Character and Conduct Part 5

Triviality

JANUARY 29

"They that use to employ their Minds too much upon Trifles, commonly make themselves incapable of any Thing that is Serious or Great."

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

"Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of G.o.d to turn thy mind to the Lord, from whom cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests. That is it which works up into patience, innocency, soberness, into stillness, staidness, quietness up to G.o.d, with His power. Therefore mind; that is the word of the Lord G.o.d unto thee, that thou mayest feel the authority of G.o.d, and thy faith in that, to work down that which troubles thee; for that is it which keeps peace, and brings up the witness in thee, which hath been transgressed, to feel after G.o.d with His power and life, who is a G.o.d of order and peace."

GEORGE FOX.

"It is not sin so much as triviality which hides G.o.d."

_The Service of G.o.d_, CANON BARNETT.

The Art of being Quiet

JANUARY 30

"It is only when we begin to _think_ about life, and how we should live, that the art of being quiet a.s.sumes its real value; to the irrational creature it is nothing, to the rational it is much. In the first place, it removes what De Quincey, with his usual grand felicity of expression, calls 'the burden of that distraction which lurks in the infinite littleness of details.' It is the infinite littleness of details which takes the glory and the dignity from our common life, and which we who value that life for its own sake and for the sake of its great Giver must strive to make finite.

"Since unconscious life is not possible to the intellectual adult, as it is to the child--since he cannot go on living without a thought about the nature of his own being, its end and aim--it is good for him to cultivate a habit of repose, that he may think and feel like a man putting away those childish things--the carelessness, the thoughtless joy, 'the tear forgot as soon as shed,' which, however beautiful, because appropriate, in childhood, are not beautiful because not appropriate in mature age.

"The art of being quiet is necessary to enable a man to possess his own soul in peace and integrity--to examine himself, to understand what gifts G.o.d has endowed him with, and to consider how he may best employ them in the business of the world. This is its universal utility. It is unwholesome activity which requires not repose and thoughtful quiet as its forerunner, and every man should secure some portion of each day for voluntary retirement and repose within himself."

The Art of being Quiet

JANUARY 31

"One of the special needs of our day is more time for meditation and reflection."

_Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.

"We are too busy, too enc.u.mbered, too much occupied, too active! We read too much! The one thing needful is to throw off all one's load of cares, of preoccupations, of pedantry, and to become again young, simple, child-like, living happily and gratefully in the present hour. We must know how to put occupation aside, which does not mean that we must be idle. In an inaction which is meditative and attentive the wrinkles of the soul are smoothed away, and the soul itself spreads, unfolds, and springs afresh, and, like the trodden gra.s.s of the roadside or the bruised leaf of a plant, repairs its injuries, becomes new, spontaneous, true, and original. Reverie, like the rain of night, restores colour and force to thoughts which have been blanched and wearied by the heat of the day. With gentle fertilising power it awakens within us a thousand sleeping germs, and, as though in play, gathers round us materials for the future, and images for the use of talent."

_Amiel's Journal._

Inward Stillness

February 1

"Let each of us sit still, and keep watch for awhile in the silent house of his spirit.... As near as is the light to one sleeping in the light, so near is Christ, the Awakener, to every Eternal man, deeply as he may be asleep within his outer man."

JOHN PULSFORD.

"Let us then labour for an inward stillness, An inward stillness and an inward healing; That perfect silence where the lips and heart Are still, and we no longer entertain Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, But G.o.d alone speaks in us, and we wait In singleness of heart that we may know His will, and in the silence of our own spirits, That we may do His will, and that only."

LONGFELLOW.

Commune with your Own Heart and be Still

FEBRUARY 2

"Perhaps one very simple, but alas too often neglected rule, may be suggested to those who are indeed desirous of realising through all the petty vicissitudes and monotonous or trivial round of their daily life, the Divine presence and power. 'Devotion early in the day _before the day's worries begin._ It is the _only_ way to keep the spirit G.o.dward through them all.' Devotion, it is needless to add, is not 'saying prayers' in words either of our own or any one else's--nor is it only or chiefly 'making request.' It is pre-eminently _wors.h.i.+p_, the deliberate homage of the mind and heart--of the whole being to G.o.d who is its source. And here steadfastness of will, showing itself in determined concentration of attention, is the indispensable condition of success; for such concentration is by no means always an easy matter to attain, even when the effort is 'made early in the day before the day's worries begin.' Sometimes there are sleepless 'worries' which a.s.sert their presence with the first dawn of consciousness; sometimes we are mentally or physically lazy, inert or languid. Well, if we habitually give in to such difficulties in a way of which we should be utterly ashamed were any other object of mental effort in question, we must not be surprised if the entirely natural result ensues that we fail to 'realise' what we have never honestly set ourselves to treat as real.... Amid the thronging duties, the ceaseless cares, the toilsome or pleasurable round of daily life, we must take and we must keep time to 'commune with our own hearts and in our own chamber, and be still.'"

E. M. CAILLARD.

The Receptive Side of Life

FEBRUARY 3

"To all who are active in Christian work I would say, ever remember that there must be fidelity to the receptive side of life if you are to exercise any real abiding influence. How often do we hear men say that they have worked hard in their district, or their school, or their cla.s.s, and yet there is no result.

"Perhaps they have worked too hard. There are a mult.i.tude of Marthas in modern English life; but it were good for such if, at times, they would follow the example of the wiser Mary, and sit down quietly at Jesus'

feet, and draw in from Him that power which cannot by any possibility be given out, before it is taken in."

Canon BODY.

"The problem set before us is to bring our daily task into the temple of contemplation and ply it there, to act as in the presence of G.o.d, to interfuse one's little part with religion. So only can we inform the detail of life, all that is pa.s.sing, temporary, and insignificant, with beauty and n.o.bility. So may we dignify and consecrate the meanest of occupations. So may we feel that we are paying our tribute to the universal work and the eternal will. So are we reconciled with life and delivered from the fear of death. So are we in order and at peace."

_Amiel's Journal._

Regulation of Time

FEBRUARY 4

"No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, despatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is labouring eternally, but to no purpose, and in constant motion, without getting on a jot: like a turnstile, he is in everybody's way, but stops n.o.body: he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything, but sees into nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with these few that are he burns his fingers."

COLTON.

"Hurry belongs to the mortal who wants to see the outcome of his work, while eternity is lavish of time."

_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.