept +only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for +Truth with a humble and unbiassed mind, and cherish whatever he finds at +any sacrifice. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 1st. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow." Christ made +the lilies and He made me--both on the same broad principle. Both +together, man and flower . . .; but as men are dull at studying +themselves. He points to this companion-phenomenon to teach us how to +live a free and natural life, a life which God will unfold for us, +without our anxiety, as He unfolds the flower. Natural Law, Growth, p. +123. + +March 2d. Our efforts after Christian growth seem only a succession of +failures, and, instead of rising into the beauty of holiness, our life is +a daily heart-break and humiliation. Natural Law, Growth, p. 125. + +March 3d. The lilies grow, Christ says, of themselves; they toil not, +neither do they spin. They grow, that is, automatically, spontaneously, +without trying, without fretting, without thinking. Natural Law, Growth, +p. 126. + +March 4th. Violent efforts to grow are right in earnestness, but wholly +wrong in principle. There is but one principle of growth both for the +natural and spiritual, for animal and plant, for body and soul. For all +growth is an organic thing. And the principle of growing in grace is once +more this, "Consider the lilies how they grow." Natural Law, Growth, p. +125. + +March 5th. Earnest souls who are attempting sanctification by struggle, +instead of sanctification by faith, might be spared much humiliation by +learning the botany of the Sermon on the Mount. Natural Law, Growth, p. +127. + +March 6th. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world, +and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what God HAS put +in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely to +be secured by our being kind to them. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 7th. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion, the +hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness of eloquence behind which +lies no love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 8th. Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; +unselfishness; good-temper; guilelessness; sincerity--these make up the +supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +March 9th. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. +We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ spoke much of peace on +earth. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 10th. If God is spending work upon a Christian, let him be still +and know that it is God. And if he wants work, he will find it there--in +the being still. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 11th. If the amount of energy lost in trying to grow were spent in +fulfilling rather the conditions of growth, we should have many more +cubits to show for our stature. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 12th. The conditions of growth, then, and the inward principle of +growth being both supplied by Nature, the thing man has to do, the little +junction left for him to complete, is to apply the one to the other. He +manufactures nothing; he earns nothing; he need be anxious for nothing; +his one duty is to be IN these conditions, to abide in them, to allow +grace to play over him, to be still and know that this is God. Natural +Law, Growth, p. 138. + +March 13th. A man will often have to wrestle with his God--but not for +growth. The Christian life is a composed life. The Gospel is Peace. Yet +the most anxious people in the world are Christians--Christians who +misunderstand the nature of growth. Life is a perpetual self-condemning +because they are not growing. Natural Law, Growth, p. 139. + +March 14th. All the work of the world is merely a taking advantage of +energies already there. Natural Law, Growth, p. 140. + +March 15th. Religion is not a strange or added thing; but the inspiration +of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this +temporal world. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 16th. The stature of the Lord Jesus was not itself reached by work, +and he who thinks to approach its mystical height by anxious effort is +really receding from it. Natural Law, Growth, p. 127. + +March 17th. For the Life must develop out according to its type; and +being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold into a Christ. Natural +Law, Growth, p. 129. + +March 18th. The sneer at the godly man for his imperfections is +ill-judged. A blade is a small thing. At first it grows very near the +earth. It is often soiled and crushed and downtrodden. But it is a living +thing,. . . and "it doth not yet appear what it shall be." Natural Law, +Growth, p. 129. + +March 19th. Christ's protest is not against work, but against anxious +thought. Natural Law, Growth, p. 136. + +March 20th. If God is adding to our spiritual stature, unfolding the new +nature within us, it is a mistake to keep twitching at the petals with +our coarse fingers. We must seek to let the Creative Hand alone. "It is +God which giveth the increase." Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 21st. Love is PATIENCE. This is the normal attitude of Love; Love +passive, Love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its +work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the ornament of a meek +and quiet spirit. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 22d. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in +doing kind things? The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 23d. I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are! How much +the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. +How infallibly it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back +--for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly +honourable as Love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 24th. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever +is to live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with +love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 25th. Man is a mass of correspondences, and because of these, +because he is alive to countless objects and influences to which lower +organisms are dead, he is the most living of all creatures. Natural Law, +Death, p. 155. + +March 26th. All organisms are living and dead--living to all within the +circumference of their correspondences, dead to all beyond. . . . Until +man appears there is no organism to correspond with the whole +environment. Natural Law, Death, p. 155. + +March 27th. Is man in correspondence with the whole environment or is he +not? . . . He is not. Of men generally it cannot be said that they are in +living contact with that part of the environment which is called the +spiritual world. Natural Law, Death, p. 156. + +March 28th. The animal world and the plant world are the same world. They +are different parts of one environment. And the natural and spiritual are +likewise one. Natural Law, Death, p. 157. + +March 29th. What we have correspondence with, that we call natural; what +we have little or no correspondence with, that we call Spiritual. Natural +Law, Death, p. 157. + +March 30th. Those who are in communion with God live, those who are not +are dead. Natural Law, Death, p. 158. + +March 31st. This earthly mind may be of noble calibre, enriched by +culture, high-toned, virtuous, and pure. But if it know not God? What +though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the +magnitudes of Time and Space? The stars of heaven are not heaven. Space +is not God. Natural Law, Death, p. 158. + +April 1st. We do not picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any +sense a monster. We have said he may be high-toned, virtuous, and pure. +The plant is not a monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird; +nor is he a monster who is dead to the voice of God. The contention at +present simply is that he is DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 159. + +April 2d. What is the creed of the Agnostic, but the confession of the +spiritual numbness of humanity? Natural Law, Death, p. 160. + +April 3d. The nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the proof from +experience that to be carnally minded is Death. Natural Law, p. 161. + +April 4th. The Christian apologist never further misses the mark than +when he refuses the testimony of the Agnostic to himself. When the +Agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid, and dead to the +spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me +that. Science tells me that. He knows nothing of this outermost circle; +and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores +it as if, being a man without an ear, he professed to know nothing of a +musical world, or being without taste, of a world of art. Natural Law, +Death, p. 160. + +April 5th. It brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he is +mistaken. To say he is self-deceived is neither to compliment him nor +Christianity. He builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the +UNKNOWN God. He does not know God. With all his marvellous and complex +correspondences, he is still one correspondence short. Natural Law, +Death, p. 161. + +April 6th. Only one thing truly need the Christian envy, the large, rich, +generous soul which "envieth not." The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 7th. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing +the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 8th. I say that man believes in a God, who feels himself in the +presence of a Power which is not himself, and is immeasurably above +himself, a Power in the contemplation of which he is absorbed, in the +knowledge of which he finds safety and happiness. Natural Law, Death, p. +162. + +April 9th. What men deny is not a God. It is the correspondence. The very +confession of the Unknowable is itself the dull recognition of an +Environment beyond themselves, and for which they feel they lack the +correspondence. It is this want that makes their God the Unknown God. And +it is this that makes them DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 163. + +April 10th. God is not confined to the outermost circle of environment, +He lives and moves and has His being in the whole. Those who only seek +Him in the further zone can only find a part. The Christian who knows not +God in Nature, who does not, that is to say, correspond with the whole +environment, most certainly is partially dead. Natural Law, Death, p. +163. + +April 11th. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into +the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and +say nothing about it. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 12th. The absence of the true Light means moral Death. The darkness +of the natural world to the intellect is not all. What history testifies +to is, first the partial, and then the total eclipse of virtue that +always follows the abandonment of belief in a personal God. Natural Law, +Death, p. 167. + +April 13th. The only greatness is unselfish love. . . . There is a great +difference between TRYING TO PLEASE and GIVING PLEASURE. The Greatest +Thing in the World. + +April 14th. The conception of a God gives an altogether new colour to +worldliness and vice. Worldliness it changes into heathenism, vice into +blasphemy. The carnal mind, the mind which is turned away from God, which +will not correspond with God--this is not moral only but spiritual Death. +And Sin, that which separates from God, which disobeys God, which CAN not +in that state correspond with God--this is hell. Natural Law, Death, p. +169. + +April 15th. If sin is estrangement from God, this very estrangement is +Death. It is a want of correspondence. If sin is selfishness, it is +conducted at the expense of life. Its wages are Death--"he that loveth +his life," said Christ, "shall lose it." Natural Law, Death, p. 170. + +April 16th. Obviously if the mind turns away from one part of the +environment it will only do so under some temptation to correspond with +another. This temptation, at bottom, can only come from one source--the +love of self. The irreligious man's correspondences are concentrated upon +himself. He worships himself. Self-gratification rather than self-denial; +independence rather than submission--these are the rules of life. And +this is at once the poorest and the commonest form of idolatry. Natural +Law, p. 170. + +April 17th. You will find . . . that the people who influence you are +people who believe in you. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 18th. The development of any organism in any direction is dependent +on its environment. A living cell cut off from air will die. A seed-germ +apart from moisture and an appropriate temperature will make the ground +its grave for centuries. Human nature, likewise, is subject to similar +conditions. It can only develop in presence of its environment. No matter +what its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds of thought or virtue, +what germs of genius or of art, lie latent in its breast, until the +appropriate environment present itself the correspondence is denied, the +development discouraged, the most splendid possibilities of life remain +unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius and art, are dead. Natural +Law, p. 171. + +April 19th. The true environment of the moral life is God. Here +conscience wakes. Here kindles love. Duty here becomes heroic; and that +righteousness begins to live which alone is to live forever. But if this +Atmosphere is not, the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its +native air. And its Death is a strictly natural Death. It is not an +exceptional judgment upon Atheism. In the same circumstances, in the same +averted relation to their environment, the poet, the musician, the +artist, would alike perish to poetry, to music, and to art. Natural Law, +p. 171. + +April 20th. Every environment is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly +proportionate to my correspondence with it. If I correspond with part of +it, part of myself is influenced. If I correspond with more, more of +myself is influenced; if with all, all is influenced. If I correspond +with the world, I become worldly; if with God, I become Divine. Natural +Law, Death, p. 171. + +April 21st. You can dwarf a soul just as you can dwarf a plant, by +depriving it of a full environment. Such a soul for a time may have a +"name to live." Its character may betray no sign of atrophy. But its very +virtue somehow has the pallor of a flower that is grown in darkness, or +as the herb which has never seen the sun, no fragrance breathes from its +spirit. Natural Law, p. 173. + +April 22d. I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, +therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human +being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall +not pass this way again. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 23d. There is no happiness in having and getting, but only in +giving . . . half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of +happiness. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 24th. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianize society than evil +temper. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 25th. How many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God by the +unlovely character of those who profess to be inside! The Greatest Thing +in the World. + +April 26th. A want of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, +a want of courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously +symbolized in one flash of Temper. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 27th. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but +by putting something in--a great Love, a new Spirit--the Spirit of +Christ. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 28th. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, +sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what is +wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate +the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men. +Christ does. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 29th Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the +possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will +find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are +people who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; +but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative +fellowship. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 30th. Do not quarrel . . . with your lot in life. Do not complain +of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have +to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +May 1st. The moment the new life is begun there comes a genuine anxiety +to break with the old. For the former environment has now become +embarrassing. It refuses its dismissal from consciousness. It competes +doggedly with the new Environment for a share of the correspondences. And +in a hundred ways the former traditions, the memories and passions of the +past, the fixed associations and habits of the earlier life, now +complicate the new relation. The complex and bewildered soul, in fact, +finds itself in correspondence with two environments, each with urgent +but yet incompatible claims. It is a dual soul living in a double world, +a world whose inhabitants are deadly enemies, and engaged in perpetual +civil war. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 179. + +May 2d. How can the New Life deliver itself from the still-persistent +past? A ready solution of the difficulty would be TO DIE. . . . If we +cannot die altogether, . . . the most we can do is to die as much as we +can. . . . To die to any environment is to withdraw correspondence with +it, to cut ourselves off, so far as possible, from all communication with +it. So that the solution of the problem will simply be this, for the +spiritual life to reverse continuously the processes of the natural life. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 180. + +May 3d. The spiritual man having passed from Death unto Life, the natural +man must next proceed to pass from Life unto Death. Having opened the new +set of correspondences, he must deliberately close up the old. +Regeneration in short must be accompanied by Degeneration. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 181. + +May 4th. The peculiar feature of Death by Suicide is that it is not only +self-inflicted but sudden. And there are many sins which must either be +dealt with suddenly or not at all. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 183. + +May 5th. If the Christian is to "live unto God," he must "die unto sin." +If he does not kill sin, sin will inevitably kill him. Recognizing this, +he must set himself to reduce the number of his correspondences-- +retaining and developing those which lead to a fuller life, +unconditionally withdrawing those which in any way tend in an opposite +direction. This stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act, a +crucifixion of the flesh, a suicide. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 182. + +May 6th. Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems +to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for +agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God +appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and +humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +May 7th. It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that as a general rule +men are linked to evil mainly by a single correspondence. Few men break +the whole law. Our natures, fortunately, are not large enough to make us +guilty of all, and the restraints of circumstances are usually such as to +leave a loophole in the life of each individual for only a single +habitual sin. But it is very easy to see how this reduction of our +intercourse with evil to a single correspondence blinds us to our true +position. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 186. + +May 8th. One little weakness, we are apt to fancy, all men must be +allowed, and we even claim a certain indulgence for that apparent +necessity of nature which we call our besetting sin. Yet to break with +the lower environment at all, to many, is to break at this single point. +Natural Law, p. 186. + +May 9th. There may be only one avenue between the new life and the old, +it may be but a small and SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE, but this is sufficient to +keep the old life in. So long as that remains the victim is not "dead +unto sin," and therefore he cannot "live unto God." Natural Law, p. 187. + +May 10th. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless +image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you see it not, +and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore keep +in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men, and among +things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles. The Greatest +Thing in the World. + +May 11th. Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love. Stand before +that mirror, reflect Christ's character, and you will be changed into the +same image from tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way. You +cannot love to order. You can only look at the lovely object, and fall in +love with it, and grow into likeness to it. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +May 12th. In the natural world it only requires a single vital +correspondence of the body to be out of order to ensure Death. It is not +necessary to have consumption, diabetes, and an aneurism to bring the +body to the grave, if it have heart disease. He who is fatally diseased +in one organ necessarily pays the penalty with his life, though all the +others be in perfect health. And such, likewise, are the mysterious unity +and correlation of functions in the spiritual organism that the disease +of one member may involve the ruin of the whole. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 187. + +May 13th. To break altogether, and at every point, with the old +environment, is a simple impossibility. So long as the regenerate man is +kept in this world he must find the old environment at many points a +severe temptation. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 190. + +May 14th. Power over very many of the commonest temptations is only to be +won by degrees, and however anxious one might be to apply the summary +method to every case, he soon finds it impossible in practice. Natural +Law, Mortification, p. 190. + +May 15th. The ill-tempered person . . . can make very little of his +environment. However he may attempt to circumscribe it in certain +directions, there will always remain a wide and ever-changing area to +stimulate his irascibility. His environment, in short, is an inconstant +quantity, and his most elaborate calculations and precautions must often +and suddenly fail him. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 191. + +May 16th. What the ill-tempered person has to deal with, . . . mainly, is +the correspondence, the temper itself. And that, he well knows, involves +a long and humiliating discipline. The case is not at all a surgical but +a medical one, and the knife is here of no more use than in a fever. A +specific irritant has poisoned his veins. And the acrid humours that are +breaking out all over the surface of his life are only to be subdued by a +gradual sweetening of the inward spirit. Natural Law, Mortification, p. +191. + +May 17th. The man whose blood is pure has nothing to fear. So he whose +spirit is purified and sweetened becomes proof against these germs of +sin. "Anger, wrath, malice and railing" in such a soil can find no root. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 192. + +May 18th. The Mortification of a member . . .is based on the Law of +Degeneration. The useless member here is not cut off, but simply relieved +as much as possible of all exercise. This encourages the gradual decay of +the parts, and as it is more and more neglected it ceases to be a channel +for life at all. So an organism "mortifies" its members. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 193. + +May 19th. Man's spiritual life consists in the number and fulness of his +correspondences with God. In order to develop these he may be constrained +to insulate them, to enclose them from the other correspondences, to shut +himself in with them. In many ways the limitation of the natural life is +the necessary condition of the full enjoyment of the spiritual life. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195. + +May 20th. No man is called to a life of self-denial for its own sake. It +is in order to a compensation which, though sometimes difficult to see, +is always real and always proportionate. No truth, perhaps, in practical +religion is more lost sight of. We cherish somehow a lingering rebellion +against the doctrine of self-denial--as if our nature, or our +circumstances, or our conscience, dealt with us severely in loading us +with the daily cross. But is it not plain after all that the life of +self-denial is the more abundant life--more abundant just in proportion +to the ampler crucifixion of the narrower life? Is it not a clear case of +exchange--an exchange, however, where the advantage is entirely on our +side? We give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to +enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life. What though we +sacrifice a hundred such correspondences? We make but the more room for +the great one that is left. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195. + +May 21st. Do not spoil your life at the outset with unworthy and +impoverishing correspondences; and if it is growing truly rich and +abundant, be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal quality with +anything of earth. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196. + +May 22d. To concentrate upon a few great correspondences, to oppose to +the death the perpetual petty larceny of our life by trifles--these are +the conditions for the highest and happiest life. . . . The penalty of +evading self-denial also is just that we get the lesser instead of the +larger good. The punishment of sin is inseparably bound up with itself. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196. + +May 23d. Each man has only a certain amount of life, of time, of +attention--a definite measurable quantity. If he gives any of it to this +life solely it is wasted. Therefore Christ says, Hate life, limit life, +lest you steal your love for it from something that deserves it more. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 197. + +May 24th. To refuse to deny one's self is just to be left with the self +undented. When the balance of life is struck, the self will be found +still there. The discipline of life was meant to destroy this self, but +that discipline having been evaded--and we all to some extent have +opportunities, and too often exercise them, of taking the narrow path by +the shortest cuts--its purpose is baulked. But the soul is the loser. In +seeking to gain its life it has really lost it. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 196. + +May 25th. Suppose we deliberately made up our minds as to what things we +were henceforth to allow to become our life? Suppose we selected a given +area of our environment and determined once for all that our +correspondences should go to that alone, fencing in this area all round +with a morally impassable wall? True, to others, we should seem to live a +poorer life; they would see that our environment was circumscribed, and +call us narrow because it was narrow. But, well-chosen, this limited life +would be really the fullest life; it would be rich in the highest and +worthiest, and poor in the smallest and basest, correspondences. Natural +Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 26th. The well-defined spiritual life is not only the highest life, +but it is also the most easily lived. The whole cross is more easily +carried than the half. It is the man who tries to make the best of both +worlds who makes nothing of either. And he who seeks to serve two masters +misses the benediction of both. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 27th. You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the +moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the +moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans +the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there +leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do +unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to +speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +May 28th. No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the +condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and +time, just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires +preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any cost +have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. The Greatest Thing +in the World, p. 60. + +May 29th. He who has taken his stand, who has drawn a boundary line, +sharp and deep, about his religious life, who has marked off all beyond +as for ever forbidden ground to him, finds the yoke easy and the burden +light. For this forbidden environment comes to be as if it were not. His +faculties falling out of correspondence, slowly lose their sensibilities. +And the balm of Death numbing his lower nature releases him for the +scarce disturbed communion of a higher life. So even here to die is gain. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 30th. Remain side by side with Him who loved us, and gave Himself for +us, and you too will become a permanent magnet, a permanently attractive +force; and like Him you will draw all men unto you, like Him you will be +drawn unto all men. That is the inevitable effect of Love. Any man who +fulfils that cause must have that effect produced in him. The Greatest +Thing in the World, p. 45. + +May 31st. Try to give up the idea that religion comes to us by chance, or +by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by natural law, or by +supernatural law, for all law is Divine. The Greatest Thing in the World, +p. 46. + +June 1st. We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because +He first loved us. . . . And that is how the love of God melts down the +unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the new creature, who is patient +and humble and gentle and unselfish. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. +46. + +June 2d. The belief in Science as an aid to faith is not yet ripe enough +to warrant men in searching there for witnesses to the highest Christian +truths. The inspiration of Nature, it is thought, extends to the humbler +doctrines alone. And yet the reverent inquirer who guides his steps in +the right direction may find even now, in the still dim twilight of the +scientific world, much that will illuminate and intensify his sublimest +faith. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 204. + +June 3d. Life becomes fuller and fuller, richer and richer, more and more +sensitive and responsive to an ever-widening Environment as we rise in +the chain of being. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 207. + +June 4th. Before we reach an Eternal Life we must pass beyond that point +at which all ordinary correspondences inevitably cease. We must find an +organism so high and complex, that at some point in its development it +shall have added a correspondence which organic death is powerless to +arrest. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 213. + +June 5th. Uninterrupted correspondence with a perfect Environment is +Eternal Life, according to Science. "This is Life Eternal," said Christ, +"that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou +hast sent." Life Eternal is to know God. To know God is to "correspond" +with God. To correspond with God is to correspond with a Perfect +Environment. And the organism which attains to this, in the nature of +things, must live forever. Here is "eternal existence and eternal +knowledge." Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 215. + +June 6th. To find a new Environment again and cultivate relation with it +is to find a new Life. To live is to correspond, and to correspond is to +live. So much is true in Science. But it is also true in Religion. And it +is of great importance to observe that to Religion also the conception of +Life is a correspondence. No truth of Christianity has been more +ignorantly or wilfully travestied than the doctrine of Immortality. The +popular idea, in spite of a hundred protests, is that Eternal Life is to +live forever. . . . We are told that Life Eternal is not to live. This is +Life Eternal--TO KNOW. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 216. + +June 7th. From time to time the taunt is thrown at Religion, not unseldom +from lips which Science ought to have taught more caution, that the +Future Life of Christianity is simply a prolonged existence, an eternal +monotony, a blind and indefinite continuance of being. The Bible never +could commit itself to any such empty platitude; nor could Christianity +ever offer to the world a hope so colourless. Not that Eternal Life has +nothing to do with everlastingness. That is part of the conception. And +it is this aspect of the question that first arrests us in the field of +Science. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 216. + +June 8th. Science speaks to us indeed of much more than numbers of years. +It defines degrees of Life. It explains a widening Environment. It +unfolds the relation between a widening Environment and increasing +complexity in organisms. And if it has no absolute contribution to the +content of Religion, its analogies are not limited to a point. It yields +to Immortality, and this is the most that Science can do in any case, the +broad framework for a doctrine. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 217. + +June 9th. To correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal Unknowable, +would be everlasting existence; to correspond with "the true God and +Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life alone +makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon. Even the brief +span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years in +sorrow. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 220. + +June 10th. To Christianity, "he that hath the Son of God hath Life, and +he that hath not the Son hath not Life." This, as we take it, defines the +correspondence which is to bridge the grave. This is the clue to the +nature of the Life that lies at the back of the spiritual organism. And +this is the true solution of the mystery of Eternal Life. Natural Law, +Eternal Life, p. 227. + +June 11th. The relation between the spiritual man and his Environment is, +in theological language, a filial relation. With the new Spirit, the +filial correspondence, he knows the Father--and this is Life Eternal. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 229. + +June 12th. It takes the Divine to know the Divine--but in no more +mysterious sense than it takes the human to understand the human. The +analogy, indeed, for the whole field here has been finely expressed +already by Paul: "What man," he asks, "knoweth the things of a man, save +the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no +man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the +world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that +are freely given to us of God."--I. Cor. ii. 11, 12. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 229. + +June 13th. To go outside what we call Nature is not to go outside +Environment. Nature, the natural Environment, is only a part of +Environment. There is another large part, which, though some profess to +have no correspondence with it, is not on that account unreal, or even +unnatural. The mental and moral world is unknown to the plant. But it is +real. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 232. + +June 14th. Things are natural or supernatural simply according to where +one stands. Man is supernatural to the mineral; God is supernatural to +the man. When a mineral is seized upon by the living plant and elevated +to the organic kingdom, no trespass against Nature is committed. It +merely enters a larger Environment, which before was supernatural to it, +but which now is entirely natural. When the heart of a man, again, is +seized upon by the quickening Spirit of God, no further violence is done +to natural law. It is another case of the inorganic, so to speak, passing +into the organic. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 232. + +June 15th. Correspondence in any case is the gift of Environment. The +natural Environment gives men their natural faculties; the spiritual +affords them their spiritual faculties. It is natural for the spiritual +Environment to supply the spiritual faculties; it would be quite +unnatural for the natural Environment to do it. The natural law of +Bio-genesis forbids it; the moral fact that the finite cannot comprehend +the Infinite is against it; the spiritual principle that flesh and blood, +cannot inherit the Kingdom of God renders it absurd. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 233. + +June 16th. Organisms are not added to by accretion, as in the case of +minerals, but by growth. And the spiritual faculties are organized in the +spiritual protoplasm of the soul, just as other faculties are organized +in the protoplasm of the body. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 233. + +June 17th. It ought to be placed in the forefront of all Christian +teaching that Christ's mission on earth was to give men Life. "I am +come," He said, "that ye might have Life, and that ye might have it more +abundantly." And that He meant literal Life, literal spiritual and +Eternal Life, is clear from the whole course of His teaching and acting. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 235. + +June 18th. The effort to detect the living Spirit must be at least as +idle as the attempt to subject protoplasm to microscopic examination in +the hope of discovering Life. We are warned, also, not to expect too +much. "Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth." Natural +Law, Eternal Life, p. 237. + +June 19th. Many men would be religious if they knew where to begin; many +would be more religious if they were sure where it would end. It is not +indifference that keeps some men from God, but ignorance. "Good Master, +what must I do to inherit Eternal Life?" is still the deepest question of +the age. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 237. + +June 20th. The voice of God and the voice of Nature. I cannot be wrong if +I listen to them. Sometimes, when uncertain of a voice from its very +loudness, we catch the missing syllable in the echo. In God and Nature we +have Voice and Echo. When I hear both, I am assured. My sense of hearing +does not betray me twice. I recognize the Voice in the Echo, the Echo +makes me certain of the Voice; I listen and I know. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 238. + +June 21st. The soul is a living organism. And for any question as +to the soul's Life we must appeal to Life-science. And what does the +Life-science teach? That if I am to inherit Eternal Life, I must +cultivate a correspondence with the Eternal. Natural Law, Eternal Life, +p. 239. + +June 22d. All knowledge lies in Environment. When I want to know about +minerals I go to minerals. When I want to know about flowers I go to +flowers. And they tell me. In their own way they speak to me, each in its +own way, and each for itself--not the mineral for the flower, which is +impossible, nor the flower for the mineral, which is also impossible. So +if I want to know about Man, I go to his part of the Environment. And he +tells me about himself, not as the plant or the mineral, for he is +neither, but in his own way. And if I want to know about God, I go to His +part of the Environment. And He tells me about Himself, not as a Man, for +He is not Man, but in His own way. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 239. + +June 23d. Just as naturally as the flower and the mineral and the Man, +each in their own way, tell me about themselves, He tells me about +Himself. He very strangely condescends indeed in making things plain to +me, actually assuming for a time the Form of a Man that I at my poor +level may better see Him. This is my opportunity to know Him. This +incarnation is God making Himself accessible to human thought--God +opening to Man the possibility of correspondence through Jesus Christ. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 240. + +June 24th. Having opened correspondence with the Eternal Environment, the +subsequent stages are in the line of all other normal development. We +have but to continue, to deepen, to extend, and to enrich the +correspondence that has been begun. And we shall soon find to our +surprise that this is accompanied by another and parallel process. The +action is not all upon our side. The Environment also will be found to +correspond. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 241. + +June 25th. Let us look for the influence of Environment on the spiritual +nature of him who has opened correspondence with God. Reaching out his +eager and quickened faculties to the spiritual world around him, shall he +not become spiritual? In vital contact with Holiness, shall he not become +holy? Breathing now an atmosphere of ineffable Purity, shall he miss +becoming pure? Walking with God from day to day, shall he fail to be +taught of God? Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 242. + +June 26th. Growth in grace is sometimes described as a strange, mystical, +and unintelligible process. It is mystical, but neither strange nor +unintelligible. It proceeds according to Natural Law, and the leading +factor in sanctification is Influence of Environment. Natural Law, +Eternal Life, p. 242. + +June 27th. Will the evolutionist who admits the regeneration of the frog +under the modifying influence of a continued correspondence with a new +environment, care to question the possibility of the soul acquiring such +a faculty as that of Prayer, the marvellous breathing-function of the new +creature, when in contact with the atmosphere of a besetting God? Is the +change from the earthly to the heavenly more mysterious than the change +from the aquatic to the terrestrial mode of life? Is Evolution to stop +with the organic? If it be objected that it has taken ages to perfect the +function in the batrachian, the reply is, that it will take ages to +perfect the function in the Christian. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 244. + +June 28th. We have indeed spoken of the spiritual correspondence as +already perfect--but it is perfect only as the bud is perfect. "It doth +not yet appear what it shall be," any more than it appeared a million +years ago what the evolving batrachian would be. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 244. + +June 29th. In a sense, all that belongs to Time belongs also to Eternity; +but these lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted for an +Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their +Environment, they would still not be Eternal. . . . An Eternal Life +demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 245. + +June 30th. The final preparation . . . for the inheriting of Eternal Life +must consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements. These must +be unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements, And this is +effected by a closing catastrophe--Death. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. +248. + +July 1st. "Perfect correspondence," according to Mr. Herbert Spencer, +would be "perfect Life." To abolish Death, therefore, all that would be +necessary would be to abolish Imperfection. But it is the claim of +Christianity that it can abolish Death. And it is significant to notice +that it does so by meeting this very demand of Science--it abolishes +Imperfection. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 249. + +July 2d. The part of the organism which begins to get out of +correspondence with the Organic Environment is the only part which is in +vital correspondence with it. Though a fatal disadvantage to the natural +man to be thrown out of correspondence with this Environment, it is of +inestimable importance to the spiritual man. For so long as it is +maintained the way is barred for a further Evolution. And hence the +condition necessary for the further Evolution is that the spiritual be +released from the natural. That is to say, the condition of the further +Evolution is Death. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 249. + +July 3d. The sifting of the correspondences is done by Nature. This is +its last and greatest contribution to mankind. Over the mouth of the +grave the perfect and the imperfect submit to their final separation. +Each goes to its own--earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, +Spirit to Spirit. "The dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the +Spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. +249. + +July 4th. Few things are less understood than the conditions of the +spiritual life. The distressing incompetence of which most of us are +conscious in trying to work out our spiritual experience is due perhaps +less to the diseased will which we commonly blame for it than to +imperfect knowledge of the right conditions. It does not occur to us how +natural the spiritual is. We still strive for some strange transcendent +thing; we seek to promote life by methods as unnatural as they prove +unsuccessful; and only the utter incomprehensibility of the whole region +prevents us seeing fully--what we already half-suspect--how completely we +are missing the road. Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 5th. Living in the spiritual world . . . is just as simple as living +in the natural world; and it is the same kind of simplicity. It is the +same kind of simplicity for it is the same kind of world--there are not +two kinds of worlds. The conditions of life in the one are the conditions +of life in the other. And till these conditions are sensibly grasped, as +the conditions of all life, it is impossible that the personal effort +after the highest life should be other than a blind struggle carried on +in fruitless sorrow and humiliation. Natural Law, Environment, p. 257. + +July 6th. Heredity and Environment are the master-influences of the +organic world. These have made all of us what we are. These forces are +still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives. And he who truly +understands these influences; he who has decided how much to allow to +each; he who can regulate new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the +old, so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate, at +another to counteract one another, understands the rationale of personal +development. Natural Law, Environment, p. 255. + +July 7th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more perfect +adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some inward evil +with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to make our +Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the secrets +of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 8th. In the spiritual world . . . the subtle influences which form +and transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially, +where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so ill +defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the atmosphere +as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural life. +Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 9th. What Heredity has to do for us is determined outside ourselves. +No man can select his own parents. But every man to some extent can +choose his own Environment. His relation to it, however largely +determined by Heredity in the first instance, is always open to +alteration. And so great is his control over Environment and so radical +its influence over him, that he can so direct it as either to undo, +modify, perpetuate, or intensify the earlier hereditary influences within +certain limits. Natural Law, Environment, p. 257. + +July 10th. One might show how the moral man is acted upon and changed +continuously by the influences, secret and open, of his surroundings, by +the tone of society, by the company he keeps, by his occupation, by the +books he reads, by Nature, by all, in short, that constitutes the +habitual atmosphere of his thoughts and the little world of his daily +choice. Or one might go deeper still and prove how the spiritual life +also is modified from outside sources--its health or disease, its growth +or decay, all its changes for better or for worse being determined by the +varying and successive circumstances in which the religious habits are +cultivated. Natural Law, Environment, p. 260. + +July 11th. In the spiritual world . . . he will be wise who courts +acquaintance with the most ordinary and transparent facts of Nature; and +in laying the foundations for a religious life he will make no unworthy +beginning who carries with him an impressive sense of so obvious a truth +as that without Environment there can be no life. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 264. + +July 12th. There is in the spiritual organism a principle of life; but +that is not self-existent. It requires a second factor, a something in +which to live and move and have its being, an Environment. Without this +it cannot live or move or have any being. Without Environment the soul is +as the carbon without the oxygen, as the fish without the water, as the +animal frame without the extrinsic conditions of vitality. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 264. + +July 13th. What is the Spiritual Environment? It is God. Without this, +therefore, there is no life, no thought, no energy, nothing---"without Me +ye can do nothing." Natural Law, Environment, p. 265. + +July 14th. The cardinal error in the religious life is to attempt to live +without an Environment. Spiritual experience occupies itself, not too +much, but too exclusively, with one factor--the soul. We delight in +dissecting this much-tortured faculty, from time to time, in search of a +certain something which we call our faith--forgetting that faith is but +an attitude, an empty hand for grasping an environing Presence. Natural +Law, Environment, p 265. + +July 15th. When we feel the need of a power by which to overcome the +world, how often do we not seek to generate it within ourselves by some +forced process, some fresh girding of the will, some strained activity +which only leaves the soul in further exhaustion? Natural Law, +Environment, p. 265. + +July 16th. To examine ourselves is good; but useless unless we also +examine Environment. To bewail our weakness is right, but not remedial. +The cause must be investigated as well as the result. And yet, because we +never see the other half of the problem, our failures even fail to +instruct us. After each new collapse we begin our life anew, but on the +old conditions; and the attempt ends as usual in the repetition--in the +circumstances the inevitable repetition--of the old disaster. Natural +Law, Environment, p. 265. + +July 17th. After seasons of much discouragement, with the sore sense upon +us of our abject feebleness, we do confer with ourselves, insisting for +the thousandth time, "My soul, wait thou only upon God." But, the lesson +is soon forgotten. The strength supplied we speedily credit to our own +achievement; and even the temporary success is mistaken for a symptom of +improved inward vitality. Once more we become self-existent. Once more we +go on living without an Environment. And once more, after days of wasting +without repairing, of spending without replenishing, we begin to perish +with hunger, only returning to God again, as a last resort, when we have +reached starvation point. Natural Law, Environment, p. 266. + +July 18th. Why this unscientific attempt to sustain life for weeks at a +time without an Environment? It is because we have never truly seen the +necessity for an Environment. We have not been working with a principle. +We are told to "wait only upon God," but we do not know why. It has never +been as clear to us that without God the soul will die as that without +food the body will perish. In short, we have never comprehended the +doctrine of the Persistence of Force. Instead of being content to +transform energy we have tried to create it. Natural Law, Environment, p. +266. + +July 19th. Whatever energy the soul expends must first be "taken into it +from without." We are not Creators, but creatures; God is our refuge AND +STRENGTH. Communion with God, therefore, is a scientific necessity; and +nothing will more help the defeated spirit which is struggling in the +wreck of its religious life than a common-sense hold of this biological +principle that without Environment he can do nothing. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 267. + +July 20th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a +fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss, at every turn of his +life, an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room +in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times +He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier +symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his +helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life, +the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other +energy, Spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at +last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. +This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerlessness is the normal +state, not only of this, but of every organism--of every organism apart +from its Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +July 21st. Friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is. +God is love. And to make religion akin to Friendship is simply to give it +the highest expression conceivable by man. The Changed Life, p. 49. + +July 22d. The entire dependence of the soul upon God is not an +exceptional mystery, nor is man's helplessness an arbitrary and +unprecedented phenomenon. It is the law of all Nature. The spiritual man +is not taxed beyond the natural. He is not purposely handicapped by +singular limitations or unusual incapacities. God has not designedly made +the religious life as hard as possible. The arrangements for the +spiritual life are the same as for the natural life. When, in their hours +of unbelief, men challenge their Creator for placing the obstacle of +human frailty in the way of their highest development, their protest is +against the order of Nature. Natural Law, p. 269. + +July 23d. The organism must either depend on his environment, or be +self-sufficient. But who will not rather approve the arrangement by which +man in his creatural life may have unbroken access to an Infinite Power? +What soul will seek to remain self-luminous when it knows that "The Lord +God is a Sun?" Who will not willingly exchange his shallow vessel for +Christ's well of living water. Natural Law, p. 270. + +July 24th. The New Testament is nowhere more impressive than where it +insists on the fact of man's dependence. In its view the first step in +religion is for man to feel his helplessness. Christ's first beatitude is +to the poor in spirit. The condition of entrance into the spiritual +kingdom is to possess the child-spirit--that state of mind combining at +once the profoundest helplessness with the most artless feeling of +dependence. Natural Law, p. 271. + +July 25th. Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improbability, but an +impossibility. As well expect the natural fruit to flourish without air +and heat, without soil and sunshine. How thoroughly also Paul grasped +this truth is apparent from a hundred pregnant passages in which he +echoes his Master's teaching. To him life was hid with Christ in God. And +that he embraced this, not as a theory but as an experimental truth, we +gather from his constant confession, "When I am weak, then am I strong." +Natural Law, p. 271. + +July 26th. One result of the due apprehension of our personal +helplessness will be that we shall no longer waste our time over the +impossible task of manufacturing energy for ourselves. Our science will +bring to an abrupt end the long series of severe experiments in which we +have indulged in the hope of finding a perpetual motion. And having +decided upon this once for all, our first step in seeking a more +satisfactory state of things must be to find a new source of energy. +Following Nature, only one course is open to us. We must refer to +Environment. The natural life owes all to Environment, so must the +spiritual. Now the Environment of the spiritual life is God. As Nature, +therefore, forms the complement of the natural life. God is the +complement of the spiritual. Natural Law, p. 272. + +July 27th. Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see +yourself grow, or hear the whirr of the machinery. All great things grow +noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Mr. Darwin +tells us that Evolution proceeds by "numerous, successive, and slight +modifications." The Changed Life, p. 54. + +July 28th. We fail to praise the ceaseless ministry of the great +inanimate world around us only because its kindness is unobtrusive. +Nature is always noiseless. All her greatest gifts are given in secret. +And we forget how truly every good and perfect gift comes from without, +and from above, because no pause in her changeless beneficence teaches us +the sad lessons of deprivation. Natural Law, p. 274. + +July 29th. It is not a strange thing for the soul to find its life in +God. This is its native air. God as the Environment of the soul has been +from the remotest age the doctrine of all the deepest thinkers in +religion. How profoundly Hebrew poetry is saturated with this high +thought will appear when we try to conceive of it with this left out. +Natural Law, p. 374. + +July 30th. The alternatives of the intellectual life are Christianity or +Agnosticism. The Agnostic is right when he trumpets his incompleteness. +He who is not complete in Him must be for ever incomplete. Natural Law, +p. 278. + +July 31st. The problems of the heart and conscience are infinitely more +perplexing than those of the intellect. Has love no future? Has right no +triumph? Is the unfinished self to remain unfinished? The alternatives +are two, Christianity or Pessimism. But when we ascend the further height +of the religious nature, the crisis comes. There, without Environment, +the darkness is unutterable. So maddening now becomes the mystery that +men are compelled to construct an Environment for themselves. No +Environment here is unthinkable. An altar of some sort men must have-- +God, or Nature, or Law. But the anguish of Atheism is only a negative +proof of man's incompleteness. Natural Law, p. 279. + +August 1st. A photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to +the sun. While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he +simply stops the getting on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may +need, it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed, +anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The +Changed Life, pp. 56, 57. + +August 2d. What a very strange thing, is it not, for man to pray? It is +the symbol at once of his littleness and of his greatness. Here the sense +of imperfection, controlled and silenced in the narrower reaches of his +being, becomes audible. Now he must utter himself. The sense of need is +so real, and the sense of Environment, that he calls out to it, +addressing it articulately, and imploring it to satisfy his need. Surely +there is nothing more touching in Nature than this? Man could never so +expose himself, so break through all constraint, except from a dire +necessity. Natural Law, p. 279. + +August 3d. What is Truth? The natural Environment answers, "Increase of +Knowledge increaseth Sorrow," and "much study is a Weariness." Christ +replies, "Learn of Me, and ye shall find Rest." Contrast the world's word +"Weariness" with Christ's word "Rest." No other teacher since the world +began has ever associated "learn" with "Rest." Learn of me, says the +philosopher, and you shall find Restlessness. Learn of Me, says Christ, +and ye shall find Rest. Natural Law, p. 280. + +August 4th. Men will have to give up the experiment of attempting to live +in half an Environment. Half an Environment will give but half a Life. +. . . He whose correspondences are with this world alone has only a +thousandth part, a fraction, the mere rim and shade of an Environment, +and only the fraction of a Life. How long will it take Science to believe +its own creed, that the material universe we see around us is only a +fragment of the universe we do not see? Natural Law, p. 282. + +August 5th. The Life of the senses, high and low, may perfect itself in +Nature. Even the Life of thought may find a large complement in +surrounding things. But the higher thought, and the conscience, and the +religious Life, can only perfect themselves in God. Natural Law, p. 283. + +August 6th. To make the influence of Environment stop with the natural +world is to doom the spiritual nature to death. For the soul, like the +body, can never perfect itself in isolation. The law for both is to be +complete in the appropriate Environment. Natural Law, p. 283. + +August 7th. Take into your new sphere of labour, where you also mean to +lay down your life, that simple charm, Love, and your life-work must +succeed. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is +not worth while going if you take anything less. The Greatest Thing in +the World, p. 17. + +August 8th. Politeness has been defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is +said to be love in little things. And the one secret of politeness is to +love. Love CANNOT behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored +persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of Love in +their heart, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply cannot +do it. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 26. + +August 9th. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just +His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any other. +I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious lesson in +Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting +anything, but only in giving. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 29. + +August 10th. Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of +happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being +served by others. It consists in giving, and in serving others. He that +would be great among you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be +happy, let him remember that there is but one way--it is more blessed, it +is more happy, to give than to receive. The Greatest Thing in the World, +p. 30. + +August 11th. "Love is not easily provoked." . . . We are inclined to look +upon bad temper as a very harmless weakness. We speak of it as a mere +infirmity of nature, a family failing, a matter of temperament, not a +thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man's character. +And yet here, right in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a +place; and the Bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the +most destructive elements in human nature. The Greatest Thing in the +World, p. 30. + +August 12th. The peculiarity of ill-temper is that it is the vice of the +virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You +know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely +perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" +disposition. This compatibility of ill-temper with high moral character +is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The Greatest +Thing in the World, p. 31. + +August 13th. What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good +musician? Practice. . . . What makes a man a good man? Practice. Nothing +else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not get the soul +in different ways, under different laws, from those in which we get the +body and the mind. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 40. + +August 14th. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, +strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole round Christian +character--the Christ-like nature in its fullest development. And the +constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless +practice. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 41. + +August 15th. We know but little now about the conditions of the life that +is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal +God, is Love. Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift. The Greatest Thing +in the World, p. 54. + +August 16th. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love +forever is to live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up +with love. . . . Love must be eternal. It is what God is. The Greatest +Thing in the World, pp. 57, 58. + +August 17th. When a man becomes a Christian the natural process is this: +The Living Christ enters into his soul. Development begins. The +quickening Life seizes upon the soul, assimilates surrounding elements, +and begins to fashion it. According to the great Law of Conformity to +Type this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who +fashions. And all through Life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet +perfectly definite, process, goes on "until Christ be formed" in it. +Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 18th. The Christian Life is not a vague effort after +righteousness--an ill-defined, pointless struggle for an ill-defined, +pointless end. Religion is no dishevelled mass of aspiration, prayer, and +faith. There is no more mystery in Religion as to its processes than in +Biology. Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 19th. There is much mystery in Biology. "We know all but nothing +of Life" yet, nothing of development. There is the same mystery in the +spiritual Life. But the great lines are the same, as decided, as +luminous; and the laws of natural and spiritual are the same, as +unerring, as simple. Will everything else in the natural world unfold its +order, and yield to Science more and more a vision of harmony, and +Religion, which should complement and perfect all, remain a chaos? +Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 20th. When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is +trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a +drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the +hair of his own head. Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when +He said: "Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" +The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that +those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal. +The Changed Life, p. 11. + +August 21st. The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is +life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ +be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has +fulfilled its end. The Changed Life, p. 62. + +August 22d. Our companionship with Him, like all true companionship, is a +spiritual communion. All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is +purely spiritual. It was after He was risen that He influenced even the +disciples most. The Changed Life, p. 38. + +August 23d. Make Christ your most constant companion. Be more under His +influence than under any other influence. Ten minutes spent in His +society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, and heart to +heart, will make the whole day different. Every character has an inward +spring, let Christ be it. Every action has a key-note, let Christ set it. +The Changed Life, p. 40. + +August 24th. Under the right conditions it is as natural for character to +become beautiful as for a flower; and if on God's earth there is not some +machinery for effecting it, the supreme gift to the world has been +forgotten. This is simply what man was made for. With Browning: "I say +that Man was made to grow, not stop." The Changed Life, p. 10. + +August 25th. How can modern men today make Christ, the absent Christ, +their most constant companion still? The answer is that Friendship is a +spiritual thing. It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time. That +which I love in my friend is not that which I see. What influences me in +my friend is not his body but his spirit. The Changed Life, p. 37. + +August 26th. Love should be the supreme thing--because it is going to +last; because in the nature of things it is an Eternal Life. It is a +thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we shall +have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living now. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 58. + +August 27th. When will it be seen that the characteristic of the +Christian Religion is its Life, that a true theology must begin with a +Biology? Theology is the Science of God. Why will men treat God as +inorganic? Natural Law, p. 297. + +August 28th. We should be forsaking the lines of nature were we to +imagine for a moment that the new creature was to be formed out of +nothing. Nothing can be made out of nothing. Matter is uncreatable and +indestructible; Nature and man can only form and transform. Hence when a +new animal is made, no new clay is made. Life merely enters into already +existing matter, assimilates more of the same sort and rebuilds it. The +spiritual Artist works in the same way. He must have a peculiar kind of +protoplasm, a basis of life, and that must be already existing. Natural +Law, p. 297. + +August 29th. However active the intellectual or moral life may be, from +the point of view of this other Life it is dead. That which is flesh is +flesh. It wants, that is to say, the kind of Life which constitutes the +difference between the Christian and the not-a-Christian, It has not yet +been "born of the Spirit." Natural Law, p. 299. + +August 30th. The protoplasm in man has a something in addition to its +instincts or its habits. It has a capacity for God. In this capacity for +God lies its receptivity; it is the very protoplasm that was necessary. +The chamber is not only ready to receive the new Life, but the Guest is +expected, and, till He comes, is missed. Till then the soul longs and +yearns, wastes and pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the empty +air, feeling after God if so be that it may find Him. This is not +peculiar to the protoplasm of the Christian's soul. In every land and in +every age there have been altars to the Known or Unknown God. Natural +Law, p. 300. + +August 31st. It is now agreed as a mere question of anthropology that the +universal language of the human soul has always been "I perish with +hunger." This is what fits it for Christ. There is a grandeur in this cry +from the depths which makes its very unhappiness sublime. Natural Law, p. +300. + +September 1st. In reflecting the character of Christ, it is no real +obstacle that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself. +Many men know Dante better than their own fathers. He influences them +more. As a spiritual presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual +force more real. Is there any reason why a greater than . . . Dante +should not also instruct, inspire, and mould the characters of men? The +Changed Life, pp. 38, 52. + +September 2d. Mark this distinction. . . . Imitation is mechanical, +reflection organic. The one is occasional, the other habitual. In the one +case, man comes to God and imitates Him; in the other, God comes to man +and imprints Himself upon him. It is quite true that there is an +imitation of Christ which amounts to reflection. But Paul's term includes +all that the other holds, and is open to no mistake. "Whom having not +seen, I love." The Changed Life, p. 39. + +September 3d. In paraphrase: We all reflecting as a mirror the character +of Christ are transformed into the same Image from character to +character--from a poor character to a better one, from a better one to +one a little better still, from that to one still more complete, until by +slow degrees the Perfect Image is attained. Here the solution of the +problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the +character of Christ and you will become like Christ. The Changed Life, p. +24. + +September 4th. Not more certain is it that it is something outside the +thermometer that produces a change in the thermometer, than it is +something outside the soul of man that produces a moral change upon him. +That he must be susceptible to that change, that he must be a party to +it, goes without saying; but that neither his aptitude nor his will can +produce it is equally certain. The Changed Life, p. 20. + +September 5th. Just as in an organism we have these three things-- +formative matter, formed matter, and the forming principle or life; so in +the soul we have the old nature, the renewed nature, and. the +transforming Life. Natural Law, p. 302. + +September 6th. Is it hopeless to point out that one of the most +recognizable characteristics of life is its unrecognizableness, and that +the very token of its spiritual nature lies in its being beyond the +grossness of our eyes? Natural Law, p. 302. + +September 7th. According to the doctrine of Bio-genesis, life can only +come from life. It was Christ's additional claim that His function in the +world, was to give men Life. "I am come that ye might have Life, and that +ye might have it more abundantly." This could, not refer to the natural +life, for men had that already. He that hath the Son hath another Life. +"Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you." Natural +Law, p. 303. + +September 8th. The recognition of the Ideal is the first step in the +direction of Conformity. But let it be clearly observed that it is but a +step. There is no vital connection between merely seeing the Ideal and +being conformed to it. Thousands admire Christ who never become +Christians. Natural Law, p. 306. + +September 9th. For centuries men have striven to find out ways and means +to conform themselves to the Christ Life. Impressive motives have been +pictured, the proper circumstances arranged, the direction of effort +defined, and men have toiled, struggled, and agonized to conform +themselves to the Image of the Son. Can the protoplasm CONFORM ITSELF to +its type? Can the embryo FASHION ITSELF? Is Conformity to Type produced +by the matter OR BY THE LIFE, by the protoplasm or by the Type? Is +organization the cause of life or the effect of it? It is the effect of +it. Conformity to Type, therefore, is secured by the type. Christ makes +the Christian. Natural Law, p. 307. + +September 10th. O preposterous and vain man, thou who couldest not make a +fingernail of thy body, thinkest thou to fashion this wonderful, +mysterious, subtle soul of thine after the ineffable Image? Wilt thou +ever permit thyself TO BE conformed to the Image of the Son? Wilt thou, +who canst not add a cubit to thy stature, submit TO BE raised by the +Type-Life within thee to the perfect stature of Christ Natural Law, p. +308. + +September 11th. Men will still experiment "by works of righteousness +which they have done" to earn the Ideal life. The doctrine of Human +Inability, as the Church calls it, has always been objectionable to men +who do not know themselves. Natural Law, p. 309. + +September 12th. Let man choose Life; let him daily nourish his soul; let +him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living +branch in the Vine, and the True-Vine Life will flow into his soul, +assimilating, renewing, conforming to Type, till Christ, pledged by His +own law, be formed in him. Natural Law, p. 312. + +September 13th. The work begun by Nature is finished by the Supernatural +--as we are wont to call the higher natural. And as the veil is lifted by +Christianity it strikes men dumb with wonder. For the goal of Evolution +is Jesus Christ. Natural Law, p. 314. + +September 14th. The Christian life is the only life that will ever be +completed. Apart from Christ the life of man is a broken pillar, the race +of men an unfinished pyramid. One by one in sight of Eternity all human +Ideals fall short, one by one before the open grave all human hopes +dissolve. Natural Law, p. 314. + +September 15th. I do not think we ourselves are aware how much our +religious life is made up of phrases; how much of what we call Christian +experience is only a dialect of the Churches, a mere religious +phraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and +know. Pax Vobiscum, p. 12. + +September 16th. The ceaseless chagrin of a self-centred life can be +removed at once by learning Meekness and Lowliness of heart. He who +learns them is forever proof against it. He lives henceforth a charmed +life. Pax Vobiscum, p. 29. + +September 17th. Great trials come at lengthened intervals, and we rise to +breast them; but it is the petty friction of our everyday life with one +another, the jar of business or of work, the discord of the domestic +circle, the collapse of our ambition, the crossing of our will or the +taking down of our conceit, which makes inward peace impossible. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 28. + +September 18th. There are people who go about the world looking out for +slights, and they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such men +as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have had no +real education, for they have never learned how to live. Pax Vobiscum, p. +31. + +September 19th. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian +graces. He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We +learn His art by living with Him. Pax Vobiscum, p. 32. + +September 20th. Christ's invitation to the weary and heavy-laden is a +call to begin life over again upon a new principle--upon His own +principle. "Watch My way of doing things," He says. "Follow Me. Take life +as I take it. Be meek and lowly, and you will find Rest." Pax Vobiscum, +p. 32. + +September 21st. If a man could make himself humble to order, it might +simplify matters, but we do not find that this happens. Hence we must all +go through the mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, is the nearest +gate and the quickest road to life. Pax Vobiscum, p. 35. + +September 22d. Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the children +of God, it is certainly never contemplated that it should supersede +personal effort. And any rest which ministers to indifference is immoral +and unreal--it makes parasites and not men. Natural Law, p. 335. + +September 23d. Just because God worketh in him, as the evidence and +triumph of it, the true child of God works out his own salvation--works +it out having really received it--not as a light thing, a superfluous +labour, but with fear and trembling as a reasonable and indispensable +service. Natural Law, p. 335. + +September 24th. Christianity, as Christ taught, is the truest philosophy +of life ever spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of +Christianity, that we mean Christ's Christianity. Pax Vobiscum, p. 47. + +September 25th. So far from ministering to growth, parasitism ministers +to decay. So far from ministering to holiness, that is to wholeness, +parasitism ministers to exactly the opposite. One by one the spiritual +faculties droop and die, one by one from lack of exercise the muscles of +the soul grow weak and flaccid, one by one the moral activities cease. So +from him that hath not, is taken away that which he hath, and after a few +years of parasitism there is nothing left to save. Natural Law, p. 336. + +September 26th. The natural life, not less than the eternal, is the gift +of God. But life in either case is the beginning of growth and not the +end of grace. To pause where we should begin, to retrograde where we +should advance, to seek a mechanical security that we may cover inertia +and find a wholesale salvation in which there is no personal +sanctification--this is Parasitism. Natural Law, p. 336. + +September 27th. Could we investigate the spirit as a living organism, or +study the soul of the backslider on principles of comparative anatomy, we +should have a revelation of the organic effects of sin, even of the mere +sin of carelessness as to growth and work, which must revolutionize our +ideas of practical religion. There is no room for the doubt even that +what goes on in the body does not with equal certainty take place in the +spirit under the corresponding conditions. Natural Law, p. 345. + +September 28th. It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to +adjust the burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has a +perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence to human +nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all surrounding +things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue and dust of +the world to a new grace of living. Pax Vobiscum, p. 46. + +September 29th. The penalty of backsliding is not something unreal and +vague, some unknown quantity which may be measured out to us +disproportionately, or which, perchance, since God is good, we may +altogether evade. The consequences are already marked within the +structure of the soul. So to speak, they are physiological. The thing +effected by our in difference or by our indulgence is not the book of +final judgment, but the present fabric of the soul. Natural Law, p. 346. + +September 30th. The punishment of degeneration is simply degeneration-- +the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the atrophy of the spiritual +nature. It is well known that the recovery of the backslider is one of +the hardest problems in spiritual work. To reinvigorate an old organ +seems more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new one; and the +backslider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled feet each +step of the way along which he strayed; to make up inch by inch the +leeway he has lost, carrying with him a dead-weight of acquired +reluctance, and scarce knowing whether to be stimulated or discouraged by +the oppressive memory of the previous fall. Natural Law, p. 346. + +October 1st. He who abandons the personal search for truth, under +whatever pretext, abandons truth. The very word truth, by becoming the +limited possession of a guild, ceases to have any meaning; and faith, +which can only be founded on truth, gives way to credulity, resting on +mere opinion. Natural Law, p. 352. + +October 2d. It is more necessary for us to be active than to be orthodox. +To be orthodox is what we wish to be, but we can only truly reach it by +being honest, by being original, by seeing with our own eyes, by +believing with our own heart. Natural Law. p. 364. + +October 3d. Better a little faith dearly won, better launched alone on +the infinite bewilderment of Truth, than perish on the splendid plenty of +the richest creeds. Such Doubt is no self-willed presumption. Nor, truly +exercised, will it prove itself, as much doubt does, the synonym for +sorrow. Natural Law, p. 365. + +October 4th. Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this +is one way in which it diminishes men's burden. It makes them citizens of +another world. Pax Vobiscum, p. 47. + +October 5th. Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the +same sense in which grapes are our own making, and no more. All fruits +GROW--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are the +fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can MAKE things +grow. He can GET THEM TO GROW by arranging all the circumstances and +fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is done by God. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 56. + +October 6th. Men may not know how fruits grow, but they do know that they +cannot grow in five minutes. Some lives have not even a stalk on which +fruits could hang, even if they did grow in five minutes. Some have never +planted one sound seed of Joy in all their lives; and others who may have +planted a germ or two have lived so little in sunshine that they never +could come to maturity. Pax Vobiscum, p. 51. + +October 7th. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever. Put in the +right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in Him will bring +forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is Happiness. The +infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good; and the infallible +receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. Pax Vobiscum, p. 56. + +October 8th. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in +fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must +come. . . . About every other method of living the Christian life there +is an uncertainty. About every other method of acquiring the Christian +experiences there is a "perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way +of nature, it cannot fail. Pax Vobiscum, p. 58. + +October 9th. The distinctions drawn between men are commonly based on the +outward appearance of goodness or badness, on the ground of moral beauty +or moral deformity--is this classification scientific? Or is there a +deeper distinction between the Christian and the not-a-Christian as +fundamental as that between the organic and the inorganic? Natural Law, +p. 374. + +October 10th What is the essential difference between the Christian and +the not-a-Christian, between the spiritual beauty and the moral beauty? +It is the distinction between the Organic and the Inorganic. Moral beauty +is the product of the natural man, spiritual beauty of the spiritual man. +Natural Law, p. 380. + +October 11th. The first Law of biology is: That which is Mineral is +Mineral; that which is Flesh is Flesh; that which is Spirit is Spirit. +The mineral remains in the inorganic world until it is seized upon by a +something called Life outside the inorganic world; the natural man +remains the natural man, until a Spiritual Life from without the natural +life seizes upon him, regenerates him, changes him into a spiritual man. +Natural Law, p. 381. + +October 12th Suppose now it be granted for a moment that the character of +the not-a-Christian is as beautiful as that of the Christian. This is +simply to say that the crystal is as beautiful as the organism. One is +quite entitled to hold this; but what he is not entitled to hold is that +both in the same sense are living. "He that hath the Son hath Life, and +he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life." Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 13th. Man is a moral animal, and can, and ought to, arrive at +great natural beauty of character. But this is simply to obey the law of +his nature--the law of his flesh; and no progress along that line can +project him into the spiritual sphere. Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 14th. If any one choose to claim that the mineral beauty, the +fleshly beauty, the natural moral beauty, is all he covets, he is +entitled to his claim. To be good and true, pure and benevolent in the +moral sphere, are high and, so far, legitimate objects in life. If he +deliberately stop here, he is at liberty to do so. But what he is not +entitled to do is to call himself a Christian, or to claim to discharge +the functions peculiar to the Christian life. Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 15th. In dealing with a man of fine moral character, we are +dealing with the highest achievement of the organic kingdom. But in +dealing with a spiritual man we are dealing with THE LOWEST FORM OF LIFE +IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. To contrast the two, therefore, and marvel that +the one is apparently so little better than the other, is unscientific +and unjust. Natural Law, p. 385. + +October 16th. The spiritual man is a mere unformed embryo, hidden as yet +in his earthly chrysalis-case, while the natural man has the breeding and +evolution of ages represented in his character. But what are the +possibilities of this spiritual organism? What is yet to emerge from this +chrysalis-case? The natural character finds its limits within the organic +sphere. But who is to define the limits of the spiritual? Even now it is +very beautiful. Even as an embryo it contains some prophecy of its future +glory. But the point to mark is, that "it doth not yet appear what it +shall be." Natural Law, p. 386. + +October 17th. The best test for Life is just LIVING. And living consists, +as we have formerly seen, in corresponding with Environment. Those +therefore who find within themselves, and regularly exercise, the +faculties for corresponding with the Divine Environment, may be said to +live the Spiritual Life. Natural Law, p. 390. + +October 18th. That the Spiritual Life, even in the embryonic organism, +ought already to betray itself to others, is certainly what one would +expect. Every organism has its own reaction upon Nature, and the reaction +of the spiritual organism upon the community must be looked for. In the +absence of any such reaction, in the absence of any token that it lived +for a higher purpose, or that its real interests were those of the +Kingdom to which it professed to belong, we should be entitled to +question its being in that Kingdom. Natural Law, p. 390. + +October 19th. Man's place in Nature, or his position among the Kingdoms, +is to be decided by the characteristic functions habitually discharged by +him. Now, when the habits of certain individuals are closely observed, +when the total effect of their life and work, with regard to the +community, is gauged, . . . there ought to be no difficulty in deciding +whether they are living for the Organic or for the Spiritual; in plainer +language, for the world or for God. Natural Law, p. 391. + +October 20th. No matter what may be the moral uprightness of man's life, +the honourableness of his career, or the orthodoxy of his creed, if he +exercises the function of loving the world, that defines his world--he +belongs to the Organic Kingdom. He cannot in that case belong to the +higher Kingdom. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not +in him." After all, it is by the general bent of a man's life, by his +heart-impulses and secret desires, his spontaneous actions and abiding +motives, that his generation is declared. Natural Law, p. 393. + +October 21st. The imperious claim of a Kingdom upon its members is not +peculiar to Christianity. It is the law in all departments of Nature that +every organism must live for its Kingdom. And in defining living FOR the +higher Kingdom as the condition of living in it, Christ enunciates a +principle which all Nature has prepared us to expect. Natural Law, p. +395. + +October 22d. Christianity marks the advent of what is simply a new +Kingdom. Its distinctions from the Kingdom below it are fundamental. It +demands from its members activities and responses of an altogether novel +order. It is, in the conception of its Founder, a Kingdom for which all +its adherents must henceforth exclusively live and work, and which opens +its gates alone upon those who, having counted the cost, are prepared to +follow it if need be to the death. The surrender Christ demanded was +absolute. Every aspirant for membership must seek FIRST the Kingdom of +God. Natural Law, p. 394. + +October 23d. Until even religious men see the uniqueness of Christ's +society, until they acknowledge to the full extent its claim to be +nothing less than a new Kingdom, they will continue the hopeless attempt +to live for two Kingdoms at once. And hence the value of a more explicit +Classification. For probably the most of the difficulties of trying to +live the Christian life arise from attempting to half-live it. Natural +Law, p. 396. + +October 24th. Two Kingdoms, at the present time, are known to Science-- +the Inorganic and the Organic. The spiritual life does not belong to the +Inorganic Kingdom, because it lives. It does not belong to the Organic +Kingdom, because it is endowed with a kind of Life infinitely removed +from either the vegetable or animal. Where, then, shall it be classed? We +are left without an alternative. There being no Kingdom known to Science +which can contain it, we must construct one. Or, rather, we must include +in the programme of Science a Kingdom already constructed, but the place +of which in Science has not yet been recognized. That Kingdom is the +KINGDOM OF GOD. Natural Law, p. 397. + +October 25th. The goal of the organisms of the Spiritual World is nothing +less than this--to be "holy as He is holy, and pure as He is pure." And +by the Law of Conformity to Type, their final perfection is secured. The +inward nature must develop out according to its Type, until the +consummation of oneness with God is reached. Natural Law, p. 403. + +October 26th. Christianity defines the highest conceivable future for +mankind. It satisfies the Law of Continuity. It guarantees the necessary +conditions for carrying on the organism successfully, from stage to +stage. It provides against the tendency to Degeneration. And finally, +instead of limiting the yearning hope of final perfection to the +organisms of a future age--an age so remote that the hope for thousands +of years must still be hopeless--instead of inflicting this cruelty on +intelligences mature enough to know perfection and earnest enough to wish +it, Christianity puts the prize within immediate reach of man. Natural +Law, p. 404. + +October 27th. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live +and grow old alone, unloving and unloved. To be lost is to live in an +unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to love; +he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God. For God is Love. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 59. + +October 28th. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love +vaunteth not itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then +everything that you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving +time to. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +October 29th. The final test of religion at that great Day is not +religiousness, but Love; not what I have done, not what I have believed, +not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities +of life. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 62. + +October 30th. The words which all of us shall one Day hear sound not of +theology but of life, not of churches and saints, but of the hungry and +the poor, not of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter and clothing, not +of Bibles and prayer-books, but of cups of cold water in the name of +Christ. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 63. + +October 31st. The world moves. And each day, each hour, demands a further +motion and re-adjustment for the soul. A telescope in an observatory +follows a star by clockwork, but the clockwork of the soul is called the +Will. Hence, while the soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, +the Will in intense activity holds the mirror in position lest the +drifting motion of the world bear it beyond the line of vision. To +"follow Christ" is largely to keep the soul in such position as will +allow for the motion of the earth. And this calculated counteracting of +the movements of a world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to +the Mirrored, this steadying of the faculties unerringly, through cloud +and earthquake; fire and sword, is the stupendous cooperating labour of +the Will. The Changed Life, p. 60. + +November 1st. All around us Christians are wearing themselves out in +trying to be better. The amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the +hearts of unnumbered thousands of men and women in whom we should never +suspect it; among the wise and thoughtful; among the young and gay, who +seldom assuage and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most +wonderful and touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed, +but more light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very +real energies already there. Pax Vobiscum, p. 14. + +November 2d. Men sigh for the wings of a dove, that they may fly away and +be at Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is +WITHIN YOU." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the +bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. +Hence, be lowly. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30. + +November 3d. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy. +Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who does +what is right has the kingdom of God within him. Any boy who, instead of +being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has the kingdom of +God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy because he does +what is right, has the kingdom of God within him. The kingdom of God is +not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange religious +experiences: the kingdom of God is doing what is right--living at peace +with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. First, p. 11. + +November 4th. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be +hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be meek. He who is without +expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is self-evident that +these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man are really above all +other men, above all other things. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30. + +November 5th. Keep religion in its place, and it will take you straight +through life, and straight to your Father in heaven when life is over. +But if you do not put it in its place, you may just as well have nothing +to do with it. Religion out of its place in a human life is the most +miserable thing in the world. There is nothing that requires so much to +be kept in its place as religion, and its place is what? second? third? +"First." Boys, carry that home with you today--FIRST the kingdom of God. +Make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that the very +first thing. First, pp. 15, 16. + +November 6th. The change we have been striving after is not to be +produced by any more striving after. It is to be wrought upon us by the +moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud +bursts, and the fruit reddens under the cooperation of influences from +the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under invisible +pressures from without. The Changed Life, p. 21. + +November 7th. Every man's character remains as it is, or continues in the +direction in which it is going, until it is compelled by IMPRESSED FORCES +to change that state. Our failure has been the failure to put ourselves +in the way of the impressed forces. There is a clay, and there is a +Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould the clay. The Changed +Life, p. 21. + +November 8th. Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance +together to make the perfect man. This method of sanctification, +nevertheless, is in the true direction. It is only in the details of +execution that it fails. The Changed Life, p. 14. + +November 9th. We all reflecting as a mirror the character of Christ are +transformed into the same Image from character to character--from a poor +character to a better one, from a better one to one a little better +still, from that to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the +Perfect Image is attained. Here the solution of the problem of +sanctification is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of +Christ, and you will become like Christ. The Changed Life, p. 24. + +November 10th. There are some men and some women in whose company we are +always at our best. While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or +speak ungenerous words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, +sanctity. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their +intercourse, and we find a music in our souls that was never there +before. The Changed Life, p. 33. + +November 11th. Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are +subject to fevers which cause restlessness and delirium. Note the +expression, "cause restlessness." RESTLESSNESS HAS A CAUSE. Clearly, +then, any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once +to deal with the cause. Pax Vobiscum, p. 20. + +November 12th. What Christian experience wants is THREAD, a vertebral +column, method. It is impossible to believe that there is no remedy for +its unevenness and dishevelment, or that the remedy is a secret. The +idea, also, that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, +have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick +of it--is wholly incredible. Religion must ripen fruit for every +temperament; and the way even into its highest heights must be by a +gateway through which the peoples of the world may pass. Pax Vobiscum, p. +15. + +November 13th. Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God +is a God of order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and +never at random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The Christian +experiences are governed by law. Pax Vobiscum, p. 17. + +November 14th. We ARE CHANGED, as the Old Version has it--we do not +change ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament +you will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are +described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be pointed out +that there is a rationale in this; but meantime do not toss these words +aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or ignored +intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here is no more than is +everywhere claimed for the body. The Changed Life, p. 19. + +November 15th. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but not without a long +previous history. They are the mature effects of former causes. Equally +so are Rest, and Peace, and Joy. They, too, have each a previous history. +Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, but are brought about by +antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but calms in man's inward +nature, and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 18. + +November 16th. Few men know how to live. We grow up at random, carrying +into mature life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as +little children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be +changed; that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the +Fine Arts; that it has to be learned with life-long patience, and that +the years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly. +Pax Vobiscum, p. 31. + +November 17th. Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives +that was ever lived: Tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves +breaking over it all the time till the worn body was laid in the grave. +But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there. +At any moment you might have gone to Him and found Rest. Pax Vobiscum, p. +35. + +November 18th. The creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right +spirit is an omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which +hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto that day." The Changed +Life, p. 57. + +November 19th. To become like Christ is the only thing in the world worth +caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly, and +all lower achievement vain. Those only who make this quest the supreme +desire and passion of their lives can even begin to hope to reach it. The +Changed Life, p. 57. + +November 20th. A religion of effortless adoration may be a religion for +an angel but never for a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the +active, lies true hope; not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; +not in the realm of ideals, but among tangible things, is man's +sanctification wrought. The Changed Life, p. 58. + +November 21st. Nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of Christ's +life on earth. Misfortune could not reach Him; He had no fortune. Food, +raiment, money--fountain-heads of half the world's weariness--He simply +did not care for; they played no part in His life; He "took no thought" +for them. It was impossible to affect Him by lowering His reputation; He +had already made Himself of no reputation. He was dumb before insult. +When He was reviled, He reviled not again. In fact, there was nothing +that the world could do to Him that could ruffle the surface of His +spirit. Pax Vobiscum, p. 36. + +November 22d. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the animal +in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to the natural +man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an eternal life must be +surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who will wonder or grudge that +it cannot be developed in a day? The Changed Life, p. 55. + +November 23d. To await the growing of a soul is an almost Divine act of +faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with itself, +of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ, wondering, +yearning, hungering to be like that? Yet must one trust the process +fearlessly, and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will do His +part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible progress, +to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by watching for +effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. The Changed Life, p. 56. + +November 24th. The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is +life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ +be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has +fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? When, how, are we to be +different? Time cannot change men. Death cannot change men. Christ can. +Wherefore PUT ON CHRIST. The Changed Life, p. 62. + +November 25th. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was a +weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle and +a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's +problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is Christ's +solution. "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at it from My +point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My yoke and learn of +Me, and you will find it easy. For My yoke is easy, works easily, sits +right upon the shoulders, and THEREFORE My burden is light." Pax +Vobiscum, p. 44. + +November 26th. There is a disease called "touchiness"--a disease which, +in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest sources of +restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, is a +morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is self-love inflamed to +the acute point. . . The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; +to let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused +part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old +nature is becoming numb from want of use. Pax Vobiscum, pp. 45, 46. + +November 27th. Christ's yoke is simply His secret for the alleviation of +human life, His prescription for the best and happiest method of living. +Men harness themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy +and unnatural ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, +ill-fitted collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past +enduring, by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere +continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature +is quick and sore. Pax Vobiscum, p. 45. + +November 28th. No one can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of +the ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be +grown. Pax Vobiscum, p. 50. + +November 29th Christ is the source of Joy to men in the sense in which He +is the source of Rest. His people share His life, and therefore share its +consequences, and one of these is Joy. His method of living is one that +in the nature of things produces Joy. When He spoke of His Joy remaining +with us He meant in part that the causes which produced it should +continue to act. His followers, that is to say, by repeating His life +would experience its accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would +remain with them. Pax Vobiscum, p. 54. + +November 30th. Think of it, the past is not only focussed there, in a +man's soul, it IS there. How could it be reflected from there if it were +not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, felt, believed of the +surrounding world are now within him, have become part of him, in part +are him--he has been changed into their image. He may deny it, he may +resent it, but they are there. They do not adhere to him, they are +transfused through him. He cannot alter or rub them out. They are not in +his memory, they are in HIM. His soul is as they have filled it, made it, +left it. The Changed Life, p. 27. + +December 1st. Temper is significant, not in what it is alone but in what +it reveals. . . . It is a test for love, a symptom, a revelation of an +unloving nature at bottom. It is the intermittent fever which bespeaks +unintermittent disease within; the occasional bubble escaping to the +surface which betrays some rottenness underneath; a sample of the most +hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard; +IN A WORD, the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-Christian sins. +The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 34. + +December 2d. You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the +moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the +moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans +the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life there +leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do +unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to +speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +December 3d. If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet +another on the street without making some mark upon him. We say we +exchange words when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when +intercourse is very close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange +that recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's +nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to the +first. The Changed Life, p. 30. + +December 4th. In the natural world we absorb heat, breathe air, draw on +Environment all but automatically for meat and drink, for the nourishment +of the senses, for mental stimulus, for all that, penetrating us from +without, can prolong, enrich, and elevate life. But in the spiritual +world we have all this to learn. We are new creatures, and even the bare +living has to be acquired. Natural Law, p. 267. + +December 5th. The great point in learning to live the spiritual life is +to live naturally. As closely as possible we must follow the broad, clear +lines of the natural life. And there are three things especially which it +is necessary for us to keep continually in view. The first is that the +organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to +life; the second is that the other half is contained in the Environment; +the third, that the condition of receptivity is simple union between the +organism and the Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 6th. To say that the organism contains within itself only +one-half of what is essential to life, is to repeat the evangelical +confession, so worn and yet so true to universal experience, of the utter +helplessness of man. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 7th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a +fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss at every turn of his +life an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room +in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times +He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier +symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his +helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life, +the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other +energy, spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at +last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. +This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerless is the normal state +not only of this but of every organism--of every organism apart from its +Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 8th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more +perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some +inward evil with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to +make our Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the +secrets of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, p. 256. + +December 9th. In the spiritual world the subtle influences which form and +transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially, +where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so +ill-defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the +atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural +life. Natural Law, p. 256. + +December 10th. These lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted +for an Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their +Environment, they would still not be Eternal. However opposed, +apparently, to the scientific definition of Eternal Life, it is yet true +that perfect correspondence with Environment is not Eternal Life. . . . +An Eternal Life demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, p. 245. + +December 11th. On what does the Christian argument for Immortality really +rest? It stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole +of historical Christianity--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Natural +Law, p. 234. + +December 12th. The soul which has no correspondence with the spiritual +environment is spiritually dead. It may be that it never possessed . . . +the spiritual ear, or a heart which throbbed in response to the love of +God. If so, having never lived, it cannot be said to have died. But not +to have these correspondences is to be in the state of Death. To the +spiritual world, to the Divine Environment, it is dead--as a stone which +has never lived is dead to the environment of the organic world. Natural +Law, p. 177. + +December 13th. The humanity of what is called "sudden conversion" has +never been insisted on as it deserves. . . . While growth is a slow and +gradual process, the change from Death to Life, alike in the natural and +spiritual spheres, is the work of the moment. Whatever the conscious hour +of the second birth may be--in the case of an adult it is probably +defined by the first real victory over sin--it is certain that on +biological principles the real turning-point is literally a moment. +Natural Law, p. 184. + +December 14th. Christ says we must hate life. Now, this does not apply to +all life. It is "life in this world" that is to be hated. For life in +this world implies conformity to this world. It may not mean pursuing +worldly pleasures, or mixing with worldly sets; but a subtler thing than +that--a silent deference to worldly opinion; an almost unconscious +lowering of religious tone to the level of the worldly-religious world +around; a subdued resistance to the soul's delicate promptings to greater +consecration, out of deference to "breadth" or fear of ridicule. These, +and such things, are what Christ tells us we must hate. For these things +are of the very essence of worldliness. "If any man love the world," even +in this sense, "the love of the Father is not in him." Natural Law, p. +197. + +December 15th. To correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal +Unknowable, would be everlasting existence; to correspond with "the true +God and Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life +alone makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon. Even the +brief span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years +in sorrow. Natural Law, p. 220. + +December 16th. The relation between the spiritual man and his Environment +is, in theological language, a filial relation. With the new Spirit, the +filial correspondence, he knows the Father--and this is Life Eternal. +This is not only the real relation, but the only possible relation: +"Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever +the Son will reveal Him." And this on purely natural grounds. Natural +Law, p. 229. + +December 17th. Communion with God--can it be demonstrated in terms of +Science that this is a correspondence which will never break? We do not +appeal to Science for such a testimony. We have asked for its conception +of an Eternal Life; and we have received for answer that Eternal Life +would consist in a correspondence which should never cease, with an +Environment which should never pass away. And yet what would Science +demand of a perfect correspondence that is not met by this, THE KNOWING +OF GOD? There is no other correspondence which could satisfy one at least +of the conditions. Not one could be named which would not bear on the +face of it the mark and pledge of its mortality. But this, to know God, +stands alone. Natural Law, p. 220. + +December 18th. The misgiving which will creep sometimes over the +brightest faith has already received its expression and its rebuke: "Who +shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" +Shall these "changes in the physical state of the environment" which +threaten death to the natural man, destroy the spiritual? Shall death, or +life, or angels, or principalities, or powers, arrest or tamper with his +eternal correspondences? "Nay, in all these things we are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither +death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things +present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other +creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in +Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. viii, 35-39. Natural Law, p. 230. + +December 19th. "We find that man, or the spiritual man, is equipped with +two sets of correspondences." One set possesses the quality of +everlastingness, the other is temporal. But unless these are separated by +some means the temporal will continue to impair and hinder the eternal. +The final preparation, therefore, for the inheriting of Eternal Life must +consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements. These must be +unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements. And this is effected +by a closing catastrophe--Death. Natural Law, p. 248. + +December 20th. Heredity and Environment are the master-influences of the +organic world. These have made all of us what we are. These forces are +still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives. And he who truly +understands these influences; he who has decided how much to allow to +each; he who can regulate new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the +old, so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate, at +another to counter act one another, understands the rationale of personal +development. Natural Law, p. 255. + +December 21st. It is the Law of Influence that WE BECOME LIKE THOSE WHOM +WE HABITUALLY ADMIRE. Through all the range of literature, of history, +and biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There +was a savour of David about Jonathan and a savour of Jonathan about +David. Jean Valjean, in the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop +Bienvenu risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact. The Changed Life, +p. 31. + +December 22d. Can we shut our eyes to the fact that the religious +opinions of mankind are in a state of flux? And when we regard the +uncertainty of current beliefs, the war of creeds, the havoc of +inevitable as well as of idle doubt, the reluctant abandonment of early +faith by those who would cherish it longer if they could, is it not plain +that the one thing thinking men are waiting for is the introduction of +Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual World? When that comes we shall +offer to such men a truly scientific theology. And the Reign of Law will +transform the whole Spiritual World as it has already transformed the +Natural World. Natural Law, Preface, p. ix. + +December 23d. We have Truth in Nature as it came from God. And it has to +be read with the same unbiassed mind, the same open eye, the same faith, +and the same reverence as all other Revelation. All that is found there, +whatever its place in Theology, whatever its orthodoxy or heterodoxy, +whatever its narrowness or its breadth, we are bound to accept as +Doctrine from which on the lines of Science there is no escape. Natural +Law, Preface, p. xi. + +December 24th. In Nature generally, we come upon new Laws as we pass from +lower to higher kingdoms, the old still remaining in force, the newer +Laws which one would expect to meet in the Spiritual World would so +transcend and overwhelm the older as to make the analogy or identity, +even if traced, of no practical use. The new Laws would represent +operations and energies so different, and so much more elevated, that +they would afford the true keys to the Spiritual World. Natural Law, p. +47. + +December 25th. The visible is the ladder up to the invisible; the +temporal is but the scaffolding of the eternal. And when the last +immaterial souls have climbed through this material to God, the +scaffolding shall be taken down, and the earth dissolved with fervent +heat--not because it was base, but because its work is done. Natural Law, +p. 57. + +December 26th. The natural man belongs essentially to this present order +of things. He is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal +Life. But it is Life of so poor a quality that it is not Life at all. He +that hath not the Son hath not Life; but he that hath the Son hath Life-- +a new and distinct and supernatural endowment. He is not of this world. +He is of the timeless state, of Eternity. IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT HE +SHALL BE. Natural Law, p. 82. + +December 27th. The gradualness of growth is a characteristic which +strikes the simplest observer. Long before the word Evolution was coined +Christ applied it in this very connection--"First the blade, then the +ear, then the full corn in the ear." It is well known also to those who +study the parables of Nature that there is an ascending scale of slowness +as we rise in the scale of Life. Growth is most gradual in the highest +forms. Man attains his maturity after a score of years; the monad +completes its humble cycle in a day. What wonder if development be tardy +in the Creature of Eternity? A Christian's sun has sometimes set, and a +critical world has seen as yet no corn in the ear. As yet? "As yet," in +this long Life, has not begun. Grant him the years proportionate to his +place in the scale of Life. "The time of harvest is NOT YET." Natural +Law, p. 92. + +December 28th. Salvation is a definite process. If a man refuse to submit +himself to that process, clearly he cannot have the benefits of it. "As +many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God." He +does not avail himself of this power. It may be mere carelessness or +apathy. Nevertheless the neglect is fatal. He cannot escape because he +will not. Natural Law, p. 109. + +December 29th. The end of Salvation is perfection, the Christ-like mind, +character, and life. Morality is on the way to this perfection; it may go +a considerable distance toward it, but it can never reach it. Only Life +can do that. . . . Morality can never reach perfection; Life MUST. For +the Life must develop out according to its type; and being a germ of the +Christ-life, it must unfold into A CHRIST. Natural Law, p. 138. + +December 30th. Perfect life is not merely the possessing of perfect +functions, but of perfect functions perfectly adjusted to each other, and +all conspiring to a single result, the perfect working of the whole +organism. It is not said that the character will develop in all its +fulness in this life. That were a time too short for an Evolution so +magnificent. In this world only the cornless ear is seen: sometimes only +the small yet still prophetic blade. Natural Law, p. 129. + +December 31st. The immortal soul must give itself to something that is +immortal. And the only immortal things are these: "Now abideth faith, +hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." Some think the time may +come when two of these three things will also pass away--faith into +sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. We know but little now +about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is +that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet therefore that +everlasting gift. The Greatest Thing in the World, pp. 54, 55. + + +Henry Drummond's Works. + +The Programme of Christianity. A New Address by Henry Drummond, to be +issued uniform with the previous booklets. Price, 35 cents. + +The Greatest Thing in the World. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents. +Illustrated Edition, cloth, price, $1.00. + +Pax Vobiscum. The Second of the Series of which "The Greatest Thing in +the World" is the First. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents; +Illustrated Edition, cloth, $1.00. + +The Changed Life. An Address by Henry Drummond. The Third of the Series. +Gilt top, leatherette. Price, 35 cents. + +Natural Law in the Spiritual World, By Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. +Cloth, red top, title in gold, 458 pp. Price, 75 cents. + +"First:" A Talk with Boys. An Address delivered at Glasgow to the Boys' +Brigade. Paper cover, 10 cents; $1.00 per dozen; leatherette, silver +edges, 35 cents. + +Baxter's Second Innings. A Book for Boys. Ready, 60 cents. + +Author's Only Editions. For sale by all booksellers, or sent by mail on +receipt of price. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beautiful Thoughts, by Henry Drummond + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13677 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a11e79c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13677 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13677) diff --git a/old/13677.txt b/old/13677.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14bba72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13677.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2952 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beautiful Thoughts, by Henry Drummond + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Beautiful Thoughts + +Author: Henry Drummond + +Release Date: October 8, 2004 [EBook #13677] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS *** + + + + + + + + + +"Beautiful Thoughts" From Henry Drummond + +Arranged by Elizabeth Cureton + +{Project Gutenberg Editorial note: Many quotes from "The Greatest Thing +in the World" did not provide a page number.} + + +1892 + + +The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly +seen, being understood by the things that are made.--Rom. i. 20. + + +To My Dear Friend + +Helen M. Archibald + +This Book + +Is Affectionately Inscribed. + + + +Preface. + +My first thought of writing out this little book of brief selections +sprang from the desire to assist a dear friend to enjoy the Author's +helpful books. + +The epigrammatic style lends itself to quotation. Taste of the spring +brings the traveller back to the same fountain on a day of greater +leisure. Many times these "Beautiful Thoughts" have enlightened my +darkness, and I send them forth with a hope and prayer that they may find +echo in other hearts. E. C. + +January 1st. Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny +people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread, and the Oil of +Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor on with a Garment of +Praise it will be better for them than blankets. The Programme of +Christianity, p. 33. + +January 2d. No one who knows the content of Christianity, or feels the +universal need of a Religion, can stand idly by while the intellect of +his age is slowly divorcing itself from it. Natural Law, Preface, p. 22 + +January 3d. A Science without mystery is unknown; a Religion without +mystery is absurd. However far the scientific method may penetrate the +Spiritual World, there will always remain a region to be explored by a +scientific faith. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 28. + +January 4th. Among the mysteries which compass the world beyond, none is +greater than how there can be in store for man a work more wonderful, a +life more God-like than this. The Programme of Christianity, p. 62. + +January 5th. The Spiritual Life is the gift of the Living Spirit. The +spiritual man is no mere development of the Natural man. He is a New +Creation born from Above. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 65. + +January 6th. Love is success, Love is happiness, Love is life. God is +Love. Therefore LOVE. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 7th. Give me the Charity which delights not in exposing the +weakness of others, but "covereth all things." The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +January 8th. There is a sense of solidity about a Law of Nature which +belongs to nothing else in the world. Here, at last, amid all that is +shifting, is one thing sure; one thing outside ourselves, unbiassed, +unprejudiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by doubt or fear. . . . +This more than anything else makes one eager to see the Reign of Law +traced in the Spiritual Sphere. Natural Law, Preface, p. 23. + +January 9th. With Nature as the symbol of all of harmony and beauty that +is known to man, must we still talk of the supernatural, not as a +convenient word, but as a different order of world, . . . where the Reign +of Mystery supersedes the Reign of Law? Natural Law, Introduction, p. 6. + +January 10th. The Reign of Law has gradually crept into every department +of Nature, transforming knowledge everywhere into Science. The process +goes on, and Nature slowly appears to us as one great unity, until the +borders of the Spiritual World are reached. Natural Law, Introduction, p. +13. + +January 11th. No single fact in Science has ever discredited a fact in +Religion. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 30. + +January 12th. I shall never rise to the point of view which wishes to +"raise" faith to knowledge. To me, the way of truth is to come through +the knowledge of my ignorance to the submissiveness of faith, and then, +making that my starting-place, to raise my knowledge into faith. Natural +Law, Introduction, p. 28. Quotation from Beck: Bib. Psychol. + +January 13th. If the purification of Religion comes from Science, the +purification of Science, in a deeper sense, shall come from Religion. +Natural Law, Introduction, p. 31. + +January 14th. With the demonstration of the naturalness of the +supernatural, scepticism even may come to be regarded as unscientific. +And those who have wrestled long for a few bare truths to ennoble life +and rest their souls in thinking of the future will not be left in doubt. +Natural Law, Introduction, p. 32. + +January 15th. The religion of Jesus has probably always suffered more +from those who have misunderstood than from those who have opposed it. +Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 67. + +January 16th. It is impossible to believe that the amazing successions of +revelations in the domain of Nature, during the last few centuries, at +which the world has all but grown tired wondering, are to yield nothing +for the higher life. Natural Law, Introduction, p. 32. + +January 17th. Is life not full of opportunities for learning love? Every +man and woman every day has a thousand of them. Greatest Thing in the +World. + +January 18th. What is Science but what the Natural World has said to +natural men? What is Revelation but what the Spiritual World has said to +Spiritual men? Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 73. + +January 19th. Life depends upon contact with Life. It cannot spring up +out of itself. It cannot develop out of anything that is not Life. There +is no Spontaneous Generation in religion any more than in Nature. Christ +is the source of Life in the Spiritual World; and he that hath the Son +hath Life, and he that hath not the Son, whatever else he may have, hath +not Life. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 74. + +January 20th. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, +uncharitable world, there should still be left a few rare souls who think +no evil. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 21st. The physical Laws may explain the inorganic world; the +biological Laws may account for the development of the organic. But of +the point where they meet, of that strange borderland between the dead +and the living, Science is silent. It is as if God had placed everything +in earth and heaven in the hands of Nature, but reserved a point at the +genesis of Life for His direct appearing. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +69. + +January 22d. Except a mineral be born "from above"--from the Kingdom just +ABOVE it--it cannot enter the Kingdom just above it. And except a man be +born "from above," by the same law, he cannot enter the Kingdom just +above him. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 72. + +January 23d. If we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see +that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. +Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 24th. The world is not a play-ground; it is a school-room. Life +is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all +is how better we can love. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 25th What a noble gift it is, the power of playing upon the souls +and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds. +Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 26th. The test of Religion, the final test of Religion, is not +Religiousness, but Love. Greatest Thing in the World. + +January 27th. There are not two laws of Bio-genesis, one for the natural, +the other for the Spiritual; one law is for both. Where-ever there is +Life, Life of any kind, this same law holds. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +75. + +January 28th. The first step in peopling these worlds with the +appropriate living forms is virtually miracle. Nor in one case is there +less of mystery in the act than in the other. The second birth is +scarcely less perplexing to the theologian than the first to the +embryologist. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 76. + +January 29th. There may be cases--they are probably in the majority-- +where the moment of contact with the Living Spirit, though sudden, has +been obscure. But the real moment and the conscious moment are two +different things. Science pronounces nothing as to the conscious moment. +If it did, it would probably say that that was seldom the real moment-- +The moment of birth in the natural world is not a conscious moment--we +do not know we are born till long afterward. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. +93. + +January 30th. The stumbling-block to most minds is perhaps less the mere +existence of the unseen than the want of definition, the apparently +hopeless vagueness, and not least, the delight in this vagueness as mere +vagueness by some who look upon this as the mark of quality in Spiritual +things. It will be at least something to tell earnest seekers that the +Spiritual World is not a castle in the air, of an architecture unknown +to earth or heaven, but a fair ordered realm furnished with many familiar +things and ruled by well-remembered Laws. Natural Law, Introduction, p. +26. + +January 31st. Character grows in the stream of the world's life. That +chiefly is where men are to learn love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +February 1st. If a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps +muscle; and if a man does not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in +his soul, no strength of character, no vigour of moral fibre, nor beauty +of Spiritual growth. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +February 2d. A Religion without mystery is an absurdity. Even Science has +its mysteries, none more inscrutable than around this Science of Life. It +taught us sooner or later to expect mystery, and now we enter its domain. +Let it be carefully marked, however, that the cloud does not fall and +cover us till we have ascertained the most momentous truth of Religion-- +that Christ is in the Christian. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 88. + +February 3d. Religion in having mystery is in analogy with all around it. +Where there is exceptional mystery in the Spiritual World it will +generally be found that there is a corresponding mystery in the natural +world. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 91. + +February 4th. Even to earnest minds the difficulty of grasping the truth +at all has always proved extreme. Philosophically, one scarcely sees +either the necessity or the possibility of being born again. Why a +virtuous man should not simply grow better and better until in his own +right he enter the Kingdom of God is what thousands honestly and +seriously fail to understand. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 80. + +February 5th. Lavish Love upon our equals, where it is very difficult, +and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +February 6th. Spiritual Life is not something outside ourselves. The idea +is not that Christ is in heaven and that we can stretch out some +mysterious faculty and deal with Him there. This is the vague form in +which many conceive the truth, but it is contrary to Christ's teaching +and to the analogy of nature. Life is definite and resident; and +Spiritual Life is not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant in the +soul. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 87. + +February 7th. If we neglect almost any of the domestic animals, they will +rapidly revert to wild and worthless forms. Now, the same thing exactly +would happen in the case of you or me. Why should man be an exception to +any of the laws of nature? Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 99. + +February 8th. The law of Reversion to Type runs through all creation. If +a man neglect himself for a few years he will change into a worse and a +lower man. If it is his body that he neglects, he will deteriorate into a +wild and bestial savage. . . . If it is his mind, it will degenerate into +imbecility and madness. . . . If he neglect his conscience, it will run +off into lawlessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, it must +inevitably atrophy, drop off in ruin and decay. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 99. + +February 9th. Three possibilities of life, according to Science, are open +to all living organisms--Balance, Evolution, and Degeneration. Natural +Law, Degeneration, p. 100. + +February 10th. The life of Balance is difficult. It lies on the verge of +continual temptation, its perpetual adjustments become fatiguing, its +measured virtue is monotonous and uninspiring. Natural Law, Degeneration, +p. 101. + +February 11th. More difficult still, apparently, is the life of ever +upward growth. Most men attempt it for a time, but growth is slow; and +despair overtakes them while the goal is far away. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 12th. Degeneration is easy. Why is it easy? Why but that already +in each man's very nature this principle is supreme? He feels within his +soul a silent drifting motion impelling him downward with irresistible +force. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 13th. This is Degeneration--that principle by which the +organism, failing to develop itself, failing even to keep what it has +got, deteriorates, and becomes more and more adapted to a degraded form +of life. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101. + +February 14th. It is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold and +examine separately, that on purely natural principles the soul that is +left to itself unwatched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall away into +death by its own nature. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 104. + +February 15th. If a man find the power of sin furiously at work within +him, dragging his whole life downward to destruction, there is only one +way to escape his fate--to take resolute hold of the upward power, and be +borne by it to the opposite goal. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 108. + +February 16th. Neglect does more for the soul than make it miss +salvation. It despoils it of its capacity for salvation. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 110. + +February 17th. Give pleasure. Lose no chance in giving pleasure. For that +is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. Greatest +Thing in the World. + +February 18th. If there were uneasiness there might be hope. If there +were, somewhere about our soul, a something which was not gone to sleep +like all the rest; if there were a contending force anywhere; if we would +let even that work instead of neglecting it, it would gain strength from +hour to hour, and waken up, one at a time, each torpid and dishonoured +faculty, till our whole nature became alive with strivings against self, +and every avenue was open wide for God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +112. + +February 19th. Where is the capacity for heaven to come from if it be not +developed on earth? Where, indeed, is even the smallest appreciation of +God and heaven to come from when so little of spirituality has ever been +known or manifested here? Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 116. + +February 20th. Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as an +atheist. There must be. There are some men to whom it is true that there +is no God. They cannot see God because they have no eye. They have only +an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +115. + +February 21st. Escape means nothing more than the gradual emergence of +the higher being from the lower, and nothing less. It means the gradual +putting off of all that cannot enter the higher state, or heaven, and +simultaneously the putting on of Christ. It involves the slow completing +of the soul and the development of the capacity for God. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 117. + +February 22d. If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not to come to +us somehow, vaguely. We are not to hope for anything startling or +mysterious. It is a definite opening along certain lines which are +definitely marked by God, which begin at the Cross of Christ, and lead +direct to Him. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117. + +February 23d. Each man, in the silence of his own soul, must work out +this salvation for himself with fear and trembling--with fear, realizing +the momentous issues of his task; with trembling, lest, before the tardy +work be done, the voice of Death should summon him to stop. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 118. + +February 24th. So cultivate the soul that all its powers will open out to +God, and in beholding God be drawn away from sin. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 118. + +February 25th. There is a Sense of Sight in the religious nature. Neglect +this, leave it undeveloped, and you never miss it. You simply see +nothing. But develop it and you see God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. +118. + +February 26th. Become pure in heart. The pure in heart shall see God. +Here, then, is one opening for soul-culture--the avenue through purity of +heart to the spiritual seeing of God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 119. + +February 27th. There is a Sense of Sound. Neglect this, leave it +undeveloped, and you never miss it. Develop it, and you hear God. And the +line along which to develop it is known to us. Obey Christ. Natural Law, +Degeneration, p. 119. + +February 28th He who loves will rejoice in the Truth, rejoice not in what +he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's doctrine or in that; +not in this issue, or in that issue; but "in the Truth." He will accept +only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for +Truth with a humble and unbiassed mind, and cherish whatever he finds at +any sacrifice. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 1st. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow." Christ made +the lilies and He made me--both on the same broad principle. Both +together, man and flower . . .; but as men are dull at studying +themselves. He points to this companion-phenomenon to teach us how to +live a free and natural life, a life which God will unfold for us, +without our anxiety, as He unfolds the flower. Natural Law, Growth, p. +123. + +March 2d. Our efforts after Christian growth seem only a succession of +failures, and, instead of rising into the beauty of holiness, our life is +a daily heart-break and humiliation. Natural Law, Growth, p. 125. + +March 3d. The lilies grow, Christ says, of themselves; they toil not, +neither do they spin. They grow, that is, automatically, spontaneously, +without trying, without fretting, without thinking. Natural Law, Growth, +p. 126. + +March 4th. Violent efforts to grow are right in earnestness, but wholly +wrong in principle. There is but one principle of growth both for the +natural and spiritual, for animal and plant, for body and soul. For all +growth is an organic thing. And the principle of growing in grace is once +more this, "Consider the lilies how they grow." Natural Law, Growth, p. +125. + +March 5th. Earnest souls who are attempting sanctification by struggle, +instead of sanctification by faith, might be spared much humiliation by +learning the botany of the Sermon on the Mount. Natural Law, Growth, p. +127. + +March 6th. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world, +and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what God HAS put +in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely to +be secured by our being kind to them. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 7th. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion, the +hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness of eloquence behind which +lies no love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 8th. Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; +unselfishness; good-temper; guilelessness; sincerity--these make up the +supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +March 9th. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. +We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ spoke much of peace on +earth. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 10th. If God is spending work upon a Christian, let him be still +and know that it is God. And if he wants work, he will find it there--in +the being still. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 11th. If the amount of energy lost in trying to grow were spent in +fulfilling rather the conditions of growth, we should have many more +cubits to show for our stature. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 12th. The conditions of growth, then, and the inward principle of +growth being both supplied by Nature, the thing man has to do, the little +junction left for him to complete, is to apply the one to the other. He +manufactures nothing; he earns nothing; he need be anxious for nothing; +his one duty is to be IN these conditions, to abide in them, to allow +grace to play over him, to be still and know that this is God. Natural +Law, Growth, p. 138. + +March 13th. A man will often have to wrestle with his God--but not for +growth. The Christian life is a composed life. The Gospel is Peace. Yet +the most anxious people in the world are Christians--Christians who +misunderstand the nature of growth. Life is a perpetual self-condemning +because they are not growing. Natural Law, Growth, p. 139. + +March 14th. All the work of the world is merely a taking advantage of +energies already there. Natural Law, Growth, p. 140. + +March 15th. Religion is not a strange or added thing; but the inspiration +of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this +temporal world. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 16th. The stature of the Lord Jesus was not itself reached by work, +and he who thinks to approach its mystical height by anxious effort is +really receding from it. Natural Law, Growth, p. 127. + +March 17th. For the Life must develop out according to its type; and +being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold into a Christ. Natural +Law, Growth, p. 129. + +March 18th. The sneer at the godly man for his imperfections is +ill-judged. A blade is a small thing. At first it grows very near the +earth. It is often soiled and crushed and downtrodden. But it is a living +thing,. . . and "it doth not yet appear what it shall be." Natural Law, +Growth, p. 129. + +March 19th. Christ's protest is not against work, but against anxious +thought. Natural Law, Growth, p. 136. + +March 20th. If God is adding to our spiritual stature, unfolding the new +nature within us, it is a mistake to keep twitching at the petals with +our coarse fingers. We must seek to let the Creative Hand alone. "It is +God which giveth the increase." Natural Law, Growth, p. 137. + +March 21st. Love is PATIENCE. This is the normal attitude of Love; Love +passive, Love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its +work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the ornament of a meek +and quiet spirit. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 22d. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in +doing kind things? The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 23d. I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are! How much +the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. +How infallibly it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back +--for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly +honourable as Love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 24th. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever +is to live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with +love. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +March 25th. Man is a mass of correspondences, and because of these, +because he is alive to countless objects and influences to which lower +organisms are dead, he is the most living of all creatures. Natural Law, +Death, p. 155. + +March 26th. All organisms are living and dead--living to all within the +circumference of their correspondences, dead to all beyond. . . . Until +man appears there is no organism to correspond with the whole +environment. Natural Law, Death, p. 155. + +March 27th. Is man in correspondence with the whole environment or is he +not? . . . He is not. Of men generally it cannot be said that they are in +living contact with that part of the environment which is called the +spiritual world. Natural Law, Death, p. 156. + +March 28th. The animal world and the plant world are the same world. They +are different parts of one environment. And the natural and spiritual are +likewise one. Natural Law, Death, p. 157. + +March 29th. What we have correspondence with, that we call natural; what +we have little or no correspondence with, that we call Spiritual. Natural +Law, Death, p. 157. + +March 30th. Those who are in communion with God live, those who are not +are dead. Natural Law, Death, p. 158. + +March 31st. This earthly mind may be of noble calibre, enriched by +culture, high-toned, virtuous, and pure. But if it know not God? What +though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the +magnitudes of Time and Space? The stars of heaven are not heaven. Space +is not God. Natural Law, Death, p. 158. + +April 1st. We do not picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any +sense a monster. We have said he may be high-toned, virtuous, and pure. +The plant is not a monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird; +nor is he a monster who is dead to the voice of God. The contention at +present simply is that he is DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 159. + +April 2d. What is the creed of the Agnostic, but the confession of the +spiritual numbness of humanity? Natural Law, Death, p. 160. + +April 3d. The nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the proof from +experience that to be carnally minded is Death. Natural Law, p. 161. + +April 4th. The Christian apologist never further misses the mark than +when he refuses the testimony of the Agnostic to himself. When the +Agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid, and dead to the +spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me +that. Science tells me that. He knows nothing of this outermost circle; +and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores +it as if, being a man without an ear, he professed to know nothing of a +musical world, or being without taste, of a world of art. Natural Law, +Death, p. 160. + +April 5th. It brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he is +mistaken. To say he is self-deceived is neither to compliment him nor +Christianity. He builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the +UNKNOWN God. He does not know God. With all his marvellous and complex +correspondences, he is still one correspondence short. Natural Law, +Death, p. 161. + +April 6th. Only one thing truly need the Christian envy, the large, rich, +generous soul which "envieth not." The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 7th. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing +the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 8th. I say that man believes in a God, who feels himself in the +presence of a Power which is not himself, and is immeasurably above +himself, a Power in the contemplation of which he is absorbed, in the +knowledge of which he finds safety and happiness. Natural Law, Death, p. +162. + +April 9th. What men deny is not a God. It is the correspondence. The very +confession of the Unknowable is itself the dull recognition of an +Environment beyond themselves, and for which they feel they lack the +correspondence. It is this want that makes their God the Unknown God. And +it is this that makes them DEAD. Natural Law, Death, p. 163. + +April 10th. God is not confined to the outermost circle of environment, +He lives and moves and has His being in the whole. Those who only seek +Him in the further zone can only find a part. The Christian who knows not +God in Nature, who does not, that is to say, correspond with the whole +environment, most certainly is partially dead. Natural Law, Death, p. +163. + +April 11th. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into +the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and +say nothing about it. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 12th. The absence of the true Light means moral Death. The darkness +of the natural world to the intellect is not all. What history testifies +to is, first the partial, and then the total eclipse of virtue that +always follows the abandonment of belief in a personal God. Natural Law, +Death, p. 167. + +April 13th. The only greatness is unselfish love. . . . There is a great +difference between TRYING TO PLEASE and GIVING PLEASURE. The Greatest +Thing in the World. + +April 14th. The conception of a God gives an altogether new colour to +worldliness and vice. Worldliness it changes into heathenism, vice into +blasphemy. The carnal mind, the mind which is turned away from God, which +will not correspond with God--this is not moral only but spiritual Death. +And Sin, that which separates from God, which disobeys God, which CAN not +in that state correspond with God--this is hell. Natural Law, Death, p. +169. + +April 15th. If sin is estrangement from God, this very estrangement is +Death. It is a want of correspondence. If sin is selfishness, it is +conducted at the expense of life. Its wages are Death--"he that loveth +his life," said Christ, "shall lose it." Natural Law, Death, p. 170. + +April 16th. Obviously if the mind turns away from one part of the +environment it will only do so under some temptation to correspond with +another. This temptation, at bottom, can only come from one source--the +love of self. The irreligious man's correspondences are concentrated upon +himself. He worships himself. Self-gratification rather than self-denial; +independence rather than submission--these are the rules of life. And +this is at once the poorest and the commonest form of idolatry. Natural +Law, p. 170. + +April 17th. You will find . . . that the people who influence you are +people who believe in you. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 18th. The development of any organism in any direction is dependent +on its environment. A living cell cut off from air will die. A seed-germ +apart from moisture and an appropriate temperature will make the ground +its grave for centuries. Human nature, likewise, is subject to similar +conditions. It can only develop in presence of its environment. No matter +what its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds of thought or virtue, +what germs of genius or of art, lie latent in its breast, until the +appropriate environment present itself the correspondence is denied, the +development discouraged, the most splendid possibilities of life remain +unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius and art, are dead. Natural +Law, p. 171. + +April 19th. The true environment of the moral life is God. Here +conscience wakes. Here kindles love. Duty here becomes heroic; and that +righteousness begins to live which alone is to live forever. But if this +Atmosphere is not, the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its +native air. And its Death is a strictly natural Death. It is not an +exceptional judgment upon Atheism. In the same circumstances, in the same +averted relation to their environment, the poet, the musician, the +artist, would alike perish to poetry, to music, and to art. Natural Law, +p. 171. + +April 20th. Every environment is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly +proportionate to my correspondence with it. If I correspond with part of +it, part of myself is influenced. If I correspond with more, more of +myself is influenced; if with all, all is influenced. If I correspond +with the world, I become worldly; if with God, I become Divine. Natural +Law, Death, p. 171. + +April 21st. You can dwarf a soul just as you can dwarf a plant, by +depriving it of a full environment. Such a soul for a time may have a +"name to live." Its character may betray no sign of atrophy. But its very +virtue somehow has the pallor of a flower that is grown in darkness, or +as the herb which has never seen the sun, no fragrance breathes from its +spirit. Natural Law, p. 173. + +April 22d. I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, +therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human +being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall +not pass this way again. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 23d. There is no happiness in having and getting, but only in +giving . . . half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of +happiness. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 24th. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianize society than evil +temper. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 25th. How many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God by the +unlovely character of those who profess to be inside! The Greatest Thing +in the World. + +April 26th. A want of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, +a want of courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously +symbolized in one flash of Temper. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 27th. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but +by putting something in--a great Love, a new Spirit--the Spirit of +Christ. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 28th. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, +sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what is +wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate +the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men. +Christ does. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 29th Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the +possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will +find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are +people who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; +but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative +fellowship. The Greatest Thing in the World. + +April 30th. Do not quarrel . . . with your lot in life. Do not complain +of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have +to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +May 1st. The moment the new life is begun there comes a genuine anxiety +to break with the old. For the former environment has now become +embarrassing. It refuses its dismissal from consciousness. It competes +doggedly with the new Environment for a share of the correspondences. And +in a hundred ways the former traditions, the memories and passions of the +past, the fixed associations and habits of the earlier life, now +complicate the new relation. The complex and bewildered soul, in fact, +finds itself in correspondence with two environments, each with urgent +but yet incompatible claims. It is a dual soul living in a double world, +a world whose inhabitants are deadly enemies, and engaged in perpetual +civil war. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 179. + +May 2d. How can the New Life deliver itself from the still-persistent +past? A ready solution of the difficulty would be TO DIE. . . . If we +cannot die altogether, . . . the most we can do is to die as much as we +can. . . . To die to any environment is to withdraw correspondence with +it, to cut ourselves off, so far as possible, from all communication with +it. So that the solution of the problem will simply be this, for the +spiritual life to reverse continuously the processes of the natural life. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 180. + +May 3d. The spiritual man having passed from Death unto Life, the natural +man must next proceed to pass from Life unto Death. Having opened the new +set of correspondences, he must deliberately close up the old. +Regeneration in short must be accompanied by Degeneration. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 181. + +May 4th. The peculiar feature of Death by Suicide is that it is not only +self-inflicted but sudden. And there are many sins which must either be +dealt with suddenly or not at all. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 183. + +May 5th. If the Christian is to "live unto God," he must "die unto sin." +If he does not kill sin, sin will inevitably kill him. Recognizing this, +he must set himself to reduce the number of his correspondences-- +retaining and developing those which lead to a fuller life, +unconditionally withdrawing those which in any way tend in an opposite +direction. This stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act, a +crucifixion of the flesh, a suicide. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 182. + +May 6th. Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems +to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for +agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God +appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and +humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. The +Greatest Thing in the World. + +May 7th. It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that as a general rule +men are linked to evil mainly by a single correspondence. Few men break +the whole law. Our natures, fortunately, are not large enough to make us +guilty of all, and the restraints of circumstances are usually such as to +leave a loophole in the life of each individual for only a single +habitual sin. But it is very easy to see how this reduction of our +intercourse with evil to a single correspondence blinds us to our true +position. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 186. + +May 8th. One little weakness, we are apt to fancy, all men must be +allowed, and we even claim a certain indulgence for that apparent +necessity of nature which we call our besetting sin. Yet to break with +the lower environment at all, to many, is to break at this single point. +Natural Law, p. 186. + +May 9th. There may be only one avenue between the new life and the old, +it may be but a small and SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE, but this is sufficient to +keep the old life in. So long as that remains the victim is not "dead +unto sin," and therefore he cannot "live unto God." Natural Law, p. 187. + +May 10th. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless +image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you see it not, +and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore keep +in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men, and among +things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles. The Greatest +Thing in the World. + +May 11th. Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love. Stand before +that mirror, reflect Christ's character, and you will be changed into the +same image from tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way. You +cannot love to order. You can only look at the lovely object, and fall in +love with it, and grow into likeness to it. The Greatest Thing in the +World. + +May 12th. In the natural world it only requires a single vital +correspondence of the body to be out of order to ensure Death. It is not +necessary to have consumption, diabetes, and an aneurism to bring the +body to the grave, if it have heart disease. He who is fatally diseased +in one organ necessarily pays the penalty with his life, though all the +others be in perfect health. And such, likewise, are the mysterious unity +and correlation of functions in the spiritual organism that the disease +of one member may involve the ruin of the whole. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 187. + +May 13th. To break altogether, and at every point, with the old +environment, is a simple impossibility. So long as the regenerate man is +kept in this world he must find the old environment at many points a +severe temptation. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 190. + +May 14th. Power over very many of the commonest temptations is only to be +won by degrees, and however anxious one might be to apply the summary +method to every case, he soon finds it impossible in practice. Natural +Law, Mortification, p. 190. + +May 15th. The ill-tempered person . . . can make very little of his +environment. However he may attempt to circumscribe it in certain +directions, there will always remain a wide and ever-changing area to +stimulate his irascibility. His environment, in short, is an inconstant +quantity, and his most elaborate calculations and precautions must often +and suddenly fail him. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 191. + +May 16th. What the ill-tempered person has to deal with, . . . mainly, is +the correspondence, the temper itself. And that, he well knows, involves +a long and humiliating discipline. The case is not at all a surgical but +a medical one, and the knife is here of no more use than in a fever. A +specific irritant has poisoned his veins. And the acrid humours that are +breaking out all over the surface of his life are only to be subdued by a +gradual sweetening of the inward spirit. Natural Law, Mortification, p. +191. + +May 17th. The man whose blood is pure has nothing to fear. So he whose +spirit is purified and sweetened becomes proof against these germs of +sin. "Anger, wrath, malice and railing" in such a soil can find no root. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 192. + +May 18th. The Mortification of a member . . .is based on the Law of +Degeneration. The useless member here is not cut off, but simply relieved +as much as possible of all exercise. This encourages the gradual decay of +the parts, and as it is more and more neglected it ceases to be a channel +for life at all. So an organism "mortifies" its members. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 193. + +May 19th. Man's spiritual life consists in the number and fulness of his +correspondences with God. In order to develop these he may be constrained +to insulate them, to enclose them from the other correspondences, to shut +himself in with them. In many ways the limitation of the natural life is +the necessary condition of the full enjoyment of the spiritual life. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195. + +May 20th. No man is called to a life of self-denial for its own sake. It +is in order to a compensation which, though sometimes difficult to see, +is always real and always proportionate. No truth, perhaps, in practical +religion is more lost sight of. We cherish somehow a lingering rebellion +against the doctrine of self-denial--as if our nature, or our +circumstances, or our conscience, dealt with us severely in loading us +with the daily cross. But is it not plain after all that the life of +self-denial is the more abundant life--more abundant just in proportion +to the ampler crucifixion of the narrower life? Is it not a clear case of +exchange--an exchange, however, where the advantage is entirely on our +side? We give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to +enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life. What though we +sacrifice a hundred such correspondences? We make but the more room for +the great one that is left. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195. + +May 21st. Do not spoil your life at the outset with unworthy and +impoverishing correspondences; and if it is growing truly rich and +abundant, be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal quality with +anything of earth. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196. + +May 22d. To concentrate upon a few great correspondences, to oppose to +the death the perpetual petty larceny of our life by trifles--these are +the conditions for the highest and happiest life. . . . The penalty of +evading self-denial also is just that we get the lesser instead of the +larger good. The punishment of sin is inseparably bound up with itself. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196. + +May 23d. Each man has only a certain amount of life, of time, of +attention--a definite measurable quantity. If he gives any of it to this +life solely it is wasted. Therefore Christ says, Hate life, limit life, +lest you steal your love for it from something that deserves it more. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 197. + +May 24th. To refuse to deny one's self is just to be left with the self +undented. When the balance of life is struck, the self will be found +still there. The discipline of life was meant to destroy this self, but +that discipline having been evaded--and we all to some extent have +opportunities, and too often exercise them, of taking the narrow path by +the shortest cuts--its purpose is baulked. But the soul is the loser. In +seeking to gain its life it has really lost it. Natural Law, +Mortification, p. 196. + +May 25th. Suppose we deliberately made up our minds as to what things we +were henceforth to allow to become our life? Suppose we selected a given +area of our environment and determined once for all that our +correspondences should go to that alone, fencing in this area all round +with a morally impassable wall? True, to others, we should seem to live a +poorer life; they would see that our environment was circumscribed, and +call us narrow because it was narrow. But, well-chosen, this limited life +would be really the fullest life; it would be rich in the highest and +worthiest, and poor in the smallest and basest, correspondences. Natural +Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 26th. The well-defined spiritual life is not only the highest life, +but it is also the most easily lived. The whole cross is more easily +carried than the half. It is the man who tries to make the best of both +worlds who makes nothing of either. And he who seeks to serve two masters +misses the benediction of both. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 27th. You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the +moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the +moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans +the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there +leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do +unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to +speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +May 28th. No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the +condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and +time, just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires +preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any cost +have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. The Greatest Thing +in the World, p. 60. + +May 29th. He who has taken his stand, who has drawn a boundary line, +sharp and deep, about his religious life, who has marked off all beyond +as for ever forbidden ground to him, finds the yoke easy and the burden +light. For this forbidden environment comes to be as if it were not. His +faculties falling out of correspondence, slowly lose their sensibilities. +And the balm of Death numbing his lower nature releases him for the +scarce disturbed communion of a higher life. So even here to die is gain. +Natural Law, Mortification, p. 199. + +May 30th. Remain side by side with Him who loved us, and gave Himself for +us, and you too will become a permanent magnet, a permanently attractive +force; and like Him you will draw all men unto you, like Him you will be +drawn unto all men. That is the inevitable effect of Love. Any man who +fulfils that cause must have that effect produced in him. The Greatest +Thing in the World, p. 45. + +May 31st. Try to give up the idea that religion comes to us by chance, or +by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by natural law, or by +supernatural law, for all law is Divine. The Greatest Thing in the World, +p. 46. + +June 1st. We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because +He first loved us. . . . And that is how the love of God melts down the +unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the new creature, who is patient +and humble and gentle and unselfish. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. +46. + +June 2d. The belief in Science as an aid to faith is not yet ripe enough +to warrant men in searching there for witnesses to the highest Christian +truths. The inspiration of Nature, it is thought, extends to the humbler +doctrines alone. And yet the reverent inquirer who guides his steps in +the right direction may find even now, in the still dim twilight of the +scientific world, much that will illuminate and intensify his sublimest +faith. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 204. + +June 3d. Life becomes fuller and fuller, richer and richer, more and more +sensitive and responsive to an ever-widening Environment as we rise in +the chain of being. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 207. + +June 4th. Before we reach an Eternal Life we must pass beyond that point +at which all ordinary correspondences inevitably cease. We must find an +organism so high and complex, that at some point in its development it +shall have added a correspondence which organic death is powerless to +arrest. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 213. + +June 5th. Uninterrupted correspondence with a perfect Environment is +Eternal Life, according to Science. "This is Life Eternal," said Christ, +"that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou +hast sent." Life Eternal is to know God. To know God is to "correspond" +with God. To correspond with God is to correspond with a Perfect +Environment. And the organism which attains to this, in the nature of +things, must live forever. Here is "eternal existence and eternal +knowledge." Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 215. + +June 6th. To find a new Environment again and cultivate relation with it +is to find a new Life. To live is to correspond, and to correspond is to +live. So much is true in Science. But it is also true in Religion. And it +is of great importance to observe that to Religion also the conception of +Life is a correspondence. No truth of Christianity has been more +ignorantly or wilfully travestied than the doctrine of Immortality. The +popular idea, in spite of a hundred protests, is that Eternal Life is to +live forever. . . . We are told that Life Eternal is not to live. This is +Life Eternal--TO KNOW. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 216. + +June 7th. From time to time the taunt is thrown at Religion, not unseldom +from lips which Science ought to have taught more caution, that the +Future Life of Christianity is simply a prolonged existence, an eternal +monotony, a blind and indefinite continuance of being. The Bible never +could commit itself to any such empty platitude; nor could Christianity +ever offer to the world a hope so colourless. Not that Eternal Life has +nothing to do with everlastingness. That is part of the conception. And +it is this aspect of the question that first arrests us in the field of +Science. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 216. + +June 8th. Science speaks to us indeed of much more than numbers of years. +It defines degrees of Life. It explains a widening Environment. It +unfolds the relation between a widening Environment and increasing +complexity in organisms. And if it has no absolute contribution to the +content of Religion, its analogies are not limited to a point. It yields +to Immortality, and this is the most that Science can do in any case, the +broad framework for a doctrine. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 217. + +June 9th. To correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal Unknowable, +would be everlasting existence; to correspond with "the true God and +Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life alone +makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon. Even the brief +span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years in +sorrow. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 220. + +June 10th. To Christianity, "he that hath the Son of God hath Life, and +he that hath not the Son hath not Life." This, as we take it, defines the +correspondence which is to bridge the grave. This is the clue to the +nature of the Life that lies at the back of the spiritual organism. And +this is the true solution of the mystery of Eternal Life. Natural Law, +Eternal Life, p. 227. + +June 11th. The relation between the spiritual man and his Environment is, +in theological language, a filial relation. With the new Spirit, the +filial correspondence, he knows the Father--and this is Life Eternal. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 229. + +June 12th. It takes the Divine to know the Divine--but in no more +mysterious sense than it takes the human to understand the human. The +analogy, indeed, for the whole field here has been finely expressed +already by Paul: "What man," he asks, "knoweth the things of a man, save +the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no +man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the +world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that +are freely given to us of God."--I. Cor. ii. 11, 12. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 229. + +June 13th. To go outside what we call Nature is not to go outside +Environment. Nature, the natural Environment, is only a part of +Environment. There is another large part, which, though some profess to +have no correspondence with it, is not on that account unreal, or even +unnatural. The mental and moral world is unknown to the plant. But it is +real. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 232. + +June 14th. Things are natural or supernatural simply according to where +one stands. Man is supernatural to the mineral; God is supernatural to +the man. When a mineral is seized upon by the living plant and elevated +to the organic kingdom, no trespass against Nature is committed. It +merely enters a larger Environment, which before was supernatural to it, +but which now is entirely natural. When the heart of a man, again, is +seized upon by the quickening Spirit of God, no further violence is done +to natural law. It is another case of the inorganic, so to speak, passing +into the organic. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 232. + +June 15th. Correspondence in any case is the gift of Environment. The +natural Environment gives men their natural faculties; the spiritual +affords them their spiritual faculties. It is natural for the spiritual +Environment to supply the spiritual faculties; it would be quite +unnatural for the natural Environment to do it. The natural law of +Bio-genesis forbids it; the moral fact that the finite cannot comprehend +the Infinite is against it; the spiritual principle that flesh and blood, +cannot inherit the Kingdom of God renders it absurd. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 233. + +June 16th. Organisms are not added to by accretion, as in the case of +minerals, but by growth. And the spiritual faculties are organized in the +spiritual protoplasm of the soul, just as other faculties are organized +in the protoplasm of the body. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 233. + +June 17th. It ought to be placed in the forefront of all Christian +teaching that Christ's mission on earth was to give men Life. "I am +come," He said, "that ye might have Life, and that ye might have it more +abundantly." And that He meant literal Life, literal spiritual and +Eternal Life, is clear from the whole course of His teaching and acting. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 235. + +June 18th. The effort to detect the living Spirit must be at least as +idle as the attempt to subject protoplasm to microscopic examination in +the hope of discovering Life. We are warned, also, not to expect too +much. "Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth." Natural +Law, Eternal Life, p. 237. + +June 19th. Many men would be religious if they knew where to begin; many +would be more religious if they were sure where it would end. It is not +indifference that keeps some men from God, but ignorance. "Good Master, +what must I do to inherit Eternal Life?" is still the deepest question of +the age. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 237. + +June 20th. The voice of God and the voice of Nature. I cannot be wrong if +I listen to them. Sometimes, when uncertain of a voice from its very +loudness, we catch the missing syllable in the echo. In God and Nature we +have Voice and Echo. When I hear both, I am assured. My sense of hearing +does not betray me twice. I recognize the Voice in the Echo, the Echo +makes me certain of the Voice; I listen and I know. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 238. + +June 21st. The soul is a living organism. And for any question as +to the soul's Life we must appeal to Life-science. And what does the +Life-science teach? That if I am to inherit Eternal Life, I must +cultivate a correspondence with the Eternal. Natural Law, Eternal Life, +p. 239. + +June 22d. All knowledge lies in Environment. When I want to know about +minerals I go to minerals. When I want to know about flowers I go to +flowers. And they tell me. In their own way they speak to me, each in its +own way, and each for itself--not the mineral for the flower, which is +impossible, nor the flower for the mineral, which is also impossible. So +if I want to know about Man, I go to his part of the Environment. And he +tells me about himself, not as the plant or the mineral, for he is +neither, but in his own way. And if I want to know about God, I go to His +part of the Environment. And He tells me about Himself, not as a Man, for +He is not Man, but in His own way. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 239. + +June 23d. Just as naturally as the flower and the mineral and the Man, +each in their own way, tell me about themselves, He tells me about +Himself. He very strangely condescends indeed in making things plain to +me, actually assuming for a time the Form of a Man that I at my poor +level may better see Him. This is my opportunity to know Him. This +incarnation is God making Himself accessible to human thought--God +opening to Man the possibility of correspondence through Jesus Christ. +Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 240. + +June 24th. Having opened correspondence with the Eternal Environment, the +subsequent stages are in the line of all other normal development. We +have but to continue, to deepen, to extend, and to enrich the +correspondence that has been begun. And we shall soon find to our +surprise that this is accompanied by another and parallel process. The +action is not all upon our side. The Environment also will be found to +correspond. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 241. + +June 25th. Let us look for the influence of Environment on the spiritual +nature of him who has opened correspondence with God. Reaching out his +eager and quickened faculties to the spiritual world around him, shall he +not become spiritual? In vital contact with Holiness, shall he not become +holy? Breathing now an atmosphere of ineffable Purity, shall he miss +becoming pure? Walking with God from day to day, shall he fail to be +taught of God? Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 242. + +June 26th. Growth in grace is sometimes described as a strange, mystical, +and unintelligible process. It is mystical, but neither strange nor +unintelligible. It proceeds according to Natural Law, and the leading +factor in sanctification is Influence of Environment. Natural Law, +Eternal Life, p. 242. + +June 27th. Will the evolutionist who admits the regeneration of the frog +under the modifying influence of a continued correspondence with a new +environment, care to question the possibility of the soul acquiring such +a faculty as that of Prayer, the marvellous breathing-function of the new +creature, when in contact with the atmosphere of a besetting God? Is the +change from the earthly to the heavenly more mysterious than the change +from the aquatic to the terrestrial mode of life? Is Evolution to stop +with the organic? If it be objected that it has taken ages to perfect the +function in the batrachian, the reply is, that it will take ages to +perfect the function in the Christian. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 244. + +June 28th. We have indeed spoken of the spiritual correspondence as +already perfect--but it is perfect only as the bud is perfect. "It doth +not yet appear what it shall be," any more than it appeared a million +years ago what the evolving batrachian would be. Natural Law, Eternal +Life, p. 244. + +June 29th. In a sense, all that belongs to Time belongs also to Eternity; +but these lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted for an +Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their +Environment, they would still not be Eternal. . . . An Eternal Life +demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 245. + +June 30th. The final preparation . . . for the inheriting of Eternal Life +must consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements. These must +be unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements, And this is +effected by a closing catastrophe--Death. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. +248. + +July 1st. "Perfect correspondence," according to Mr. Herbert Spencer, +would be "perfect Life." To abolish Death, therefore, all that would be +necessary would be to abolish Imperfection. But it is the claim of +Christianity that it can abolish Death. And it is significant to notice +that it does so by meeting this very demand of Science--it abolishes +Imperfection. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 249. + +July 2d. The part of the organism which begins to get out of +correspondence with the Organic Environment is the only part which is in +vital correspondence with it. Though a fatal disadvantage to the natural +man to be thrown out of correspondence with this Environment, it is of +inestimable importance to the spiritual man. For so long as it is +maintained the way is barred for a further Evolution. And hence the +condition necessary for the further Evolution is that the spiritual be +released from the natural. That is to say, the condition of the further +Evolution is Death. Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. 249. + +July 3d. The sifting of the correspondences is done by Nature. This is +its last and greatest contribution to mankind. Over the mouth of the +grave the perfect and the imperfect submit to their final separation. +Each goes to its own--earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, +Spirit to Spirit. "The dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the +Spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Natural Law, Eternal Life, p. +249. + +July 4th. Few things are less understood than the conditions of the +spiritual life. The distressing incompetence of which most of us are +conscious in trying to work out our spiritual experience is due perhaps +less to the diseased will which we commonly blame for it than to +imperfect knowledge of the right conditions. It does not occur to us how +natural the spiritual is. We still strive for some strange transcendent +thing; we seek to promote life by methods as unnatural as they prove +unsuccessful; and only the utter incomprehensibility of the whole region +prevents us seeing fully--what we already half-suspect--how completely we +are missing the road. Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 5th. Living in the spiritual world . . . is just as simple as living +in the natural world; and it is the same kind of simplicity. It is the +same kind of simplicity for it is the same kind of world--there are not +two kinds of worlds. The conditions of life in the one are the conditions +of life in the other. And till these conditions are sensibly grasped, as +the conditions of all life, it is impossible that the personal effort +after the highest life should be other than a blind struggle carried on +in fruitless sorrow and humiliation. Natural Law, Environment, p. 257. + +July 6th. Heredity and Environment are the master-influences of the +organic world. These have made all of us what we are. These forces are +still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives. And he who truly +understands these influences; he who has decided how much to allow to +each; he who can regulate new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the +old, so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate, at +another to counteract one another, understands the rationale of personal +development. Natural Law, Environment, p. 255. + +July 7th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more perfect +adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some inward evil +with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to make our +Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the secrets +of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 8th. In the spiritual world . . . the subtle influences which form +and transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially, +where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so ill +defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the atmosphere +as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural life. +Natural Law, Environment, p. 256. + +July 9th. What Heredity has to do for us is determined outside ourselves. +No man can select his own parents. But every man to some extent can +choose his own Environment. His relation to it, however largely +determined by Heredity in the first instance, is always open to +alteration. And so great is his control over Environment and so radical +its influence over him, that he can so direct it as either to undo, +modify, perpetuate, or intensify the earlier hereditary influences within +certain limits. Natural Law, Environment, p. 257. + +July 10th. One might show how the moral man is acted upon and changed +continuously by the influences, secret and open, of his surroundings, by +the tone of society, by the company he keeps, by his occupation, by the +books he reads, by Nature, by all, in short, that constitutes the +habitual atmosphere of his thoughts and the little world of his daily +choice. Or one might go deeper still and prove how the spiritual life +also is modified from outside sources--its health or disease, its growth +or decay, all its changes for better or for worse being determined by the +varying and successive circumstances in which the religious habits are +cultivated. Natural Law, Environment, p. 260. + +July 11th. In the spiritual world . . . he will be wise who courts +acquaintance with the most ordinary and transparent facts of Nature; and +in laying the foundations for a religious life he will make no unworthy +beginning who carries with him an impressive sense of so obvious a truth +as that without Environment there can be no life. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 264. + +July 12th. There is in the spiritual organism a principle of life; but +that is not self-existent. It requires a second factor, a something in +which to live and move and have its being, an Environment. Without this +it cannot live or move or have any being. Without Environment the soul is +as the carbon without the oxygen, as the fish without the water, as the +animal frame without the extrinsic conditions of vitality. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 264. + +July 13th. What is the Spiritual Environment? It is God. Without this, +therefore, there is no life, no thought, no energy, nothing---"without Me +ye can do nothing." Natural Law, Environment, p. 265. + +July 14th. The cardinal error in the religious life is to attempt to live +without an Environment. Spiritual experience occupies itself, not too +much, but too exclusively, with one factor--the soul. We delight in +dissecting this much-tortured faculty, from time to time, in search of a +certain something which we call our faith--forgetting that faith is but +an attitude, an empty hand for grasping an environing Presence. Natural +Law, Environment, p 265. + +July 15th. When we feel the need of a power by which to overcome the +world, how often do we not seek to generate it within ourselves by some +forced process, some fresh girding of the will, some strained activity +which only leaves the soul in further exhaustion? Natural Law, +Environment, p. 265. + +July 16th. To examine ourselves is good; but useless unless we also +examine Environment. To bewail our weakness is right, but not remedial. +The cause must be investigated as well as the result. And yet, because we +never see the other half of the problem, our failures even fail to +instruct us. After each new collapse we begin our life anew, but on the +old conditions; and the attempt ends as usual in the repetition--in the +circumstances the inevitable repetition--of the old disaster. Natural +Law, Environment, p. 265. + +July 17th. After seasons of much discouragement, with the sore sense upon +us of our abject feebleness, we do confer with ourselves, insisting for +the thousandth time, "My soul, wait thou only upon God." But, the lesson +is soon forgotten. The strength supplied we speedily credit to our own +achievement; and even the temporary success is mistaken for a symptom of +improved inward vitality. Once more we become self-existent. Once more we +go on living without an Environment. And once more, after days of wasting +without repairing, of spending without replenishing, we begin to perish +with hunger, only returning to God again, as a last resort, when we have +reached starvation point. Natural Law, Environment, p. 266. + +July 18th. Why this unscientific attempt to sustain life for weeks at a +time without an Environment? It is because we have never truly seen the +necessity for an Environment. We have not been working with a principle. +We are told to "wait only upon God," but we do not know why. It has never +been as clear to us that without God the soul will die as that without +food the body will perish. In short, we have never comprehended the +doctrine of the Persistence of Force. Instead of being content to +transform energy we have tried to create it. Natural Law, Environment, p. +266. + +July 19th. Whatever energy the soul expends must first be "taken into it +from without." We are not Creators, but creatures; God is our refuge AND +STRENGTH. Communion with God, therefore, is a scientific necessity; and +nothing will more help the defeated spirit which is struggling in the +wreck of its religious life than a common-sense hold of this biological +principle that without Environment he can do nothing. Natural Law, +Environment, p. 267. + +July 20th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a +fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss, at every turn of his +life, an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room +in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times +He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier +symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his +helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life, +the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other +energy, Spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at +last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. +This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerlessness is the normal +state, not only of this, but of every organism--of every organism apart +from its Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +July 21st. Friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is. +God is love. And to make religion akin to Friendship is simply to give it +the highest expression conceivable by man. The Changed Life, p. 49. + +July 22d. The entire dependence of the soul upon God is not an +exceptional mystery, nor is man's helplessness an arbitrary and +unprecedented phenomenon. It is the law of all Nature. The spiritual man +is not taxed beyond the natural. He is not purposely handicapped by +singular limitations or unusual incapacities. God has not designedly made +the religious life as hard as possible. The arrangements for the +spiritual life are the same as for the natural life. When, in their hours +of unbelief, men challenge their Creator for placing the obstacle of +human frailty in the way of their highest development, their protest is +against the order of Nature. Natural Law, p. 269. + +July 23d. The organism must either depend on his environment, or be +self-sufficient. But who will not rather approve the arrangement by which +man in his creatural life may have unbroken access to an Infinite Power? +What soul will seek to remain self-luminous when it knows that "The Lord +God is a Sun?" Who will not willingly exchange his shallow vessel for +Christ's well of living water. Natural Law, p. 270. + +July 24th. The New Testament is nowhere more impressive than where it +insists on the fact of man's dependence. In its view the first step in +religion is for man to feel his helplessness. Christ's first beatitude is +to the poor in spirit. The condition of entrance into the spiritual +kingdom is to possess the child-spirit--that state of mind combining at +once the profoundest helplessness with the most artless feeling of +dependence. Natural Law, p. 271. + +July 25th. Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improbability, but an +impossibility. As well expect the natural fruit to flourish without air +and heat, without soil and sunshine. How thoroughly also Paul grasped +this truth is apparent from a hundred pregnant passages in which he +echoes his Master's teaching. To him life was hid with Christ in God. And +that he embraced this, not as a theory but as an experimental truth, we +gather from his constant confession, "When I am weak, then am I strong." +Natural Law, p. 271. + +July 26th. One result of the due apprehension of our personal +helplessness will be that we shall no longer waste our time over the +impossible task of manufacturing energy for ourselves. Our science will +bring to an abrupt end the long series of severe experiments in which we +have indulged in the hope of finding a perpetual motion. And having +decided upon this once for all, our first step in seeking a more +satisfactory state of things must be to find a new source of energy. +Following Nature, only one course is open to us. We must refer to +Environment. The natural life owes all to Environment, so must the +spiritual. Now the Environment of the spiritual life is God. As Nature, +therefore, forms the complement of the natural life. God is the +complement of the spiritual. Natural Law, p. 272. + +July 27th. Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see +yourself grow, or hear the whirr of the machinery. All great things grow +noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Mr. Darwin +tells us that Evolution proceeds by "numerous, successive, and slight +modifications." The Changed Life, p. 54. + +July 28th. We fail to praise the ceaseless ministry of the great +inanimate world around us only because its kindness is unobtrusive. +Nature is always noiseless. All her greatest gifts are given in secret. +And we forget how truly every good and perfect gift comes from without, +and from above, because no pause in her changeless beneficence teaches us +the sad lessons of deprivation. Natural Law, p. 274. + +July 29th. It is not a strange thing for the soul to find its life in +God. This is its native air. God as the Environment of the soul has been +from the remotest age the doctrine of all the deepest thinkers in +religion. How profoundly Hebrew poetry is saturated with this high +thought will appear when we try to conceive of it with this left out. +Natural Law, p. 374. + +July 30th. The alternatives of the intellectual life are Christianity or +Agnosticism. The Agnostic is right when he trumpets his incompleteness. +He who is not complete in Him must be for ever incomplete. Natural Law, +p. 278. + +July 31st. The problems of the heart and conscience are infinitely more +perplexing than those of the intellect. Has love no future? Has right no +triumph? Is the unfinished self to remain unfinished? The alternatives +are two, Christianity or Pessimism. But when we ascend the further height +of the religious nature, the crisis comes. There, without Environment, +the darkness is unutterable. So maddening now becomes the mystery that +men are compelled to construct an Environment for themselves. No +Environment here is unthinkable. An altar of some sort men must have-- +God, or Nature, or Law. But the anguish of Atheism is only a negative +proof of man's incompleteness. Natural Law, p. 279. + +August 1st. A photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to +the sun. While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he +simply stops the getting on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may +need, it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed, +anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The +Changed Life, pp. 56, 57. + +August 2d. What a very strange thing, is it not, for man to pray? It is +the symbol at once of his littleness and of his greatness. Here the sense +of imperfection, controlled and silenced in the narrower reaches of his +being, becomes audible. Now he must utter himself. The sense of need is +so real, and the sense of Environment, that he calls out to it, +addressing it articulately, and imploring it to satisfy his need. Surely +there is nothing more touching in Nature than this? Man could never so +expose himself, so break through all constraint, except from a dire +necessity. Natural Law, p. 279. + +August 3d. What is Truth? The natural Environment answers, "Increase of +Knowledge increaseth Sorrow," and "much study is a Weariness." Christ +replies, "Learn of Me, and ye shall find Rest." Contrast the world's word +"Weariness" with Christ's word "Rest." No other teacher since the world +began has ever associated "learn" with "Rest." Learn of me, says the +philosopher, and you shall find Restlessness. Learn of Me, says Christ, +and ye shall find Rest. Natural Law, p. 280. + +August 4th. Men will have to give up the experiment of attempting to live +in half an Environment. Half an Environment will give but half a Life. +. . . He whose correspondences are with this world alone has only a +thousandth part, a fraction, the mere rim and shade of an Environment, +and only the fraction of a Life. How long will it take Science to believe +its own creed, that the material universe we see around us is only a +fragment of the universe we do not see? Natural Law, p. 282. + +August 5th. The Life of the senses, high and low, may perfect itself in +Nature. Even the Life of thought may find a large complement in +surrounding things. But the higher thought, and the conscience, and the +religious Life, can only perfect themselves in God. Natural Law, p. 283. + +August 6th. To make the influence of Environment stop with the natural +world is to doom the spiritual nature to death. For the soul, like the +body, can never perfect itself in isolation. The law for both is to be +complete in the appropriate Environment. Natural Law, p. 283. + +August 7th. Take into your new sphere of labour, where you also mean to +lay down your life, that simple charm, Love, and your life-work must +succeed. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is +not worth while going if you take anything less. The Greatest Thing in +the World, p. 17. + +August 8th. Politeness has been defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is +said to be love in little things. And the one secret of politeness is to +love. Love CANNOT behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored +persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of Love in +their heart, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply cannot +do it. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 26. + +August 9th. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just +His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any other. +I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious lesson in +Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting +anything, but only in giving. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 29. + +August 10th. Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of +happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being +served by others. It consists in giving, and in serving others. He that +would be great among you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be +happy, let him remember that there is but one way--it is more blessed, it +is more happy, to give than to receive. The Greatest Thing in the World, +p. 30. + +August 11th. "Love is not easily provoked." . . . We are inclined to look +upon bad temper as a very harmless weakness. We speak of it as a mere +infirmity of nature, a family failing, a matter of temperament, not a +thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man's character. +And yet here, right in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a +place; and the Bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the +most destructive elements in human nature. The Greatest Thing in the +World, p. 30. + +August 12th. The peculiarity of ill-temper is that it is the vice of the +virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You +know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely +perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" +disposition. This compatibility of ill-temper with high moral character +is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The Greatest +Thing in the World, p. 31. + +August 13th. What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good +musician? Practice. . . . What makes a man a good man? Practice. Nothing +else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not get the soul +in different ways, under different laws, from those in which we get the +body and the mind. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 40. + +August 14th. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, +strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole round Christian +character--the Christ-like nature in its fullest development. And the +constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless +practice. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 41. + +August 15th. We know but little now about the conditions of the life that +is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal +God, is Love. Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift. The Greatest Thing +in the World, p. 54. + +August 16th. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love +forever is to live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up +with love. . . . Love must be eternal. It is what God is. The Greatest +Thing in the World, pp. 57, 58. + +August 17th. When a man becomes a Christian the natural process is this: +The Living Christ enters into his soul. Development begins. The +quickening Life seizes upon the soul, assimilates surrounding elements, +and begins to fashion it. According to the great Law of Conformity to +Type this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who +fashions. And all through Life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet +perfectly definite, process, goes on "until Christ be formed" in it. +Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 18th. The Christian Life is not a vague effort after +righteousness--an ill-defined, pointless struggle for an ill-defined, +pointless end. Religion is no dishevelled mass of aspiration, prayer, and +faith. There is no more mystery in Religion as to its processes than in +Biology. Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 19th. There is much mystery in Biology. "We know all but nothing +of Life" yet, nothing of development. There is the same mystery in the +spiritual Life. But the great lines are the same, as decided, as +luminous; and the laws of natural and spiritual are the same, as +unerring, as simple. Will everything else in the natural world unfold its +order, and yield to Science more and more a vision of harmony, and +Religion, which should complement and perfect all, remain a chaos? +Natural Law, p. 294. + +August 20th. When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is +trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a +drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the +hair of his own head. Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when +He said: "Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" +The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that +those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal. +The Changed Life, p. 11. + +August 21st. The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is +life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ +be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has +fulfilled its end. The Changed Life, p. 62. + +August 22d. Our companionship with Him, like all true companionship, is a +spiritual communion. All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is +purely spiritual. It was after He was risen that He influenced even the +disciples most. The Changed Life, p. 38. + +August 23d. Make Christ your most constant companion. Be more under His +influence than under any other influence. Ten minutes spent in His +society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, and heart to +heart, will make the whole day different. Every character has an inward +spring, let Christ be it. Every action has a key-note, let Christ set it. +The Changed Life, p. 40. + +August 24th. Under the right conditions it is as natural for character to +become beautiful as for a flower; and if on God's earth there is not some +machinery for effecting it, the supreme gift to the world has been +forgotten. This is simply what man was made for. With Browning: "I say +that Man was made to grow, not stop." The Changed Life, p. 10. + +August 25th. How can modern men today make Christ, the absent Christ, +their most constant companion still? The answer is that Friendship is a +spiritual thing. It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time. That +which I love in my friend is not that which I see. What influences me in +my friend is not his body but his spirit. The Changed Life, p. 37. + +August 26th. Love should be the supreme thing--because it is going to +last; because in the nature of things it is an Eternal Life. It is a +thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we shall +have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living now. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 58. + +August 27th. When will it be seen that the characteristic of the +Christian Religion is its Life, that a true theology must begin with a +Biology? Theology is the Science of God. Why will men treat God as +inorganic? Natural Law, p. 297. + +August 28th. We should be forsaking the lines of nature were we to +imagine for a moment that the new creature was to be formed out of +nothing. Nothing can be made out of nothing. Matter is uncreatable and +indestructible; Nature and man can only form and transform. Hence when a +new animal is made, no new clay is made. Life merely enters into already +existing matter, assimilates more of the same sort and rebuilds it. The +spiritual Artist works in the same way. He must have a peculiar kind of +protoplasm, a basis of life, and that must be already existing. Natural +Law, p. 297. + +August 29th. However active the intellectual or moral life may be, from +the point of view of this other Life it is dead. That which is flesh is +flesh. It wants, that is to say, the kind of Life which constitutes the +difference between the Christian and the not-a-Christian, It has not yet +been "born of the Spirit." Natural Law, p. 299. + +August 30th. The protoplasm in man has a something in addition to its +instincts or its habits. It has a capacity for God. In this capacity for +God lies its receptivity; it is the very protoplasm that was necessary. +The chamber is not only ready to receive the new Life, but the Guest is +expected, and, till He comes, is missed. Till then the soul longs and +yearns, wastes and pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the empty +air, feeling after God if so be that it may find Him. This is not +peculiar to the protoplasm of the Christian's soul. In every land and in +every age there have been altars to the Known or Unknown God. Natural +Law, p. 300. + +August 31st. It is now agreed as a mere question of anthropology that the +universal language of the human soul has always been "I perish with +hunger." This is what fits it for Christ. There is a grandeur in this cry +from the depths which makes its very unhappiness sublime. Natural Law, p. +300. + +September 1st. In reflecting the character of Christ, it is no real +obstacle that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself. +Many men know Dante better than their own fathers. He influences them +more. As a spiritual presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual +force more real. Is there any reason why a greater than . . . Dante +should not also instruct, inspire, and mould the characters of men? The +Changed Life, pp. 38, 52. + +September 2d. Mark this distinction. . . . Imitation is mechanical, +reflection organic. The one is occasional, the other habitual. In the one +case, man comes to God and imitates Him; in the other, God comes to man +and imprints Himself upon him. It is quite true that there is an +imitation of Christ which amounts to reflection. But Paul's term includes +all that the other holds, and is open to no mistake. "Whom having not +seen, I love." The Changed Life, p. 39. + +September 3d. In paraphrase: We all reflecting as a mirror the character +of Christ are transformed into the same Image from character to +character--from a poor character to a better one, from a better one to +one a little better still, from that to one still more complete, until by +slow degrees the Perfect Image is attained. Here the solution of the +problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the +character of Christ and you will become like Christ. The Changed Life, p. +24. + +September 4th. Not more certain is it that it is something outside the +thermometer that produces a change in the thermometer, than it is +something outside the soul of man that produces a moral change upon him. +That he must be susceptible to that change, that he must be a party to +it, goes without saying; but that neither his aptitude nor his will can +produce it is equally certain. The Changed Life, p. 20. + +September 5th. Just as in an organism we have these three things-- +formative matter, formed matter, and the forming principle or life; so in +the soul we have the old nature, the renewed nature, and. the +transforming Life. Natural Law, p. 302. + +September 6th. Is it hopeless to point out that one of the most +recognizable characteristics of life is its unrecognizableness, and that +the very token of its spiritual nature lies in its being beyond the +grossness of our eyes? Natural Law, p. 302. + +September 7th. According to the doctrine of Bio-genesis, life can only +come from life. It was Christ's additional claim that His function in the +world, was to give men Life. "I am come that ye might have Life, and that +ye might have it more abundantly." This could, not refer to the natural +life, for men had that already. He that hath the Son hath another Life. +"Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you." Natural +Law, p. 303. + +September 8th. The recognition of the Ideal is the first step in the +direction of Conformity. But let it be clearly observed that it is but a +step. There is no vital connection between merely seeing the Ideal and +being conformed to it. Thousands admire Christ who never become +Christians. Natural Law, p. 306. + +September 9th. For centuries men have striven to find out ways and means +to conform themselves to the Christ Life. Impressive motives have been +pictured, the proper circumstances arranged, the direction of effort +defined, and men have toiled, struggled, and agonized to conform +themselves to the Image of the Son. Can the protoplasm CONFORM ITSELF to +its type? Can the embryo FASHION ITSELF? Is Conformity to Type produced +by the matter OR BY THE LIFE, by the protoplasm or by the Type? Is +organization the cause of life or the effect of it? It is the effect of +it. Conformity to Type, therefore, is secured by the type. Christ makes +the Christian. Natural Law, p. 307. + +September 10th. O preposterous and vain man, thou who couldest not make a +fingernail of thy body, thinkest thou to fashion this wonderful, +mysterious, subtle soul of thine after the ineffable Image? Wilt thou +ever permit thyself TO BE conformed to the Image of the Son? Wilt thou, +who canst not add a cubit to thy stature, submit TO BE raised by the +Type-Life within thee to the perfect stature of Christ Natural Law, p. +308. + +September 11th. Men will still experiment "by works of righteousness +which they have done" to earn the Ideal life. The doctrine of Human +Inability, as the Church calls it, has always been objectionable to men +who do not know themselves. Natural Law, p. 309. + +September 12th. Let man choose Life; let him daily nourish his soul; let +him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living +branch in the Vine, and the True-Vine Life will flow into his soul, +assimilating, renewing, conforming to Type, till Christ, pledged by His +own law, be formed in him. Natural Law, p. 312. + +September 13th. The work begun by Nature is finished by the Supernatural +--as we are wont to call the higher natural. And as the veil is lifted by +Christianity it strikes men dumb with wonder. For the goal of Evolution +is Jesus Christ. Natural Law, p. 314. + +September 14th. The Christian life is the only life that will ever be +completed. Apart from Christ the life of man is a broken pillar, the race +of men an unfinished pyramid. One by one in sight of Eternity all human +Ideals fall short, one by one before the open grave all human hopes +dissolve. Natural Law, p. 314. + +September 15th. I do not think we ourselves are aware how much our +religious life is made up of phrases; how much of what we call Christian +experience is only a dialect of the Churches, a mere religious +phraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and +know. Pax Vobiscum, p. 12. + +September 16th. The ceaseless chagrin of a self-centred life can be +removed at once by learning Meekness and Lowliness of heart. He who +learns them is forever proof against it. He lives henceforth a charmed +life. Pax Vobiscum, p. 29. + +September 17th. Great trials come at lengthened intervals, and we rise to +breast them; but it is the petty friction of our everyday life with one +another, the jar of business or of work, the discord of the domestic +circle, the collapse of our ambition, the crossing of our will or the +taking down of our conceit, which makes inward peace impossible. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 28. + +September 18th. There are people who go about the world looking out for +slights, and they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such men +as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have had no +real education, for they have never learned how to live. Pax Vobiscum, p. +31. + +September 19th. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian +graces. He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We +learn His art by living with Him. Pax Vobiscum, p. 32. + +September 20th. Christ's invitation to the weary and heavy-laden is a +call to begin life over again upon a new principle--upon His own +principle. "Watch My way of doing things," He says. "Follow Me. Take life +as I take it. Be meek and lowly, and you will find Rest." Pax Vobiscum, +p. 32. + +September 21st. If a man could make himself humble to order, it might +simplify matters, but we do not find that this happens. Hence we must all +go through the mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, is the nearest +gate and the quickest road to life. Pax Vobiscum, p. 35. + +September 22d. Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the children +of God, it is certainly never contemplated that it should supersede +personal effort. And any rest which ministers to indifference is immoral +and unreal--it makes parasites and not men. Natural Law, p. 335. + +September 23d. Just because God worketh in him, as the evidence and +triumph of it, the true child of God works out his own salvation--works +it out having really received it--not as a light thing, a superfluous +labour, but with fear and trembling as a reasonable and indispensable +service. Natural Law, p. 335. + +September 24th. Christianity, as Christ taught, is the truest philosophy +of life ever spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of +Christianity, that we mean Christ's Christianity. Pax Vobiscum, p. 47. + +September 25th. So far from ministering to growth, parasitism ministers +to decay. So far from ministering to holiness, that is to wholeness, +parasitism ministers to exactly the opposite. One by one the spiritual +faculties droop and die, one by one from lack of exercise the muscles of +the soul grow weak and flaccid, one by one the moral activities cease. So +from him that hath not, is taken away that which he hath, and after a few +years of parasitism there is nothing left to save. Natural Law, p. 336. + +September 26th. The natural life, not less than the eternal, is the gift +of God. But life in either case is the beginning of growth and not the +end of grace. To pause where we should begin, to retrograde where we +should advance, to seek a mechanical security that we may cover inertia +and find a wholesale salvation in which there is no personal +sanctification--this is Parasitism. Natural Law, p. 336. + +September 27th. Could we investigate the spirit as a living organism, or +study the soul of the backslider on principles of comparative anatomy, we +should have a revelation of the organic effects of sin, even of the mere +sin of carelessness as to growth and work, which must revolutionize our +ideas of practical religion. There is no room for the doubt even that +what goes on in the body does not with equal certainty take place in the +spirit under the corresponding conditions. Natural Law, p. 345. + +September 28th. It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to +adjust the burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has a +perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence to human +nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all surrounding +things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue and dust of +the world to a new grace of living. Pax Vobiscum, p. 46. + +September 29th. The penalty of backsliding is not something unreal and +vague, some unknown quantity which may be measured out to us +disproportionately, or which, perchance, since God is good, we may +altogether evade. The consequences are already marked within the +structure of the soul. So to speak, they are physiological. The thing +effected by our in difference or by our indulgence is not the book of +final judgment, but the present fabric of the soul. Natural Law, p. 346. + +September 30th. The punishment of degeneration is simply degeneration-- +the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the atrophy of the spiritual +nature. It is well known that the recovery of the backslider is one of +the hardest problems in spiritual work. To reinvigorate an old organ +seems more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new one; and the +backslider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled feet each +step of the way along which he strayed; to make up inch by inch the +leeway he has lost, carrying with him a dead-weight of acquired +reluctance, and scarce knowing whether to be stimulated or discouraged by +the oppressive memory of the previous fall. Natural Law, p. 346. + +October 1st. He who abandons the personal search for truth, under +whatever pretext, abandons truth. The very word truth, by becoming the +limited possession of a guild, ceases to have any meaning; and faith, +which can only be founded on truth, gives way to credulity, resting on +mere opinion. Natural Law, p. 352. + +October 2d. It is more necessary for us to be active than to be orthodox. +To be orthodox is what we wish to be, but we can only truly reach it by +being honest, by being original, by seeing with our own eyes, by +believing with our own heart. Natural Law. p. 364. + +October 3d. Better a little faith dearly won, better launched alone on +the infinite bewilderment of Truth, than perish on the splendid plenty of +the richest creeds. Such Doubt is no self-willed presumption. Nor, truly +exercised, will it prove itself, as much doubt does, the synonym for +sorrow. Natural Law, p. 365. + +October 4th. Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this +is one way in which it diminishes men's burden. It makes them citizens of +another world. Pax Vobiscum, p. 47. + +October 5th. Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the +same sense in which grapes are our own making, and no more. All fruits +GROW--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are the +fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can MAKE things +grow. He can GET THEM TO GROW by arranging all the circumstances and +fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is done by God. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 56. + +October 6th. Men may not know how fruits grow, but they do know that they +cannot grow in five minutes. Some lives have not even a stalk on which +fruits could hang, even if they did grow in five minutes. Some have never +planted one sound seed of Joy in all their lives; and others who may have +planted a germ or two have lived so little in sunshine that they never +could come to maturity. Pax Vobiscum, p. 51. + +October 7th. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever. Put in the +right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in Him will bring +forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is Happiness. The +infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good; and the infallible +receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. Pax Vobiscum, p. 56. + +October 8th. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in +fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must +come. . . . About every other method of living the Christian life there +is an uncertainty. About every other method of acquiring the Christian +experiences there is a "perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way +of nature, it cannot fail. Pax Vobiscum, p. 58. + +October 9th. The distinctions drawn between men are commonly based on the +outward appearance of goodness or badness, on the ground of moral beauty +or moral deformity--is this classification scientific? Or is there a +deeper distinction between the Christian and the not-a-Christian as +fundamental as that between the organic and the inorganic? Natural Law, +p. 374. + +October 10th What is the essential difference between the Christian and +the not-a-Christian, between the spiritual beauty and the moral beauty? +It is the distinction between the Organic and the Inorganic. Moral beauty +is the product of the natural man, spiritual beauty of the spiritual man. +Natural Law, p. 380. + +October 11th. The first Law of biology is: That which is Mineral is +Mineral; that which is Flesh is Flesh; that which is Spirit is Spirit. +The mineral remains in the inorganic world until it is seized upon by a +something called Life outside the inorganic world; the natural man +remains the natural man, until a Spiritual Life from without the natural +life seizes upon him, regenerates him, changes him into a spiritual man. +Natural Law, p. 381. + +October 12th Suppose now it be granted for a moment that the character of +the not-a-Christian is as beautiful as that of the Christian. This is +simply to say that the crystal is as beautiful as the organism. One is +quite entitled to hold this; but what he is not entitled to hold is that +both in the same sense are living. "He that hath the Son hath Life, and +he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life." Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 13th. Man is a moral animal, and can, and ought to, arrive at +great natural beauty of character. But this is simply to obey the law of +his nature--the law of his flesh; and no progress along that line can +project him into the spiritual sphere. Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 14th. If any one choose to claim that the mineral beauty, the +fleshly beauty, the natural moral beauty, is all he covets, he is +entitled to his claim. To be good and true, pure and benevolent in the +moral sphere, are high and, so far, legitimate objects in life. If he +deliberately stop here, he is at liberty to do so. But what he is not +entitled to do is to call himself a Christian, or to claim to discharge +the functions peculiar to the Christian life. Natural Law, p. 382. + +October 15th. In dealing with a man of fine moral character, we are +dealing with the highest achievement of the organic kingdom. But in +dealing with a spiritual man we are dealing with THE LOWEST FORM OF LIFE +IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. To contrast the two, therefore, and marvel that +the one is apparently so little better than the other, is unscientific +and unjust. Natural Law, p. 385. + +October 16th. The spiritual man is a mere unformed embryo, hidden as yet +in his earthly chrysalis-case, while the natural man has the breeding and +evolution of ages represented in his character. But what are the +possibilities of this spiritual organism? What is yet to emerge from this +chrysalis-case? The natural character finds its limits within the organic +sphere. But who is to define the limits of the spiritual? Even now it is +very beautiful. Even as an embryo it contains some prophecy of its future +glory. But the point to mark is, that "it doth not yet appear what it +shall be." Natural Law, p. 386. + +October 17th. The best test for Life is just LIVING. And living consists, +as we have formerly seen, in corresponding with Environment. Those +therefore who find within themselves, and regularly exercise, the +faculties for corresponding with the Divine Environment, may be said to +live the Spiritual Life. Natural Law, p. 390. + +October 18th. That the Spiritual Life, even in the embryonic organism, +ought already to betray itself to others, is certainly what one would +expect. Every organism has its own reaction upon Nature, and the reaction +of the spiritual organism upon the community must be looked for. In the +absence of any such reaction, in the absence of any token that it lived +for a higher purpose, or that its real interests were those of the +Kingdom to which it professed to belong, we should be entitled to +question its being in that Kingdom. Natural Law, p. 390. + +October 19th. Man's place in Nature, or his position among the Kingdoms, +is to be decided by the characteristic functions habitually discharged by +him. Now, when the habits of certain individuals are closely observed, +when the total effect of their life and work, with regard to the +community, is gauged, . . . there ought to be no difficulty in deciding +whether they are living for the Organic or for the Spiritual; in plainer +language, for the world or for God. Natural Law, p. 391. + +October 20th. No matter what may be the moral uprightness of man's life, +the honourableness of his career, or the orthodoxy of his creed, if he +exercises the function of loving the world, that defines his world--he +belongs to the Organic Kingdom. He cannot in that case belong to the +higher Kingdom. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not +in him." After all, it is by the general bent of a man's life, by his +heart-impulses and secret desires, his spontaneous actions and abiding +motives, that his generation is declared. Natural Law, p. 393. + +October 21st. The imperious claim of a Kingdom upon its members is not +peculiar to Christianity. It is the law in all departments of Nature that +every organism must live for its Kingdom. And in defining living FOR the +higher Kingdom as the condition of living in it, Christ enunciates a +principle which all Nature has prepared us to expect. Natural Law, p. +395. + +October 22d. Christianity marks the advent of what is simply a new +Kingdom. Its distinctions from the Kingdom below it are fundamental. It +demands from its members activities and responses of an altogether novel +order. It is, in the conception of its Founder, a Kingdom for which all +its adherents must henceforth exclusively live and work, and which opens +its gates alone upon those who, having counted the cost, are prepared to +follow it if need be to the death. The surrender Christ demanded was +absolute. Every aspirant for membership must seek FIRST the Kingdom of +God. Natural Law, p. 394. + +October 23d. Until even religious men see the uniqueness of Christ's +society, until they acknowledge to the full extent its claim to be +nothing less than a new Kingdom, they will continue the hopeless attempt +to live for two Kingdoms at once. And hence the value of a more explicit +Classification. For probably the most of the difficulties of trying to +live the Christian life arise from attempting to half-live it. Natural +Law, p. 396. + +October 24th. Two Kingdoms, at the present time, are known to Science-- +the Inorganic and the Organic. The spiritual life does not belong to the +Inorganic Kingdom, because it lives. It does not belong to the Organic +Kingdom, because it is endowed with a kind of Life infinitely removed +from either the vegetable or animal. Where, then, shall it be classed? We +are left without an alternative. There being no Kingdom known to Science +which can contain it, we must construct one. Or, rather, we must include +in the programme of Science a Kingdom already constructed, but the place +of which in Science has not yet been recognized. That Kingdom is the +KINGDOM OF GOD. Natural Law, p. 397. + +October 25th. The goal of the organisms of the Spiritual World is nothing +less than this--to be "holy as He is holy, and pure as He is pure." And +by the Law of Conformity to Type, their final perfection is secured. The +inward nature must develop out according to its Type, until the +consummation of oneness with God is reached. Natural Law, p. 403. + +October 26th. Christianity defines the highest conceivable future for +mankind. It satisfies the Law of Continuity. It guarantees the necessary +conditions for carrying on the organism successfully, from stage to +stage. It provides against the tendency to Degeneration. And finally, +instead of limiting the yearning hope of final perfection to the +organisms of a future age--an age so remote that the hope for thousands +of years must still be hopeless--instead of inflicting this cruelty on +intelligences mature enough to know perfection and earnest enough to wish +it, Christianity puts the prize within immediate reach of man. Natural +Law, p. 404. + +October 27th. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live +and grow old alone, unloving and unloved. To be lost is to live in an +unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to love; +he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God. For God is Love. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 59. + +October 28th. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love +vaunteth not itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then +everything that you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving +time to. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +October 29th. The final test of religion at that great Day is not +religiousness, but Love; not what I have done, not what I have believed, +not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities +of life. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 62. + +October 30th. The words which all of us shall one Day hear sound not of +theology but of life, not of churches and saints, but of the hungry and +the poor, not of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter and clothing, not +of Bibles and prayer-books, but of cups of cold water in the name of +Christ. The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 63. + +October 31st. The world moves. And each day, each hour, demands a further +motion and re-adjustment for the soul. A telescope in an observatory +follows a star by clockwork, but the clockwork of the soul is called the +Will. Hence, while the soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, +the Will in intense activity holds the mirror in position lest the +drifting motion of the world bear it beyond the line of vision. To +"follow Christ" is largely to keep the soul in such position as will +allow for the motion of the earth. And this calculated counteracting of +the movements of a world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to +the Mirrored, this steadying of the faculties unerringly, through cloud +and earthquake; fire and sword, is the stupendous cooperating labour of +the Will. The Changed Life, p. 60. + +November 1st. All around us Christians are wearing themselves out in +trying to be better. The amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the +hearts of unnumbered thousands of men and women in whom we should never +suspect it; among the wise and thoughtful; among the young and gay, who +seldom assuage and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most +wonderful and touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed, +but more light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very +real energies already there. Pax Vobiscum, p. 14. + +November 2d. Men sigh for the wings of a dove, that they may fly away and +be at Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is +WITHIN YOU." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the +bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. +Hence, be lowly. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30. + +November 3d. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy. +Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who does +what is right has the kingdom of God within him. Any boy who, instead of +being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has the kingdom of +God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy because he does +what is right, has the kingdom of God within him. The kingdom of God is +not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange religious +experiences: the kingdom of God is doing what is right--living at peace +with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. First, p. 11. + +November 4th. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be +hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be meek. He who is without +expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is self-evident that +these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man are really above all +other men, above all other things. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30. + +November 5th. Keep religion in its place, and it will take you straight +through life, and straight to your Father in heaven when life is over. +But if you do not put it in its place, you may just as well have nothing +to do with it. Religion out of its place in a human life is the most +miserable thing in the world. There is nothing that requires so much to +be kept in its place as religion, and its place is what? second? third? +"First." Boys, carry that home with you today--FIRST the kingdom of God. +Make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that the very +first thing. First, pp. 15, 16. + +November 6th. The change we have been striving after is not to be +produced by any more striving after. It is to be wrought upon us by the +moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud +bursts, and the fruit reddens under the cooperation of influences from +the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under invisible +pressures from without. The Changed Life, p. 21. + +November 7th. Every man's character remains as it is, or continues in the +direction in which it is going, until it is compelled by IMPRESSED FORCES +to change that state. Our failure has been the failure to put ourselves +in the way of the impressed forces. There is a clay, and there is a +Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould the clay. The Changed +Life, p. 21. + +November 8th. Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance +together to make the perfect man. This method of sanctification, +nevertheless, is in the true direction. It is only in the details of +execution that it fails. The Changed Life, p. 14. + +November 9th. We all reflecting as a mirror the character of Christ are +transformed into the same Image from character to character--from a poor +character to a better one, from a better one to one a little better +still, from that to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the +Perfect Image is attained. Here the solution of the problem of +sanctification is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of +Christ, and you will become like Christ. The Changed Life, p. 24. + +November 10th. There are some men and some women in whose company we are +always at our best. While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or +speak ungenerous words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, +sanctity. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their +intercourse, and we find a music in our souls that was never there +before. The Changed Life, p. 33. + +November 11th. Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are +subject to fevers which cause restlessness and delirium. Note the +expression, "cause restlessness." RESTLESSNESS HAS A CAUSE. Clearly, +then, any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once +to deal with the cause. Pax Vobiscum, p. 20. + +November 12th. What Christian experience wants is THREAD, a vertebral +column, method. It is impossible to believe that there is no remedy for +its unevenness and dishevelment, or that the remedy is a secret. The +idea, also, that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, +have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick +of it--is wholly incredible. Religion must ripen fruit for every +temperament; and the way even into its highest heights must be by a +gateway through which the peoples of the world may pass. Pax Vobiscum, p. +15. + +November 13th. Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God +is a God of order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and +never at random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The Christian +experiences are governed by law. Pax Vobiscum, p. 17. + +November 14th. We ARE CHANGED, as the Old Version has it--we do not +change ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament +you will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are +described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be pointed out +that there is a rationale in this; but meantime do not toss these words +aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or ignored +intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here is no more than is +everywhere claimed for the body. The Changed Life, p. 19. + +November 15th. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but not without a long +previous history. They are the mature effects of former causes. Equally +so are Rest, and Peace, and Joy. They, too, have each a previous history. +Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, but are brought about by +antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but calms in man's inward +nature, and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable. Pax +Vobiscum, p. 18. + +November 16th. Few men know how to live. We grow up at random, carrying +into mature life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as +little children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be +changed; that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the +Fine Arts; that it has to be learned with life-long patience, and that +the years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly. +Pax Vobiscum, p. 31. + +November 17th. Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives +that was ever lived: Tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves +breaking over it all the time till the worn body was laid in the grave. +But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there. +At any moment you might have gone to Him and found Rest. Pax Vobiscum, p. +35. + +November 18th. The creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right +spirit is an omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which +hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto that day." The Changed +Life, p. 57. + +November 19th. To become like Christ is the only thing in the world worth +caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly, and +all lower achievement vain. Those only who make this quest the supreme +desire and passion of their lives can even begin to hope to reach it. The +Changed Life, p. 57. + +November 20th. A religion of effortless adoration may be a religion for +an angel but never for a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the +active, lies true hope; not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; +not in the realm of ideals, but among tangible things, is man's +sanctification wrought. The Changed Life, p. 58. + +November 21st. Nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of Christ's +life on earth. Misfortune could not reach Him; He had no fortune. Food, +raiment, money--fountain-heads of half the world's weariness--He simply +did not care for; they played no part in His life; He "took no thought" +for them. It was impossible to affect Him by lowering His reputation; He +had already made Himself of no reputation. He was dumb before insult. +When He was reviled, He reviled not again. In fact, there was nothing +that the world could do to Him that could ruffle the surface of His +spirit. Pax Vobiscum, p. 36. + +November 22d. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the animal +in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to the natural +man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an eternal life must be +surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who will wonder or grudge that +it cannot be developed in a day? The Changed Life, p. 55. + +November 23d. To await the growing of a soul is an almost Divine act of +faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with itself, +of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ, wondering, +yearning, hungering to be like that? Yet must one trust the process +fearlessly, and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will do His +part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible progress, +to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by watching for +effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. The Changed Life, p. 56. + +November 24th. The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is +life's one charge. Let every project stand aside for that. "Till Christ +be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has +fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? When, how, are we to be +different? Time cannot change men. Death cannot change men. Christ can. +Wherefore PUT ON CHRIST. The Changed Life, p. 62. + +November 25th. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was a +weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle and +a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's +problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is Christ's +solution. "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at it from My +point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My yoke and learn of +Me, and you will find it easy. For My yoke is easy, works easily, sits +right upon the shoulders, and THEREFORE My burden is light." Pax +Vobiscum, p. 44. + +November 26th. There is a disease called "touchiness"--a disease which, +in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest sources of +restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, is a +morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is self-love inflamed to +the acute point. . . The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; +to let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused +part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old +nature is becoming numb from want of use. Pax Vobiscum, pp. 45, 46. + +November 27th. Christ's yoke is simply His secret for the alleviation of +human life, His prescription for the best and happiest method of living. +Men harness themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy +and unnatural ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, +ill-fitted collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past +enduring, by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere +continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature +is quick and sore. Pax Vobiscum, p. 45. + +November 28th. No one can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of +the ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be +grown. Pax Vobiscum, p. 50. + +November 29th Christ is the source of Joy to men in the sense in which He +is the source of Rest. His people share His life, and therefore share its +consequences, and one of these is Joy. His method of living is one that +in the nature of things produces Joy. When He spoke of His Joy remaining +with us He meant in part that the causes which produced it should +continue to act. His followers, that is to say, by repeating His life +would experience its accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would +remain with them. Pax Vobiscum, p. 54. + +November 30th. Think of it, the past is not only focussed there, in a +man's soul, it IS there. How could it be reflected from there if it were +not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, felt, believed of the +surrounding world are now within him, have become part of him, in part +are him--he has been changed into their image. He may deny it, he may +resent it, but they are there. They do not adhere to him, they are +transfused through him. He cannot alter or rub them out. They are not in +his memory, they are in HIM. His soul is as they have filled it, made it, +left it. The Changed Life, p. 27. + +December 1st. Temper is significant, not in what it is alone but in what +it reveals. . . . It is a test for love, a symptom, a revelation of an +unloving nature at bottom. It is the intermittent fever which bespeaks +unintermittent disease within; the occasional bubble escaping to the +surface which betrays some rottenness underneath; a sample of the most +hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard; +IN A WORD, the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-Christian sins. +The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 34. + +December 2d. You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the +moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the +moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans +the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life there +leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do +unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to +speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. The +Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60. + +December 3d. If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet +another on the street without making some mark upon him. We say we +exchange words when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when +intercourse is very close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange +that recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's +nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to the +first. The Changed Life, p. 30. + +December 4th. In the natural world we absorb heat, breathe air, draw on +Environment all but automatically for meat and drink, for the nourishment +of the senses, for mental stimulus, for all that, penetrating us from +without, can prolong, enrich, and elevate life. But in the spiritual +world we have all this to learn. We are new creatures, and even the bare +living has to be acquired. Natural Law, p. 267. + +December 5th. The great point in learning to live the spiritual life is +to live naturally. As closely as possible we must follow the broad, clear +lines of the natural life. And there are three things especially which it +is necessary for us to keep continually in view. The first is that the +organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to +life; the second is that the other half is contained in the Environment; +the third, that the condition of receptivity is simple union between the +organism and the Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 6th. To say that the organism contains within itself only +one-half of what is essential to life, is to repeat the evangelical +confession, so worn and yet so true to universal experience, of the utter +helplessness of man. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 7th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a +fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss at every turn of his +life an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room +in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times +He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier +symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his +helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life, +the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other +energy, spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at +last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin. +This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerless is the normal state +not only of this but of every organism--of every organism apart from its +Environment. Natural Law, p. 268. + +December 8th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more +perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some +inward evil with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to +make our Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the +secrets of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, p. 256. + +December 9th. In the spiritual world the subtle influences which form and +transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially, +where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so +ill-defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the +atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural +life. Natural Law, p. 256. + +December 10th. These lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted +for an Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their +Environment, they would still not be Eternal. However opposed, +apparently, to the scientific definition of Eternal Life, it is yet true +that perfect correspondence with Environment is not Eternal Life. . . . +An Eternal Life demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, p. 245. + +December 11th. On what does the Christian argument for Immortality really +rest? It stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole +of historical Christianity--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Natural +Law, p. 234. + +December 12th. The soul which has no correspondence with the spiritual +environment is spiritually dead. It may be that it never possessed . . . +the spiritual ear, or a heart which throbbed in response to the love of +God. If so, having never lived, it cannot be said to have died. But not +to have these correspondences is to be in the state of Death. To the +spiritual world, to the Divine Environment, it is dead--as a stone which +has never lived is dead to the environment of the organic world. Natural +Law, p. 177. + +December 13th. The humanity of what is called "sudden conversion" has +never been insisted on as it deserves. . . . While growth is a slow and +gradual process, the change from Death to Life, alike in the natural and +spiritual spheres, is the work of the moment. Whatever the conscious hour +of the second birth may be--in the case of an adult it is probably +defined by the first real victory over sin--it is certain that on +biological principles the real turning-point is literally a moment. +Natural Law, p. 184. + +December 14th. Christ says we must hate life. Now, this does not apply to +all life. It is "life in this world" that is to be hated. For life in +this world implies conformity to this world. It may not mean pursuing +worldly pleasures, or mixing with worldly sets; but a subtler thing than +that--a silent deference to worldly opinion; an almost unconscious +lowering of religious tone to the level of the worldly-religious world +around; a subdued resistance to the soul's delicate promptings to greater +consecration, out of deference to "breadth" or fear of ridicule. These, +and such things, are what Christ tells us we must hate. For these things +are of the very essence of worldliness. "If any man love the world," even +in this sense, "the love of the Father is not in him." Natural Law, p. +197. + +December 15th. To correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal +Unknowable, would be everlasting existence; to correspond with "the true +God and Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life +alone makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon. Even the +brief span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years +in sorrow. Natural Law, p. 220. + +December 16th. The relation between the spiritual man and his Environment +is, in theological language, a filial relation. With the new Spirit, the +filial correspondence, he knows the Father--and this is Life Eternal. +This is not only the real relation, but the only possible relation: +"Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever +the Son will reveal Him." And this on purely natural grounds. Natural +Law, p. 229. + +December 17th. Communion with God--can it be demonstrated in terms of +Science that this is a correspondence which will never break? We do not +appeal to Science for such a testimony. We have asked for its conception +of an Eternal Life; and we have received for answer that Eternal Life +would consist in a correspondence which should never cease, with an +Environment which should never pass away. And yet what would Science +demand of a perfect correspondence that is not met by this, THE KNOWING +OF GOD? There is no other correspondence which could satisfy one at least +of the conditions. Not one could be named which would not bear on the +face of it the mark and pledge of its mortality. But this, to know God, +stands alone. Natural Law, p. 220. + +December 18th. The misgiving which will creep sometimes over the +brightest faith has already received its expression and its rebuke: "Who +shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" +Shall these "changes in the physical state of the environment" which +threaten death to the natural man, destroy the spiritual? Shall death, or +life, or angels, or principalities, or powers, arrest or tamper with his +eternal correspondences? "Nay, in all these things we are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither +death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things +present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other +creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in +Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. viii, 35-39. Natural Law, p. 230. + +December 19th. "We find that man, or the spiritual man, is equipped with +two sets of correspondences." One set possesses the quality of +everlastingness, the other is temporal. But unless these are separated by +some means the temporal will continue to impair and hinder the eternal. +The final preparation, therefore, for the inheriting of Eternal Life must +consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements. These must be +unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements. And this is effected +by a closing catastrophe--Death. Natural Law, p. 248. + +December 20th. Heredity and Environment are the master-influences of the +organic world. These have made all of us what we are. These forces are +still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives. And he who truly +understands these influences; he who has decided how much to allow to +each; he who can regulate new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the +old, so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate, at +another to counter act one another, understands the rationale of personal +development. Natural Law, p. 255. + +December 21st. It is the Law of Influence that WE BECOME LIKE THOSE WHOM +WE HABITUALLY ADMIRE. Through all the range of literature, of history, +and biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There +was a savour of David about Jonathan and a savour of Jonathan about +David. Jean Valjean, in the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop +Bienvenu risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact. The Changed Life, +p. 31. + +December 22d. Can we shut our eyes to the fact that the religious +opinions of mankind are in a state of flux? And when we regard the +uncertainty of current beliefs, the war of creeds, the havoc of +inevitable as well as of idle doubt, the reluctant abandonment of early +faith by those who would cherish it longer if they could, is it not plain +that the one thing thinking men are waiting for is the introduction of +Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual World? When that comes we shall +offer to such men a truly scientific theology. And the Reign of Law will +transform the whole Spiritual World as it has already transformed the +Natural World. Natural Law, Preface, p. ix. + +December 23d. We have Truth in Nature as it came from God. And it has to +be read with the same unbiassed mind, the same open eye, the same faith, +and the same reverence as all other Revelation. All that is found there, +whatever its place in Theology, whatever its orthodoxy or heterodoxy, +whatever its narrowness or its breadth, we are bound to accept as +Doctrine from which on the lines of Science there is no escape. Natural +Law, Preface, p. xi. + +December 24th. In Nature generally, we come upon new Laws as we pass from +lower to higher kingdoms, the old still remaining in force, the newer +Laws which one would expect to meet in the Spiritual World would so +transcend and overwhelm the older as to make the analogy or identity, +even if traced, of no practical use. The new Laws would represent +operations and energies so different, and so much more elevated, that +they would afford the true keys to the Spiritual World. Natural Law, p. +47. + +December 25th. The visible is the ladder up to the invisible; the +temporal is but the scaffolding of the eternal. And when the last +immaterial souls have climbed through this material to God, the +scaffolding shall be taken down, and the earth dissolved with fervent +heat--not because it was base, but because its work is done. Natural Law, +p. 57. + +December 26th. The natural man belongs essentially to this present order +of things. He is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal +Life. But it is Life of so poor a quality that it is not Life at all. He +that hath not the Son hath not Life; but he that hath the Son hath Life-- +a new and distinct and supernatural endowment. He is not of this world. +He is of the timeless state, of Eternity. IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT HE +SHALL BE. Natural Law, p. 82. + +December 27th. The gradualness of growth is a characteristic which +strikes the simplest observer. Long before the word Evolution was coined +Christ applied it in this very connection--"First the blade, then the +ear, then the full corn in the ear." It is well known also to those who +study the parables of Nature that there is an ascending scale of slowness +as we rise in the scale of Life. Growth is most gradual in the highest +forms. Man attains his maturity after a score of years; the monad +completes its humble cycle in a day. What wonder if development be tardy +in the Creature of Eternity? A Christian's sun has sometimes set, and a +critical world has seen as yet no corn in the ear. As yet? "As yet," in +this long Life, has not begun. Grant him the years proportionate to his +place in the scale of Life. "The time of harvest is NOT YET." Natural +Law, p. 92. + +December 28th. Salvation is a definite process. If a man refuse to submit +himself to that process, clearly he cannot have the benefits of it. "As +many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God." He +does not avail himself of this power. It may be mere carelessness or +apathy. Nevertheless the neglect is fatal. He cannot escape because he +will not. Natural Law, p. 109. + +December 29th. The end of Salvation is perfection, the Christ-like mind, +character, and life. Morality is on the way to this perfection; it may go +a considerable distance toward it, but it can never reach it. Only Life +can do that. . . . Morality can never reach perfection; Life MUST. For +the Life must develop out according to its type; and being a germ of the +Christ-life, it must unfold into A CHRIST. Natural Law, p. 138. + +December 30th. Perfect life is not merely the possessing of perfect +functions, but of perfect functions perfectly adjusted to each other, and +all conspiring to a single result, the perfect working of the whole +organism. It is not said that the character will develop in all its +fulness in this life. That were a time too short for an Evolution so +magnificent. In this world only the cornless ear is seen: sometimes only +the small yet still prophetic blade. Natural Law, p. 129. + +December 31st. The immortal soul must give itself to something that is +immortal. And the only immortal things are these: "Now abideth faith, +hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." Some think the time may +come when two of these three things will also pass away--faith into +sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. We know but little now +about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is +that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet therefore that +everlasting gift. The Greatest Thing in the World, pp. 54, 55. + + +Henry Drummond's Works. + +The Programme of Christianity. A New Address by Henry Drummond, to be +issued uniform with the previous booklets. Price, 35 cents. + +The Greatest Thing in the World. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents. +Illustrated Edition, cloth, price, $1.00. + +Pax Vobiscum. The Second of the Series of which "The Greatest Thing in +the World" is the First. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents; +Illustrated Edition, cloth, $1.00. + +The Changed Life. An Address by Henry Drummond. The Third of the Series. +Gilt top, leatherette. Price, 35 cents. + +Natural Law in the Spiritual World, By Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. +Cloth, red top, title in gold, 458 pp. Price, 75 cents. + +"First:" A Talk with Boys. 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