Daily Thoughts Part 37

Cowardice. November 26.

There is but one thing which you have to fear in earth or heaven--being untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to G.o.d. If you will not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak. You are a coward; you desert G.o.d.

_True Words for Brave Men_.

Blind Faith. November 27.

In Him--"The Father"--I can trust, in spite of the horrible things I see happen, in spite of the fact that my own prayers are not answered. I believe that He makes all things work together for the good of the human race, and of me among the rest, as long as I obey His will. I believe He will answer my prayer, not according to the letter, but according to the spirit of it; that if I desire good, I shall find good, though not _the_ good I longed for.

_MS. Letter_. 1862.

Small and Great. November 28.

Begin with small things--you cannot enter into the presence of another human being without finding there more to do than you or I or any soul will ever learn to do perfectly before we die. Let us be content to do little if G.o.d sets us little tasks. It is but pride and self-will which says, "Give me something huge to fight and I shall enjoy that--but why make me sweep the dust?"

_Letters and Memories_. 1854.

True and False. November 29.

We must remember that dissatisfaction at existing evil (the feeling of all young and ardent minds), the struggle to escape from the "circ.u.mstance" of the evil world, has a carnal counterfeit--the love of novelty, and self-will, and self-conceit, which may thrust us down into the abysses of misrule and uncertainty; as it has done such men as Sh.e.l.ley and Byron; trying vainly every loophole, beating against the prison bars of an imperfect system; neither degraded enough to make themselves a fool's paradise within it, nor wise enough to escape from it through Christ, "the door into the sheepfold," to return when they will, and bring others with them into the serene empyrean of spiritual truth--truth which explains, and arranges, and hallows, and subdues everything.

_Letters and Memories_. 1842.

The Mind of Christ. November 30.

How can we attain to the blessed and n.o.ble state of mind--the mind of Christ, who must needs be about His Father's business, which is doing good? Only by prayer and practice. There is no more use in praying without practising than there is in practising without praying. You cannot learn to walk without walking; no more can you learn to do good without trying to do good.

_Sermons for the Times_. 1855.

SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS.

NOVEMBER 1.

All Saints' Day.

Commemoration of the Blessed Dead.

"If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour," said the Blessed One.

And if G.o.d honours His servants, shall not we honour them likewise? We may not, as our forefathers did blindly, though lovingly, wors.h.i.+p them as mediators and lesser G.o.ds, and pray to them instead of to their Father in heaven to whose throne of grace we may all come boldly through Christ Jesus, or believe that their relics will work miracles in our behalf, thus honouring the creature instead of the Creator. This we may not do, but we may honour the Creator in His creature, and honour G.o.d in those who have lived G.o.dly and G.o.d-like lives; and when they have pa.s.sed away from among us--souls endued by G.o.d with manifold virtues and precious gifts of grace--we may give thanks and say, These, O G.o.d, are the fruits of Thy Spirit. Thou honourest them in heaven with Thy approving smile.

We will honour them on earth, not merely with our lips, but in our lives.

What they were we too might be, if we were as true as they to the inspiration of Thy Spirit. Help us to honour their memories, as Thou and they would have us do, by following their example; by setting them before us, and not only them, but every holy and n.o.ble personage of whom we have ever heard, as dim likenesses of Christ--even as Christ is the likeness of Thee. Amen.

_MS. Sermon_.

NOVEMBER 30.

St. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr.

Form your own notions about angels and saints in heaven--as you will, . .

. but bear this in mind: that if the saints in heaven live the everlasting life, they must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and of good works. The everlasting life cannot be a selfish, idle life, spent only in individual happiness.

_Good News of G.o.d Sermons_.

December.

It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve, I went sighing past the Church across the moorland dreary: "Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave, And the bells but mock the wailing sound, they sing so cheery.

How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again?

Still in cellar and in garret, and on moorland dreary, The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain: Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be cheery."

Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild-fowl on the mere, Beneath the stars across the snow, like clear bells ringing, And a voice within cried, "Listen! Christmas carols even here!

Though thou be dumb, yet o'er their work the stars and snows are singing.

Blind! I live, I love, I reign, and all the nations through With the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing; Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild-fowl do, Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it the angels'

singing."

_A Christmas Carol_.

The Final Victory. December 1.

I believe that the ancient creed, the eternal gospel, will stand and conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every other for eighteen hundred years, by claiming and subduing and organising those young anarchic forces which now, unconscious of their parentage, rebel against Him to whom they owe their being.

_Yeast_, Preface. 1851.