Daily Thoughts Part 15

Music the Speech of G.o.d. May 11.

Music--there is something very wonderful in music. Words are wonderful enough, but music is more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do, it speaks straight to our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts n.o.ble feelings into us; it melts us to tears, we know not how; it is a language by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words; just as divine, just as blessed. Music has been called the speech of angels; I will go farther, and call it the speech of G.o.d Himself.

The old Greeks, the wisest of all the heathen, made a point of teaching their children music, because, they said, it taught them not to be self- willed and fanciful, but to see the beauty of order, the usefulness of rule, the divineness of law.

_Good News of G.o.d Sermons_. 1859.

Facing Realities. May 12.

The only comfort I can see in the tragedies of war is that they bring us all face to face with the realities of human life, as it has been in all ages, giving us sterner and yet more loving, more human, and more divine thoughts about ourselves, and our business here, and the fate of those who are gone, and awakening us out of the luxurious, frivolous, and unreal dream (full nevertheless of hard judgments) in which we have been living so long, to trust in a living Father who is really and practically governing this world and all worlds, and who willeth that none should perish.

_Letters and Memories_. 1855.

Street Arabs. May 13.

One has only to go into the streets of any great city in England to see how we, with all our boast of civilisation, are yet but one step removed from barbarism. Is that a hard word? Only there _are_ the barbarians round us at every street corner--grown barbarians, it may be, now all but past saving, but bringing into the world young barbarians whom we may yet save, for G.o.d wishes us to save them. . . . Do not deceive yourselves about the little dirty, offensive children in the street. If they be offensive to you, they are not to Him who made them. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, their angels do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven."

_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871.

Fellows.h.i.+p of Sorrow. May 14.

How was He, The blessed One, made perfect? Why, by grief-- The fellows.h.i.+p of voluntary grief-- He read the tear-stained book of poor men's souls, As we must learn to read it. Lady! lady!

Wear but one robe the less--forego one meal-- And thou shalt taste the core of many tales, Which now flit past thee, like a minstrel's songs, The sweeter for their sadness.

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v.

1847.

Heaven and h.e.l.l. May 15.

Heaven and h.e.l.l--the spiritual world--are they merely invisible places in s.p.a.ce which may become visible hereafter? or are they not rather the moral world of right and wrong? Love and righteousness--is not that the heaven itself wherein G.o.d dwells? Hatred and sin--is not that h.e.l.l itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to G.o.d?

_Water of Life Sermons_.

The Awfulness of Life. May 16.

Our hearts are dull, and hard, and light, G.o.d forgive us! and we forget continually what an earnest, awful world we live in--a whole eternity waiting for us to be born, and a whole eternity waiting to see what we shall do now we are born. Yes, our hearts are dull, and hard, and light.

And therefore Christ sends suffering on us, to teach us what we always gladly forget in comfort and prosperity--what an awful capacity of suffering we have; and more, what an awful capacity of suffering our fellow-creatures have likewise. . . .

We sit at ease too often in a fool's paradise, till G.o.d awakens us and tortures us into pity for the torture of others. And so, if we will not acknowledge our brotherhood by any other teaching, He knits us together by the brotherhood of suffering.

_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871.

Hope and Fear. May 17.

Every gift of G.o.d is good, and given for our happiness, and we sin if we abuse it. To use your fancy to your own misery is to abuse it and to sin. The realm of the possible was given to man to _hope_ and not to _fear_ in.

_Letters and Memories_. 1842.

Cry of the Heart and Reason. May 18.

A living G.o.d, a true G.o.d, a real G.o.d, a G.o.d worthy of the name, a G.o.d who is working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He has made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a G.o.d who satisfies not only the head but the heart, not only the logical intellect but the highest reason--that pure reason which is one with the conscience and moral sense! For Him we cry out, Him we seek, and if we cannot find Him we know no rest.

_Water of Life Sermons_. 1867.

Speaking the Truth in Love. May 19.

Whenever we are tempted to say more than is needful, let us remember St.

John's words (in the only sermon we have on record of his), "Little children, love one another," and ask G.o.d for His Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, which, instead of weakening a man's words, makes them all the stronger in the cause of truth, because they are spoken in love.

How difficult it is to distinguish between the loving _tact_, which avoids giving offence to a weaker brother, and the fear of man, which bringeth a snare!

_MS. Letter_. 1842.

Peasant Souls. May 20.

. . . Dull boors See deeper than we think, and hide within Those leathern hulls unfathomable truths, Which we amid thought's glittering mazes lose.

They grind among the iron facts of life, And have no time for self-deception.

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii.