- 
 
 THE 
 FRIENDLY 
 
 ** y-||*-^ A -*|-1^ 
 
 YEAR 
 
 VAN 
 
 
Mabel F. Edwards 
 1880-1952 
 
The Friendly Year 
 
BY HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 The Unknown Quantity 
 The Ruling Passion 
 The Blue Flower 
 
 Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land 
 Days Off 
 Little Rivers 
 Fisherman s Luck 
 
 Poems, Collection in one volume 
 
 The Grand Canyon, and Other Poems 
 The White Bees, and Other Poems 
 The Builders, and Other Poems 
 Music, and Other Poems 
 The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems 
 The House of Rimmon 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
The Friendly Year 
 
 Chosen and Arranged from the 
 
 Works of 
 Henry van Dyke, D.C.L. (Oxon.) 
 
 By 
 
 George Sidney Webster, D.D. 
 
 Secretary of The American Seamen s Friend Society 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 1917 
 
Copyright, 1887. 1893, 1898, 1903, by Henry van 
 Dyke; 1887, 1889, 1891, 1892. 1895, 1897, 1898, 
 1898, 1899. 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1905, 
 1905, 1907. 1908, 1911, 1912, 1914, 1917, by 
 Charles Scribner s Sons; 1893, 1895, 1899, 1906, 
 1913, by Harper & Brothers ; 1896, 1899, iQio, 
 by The Macmillan Company ; 1897, 1900, 1903, by 
 T. Y. Crowell & Co. ; 1900, by The Outlook Company 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Add to lib. 
 
 GIFT 
 

 WH 
 
 Preface 
 
 The books of Henry van Dyke are well known to 
 many classes of readers. He has worked in various 
 literary forms : stones, essays, criticism, and poetry. 
 The unity of his work is found in the individuality of a 
 style marked by simplicity, clearness, and directness, and 
 in the manifest influence of " a human aim, to cheer, 
 console, purify, or ennoble the life of the people." 
 
 In making this little year-book of selections, the sug 
 gestion of which is entirely my own, I have not sought 
 to illustrate literary qualities, so much as to bring out the 
 dominant note of human friendliness and comradeship, 
 which runs through the writings of an author who 
 knows books well, but who cares more for people. 
 
 I hereby express grateful appreciation of the kind 
 courtesy of The Macmillan Company, Harper & Broth 
 ers, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., and The Outlook Com 
 pany, for permission to use their copyrighted material. 
 
 G. S. W. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 September 21, 1900. 
 
 M7757G3 
 
Preface to Revised Edition 
 
 The passing years have brought so many friends who 
 have enjoyed these brief selections and also so many 
 new volumes from Dr. van Dyke, that a new edition 
 seemed to be necessary. 
 
 From the eight volumes issued since 1900, selections 
 have been chosen, which illustrate more emphatically 
 that? those they replace the dominant spirit of a beloved 
 author and loyal friend. 
 
 G. S. W. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 October 1st, 1906. 
 
Preface to Second Revised Edition 
 
 The host of friendly readers of Dr. van Dyke s 
 writings rejoice at the international recognition and 
 honours which his distinguished services have brought 
 to him. 
 
 The new selections found in this edition are chosen 
 from the nine volumes issued since 1906, and especially 
 exemplify his patriotic spirit. 
 
 G. S. W. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 October I5th, 1917. 
 
Bibliography 
 
 I. 1887. The Story of the Psalms. New York: 
 Charles Scribner s Sons. izmo, pp. iv, 259. 
 
 II. 1889. The Poetry of Tennyson. Tenth edition, re 
 vised and enlarged, with a new Preface, 1 898. New 
 York: Charles Scribner s Sons. izmo, pp. xvi, 
 437- 
 
 III. 1893. The Christ-Child in Art. A Study of Inter 
 pretation. Illustrated. New York and London : 
 Harper & Brothers. 8vo, pp. xvi, 236. 
 
 IV 1893. Sermons to Young Men. A new and en 
 larged edition of " Straight Sermons." New York : 
 Charles Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. xvi, 253. 
 
 V. 1895. The Story of the Other Wise Man. Fronds- 
 piece. New York and London : Harper & Brothers. 
 i6mo, pp. xvi, 70. 
 
 VI. 1895. Little Rivers. A Book of Essays in Profitable 
 Idleness. Illustrated. New York: Charles Scrib 
 ner s Sons. i 2mo, pp. 291. 
 
 VII. 1 896. The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. New York : 
 The Macmillan Company. London : Macmilian & 
 Co., Ltd. I2mo, pp. xxviii, 329. 
 
 VIII. 1897. Ships and Havens. New York : Thomas Y. 
 Crowell & Co. izmo, pp. 37. 
 
 ix 
 
IX. 1897. The Builders and Other Poems. New York: 
 Charles Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 87. 
 
 X. 1897. The First Christmas Tree. A Story of the 
 Forest. Illustrated. New York : Charles Scrib 
 ner s Sons. 8vo, pp. 76. 
 
 XI. 1898. The Lost Word. A Christmas Legend of 
 Long Ago. Illustrated. New York : Charles Scrib 
 ner s Sons. 8vo, pp. 71. 
 
 XII. 1899. The Gospel for a World of Sin. A Com 
 panion Volume to " The Gospel for an Age of 
 Doubt." New York: The Macmillan Company. 
 London : Macmillan & Co. , Ltd. 1 2mo, pp. x, 
 195. 
 
 XIII. 1899. Fisherman s Luck, and Some Other Uncertain 
 
 Things. Illustrated. New York : Charles Scrib 
 ner s Sons. i zmo, pp. 247. 
 
 XIV. 1900. The Toiling of Felix and Other Poems. New 
 
 York: Charles Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 88. 
 
 XV. 1900. The Poetry of the Psalms. For Readers of 
 the English Bible. New York : Thomas Y. Crowell 
 & Co. 1 2mo, pp. 26. 
 
 XVI. 1901. The Ruling Passion. Tales of Nature and 
 
 Human Nature. Illustrated. New York : Charles 
 
 Scribner s Sons. izmo, pp. 296. 
 CVII. 1902. The Blue Flower. Illustrated. New York : 
 
 Charles Scribner s Sons. I 2mo, pp. 299. 
 :VIII. 1903. The Open Door. Philadelphia : Presbyterian 
 
 Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work. 
 
 I2mo, pp. 1 60. 
 XIX. 1903. Joy and Power. Three Messages with One 
 
 Meaning. New York : Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 
 
 I2mo, pp. 75. 
 
 x 
 
XX. 1904. Music and Other Poems. New York: Charles 
 
 Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 116. 
 XXI. 1905. The School of Life. New York: Charles 
 
 Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 37. 
 
 XXII. 1905. Essays in Application. New York: Charles 
 Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 282. 
 
 XXIII. 1905. The Spirit of Christmas. Frontispiece. New 
 
 York: Charles Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. 59. 
 
 XXIV. 1906. The Americanism of Washington. New York 
 
 and London: Harper & Brothers. i6mo, pp. 72. 
 XXV. 1907. Days Off and Other Digressions. Illustrated. 
 
 New York: Charles Scribner s Sons. 8vo, pp. 332. 
 XXVI. 1908. Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land. Impressions 
 of Travel in Body and Spirit. Illustrated. New 
 York: Charles Scribner s Sons. 8vo, pp. 325. 
 
 1910. The Spirit of America. New York: The Mac- 
 millan Company. 8vo, pp. 276. 
 
 1911. The Poems of Henry van Dyke. Now first col 
 lected and revised with many hitherto unpublished. 
 Frontispiece. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons. 
 8vo, pp. 467. 
 
 XXIX. 1912. The Unknown Quantity. A Book of Romance 
 and Some Half-Told Tales. Illustrated. New York: 
 Charles Scribner s Sons. 8vo, pp. xvi, 370. 
 XXX. 1913. The Lost Boy. Illustrated. New York and 
 
 London: Harper & Brothers. i6mo, pp. 69. 
 XXXI. 1914. The Grand Canyon and Other Poems. New 
 
 York: Charles Scribner s Sons. I2mo, pp. vi, 78. 
 XXXII. 1917. The Red Flower. New York: Charles Scribner s 
 Sons. In Press October, 1917. 
 
 The Roman numerals at the end of each selection will enable 
 the reader to identify, by reference to the foregoing list, the book 
 from which it is taken. The Arabic numerals indicate the page 
 on which the passage or stanza may be found. 
 
 xi 
 
f rientrfp geaf 
 
l>c jfootepatf) to 
 
 To be glad of life, because it gives you the 
 chance to love and to work and to play and 
 to look up at the stars ; to be contented with 
 your possessions, but not satisfied with your 
 self until you have made the best of them ; to 
 despise nothing in the world except falsehood 
 and meanness, and to fear nothing except 
 cowardice; to be governed by your admira 
 tions rather than by your disgusts ; to covet 
 nothing that is your neighbour s except his 
 kindness of heart and gentleness of manners ; 
 to think seldom of your enemies, often of your 
 friends, and every day of Christ ; and to spend 
 as much time as you can, with body and with 
 spirit, in God s out-of-doors these are little 
 guide-posts on the foot-path to peace. 
 
Cfje 
 
 firgt 
 
 Four things a man must learn to do The com- 
 
 If he would make his record true : pass 
 
 To think without confusion clearly ; 
 To love his fellow-men sincerely; 
 To act from honest motives purely ; 
 To trust in God and heaven securely. 
 
 ix, 39- 
 
 " Carry this little flower with you. It s not 
 the bonniest blossom in Scotland, but it s the heather 
 dearest, for the message that it brings. Arid 
 you will remember that love is not getting, but 
 giving ; not a wild dream of pleasure, and a 
 madness of desire oh no, love is not that 
 it is goodness, and honour, and peace, and pure 
 living yes, love is that ; and it is the best 
 thing in the world, and the thing that lives 
 longest. And that is what I am wishing for 
 you and yours with this bit of white heather." 
 vi, 114. 
 
A woman T0 
 
 tQ l Qve A YOUNG WOMAN 
 
 OF AN OLD FASHION 
 
 WHO LOVES ART 
 
 NOT FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
 
 BUT BECAUSE IT ENNOBLES LIFE 
 
 WHO READS POETRY 
 
 NOT TO KILL TIME 
 
 BUT TO FILL IT WITH BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS 
 
 AND WHO STILL BELIEVES 
 IN GOD AND DUTY AND IMMORTAL LOVE 
 , I DEDICATE 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 ii, Dedication. 
 
 Brother- If I can feel sympathy, feel it within and 
 
 hood without, then the dew falls and the desert be 
 
 gins to blossom. By sympathy I do not mean 
 merely a fellowship in sorrow, but also, and no 
 less truly, a fellowship in joy a feeling fo/ 
 which we ought to have an English word. To 
 be glad when your brother men are prosperous 
 and happy, to rejoice in their success, to cheer 
 for their victories ; to be compassionate and 
 pitiful when your brother men are distressed 
 and miserable, to grieve over their failures, to 
 help them in their troubles, this is the fra 
 ternal spirit which blesses him who exercises 
 it, and those toward whom it is exercised. 
 I, 245. 
 
3Fanuarp fifty 
 
 Only a little shrivelled seed, A flower 
 
 It might be flower, or grass, or weed ; and a soul 
 
 Only a box of earth on the edge 
 
 Of a narrow, dusty window-ledge ; 
 
 Only a few scant summer showers ; 
 
 Only a few clear shining hours; 
 
 That was all. Yet God could make 
 
 Out of these, for a sick child s sake, 
 
 A blossom-wonder, as fair and sweet 
 
 As ever broke at an angel s feet. 
 
 Only a life of barren pain, 
 Wet with sorrowful tears for rain, 
 Warmed sometimes by a wandering gleam 
 Of joy, that seemed but a happy dream j 
 A life as common and brown and bare 
 As the box of earth in the window there ; 
 Yet it bore, at last, the precious bloom 
 Of a perfect soul in that narrow room ; 
 Pure as the snowy leaves that fold 
 Over the flower s heart of gold. ix, 41. 
 
 When our world learns this lesson ; when Epiphany 
 pride bows down to meekness, and experience 
 does homage to innocence ; when every child 
 is reverenced as a royal heir of heaven because 
 it is a brother of the Christ-child then the 
 Epiphany will come, and a great light will 
 lighten the nations. in, 145. 
 
 5 
 
^Panuarp getoentlj 
 
 The faith Happy and strong and brave shall we be, 
 that stead- able to endure all things, and to do all things, 
 ies us if we believe that every day, every hour, every 
 
 moment of our life is in His hands. I, 154. 
 
 The minor It is not required of every man and woman 
 parts to be, or to do, something great ; most of us 
 
 must content ourselves with taking small parts 
 in the chorus, as far as possible without dis 
 cord. Shall we have no little lyrics because 
 Homer and Dante have written epics ? And 
 because we have heard the great organ at Frei 
 burg, shall the sound of Kathi s zither in the 
 alpine hut please us no more ? Even those 
 who have greatness thrust upon them will do 
 well to lay the burden down now and then, 
 and congratulate themselves that they are not 
 altogether answerable for the conduct of the 
 universe, or at least not all the time. " I 
 reckon," said a cow-boy to me one day, as 
 we were riding through the Bad Lands of Da 
 kota, "there s some one bigger than me run 
 ning this outfit. He can tend to it well 
 enough, while I smoke my pipe after the 
 round-up." vi, 30. 
 
 6 
 
nintf) 
 
 Here friendship lights the fire, and every heart, By the 
 Sure of itself and sure of all the rest, fireside 
 
 Dares to be true, and gladly takes its part 
 In open converse, bringing forth its best : 
 Here is sweet music, melting every chain 
 
 Of lassitude and pain: 
 And here, at last, is sleep, the gift of gifts, 
 
 The tender nurse, who lifts 
 The soul grown weary of the waking world, 
 And lays it, with its thoughts all furled, 
 Its fears forgotten, and its passions still, 
 On the deep bosom of the Eternal Will. 
 
 xx, 28. 
 
 tenrtj 
 
 There is no less virtue, but rather more, Work as 
 in events, tasks, duties, obligations, than there an educator 
 is in books. Work itself has a singular 
 power to unfold and develop our nature. 
 The difference is not between working people 
 and thinking people, but between people who 
 work without thinking and people who think 
 while they work. xxi, 20. 
 
3fanuarj> elebentf) 
 
 New York Now looking deeper in my dream, I see 
 City A mighty city covering the isle 
 
 They call Manhattan, equal in her state 
 To all the older capitals of earth, 
 The gateway city of a golden world, 
 A city girt with masts, and crowned with 
 
 spires, 
 
 And swarming with a million busy men, 
 While to her open door across the bay 
 The ships of all the nations flock like doves. 
 
 xxvui, 150. 
 
 January ttoelftf) 
 
 "America I know that Europe s wonderful, yet some- 
 for me" thing seems to lack: 
 
 The Past is too much with her, and the 
 people looking back. 
 
 Oh, it s home again, and home again, 
 
 America for me ! 
 I want a ship that s westward bound 
 
 to plough the rolling sea, 
 To the blessed Land of Room Enough 
 
 beyond the ocean bars, 
 Where the air is full of sunlight and 
 
 the flag is full of stars. 
 
 xxvui, 167. 
 
 8 
 
tljirteentfj 
 
 Let me but love my love without disguise, Love 
 Nor wear a mask of fashion old or new, 
 Nor wait to speak till I can hear a clue., 
 
 Nor play a part to shine in others eyes, 
 
 Nor bow my knees to what my heart denies ; 
 But what I am, to that let me be true, 
 And let me worship where my love is due, 
 
 And so through love and worship let me rise. 
 
 For love is but the heart s immortal thirst 
 To be completely known and all forgiven, 
 Even as sinful souls that enter Heaven : 
 So take me, dear, and understand my worst, 
 And freely pardon it, because confessed, 
 And let me find in loving thee, my best. 
 
 xx, 51. 
 
 fourteenth 
 
 There is something finer than to do right Joy a test 
 against inclination ; and that is to have an 
 inclination to do right. There is something 
 nobler than reluctant obedience ; and that is 
 joyful obedience. The rank of virtue is not 
 measured by its disagreeableness, but by its 
 sweetness to the heart that loves it. The 
 real test of character is joy. For what you 
 rejoice in, that you love. And what you 
 love, that you are like. xix, 10. 
 
fifteenth 
 
 The blue Then I looked off to the blue hills, 
 
 flower shadowy and dreamlike, the boundary of the 
 
 little world that I knew. And there, in a 
 cleft between the highest peaks I saw a 
 wondrous thing : for the place at which I 
 was looking seemed to come nearer and 
 nearer to me ; I saw the trees, the rocks, the 
 ferns, the white road winding before me ; the 
 enfolding hills unclosed like leaves, and in 
 the heart of them I saw a Blue Flower, so 
 bright, so beautiful that my eyes filled with 
 tears as I looked. It was like a face that 
 smiled at me and promised something. Then 
 I heard a call, like the note of a trumpet very 
 far away, calling me to come. And as I 
 listened the flower faded into the dimness of 
 the hills. xvn, 24. 
 
 Tour point Learn also how to appraise criticism, to 
 of view value enmity, to get the good of being blamed 
 and evil spoken of. A soft social life is not 
 likely to be very noble. You can hardly tell 
 whether your faiths and feelings are real until 
 they are attacked. 
 
 But take care that you defend them with 
 an open mind and by right reason. You are 
 entitled to a point of view, but not to an 
 nounce it as the centre of the universe. 
 xxi, 33. 
 
 10 
 
" Joy is a. duty," so with golden lore Joy and 
 
 The Hebrew rabbis taught in days of yore, duty 
 And happy human hearts heard in their speech 
 Almost the highest wisdom man can reach. 
 
 But one bright peak still rises far above, 
 And there the Master stands whose name is 
 
 Love, 
 
 Saying to those whom weary tasks employ : 
 " Life is divine when Duty is a Joy." ix, 51. 
 
 Stettuarp eisfjteenti) 
 
 The strength of your life is measured by the The power 
 strength of your will. But the strength of of wishes 
 your will is just the strength of the wish that 
 lies behind it. And the strength of your wish 
 depends upon the sincerity and earnestness 
 and tenacity with which you fix your atten 
 tion upon the things which are really great 
 and worthy to be loved. This is what the 
 Apostle means when he says, at the close of 
 his description of a life which is strong, and in 
 wardly renewed, and growing in glory even in 
 the midst of affliction, u while we look not 
 at the things which are seen, but at the things 
 which are unseen." It is while we look that 
 we learn to love. It is by loving that we 
 learn to seek. And it is in seeking that we 
 find and are blessed. iv, 75. 
 
 ri 
 
^Panuarp nineteen^ 
 
 Concrete I am no friend to purely psychological at- 
 
 friendsbip tachments. In some unknown future they 
 may be satisfying, but in the present I want 
 your words and your voice, with your thoughts, 
 your looks, and your gestures, to interpret your 
 feelings. The warm, strong grasp of Great- 
 heart s hand is as dear to me as the steadfast 
 fashion of his friendships ; the lively, sparkling 
 eyes of the master of Rudder Grange charm 
 me as much as the nimbleness of his fancy ; 
 and the firm poise of the Hoosier School 
 master s shaggy head gives me new confidence 
 in the solidity of his views of life. vi, 13. 
 
 ttoentietl) 
 
 Patron It rnay be that some saint dearer to you 
 
 taints than any whose names are written among the 
 
 Old Testament worthies your own faithful 
 mother, the father who prayed with you at 
 the family altar, the friend who walked close 
 beside you in the journey of life is looking 
 down upon you and watching your path to 
 day. And of this be sure : If you are fol 
 lowing in the footsteps of Christ, if you are 
 trying to do good, if you are sacrificing your 
 self for others, if you are treading the path of 
 duty and devotion, these are the things which 
 they understand, and for which they bless and 
 love you. iv, 181. 
 
 12 
 
Epigrams are worth little for guidance to Wit versus 
 the perplexed, and less for comfort to the wisdom 
 wounded. But the plain, homely sayings 
 which come from a soul that has learned the 
 lesson of patient courage in the school of real 
 experience, fall upon the wound like drops of 
 balsam, and like a soothing lotion upon the 
 eyes smarting and blinded with passion. vi, 
 no. 
 
 ttoentp^econti 
 
 But after all, the very best thing in good Friendh 
 talk, and the thing that helps it most, \% friend- talk 
 ship. How it dissolves the barriers that divide 
 us, and loosens all constraint, and diffuses it 
 self like some fine old cordial through all the 
 veins of life this feeling that we understand 
 and trust each other, and wish each other 
 heartily well ! Everything into which it really 
 comes is good. It transforms letter-writing 
 from a task into a pleasure. It makes music 
 a thousand times more sweet. The people 
 who play and sing not at us, but to us, how 
 delightful it is to listen to them ! Yes, there 
 is a talkability that can express itself even 
 without words. There is an exchange of 
 thought and feeling which is happy alike in 
 speech and in silence. It is quietness per 
 vaded with friendship. xui, 70. 
 
 13 
 
Life-giv- Surely there is nothing else in all the world 
 
 ing love so life-giving as the knowledge that we are 
 loved. Even in our human relationships, 
 when this knowledge comes to us it lifts us 
 out of the dust and thrills us with vital power. 
 How many a heart has been revived and 
 emancipated, enlarged and ennobled, by 
 knowing that somewhere in the world there 
 was another heart moving toward it in the 
 tenderness and glory of love. xviu, 157. 
 
 ttoentp^fourtf) 
 
 Books To get the good of the library in the 
 
 school of life you must bring into it some 
 thing better than a mere bookish taste. You 
 must bring the power to read, between the 
 lines, behind the words, beyond the horizon 
 of the printed page. Philip s question to the 
 chamberlain of Ethiopia was crucial : u Un- 
 derstandest thou what thou readest ? " I 
 want books not to pass the time, but to fill it 
 with beautiful thoughts and images, to en 
 large my world, to give me new friends in 
 the spirit, to purify my ideals and make them 
 clear, to show me the local colour of un 
 known regions and the bright stars of uni 
 versal truth. xxi, 1 8. 
 
 14 
 
The literary life, at its best, is one that Great books 
 demands a clear and steady mind, a free spirit, and small 
 and great concentration of effort. The cares rooms 
 of a splendid establishment and the distrac 
 tions of a complicated social life are not 
 likely, in the majority of cases, to make it 
 easier to do the best work. Most of the 
 great books, I suppose, have been written in 
 rather small rooms. xxn, 133. 
 
 It was a bare, rude place, but the dish of Manners, 
 juicy trout was garnished with flowers, each plain and 
 fish holding a big pansy in its mouth, and as good 
 the maid set them down before me she wished 
 me " a good appetite," with the hearty old- 
 fashioned Tyrolese courtesy which still sur 
 vives in these remote valleys. It is pleasant 
 to travel in a land where the manners are plain 
 and good. If you meet a peasant on the 
 road he says, " God greet you ! " if you give 
 a child a couple of kreuzers he folds his hands 
 and says, u God reward you ! " and the maid 
 who lights you to bed says, " Good-night, I 
 hope you will sleep well ! " vi, 176. 
 
 IS 
 
ttoentp^ebentf) 
 
 God s gar- Saints are God s flowers, fragrant souls 
 fan That His own hand hath planted, 
 
 Not in some far-off heavenly place, 
 
 Or solitude enchanted, 
 But here and there and everywhere, 
 In lonely field, or crowded town, 
 God sees a flower when He looks down. 
 
 Some wear the lily s stainless white, 
 And some the rose of passion, 
 
 And some the violet s heavenly blue, 
 But each in its own fashion, 
 
 With silent bloom and soft perfume, 
 Is praising Him who from above 
 Beholds each lifted face of love. ix, 49. 
 
 The wind Here is the sea on which you float, the sea 
 and the o f human life, with its shifting tides and cur- 
 r udder rents. Yonder is the sky that bends above 
 you, the pure and sovereign will of God. Out 
 of that unsearchable heaven comes the breath 
 of the Spirit, like " the wind that bloweth 
 where it listeth, and thou canst not tell whence 
 it cometh and whither it goeth." If you will 
 spread your sail to catch that breath of life, 
 if you will lay your course and keep your 
 rudder true, you will be carried onward in 
 peace and safety to your desired haven. iv, 
 221. 
 
 16 
 
ttoentp^nintl) 
 
 There is no gate into heaven except at the At the end 
 end of the path of duty. There is not even of the path 
 an honoured and peaceful grave for us until 
 we can say with the Master, " I have glorified 
 thee on the earth, I have finished the workthou 
 gavest me to do." iv, 186. 
 
 tfjirtietf) 
 
 It is not half as far from Albany to Aber- A drop of 
 deen as it is from New York to London. In Scotch 
 fact, I venture to say that an American on 
 foot will find himself less a foreigner in Scot 
 land than in any other country in the Old 
 World. There is something warm and hos 
 pitable if he knew the language well enough 
 he would call it coutby in the greeting that 
 he gets from the shepherd on the moor, and 
 the conversation that he holds with the farm 
 er s wife in the stone cottage, where he stops 
 to ask for a drink of milk and a bit of oat 
 cake. He feels that there must be a drop of 
 Scotch somewhere in his mingled blood, or at 
 least that the texture of his thought and feel 
 ings had been partly woven on a Scottish loom 
 perhaps the Shorter Catechism, or Robert 
 Burns s poems, or the romances of Sir Waltei 
 Scott. vi, 93. 
 
 17 
 
^anuarp tlji 
 
 Life s ad- All faith recognizes that life is a pilgrimagt 
 venture whose course and duration cannot be foreseen. 
 That is true, indeed, whether we acknowledge 
 it or not. Even if a man should fancy that 
 his existence was secure, and that he could 
 direct his own career and predict his own 
 future, experience would teach him his mis 
 take. But the point is that faith recognizes 
 this uncertainty of life at the outset, and in a 
 peculiar way, which transforms it from a 
 curse into a blessing and makes it possible for 
 us even to be glad that we must " go out not 
 knowing whither we go." iv, 131. 
 
 f e&ruarp firt 
 
 Making tip We say that we u make up our minds " to 
 our minds do a certain thing or not to do it, to resist a 
 certain temptation or to yield to it. It is 
 true. We " make up our minds " in a deeper 
 sense than we remember. In every case the 
 ultimate decision is between two future selves, 
 one with whom the virtue is harmonious, an 
 other with whom the vice is consistent. To 
 one of these two figures, dimly concealed be 
 hind the action, we move forward. What 
 we forget is, that, when the forward step is 
 taken, the shadow will be myself. Character 
 is eternal destiny. viu, 29. 
 
 18 
 
f eBruatp gcconfc 
 
 Every country or at least every country 
 that is fit for habitation has its own rivers ; 
 and every river has its own quality ; and it is 
 the part of wisdom to know and love as many 
 as you can, seeing each in the fairest possible 
 light, and receiving from each the best that it 
 has to give. VI, 14. 
 
 wisdom 
 
 f eBruarp tfjirti 
 
 It is with rivers as it is with people : the A choice in 
 greatest are not always the most agreeable nor comrades 
 the best to live with. Diogenes must have 
 been an uncomfortable bedfellow ; Antinoiis 
 was bored to death in the society of the Emperor 
 Hadrian ; and you can imagine much better 
 company for a walking-trip than Napoleon 
 Bonaparte. Semiramis was a lofty queen, but 
 I fancy that Ninus had more than one bad 
 quarter-of-an-hour with her : and in " the 
 spacious times of great Elizabeth " there was 
 many a milkmaid whom the wise man would 
 have chosen for his friend, before the royal 
 red-haired virgin. vi, 15. 
 
 19 
 
jf efcruarp fourtlj 
 
 Peace With eager heart and will on fire, 
 
 I fought to win my great desire. 
 " Peace shall be mine," I said ; but life 
 Grew bitter in the endless strife. 
 
 My soul was weary, and my pride 
 Was wounded deep : to Heaven I cried, 
 " God grant me peace or I must die ; " 
 The dumb stars glittered no reply. 
 
 Broken at last, I bowed my head, 
 Forgetting all myself, and said, 
 " Whatever comes, His will be done; " 
 And in that moment peace was won. 
 
 ix, 53 
 
 f e&ritarp fiftf) 
 
 The sweet- A new door of happiness is opened when you 
 ness of sur- go out to hunt for something and discover it 
 prise with your own eyes. But there is an experi 
 
 ence even better than that. When you have 
 stupidly forgotten (or despondently foregone) 
 to look about you for the unclaimed treasures 
 and unearned blessings which are scattered 
 along the by-ways of life, then, sometimes by 
 a special mercy, a small sample of them is 
 quietly laid before you so that you cannot help 
 seeing it, and it brings you back, mighty 
 sweetly, to a sense of the joyful possibilities 
 of living. xin, 8 1. 
 
 20 
 
jf e&ruarp t 
 
 There is magic in words, surely, and many " Open 
 a treasure besides Ali Baba s is unlocked with sesame ! 
 a verbal key. Some charm in the mere sound, 
 some association with the pleasant past, 
 touches a secret spring. The bars are down ; 
 the gate is open ; you are made free of all 
 the fields of memory and fancy by a word, 
 vi, 183. 
 
 fc&ruarp gctocntf) 
 
 The word of Jesus in the mind of one who Learning 
 does not do the will of Jesus, lies like seed- h 
 corn in a mummy s hand. It is only by 
 dwelling with Him and receiving His char 
 acter, His personality so profoundly, so vitally 
 that it shall be with us as if, in His own 
 words, we had partaken of His flesh and His 
 blood, as if His sacred humanity had been 
 interwoven with the very fibres of our heart 
 and pulsed with secret power in all our veins, 
 it is thus only that we can be enabled to 
 see His teaching as it is, and set it forth with 
 luminous conviction to the souls of men. 
 
 VII, 201. 
 
 21 
 
f efcruarp ti 
 
 le What we call society is very narrow. But 
 
 worth life is very broad. It includes " the whole 
 
 meeting world of God s cheerful, fallible men and 
 women." It is not only the famous people 
 and the well-dressed people who are worth 
 meeting. It is everyone who has something 
 to communicate. xxi, 34. 
 
 fefimarp runty 
 
 What is I wonder how often the inhabitant of the 
 
 built into snug Queen Anne cottage in the suburbs re- 
 your bouse? members the picturesque toil and varied hard 
 ship that it has cost to hew and drag his walls 
 and floors and pretty peaked roofs out of the 
 backwoods. It might enlarge his home, and 
 make his musings by the winter fireside less 
 commonplace, to give a kindly thought now 
 and then to the long chain of human workers 
 through whose hands the timber of his house 
 has passed, since it first felt the stroke of the 
 axe in the snow-bound winter woods, and 
 floated, through the spring and summer, on 
 far-ofFlakes and little rivers, au large. vi, 220. 
 
 22 
 
fe&ruarp tcntfj 
 
 The first thing that commended the The lateral 
 Church of Jesus to the weary and disheart- force of 
 ened world in the early years of her triumph, Jy 
 was her power to make her children happy, 
 happy in the midst of afflictions, happy in the 
 release from the burden of guilt, happy in 
 the sense of Divine Fatherhood and human 
 brotherhood, happy in Christ s victory over 
 sin and death, happy in the assurance of an 
 endless life. At midnight in the prison, Paul 
 and Silas sang praises, and the prisoners heard 
 them. The lateral force of joy, that was 
 the power of the Church. xix, 8. 
 
 e&ruarp elebentft 
 
 The largest claim that a cheerful man who A better 
 is also a thoughtful man a child of hope world 
 with his eyes open dares to make for the 
 world is that it is better than it used to be, 
 and that it has a fair prospect of further im 
 provement. This is meliorism, the philoso 
 phy of actual and possible betterment ; not a 
 high-stepping, trumpet-blowing, self-flattering 
 creed, immediately available for advertising 
 purposes ; but a modest and sober faith, use 
 ful for consolation in those hours of despond 
 ency and personal disappointment when the 
 grasshopper and the critic both become a 
 burden. xxn, 6. 
 
 23 
 
jpc&ruarp ttoelftfj 
 
 * 
 
 Lincoln s The unreconstructed and the unreconciled 
 
 birthday people belong to the soles of the feet. Those 
 who are raised high enough to be able to look 
 over the stone walls, those who are intelligent 
 enough to take a broader view of things than 
 that which is bounded by the lines of any one 
 state or section, understand that the unity of 
 the nation is of the first importance, and are 
 prepared to make those sacrifices and conces 
 sions, within the bounds of loyalty, which are 
 necessary for its maintenance, and to cherish 
 that temper of fraternal affection which alone 
 can fill the form of national existence with 
 the warm blood of life. The first man, after 
 the civil war, to recognize this great principle 
 and to act upon it was the head of the nation, 
 that large and generous soul whose worth 
 was not fully felt until he was taken from his 
 people by the stroke of the assassin, in the 
 very hour when his presence was most needed 
 for the completion of the work of reunion. 
 I, 240. 
 
 f ebruarp tfti 
 
 Prayer: the Prayer is the believer s comfort and sup- 
 strengtb of port, his weapon of defence, his light in dark- 
 tbe weak ness, his companionship in solitude, his foun 
 
 tain in the desert, his hope and his deliverance. 
 
 i, 193- 
 
 24 
 
3f efiruarp fourteenth 
 
 Have we not all felt the shrinkage of the Shrunken 
 much-vaunted miracles of science into the miracles 
 veriest kitchen utensils of a comfort-worship 
 ping society ? Physical powers have been 
 multiplied by an unknown quantity, but it is 
 a serious question whether moral powers have 
 not had their square root extracted. A man 
 can go from New York to London now in six 
 days. But when he arrives he is no better man 
 than if it had taken him a month. He can 
 talk across three thousand miles of ocean, but 
 he has nothing more to say than when he sent 
 his letter by a sailing-packet. All the inven 
 tions in the world will not change man s heart, 
 or 
 
 Lift him nearer God-like state. 
 
 II, 288. 
 
 Jpebruarp fifteenth 
 
 If a king sent a golden cup full of cheer- The bless- 
 ing cordial to a weary man, he might well wg f 
 admire the twofold bounty of the royal gift. 
 The beauty of the vessel would make the 
 draught more grateful and refreshing. And 
 if the cup were inexhaustible, if it filled itself 
 anew as often as it touched the lips, then the 
 very shape and adornment of it would become 
 significant and precious. It would be an in 
 estimable possession, a singing goblet, a treas 
 ure of life. xv, 6. 
 
 25 
 
jpe&ruarp gi 
 
 The unseen Beyond our power of vision, poets say, 
 world There is another world of forms unseen, 
 
 Yet visible to purer eyes that ours. 
 And if the crystal of our sight were clear, 
 We should behold the mountain-slopes of 
 
 cloud, 
 
 The moving meadows of the untilled sea, 
 The groves of twilight and the dales of dawn, 
 And every wide and lonely field of air, 
 More populous than cities, crowded close 
 With living creatures of all shapes and hues. 
 But if that sight were ours, the things that 
 
 now 
 
 Engage our eyes would seem but dull and dim 
 Beside the splendors of our new-found world, 
 And we should be amazed and overwhelmed 
 Not knowing how to use the plenitude 
 Of vision. xiv, 46. 
 
 First be- Yes, I know you are trying to be good, 
 
 lieve; then fitfully, imperfectly, yet still trying. But there 
 
 tr y is something else that God would have you do 
 
 first. He would have you believe that He 
 
 wants you to be good, that He is willing to 
 
 help you to be good, that He has sent His Son 
 
 to make you good. iv, 49. 
 
 26 
 
f e&ruarp eigljteentf) 
 
 Every man who will has it in his power to The salt of 
 make his life count for something positive in tbt earth 
 the redemption of society. And this is what 
 every man of moral principle is bound to do 
 if he wants to belong to the salt of the earth, 
 xvm, 73. 
 
 ;(fe6ruarp nineteenth 
 
 One of the best antidotes and cures of the The quiet 
 craze for publicity is a love of poetry and of lift 
 the things that belong to poetry the beauty 
 of nature, the sweetness and splendour of the 
 common human affections, and those high 
 thoughts and unselfish aspirations which are 
 the enduring treasures of the soul. It is good 
 to remember that the finest and most beautiful 
 things that can ever come to us cannot pos 
 sibly be news to the public. It is good to 
 find the zest of life in that part of it which 
 does not need, and will not bear, to be adver 
 tised. It is good to talk with our friends, 
 knowing that they will not report us ; and to 
 p)ay with the children, knowing that no one 
 is looking at us ; and to eat our meat with 
 gladness and singleness of heart. xxn, 82. 
 
 27 
 
jfebruarp ttoenttetfj 
 
 True There is a. life that is worth living now, 
 
 Americans as it was worth living in the former days, 
 and that is the honest life, the useful life, 
 the unselfish life, cleansed by devotion to 
 an ideal. There is a battle that is worth 
 righting now, as it was worth fighting then, 
 and that is the battle for justice and equal 
 ity. To make our city and our State free 
 in fact as well as in name; to break the rings 
 that strangle real liberty, and to keep them 
 broken; to cleanse, so far as in our power 
 lies, the fountains of our national life from 
 political, commercial, and social corruption; 
 to teach our sons and daughters, by precept 
 and example, the honor of serving such a 
 country as America that is work worthy 
 of the finest manhood and womanhood. 
 
 xxiv, 70. 
 
 Might and If Might made Right, life were a wild- 
 right beasts cage; 
 
 If Right made Might, this were the golden 
 
 age; 
 
 But now, until we win the long campaign, 
 Right must gain Might to conquer and to 
 reign. xxxn. 
 
 28 
 
tlfe&ruarp tUmttp^cconb 
 
 George Washington is the incarnation of Washi?ig- 
 the spirit of 1776, and the conclusive answer foa s birtb- 
 to all calumniators of the Revolution. No day 
 wild fanatic, no reckless socialist or anarchist, 
 but a sober, sane, God-fearing, liberty-loving 
 gentleman, who prized uprightness as the 
 highest honour, and law as the bulwark of 
 freedom, and peace as the greatest blessing, 
 and was willing to live and die to defend 
 them. He had his enemies who accused him 
 of being an aristocrat, a conservative, a friend 
 of the very England he was fighting, and who 
 would have defamed and cast him down if 
 they could. But the men of the Revolution 
 held him up, because he was in their hearts, 
 their hope and their ideal. xxn, 107. 
 
 f e&ruarp 
 
 The true patriot is he who is as willing to The true 
 sacrifice his time and strength and property patriot 
 to remove political shame and reform political 
 corruption, as he would be ready to answer 
 the call to battle against a foreign foe. The 
 true patriot is he who works and votes, with 
 the same courage that he would show in 
 arms, in order that the aspirations of a noble 
 people may be embodied in the noblest rulers. 
 xxn, 108. 
 
 29 
 
jfeBruarp ttoentp^fourtfj 
 
 Rendez- I count that friendship little worth 
 vou* Which has not many things untold, 
 
 Great longings that no words can hold, 
 And passion-secrets waiting birth. 
 
 Along the slender wires of speech 
 
 Some message from the heart is sent ; 
 But who can tell the whole that s meant? 
 
 Our dearest thoughts are out of reach. 
 
 I have not seen thee, though mine eyes 
 Hold now the image of thy face ; 
 In vain, through form, I strive to trace 
 
 The soul I love : that deeper lies. 
 
 A thousand accidents control 
 
 Our meeting here. Clasp hand in hand, 
 And swear to meet me in that land 
 
 Where friends hold converse soul to soul. 
 
 ix, 40. 
 
 ife&ruarp ttoentp^fiftf) 
 
 Eternal The assurance of immortality alone is not 
 
 companion- enough. For if we are told that we are to 
 ship live forever and still left without the knowl 
 
 edge of a personal God, eternity stretches be 
 fore us like a boundless desert, a perpetual and 
 desolate orphanage. It is a Divine compan 
 ionship that the spirit needs first of all and 
 most deeply. I, 165. 
 
 30 
 
f e&ruarp 
 
 Just because love is so universal, it is often What kind 
 to one of the other passions that we must of love ? 
 look for the distinctive hue, the individual 
 quality of a life-story. Granted, if you will, 
 that everybody must fall in love, or ought to 
 fall in love, How will he do it ? And what 
 will he do afterwards ? These are questions 
 not without interest to one who watches the 
 human drama as a friend. The answers de 
 pend upon those hidden and durable desires, 
 affections, and impulses to which men and 
 women give themselves up for rule and guid 
 ance. xvi, viii. 
 
 f e&ruarp ttoentp^efcentf) 
 
 There are two sorts of seeds sown in our Seeds of 
 remembrance by what we call the hand of everlast- 
 fortune, the fruits of which do not wither, in S re 
 but grow sweeter forever and ever. The brance 
 first is the seed of innocent pleasures, re 
 ceived in gratitude and enjoyed with good 
 companions, of which pleasures we never 
 grow weary of thinking, because they have 
 enriched our hearts. The second is the seed 
 of pure and gentle sorrows, borne in submis 
 sion and with faithful love, and these also we 
 never forget, but we come to cherish them 
 with gladness instead of grief, because we see 
 them changed into everlasting joys. xvi, 
 
 138. 
 
 3 
 
jfe&ruarp ttoentp^eigfjtfj 
 
 " Except On the simplest soul that feels the wondei 
 
 ye become as and the hidden glory of the universe, on the 
 
 tittle cbil~ child to whom the stars are little windows 
 
 dren" mto heaven, or the poet to whom 
 
 " the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears," 
 
 God looks down with pleasure and approval. 
 For in such a soul He sees the beginning of 
 faith, which is able to pass behind the appear 
 ance to the reality, and make its possessor 
 wise unto everlasting life. iv, 41. 
 
 jfe&ruatp ttoentp^nintl) 
 
 Nature is One side of our nature, no doubt, finds its 
 alive satisfaction in the regular, the proper, the con 
 
 ventional. But there is another side of our 
 nature, underneath, that takes delight in the 
 strange, the free, the spontaneous. We like 
 to discover what we call a law of Nature, and 
 make our calculations about it, and harness 
 the force which lies behind it for our own 
 purposes. But we taste a different kind of 
 joy when an event occurs which nobody has 
 foreseen or counted upon. It seems like an 
 evidence that there is something in the world 
 which is alive and mysterious and untram 
 melled. xni, 87. 
 
 32 
 
And thou, my country, write it on thy heart, Sons of 
 Thy sons are they who nobly take thy part ; America 
 Who dedicates his manhood at thy shrine, 
 Wherever born, is born a son of thine ; 
 Foreign in name, but not in soul, they come 
 To find in thee their long-desired home ; 
 Lovers of liberty and haters of disorder, 
 They shall be built in strength along thy border. 
 
 ix, 82. 
 
 geconfc 
 
 When we realize that every liberty, every 
 privilege, every advantage, that comes to us as 
 men and women has been bought with a price, 
 that the dark, subterranean lives of those 
 who toil day and night in the bowels of the 
 earth, the perils and hardships of those who 
 sail to and fro upon the stormy seas, the be 
 numbing weariness of those who dig and ditch 
 and handle dirt, the endless tending of looms 
 and plying of needles and carrying of burdens 
 all this is done and endured and suffered by 
 our fellow-men, though blindly, for our bene 
 fit, and accrues to our advantage, when we 
 begin to understand this, a nobler spirit en 
 ters into, us, the only spirit that can keep our 
 wealth, our freedom, our culture from being 
 a curse to us forever, and sinking us into the 
 ennui of a selfish hell. iv, 113. 
 
 33 
 
 "Bought 
 with a 
 
Faith Religion is something which a man cannot 
 
 visible invent for himself, nor keep to himself. If 
 
 it does not show in his conduct it does not 
 exist in his heart. If he has just barely 
 enough of it to save himself alone, it is 
 doubtful whether he has even enough for that. 
 Religion ought to bring out and intensify the 
 flavor of all that is best in manhood, and 
 make it fit, to use Wordsworth s noble 
 phrase 
 
 " For human nature s daily food." 
 
 Good citizens, honest workmen, cheerful 
 comrades, true friends, gentle men that is 
 what the product of religion should be. 
 xvin, 76. 
 
 fourtft 
 
 First-rate But what means of producing first-rate men 
 men has been discovered, except education ? I do 
 
 not mean that kind of education which adorns 
 a chosen few with the tinsel gewgaws of use 
 less accomplishments. I mean that nobler 
 education which aims to draw out and disci 
 pline all that is best in manhood to make 
 the mind clear and firm by study, the body 
 strong and obedient by exercise, the moral 
 sense confident and inflexible by disclosing 
 the eternal principles upon which it rests. 
 xxii, 66. 
 
 34 
 
fifty 
 
 Just to give up, and rest Sitter- 
 
 All on a Love secure, 
 Out of a world that s hard at the best, 
 
 Looking to heaven as sure ; 
 Ever to hope, through cloud and fear, 
 In darkest night, that the dawn is near ; 
 Just to wait at the Master s feet 
 Surely, now, the bitter is sweet. ix, 63. 
 
 The weather-prophet tells us of an ap- Wayward 
 preaching storm. It comes according to the weather 
 programme. We admire the accuracy of the 
 prediction, and congratulate ourselves that we 
 have such a good meteorological service. But 
 when, perchance, a bright, crystalline piece of 
 weather arrives instead of the foretold tempest, 
 do we not feel a secret sense of pleasure which 
 goes beyond our mere comfort in the sun 
 shine ? The whole affair is not as easy as a 
 sum in simple addition, after all, at least not 
 with our present knowledge. It is a good 
 joke on the Weather Bureau. "Aha, Old 
 Probabilities ! " we say, " you don t know it 
 all yet; there are still some chances to be 
 taken! " xm, 87. 
 
 35 
 
Two As for a dog, I am sure that his admiring 
 
 friends and love for his master is never greater than when 
 a fire they come in together from the hunt, wet and 
 
 tired, and the man gathers a pile of wood in 
 front of the tent, touches it with a tiny magic 
 wand, and suddenly the clear, consoling flame 
 springs up, saying cheerfully, " Here we are, 
 at home in the forest ; come into the warmth ; 
 rest, and eat, and sleep." When the weary, 
 shivering dog sees this miracle, he knows that 
 his master is a great man and a lord of things. 
 xm, 209. 
 
 Tbe lustre He had taken from a secret resting-place in 
 of the pearl his bosom the pearl, the last of his jewels. As 
 he looked at it, a mellower lustre, a soft and 
 iridescent light, full of shifting gleams of azure 
 and rose, trembled upon its surface. It seemed 
 to have absorbed some reflection of the colours 
 of the lost sapphire and ruby. So the profound, 
 secret purpose of a noble life draws into itself 
 the memories of past joy and past sorrow. All 
 that has helped it, all that has hindered it, is 
 transfused by a subtle magic into its very es 
 sence. It becomes more luminous and pre 
 cious the longer it is carried close to the 
 warmth of the beating heart. v, 58. 
 
 36 
 
nintl) 
 
 " And perhaps it seems strange to you also, The bless- 
 m sieu , that a poor man should be so hungry in S f 
 for children. It is not so everywhere : not 
 in America, I hear. But it is so with us in 
 Canada. I know not a man so poor that he 
 would not feel richer for a child. I know 
 not a man so happy that he would not feel 
 happier with a child in the house. It is the 
 best thing that the good God gives to us; 
 something to work for; something to play 
 with. It makes a man more gentle and more 
 strong. And a woman, her heart is like an 
 empty nest, if she has not a child." xvi, 63. 
 
 tentlj 
 
 How many of life s deepest tragedies are Life s 
 only that : no great transgression, no shock of deepest 
 conflict, no sudden catastrophe with its an- tragedy 
 swering thrill of courage and resistance : only 
 a mistake made in the darkness, and under 
 the guidance of what seemed a true and noble 
 motive ; a failure to see the right path at the 
 right moment, and a long wandering beyond 
 it ; a word left unspoken until the ears that 
 should have heard it are sealed, and the 
 tongue that should have spoken it is dumb. 
 xvi, 207. 
 
 37 
 
eietocntfj 
 
 Opportu- This was the third trial, the ultimate pro- 
 
 ttity or bation, the final and irrevocable choice. 
 temptation Was it his great opportunity, or his last 
 temptation ? He could not tell. One thing 
 only was clear in the darkness of his mind 
 it was inevitable. And does not the inevitable 
 come from God ? 
 
 One thing only was sure to his divided heart 
 to rescue this helpless girl would be a true 
 deed of love. And is not love the light of the 
 soul ? 
 
 He took the pearl from his bosom. Never 
 had it seemed so luminous, so radiant, so full 
 of tender, living lustre. He laid it in the hand 
 of the slave. 
 
 " This is thy ransom, daughter ! It is the 
 last of my treasures which I kept for the king." 
 v, 66. 
 
 apatrcl) ttodftft 
 
 Peace in a It is not until the soul has learned a better 
 palace wisdom, learned that the human race is one, 
 
 and that none can really rise by treading on 
 his brother men, learned that true art is not 
 the slave of luxury, but the servant of human 
 ity, learned that happiness is born, not of the 
 lust to possess and enjoy, but of the desire to 
 give and to bless, then, and not until then, 
 when she brings others with her, can the soul 
 find true rest in her Palace. n, 45. 
 
 38 
 
t&irteentf) 
 
 The haste to get riches, the haste to climb The folly 
 
 upon some pinnacle of worldly renown, the 
 haste to resolve mysteries from these vari 
 ous kinds of haste are begotten no small part 
 of the miseries and afflictions whereby the 
 children of men are tormented : such as quar 
 rels and strifes among those who would over 
 reach one another in business ; envyings and 
 jealousies among those who would outshine 
 one another in rich apparel and costly equi 
 page ; bloody rebellions and cruel wars among 
 those who would obtain power over their fel 
 low-men ; cloudy disputations and bitter con 
 troversies among those who would fain leave 
 no room for modest ignorance and lowly faith 
 among the secrets of religion. xvi, 128. 
 
 of baste 
 
 fourteenth 
 
 If we are wise and teachable, we walk with Walking 
 Nature, and let her breathe into our hearts with 
 those lessons of humility, and patience, and Nature 
 confidence, and good cheer, and tranquil 
 resignation, and temperate joy, which are her 
 " moral lore," lessons which lead her schol 
 ars onward through a merry youth, and a 
 strong maturity, and a serene old age, and 
 prepare them by the pure companionship of 
 this world for the enjoyment of a better. 
 xxi, 29. 
 
 39 
 
Contrasts 
 
 fifteenth 
 
 If all the skies were sunshine, 
 
 Our faces would be fain 
 To feel once more upon them 
 
 The cooling plash of rain. 
 
 If all the world were music, 
 Our hearts would often long 
 
 For one sweet strain of silence, 
 To break the endless song. 
 
 If life were always merry, 
 Our souls would seek relief, 
 
 And rest from weary laughter 
 
 In the quiet arms of grief. ix, 16, 
 
 The beggar 
 and the 
 sixpence 
 
 I am no friend to the people who receive 
 the bounties of Providence without visible 
 gratitude. When the sixpence falls into your 
 hat, you may laugh. When the messenger of 
 an unexpected blessing takes you by the hand 
 and lifts you up and bids you walk, you may 
 leap and run and sing for joy, even as the 
 lame man, whom St. Peter healed, skipped 
 piously and rejoiced aloud as he passed through 
 the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. There is 
 no virtue in solemn indifference. Joy is just 
 as much a duty as beneficence is. Thankful 
 ness is the other side of mercv. xm, 26. 
 
gctoenteentlj 
 
 u My son, it may be that the light of truth The ques- 
 is in this sign that has appeared in the skies, tion and 
 and then it will surely lead to the Prince and the quest 
 the mighty brightness. Or it may be that it 
 is only a shadow of the light, as Tigranes has 
 said, and then he who follows it will have only 
 a long pilgrimage and an empty search. But 
 it is better to follow even the shadow of the 
 best than to remain content with the worst. 
 And those who would see wonderful things 
 must often be ready to travel alone. I am 
 too old for this journey, but my heart shall be 
 a companion of the pilgrimage day and night, 
 and I shall know the end of thy quest. Go 
 in peace." v, 19. 
 
 St^arcfj eigtjtecntf) 
 
 Moreover, it is not true that a man can What 
 dispose of his money as be chooses. The pur- money can* 
 poses for which it can be used are strictly not buy 
 bounded. There are many things that he 
 cannot buy with it ; for example, health, long 
 life, wisdom, a cheerful spirit, a clear con 
 science, peace of mind, a contented heart. 
 
 You never see the stock called Happiness 
 quoted on the exchange. How high would it 
 range, think you, a hundred shares of Hap 
 piness Preferred, guaranteed 7$, seller 30 ? 
 vni, 20. 
 
nineteenth 
 
 One world "The worlds in which we live are two 
 
 The world I am and the world <I do. " 
 
 The worlds in which we live at heart are one, 
 The world " I am," the fruit of " I have 
 
 done " ; 
 And underneath these worlds of flower and 
 
 fruit, 
 
 The world " I love " the only living root. 
 
 xx, 85. 
 
 ttoentietft 
 
 The Snow- One of them is adorned with white pearls 
 berry sprinkled lightly over its robe of green. This 
 
 is Snowberry, and if .you eat of it, you will 
 grow wise in the wisdom of flowers. You 
 will know where to find the yellow violet, and 
 the wake-robin, and the pink lady-slipper, 
 and the scarlet sage, and the fringed gentian. 
 You will understand how the buds trust 
 themselves to the spring in their unfolding, 
 and how the blossoms trust themselves to the 
 winter in their withering, and how the busy 
 hands of Nature are ever weaving the beauti 
 ful garment of life out of the strands of 
 death, and nothing is lost that yields itself to 
 her quiet handling. xvn, 130. 
 
 42 
 
The first day of spring is one thing, and The year 
 the first spring day is another. The differ- turns the 
 ence between them is sometimes as great as a Cornet 
 month. 
 
 The first day of spring is due to arrive, if 
 the calendar does not break down, about the 
 twenty-first of March, when the earth turns 
 the corner of Sun Alley and starts for Summer 
 Street. But the first spring day is not on the 
 time-table at all. It comes when it is ready, 
 and in the latitude of New York this is usual 
 ly not till after All Fools Day. xm, 93. 
 
 ttoentp^cconti 
 
 A river is the most human and companion- A river as 
 able of all inanimate things. It has a life, a a friend 
 character, a voice of its own, and is as full of 
 good fellowship as a sugar-maple is of sap. 
 It can talk in various tones, loud or low, and 
 of many subjects, grave and gay. Under 
 favorable circumstances it will even make a 
 shift to sing, not in a fashion that can be re 
 duced to notes and set down in black and 
 white on a sheet of paper, but in a vague, re 
 freshing manner, and to a wandering air that 
 goes 
 
 " Over the hills and far away." 
 
 For real company and friendship, there is 
 nothing outside of the animal kingdom that is 
 comparable to a river. vi, 9. 
 
 43 
 
The mystery of the heart of mankind, 
 the spiritual airs that breathe through it, 
 the desires and aspirations that impel men 
 in their journeyings, the common hopes 
 that bind them together in companies, the 
 fears and hatreds that array them in warring 
 hosts, there is no place in the world to 
 day where you can feel all this so deeply, 
 so inevitably, so overwhelmingly, as at the 
 Gates of Zion. xxvi, 51. 
 
 fiarcf) ttoent2>=fourtf) 
 
 O Lord our God, Thy mighty hand 
 Hath made our country free; 
 From all her broad and happy land 
 May praise arise to Thee. 
 Fulfill the promise of her youth, 
 Her liberty defend; 
 By law and order, love and truth, 
 America befriend ! 
 
 Thro all the waiting land proclaim 
 
 Thy gospel of good-will; 
 
 And may the music of Thy name 
 
 In every bosom thrill. 
 
 O er hill and vale, from sea to sea, 
 
 Thy holy reign extend; 
 
 By faith and hope and charity, 
 
 America befriend ! xxxi, 42. 
 
 44 
 
ttoentp^fifti) 
 
 Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, The way 
 May keep the path, but will not reach the goal ; 
 While he who walks in love may wander far, 
 But God will bring him where the Blessed are. 
 
 ~ix, 64. 
 
 Wondrous power of music ! How often The key of 
 has it brought peace, and help, and strength the heart 
 to weary and downcast pilgrims ! It pene 
 trates the bosom and unlocks the doors of 
 secret, dumb, self-consuming anguish, so that 
 the sorrow flowing out may leave the soul un 
 burdened and released. It touches the chords 
 of memory, and the cadence of old songs 
 brings back the happy scenes of the past. In 
 the rude mining camp, cut off by the snows 
 of winter, in the narrow cabin of the ship 
 ice-bound in Arctic seas, in the bare, dark 
 rooms of Libby prison where the captive 
 soldiers are trying to beguile the heavy time 
 in company, tears steal down the rough cheeks, 
 and voices quaver with half-pain, half-pleas 
 ure, when some one strikes up the familiar 
 notes of" Home, Sweet Home." I, 163. 
 
 45 
 
Btst 
 
 k?jown, best 
 loved 
 
 Every river that flows is good, and has 
 something worthy to be loved. But those 
 that we love most are always the ones that we 
 have known best, the stream that ran before 
 our father s door, the current on which we 
 ventured our first boat or cast our first fly, the 
 brook on whose banks we first picked the 
 twinflower of young love. However far we 
 may travel, we come back to Naaman s 
 state of mind : "Are not Abana and Pharpar, 
 rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters 
 of Israel?" vi, 15. 
 
 ttoctttp^eigijtf) 
 
 The peace As living beings we are part of a universe 
 of being in of life ; as intelligent beings we are in connec- 
 place tion with a great circle of conscious intelli 
 
 gences ; as spiritual beings we have our place 
 in a moral world controlled and governed by 
 the supreme Spirit. In each of these spheres 
 there is a law, a duty, an obligation, a respon 
 sibility, for us. And our felicity lies in the 
 discovery and acknowledgment of those ties 
 which fit us and bind us to take our place, to 
 play our part, to do our work, to ive our life, 
 where we belong. iv, 104. 
 
 46 
 
ttoentp^nitttfj 
 
 Trees seem to come closer to our life. A tree with 
 They are often rooted in our richest feelings, deep roots 
 and our sweetest memories, like birds, build 
 nests in their branches. I remember, the last 
 time that I saw James Russell Lowell, (only a 
 few weeks before his musical voice was hushed,) 
 he walked out with me into the quiet garden 
 at Elmwood to say good-by. There was a 
 great horse-chestnut tree beside the house, 
 towering above the gable, and covered with 
 blossoms from base to summit, a pyramid of 
 green supporting a thousand smaller pyramids 
 of white. The poet looked up at it with his 
 gray, pain-furrowed face, and laid his trem 
 bling hand upon the trunk. " I planted the 
 nut," said he, " from which this tree grew. 
 And my father was with me and showed me 
 how to plant it." vi, 10. 
 
 An idea arrives without effort ; a form can Truth in 
 only be wrought out by patient labour. If your art 
 story is worth telling, you ought to love it 
 enough to be willing to work over it until it 
 is true, true not only to the ideal, but true 
 also to the real. The light is a gift ; but the 
 local colour can only be seen by one who looks 
 for it long and steadily. v, xii. 
 
 47 
 
One secret Forget, forget, 
 
 Thou art a child and knowest 
 So little of thy life ! But music tells 
 One secret of the world thro* which thou 
 
 goest 
 To work with morning song, to rest with 
 
 evening bells : 
 Life is in tune with harmony so deep 
 
 That when the notes are lowest 
 Thou still canst lay thee down in peace 
 
 and sleep, 
 For God will not forget. xx, 9. 
 
 Love s first Surely, if love is supreme, it does not need 
 duty to wait for anything else to lend it worth and 
 
 dignity. The very sweetness and power of 
 it lie in the confession of one life as depend 
 ent upon another for its fulfilment. It is 
 made strong in its very weakness. It is the 
 only thing, after all, that can break the prison 
 bars and set the heart free from itself. The 
 pride that hinders it, enslaves it. Love s first 
 duty is to be true to itself, in word and deed. 
 Then, having spoken truth and acted verity, 
 it may call on honour to keep it pure and 
 steadfast. xvi, 209. 
 
 48 
 
geconti 
 
 These are the things I prize The best 
 
 And hold of dearest worth : things 
 
 Light of the sapphire skies, 
 Peace of the silent hills, 
 Shelter of forests, comfort of the grass, 
 Music of birds, murmur of little rills. 
 Shadow of clouds that swiftly pass, 
 And, after showers, 
 The smell of flowers 
 And of the good brown earth, 
 And best of all, along the way, friendship and 
 mirth. 
 
 xx, 44. 
 
 5tpril tfjirfc 
 
 If by chance you pluck the leaves of Wood- 
 Wood-Magic and eat them, you will not Magic 
 know what you have done, but the enchant 
 ment of the tree-land will enter your heart 
 and the charm of the wildwood will flow 
 through your veins. . . . 
 
 At tables spread with dainty fare you will 
 be hungry for the joy of the hunt, and for 
 the angler s sylvan feast. In proud cities you 
 will weary for the sight of a mountain trail ; 
 in great cathedrals you will think of the long, 
 arching aisles of the woodland ; and in the 
 noisy solitude of crowded streets you will 
 hone after the friendly forest. xvu, 132. 
 
 49 
 
il fourtfj 
 
 The first "My father," she answered, "I desire to 
 
 dvty do the will of God. But how shall I know 
 
 it ? Is it not His first command that we 
 should love and serve Him faithfully in the 
 duty which He has given us ? He gave me 
 this light to keep. My father kept it. He 
 is dead. If I am unfaithful what will he say 
 to me ? Besides, the supply-boat is coming 
 soon I have thought of this when it comes 
 it will bring food. But if the light is out, 
 the boat may be lost. That would be the 
 punishment for my sin. No, man pcre, we 
 must trust God. He will keep the people. 
 I will keep the light." xvi, 286. 
 
 9DpriI fiftf) 
 
 The books I want the books that help me out of the 
 that I vacancy and despair of a frivolous mind, out 
 
 want of the tangle and confusion of a society that 
 
 is buried in bric-a-brac, out of the meanness 
 of unfeeling mockery and the heaviness of 
 incessant mirth, into a loftier and serener 
 region, where, through the clear air of serious 
 thoughts, I can learn to look soberly and 
 bravely upon the mingled misery and splen 
 dour of human existence, and then go down 
 with a cheerful courage to play a man s part 
 in the life which Christ has forever ennobled 
 by his divine presence. xxn, 171. 
 
Slpril 
 
 Self is the only prison that can ever bind the The prism 
 
 soul ; and the 
 
 Love is the only angel who can bid the gates angel 
 
 unroll : 
 And when he comes to call thee, arise and 
 
 follow fast ; 
 His way may lie through darkness, but it 
 
 leads to light at last. ix, 48. 
 
 Is there any reason why our lives should be Climb, and 
 feeble and stagnant and worthless ? Is there be lifted 
 any reason why we should not overcome 
 temptation and endure trial, and work the 
 works of God in the world, and come at last 
 to the height of His abode in heaven ? Only 
 one, that we do not know Him who is able 
 to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
 ask or think, according to the power that 
 worketh in us. Lay hold on Him by faith 
 and all things are possible. Let us clasp the 
 hand of Christ and climb ; and as we climb 
 He will lift us out of sin, out of selfishnes.v 
 out of weakness, out of death, into holiness., 
 into love, into strength, into life, and we shall 
 know the power of His resurrection. iv, 96. 
 
 5i 
 
l etgfjtf) 
 
 Abraham s This may not be the very tree that flung 
 oak its shadow over the tent, but no doubt it 
 
 is a son or a grandson of that tree, and the 
 acorns that still fall from it may be the 
 seeds of other oaks to shelter future gen 
 erations of pilgrims; and so throughout 
 the world, the ancient covenant of friend 
 ship is unbroken, and man remains a grate 
 ful lover of the big, kind trees. xxvi, 100. 
 
 HprtI ntntfj 
 
 Lupin No other time of the year, on our northern 
 
 and Atlantic seaboard, is so alluring, so delicate 
 
 laurel and subtle in its charm, as that which follows 
 
 the fading of the bright blue lupins in the 
 meadows and along the banks of the open 
 streams, and precedes the rosy flush of 
 myriad laurels in full bloom on the half- 
 wooded hillsides, and in the forest glades, 
 and under the lofty shadow of the groves 
 of yellow pine. Then, for a little while, the 
 spring delays to bourgeon into summer: the 
 woodland maid lingers at the garden gate 
 of womanhood, reluctant to enter and leave 
 behind the wild sweetness of freedom and 
 uncertainty. xxv, 141. 
 
 52 
 
tentf) 
 
 Dear tranquil Habit, with her silent hands, Tranquil 
 Doth heal our deepest wounds from day habit 
 
 to day 
 With cooling, soothing oil, and firmly lay 
 
 Around the broken heart her gentle bands. 
 
 Her nursing is as calm as Nature s care; 
 She doth not weep with us; yet none the 
 
 less 
 
 Her quiet fingers weave forgetfulness, 
 We fall asleep in peace when she is there. 
 
 xxvni, 291. 
 
 Hprtl eletoentf) 
 
 The heart of the people at large is still Ideal 
 old-fashioned in its adherence to the idea living 
 that every man is responsible to a higher 
 moral and spiritual power, that duty is 
 more than pleasant, that life cannot be 
 translated in terms of the five senses, and 
 that the attempt to do so lowers and de 
 grades the man who makes it, that relig 
 ion alone can give an adequate interpre 
 tation of life, and that morality alone can 
 make it worthy of respect and admiration. 
 This is the characteristic American way of 
 looking at the complicated and interesting 
 business of living which we men and women 
 have upon our hands. xxvii, 264. 
 
 S3 
 
ttoelftf) 
 
 The puri- This is what the apostle means by " the 
 fying hope power of an endless life." The passion of 
 immortality is the thing that immortalizes our 
 being. To be in love with heaven is the sur 
 est way to be fitted for it. Desire is the mag 
 netic force of character. Character is the 
 compass of life. u He that hath this hope in 
 him purifieth himself." vm, 36. 
 
 5tpril tijtrteentl) 
 
 The mark Read the roll of those in every age whom 
 of the King the world has acknowledged as the best Chris 
 tians, kings and warriors and philosophers, 
 martyrs and heroes and labourers in every no 
 ble cause, the purest and the highest of man 
 kind, and you will see that the test by which 
 they are judged, the mark by which they are 
 recognized, is likeness and loyalty to the per 
 sonal Christ. Then turn to the work which 
 the Church is doing to-day in the lowest and 
 darkest fields of human life, among the sub 
 merged classes of our great cities, among the 
 sunken races of heathendom, and you cannot 
 deny that the force of that work to enlighten 
 and uplift, still depends upon the simplicity and 
 reality with which it reveals the person of 
 Jesus to the hearts of men. vn, 66. 
 
 54 
 
3tpril fourteenth 
 
 Even the broken and tumultuous noise 
 That rises from great cities, where the heart 
 Of human toil is beating heavily 
 With ceaseless murmurs of the labouring pulse, 
 Is not a discord ; for it speaks to life 
 Of life unfeigned, and full of hopes and fears, 
 And touched through all the trouble of its notes 
 With something real and therefore glorious. 
 
 xiv, 40. 
 
 The music 
 in the 
 tumult 
 
 3fipr fifteenth 
 
 " Yes," she answered, lifting her eyes to Gratitude 
 his face ; " I, too, have felt it, Hermas, this 
 burden, this need, this unsatisfied longing. I 
 think I know what it means. It is gratitude 
 the language of the heart, the music of 
 happiness. There is no perfect joy without 
 gratitude. But we have never learned it, and 
 the want of it troubles us. It is like being 
 dumb with a heart full of love. We must 
 find the word for it, and say it together. Then 
 we shall be perfectly joined in perfect joy." - 
 xi, 47. 
 
 55 
 
Power No man in the world to-day has such power 
 
 as he who can make his fellow-men feel that 
 Christ is a reality. iv, 244. 
 
 getoenteetttlj 
 
 Prayers Then the moon slips up into the sky from 
 
 without behind the eastern hills, and the fisherman be- 
 words gins to think of home, and of the foolish, fond 
 
 old rhymes about those whom the moon sees 
 far away, and the stars that have the power 
 to fulfil wishes as if the celestial bodies knew 
 or cared anything about our small nerve-thrills 
 which we call affection and desires. But if 
 there were Some One above the moon and 
 stars who did know and care, Some One 
 who could see the places and the people that 
 you and I would give so much to see, Some 
 One who could do for them all of kindness that 
 you and I fain would do, Some One able to 
 keep our beloved in perfect peace and watch 
 over the little children sleeping in their beds 
 beyond the sea what then ? Why, then, in 
 the evening hour, one might have thoughts of 
 home that would go across the ocean by way 
 of heaven, and be better than dreams, almost 
 as good as prayers. vi, 243. 
 
 56 
 
Sfipril eigfjteentl) 
 
 Companionship is the one thing in the Tbe 
 world which is absolutely essential to happi- friendship 
 ness. The human heart needs fellowship tf ** e * 
 more than anything else, fellowship which is 
 elevated and enduring, stronger and purer 
 than itself, and centered in that which death 
 cannot change. All its springs are in God. 
 Without Him life is a failure and all beyond 
 is a blank. xvm, 144. 
 
 nineteenth 
 
 <c Trust me, Scholar, it is the part of wis- Nature s 
 dom to spend little of your time upon the invitation 
 things that vex and anger you, and much of 
 your time upon the things that bring you 
 quietness and confidence and good cheer. A 
 friend made is better than an enemy punished. 
 There is more of God in the peaceable beauty 
 of this little wood-violet than in all the angry 
 disputations of the sects. We are nearer 
 heaven when we listen to the birds than when 
 we quarrel with our fellow-men. I am sure 
 that none can enter into the spirit of Christ, 
 his evangel, save those who willingly follow 
 his invitation when he says, c Come ye your 
 selves apart into a lonely place, and rest a 
 while " xvi, 136. 
 
 57 
 
ttocntietl) 
 
 i 
 
 Wings of a At sunset, when the rosy light was dying 
 dwe Far down the pathway of the west, 
 
 I saw a lonely dove in silence flying, 
 To be at rest. 
 
 Pilgrim of air, I cried, could I but borrow 
 
 Thy wandering wings, thy freedom blest, 
 I d fly away from every careful sorrow, 
 And find my rest. 
 
 II 
 
 But when the dusk a filmy veil was weaving, 
 
 Back came the dove to seek her nest 
 Deep in the forest where her mate was griev 
 ing? 
 
 There was true rest. 
 
 Peace, heart of mine ! no longer sigh to wan 
 der; 
 
 Lose not thy life in fruitless quest. 
 There are no happy islands over yonder ; 
 Come home and rest. ix, 3. 
 
 Stpril ttoentp^firt 
 
 Concord The cottage, no less than the palace, en 
 
 joys the blessings of civil concord and social 
 harmony. Human life, in every sphere, be 
 comes easier and happier and more fruitful, as 
 men recognize the ties which bind them to 
 each other, and learn to dwell together in 
 mutual affection and helpfulness. I, 245. 
 
 58 
 
gdprti ttoentp=geconb 
 
 Oh, wot s the use o <c red gods," an "Pan," Spring- 
 an all that stuff? time 
 
 The natcheral facts o Springtime is won 
 derful enuff! 
 
 An if there s Someone made em, I guess 
 He understood, 
 
 To be alive in Springtime would make a 
 man feel good. xxxi, 59. 
 
 The Boy had learned from his mother "My 
 that God who made and ruled all things Father" 
 was his Father. It was the name she had 
 taught him to use in his prayers. Not in 
 the great payers he learned from the book 
 the name there was Adonai, the Lord, 
 the Almighty. But in the little prayers 
 that he said by himself it was "my Father !" 
 It made the Boy feel strangely happy and 
 strong to say that. The whole world seemed 
 to breathe and glow around him with an 
 invisible presence. For such a Father, for 
 the sake of His love and favor, the Boy 
 felt he could do anything. xxx, 29. 
 
 59 
 
il ttoentj^fourtij 
 
 The larger By the breadth of the blue that shines in 
 vision silence o er me, 
 
 By the length of the mountain-lines that 
 stretch before me, 
 
 By the height of the cloud that sails, with 
 rest in motion, 
 
 Over the plains and the vales to the measure 
 less ocean, 
 
 (Oh, how the sight of the things that are 
 great enlarges the eyes !) 
 
 Lead me out of the narrow life, to the peace 
 of the hills and the skies. xx, 39. 
 
 Good blood " The old Jacques Cartier, the father of 
 all, when he went home to France, I have 
 heard that the King made him a lord and 
 gave him a castle. Why not ? He was a 
 capable man, a brave man; he could sail a 
 big ship, he could run the rapids of the great 
 river in his canoe. He could hunt the bear, 
 the lynx, the carcajou. I suppose all these 
 men, marquises and counts and barons, I 
 suppose they all lived hard, and slept on the 
 ground, and used the axe and the paddle when 
 they came to the woods. It is not the fine 
 coat that makes the noble. It is the good 
 blood, the adventure, the brave heart." xvi, 
 
 222. 
 
 60 
 
What does fatherhood mean ? I speak Heavenly 
 out the experience of an earthly fatherhood fatherhood 
 that has blessed my whole life. It means 
 tenderness, forbearance, watchfulness, firm 
 ness to counsel and rebuke, pity for my 
 worst, sympathy for my best, a golden friend 
 ship, an undying love. If earthly fatherhood 
 means all that, how much more does heavenly 
 fatherhood mean! xviu, 10. 
 
 Simplicity, in truth, is less dependent upon The simple 
 external things than we imagine. It can live life 
 in broadcloth or homespun ; it can eat white 
 bread or black. It is not outward, but in 
 ward. A certain openness of mind to learn 
 the daily lessons of the school of life ; a cer 
 tain willingness of heart to give and to re 
 ceive that extra service, that gift beyond the 
 strict measure of debt which makes friend 
 ship possible ; a certain clearness of spirit to 
 perceive the best in things and people, to love 
 it without fear and to cleave to it without 
 mistrust ; a peaceable sureness of affection 
 and taste ; a gentle straightforwardness of 
 action ; a kind sincerity of speech, these are 
 the marks of the simple life, which cometh 
 not with observation, for it is within you. 
 xxi, 36. 
 
 61 
 
Common When a man can willingly forego even the 
 
 worship outward services of religion, and stay away 
 from the house of God, and let the seasons 
 of devotion and communion pass by without 
 a thought of regret, his faith and love must 
 be at a low ebb, if indeed they have not alto 
 gether dried up and blown away. A living 
 plant seeks water : a living soul longs for the 
 refreshment of the sanctuary. I, 107. 
 
 Stprtf ttoentp^nhttt) 
 
 Education Surely it would be a good thing, if, in our 
 schools, it could be recognized that a child 
 would far better grow up thinking that the earth 
 is flat, than to remain ignorant of God and 
 moral law and filial duty. And it would be 
 a still better thing, if, in all our homes, there 
 could be a sincere revival of household piety, 
 piety in the old Roman sense, which means 
 the affectionate reverence of children for pa 
 rents, piety in the new Christian sense which 
 means the consecration to the heart of God, 
 for this would rekindle the flame of devotion 
 upon many a neglected altar, and shed a mild 
 and gracious light through many a gloomy 
 home, making it the brightest, cheerfulest, 
 holiest place on earth. i, 230. 
 
 62 
 
i tfjirtictfj 
 
 But it is not only to the real life of birds Old clothes 
 and flowers that the little rivers introduce you. and liberty 
 They lead you often into familiarity with hu 
 man nature in undress, rejoicing in the liberty 
 of old clothes, or of none at all. People do 
 not mince along the banks of streams in pat 
 ent-leather shoes or crepitating silks. Cor 
 duroy and homespun and flannel are the stuffs 
 that suit this region ; and the frequenters of 
 these paths go their natural gaits, in calf-skin 
 or rubber boots, or bare-footed. The girdle 
 of conventionality is laid aside, and the skirts 
 rise with the spirits. vi, 25. 
 
 firgt 
 
 It s little I can tell The echo 
 
 About the birds in books ; in the heart 
 
 And yet I know them well, 
 
 By their music and their looks : 
 When May comes down the lane, 
 Her airy lovers throng 
 To welcome her with song, 
 And follow in her train : 
 Each minstrel weaves his part 
 In that wild-flowery strain, 
 And I know them all again 
 By their echo in my heart. 
 
 xiv, 73. 
 
 63 
 
geconfc 
 
 J<? */d/ There is a secret pleasure in finding these 
 game delicate flowers in the rough heart of the wil 
 
 derness. It is like discovering the veins of 
 poetry in the character of a guide or a lum 
 berman. And to be able to call the plants by 
 name makes them a hundredfold more sweet 
 and intimate. Naming things is one of the 
 oldest and simplest of human pastimes. Chil 
 dren play at it with their dolls and toy ani 
 mals. In fact, it was the first game ever 
 played on earth, for the Creator who planted 
 the garden eastward in Eden knew well what 
 would please the childish heart of man, when 
 He brought all the new-made creatures to 
 Adam, " to see what he would call them." 
 vi, 260. 
 
 tfjirfc 
 
 When all God is present with His own people in a 
 
 things sense which belongs to them alone. He is 
 
 speak present by the revelations of His glory. They 
 
 have learned to see His face and hear His 
 
 voice in the world, so that the stars, which to 
 
 other men are silent, speak of His wisdom to 
 
 every faithful heart, and the sea tells of His 
 
 power, and the fruits and flowers of earth 
 
 seem to those who love Him as if they were 
 
 offered by His bountiful hands. I, 139. 
 
 64 
 
fourtfj 
 
 These are the gifts I ask Gifts of 
 
 Of thee, Spirit serene: the Spirit 
 
 Strength for the daily task, 
 Courage to face the road, 
 Good cheer to help me bear the traveller s 
 
 load, 
 
 And, for the hours of rest that come be 
 tween, 
 
 An inward joy in all things heard and seen. 
 
 xxvin, 60. 
 
 8aj> ftftf) 
 
 The mountains that inclose the vale Doors of 
 
 With walls of granite, steep and high, daring 
 
 Invite the fearless foot to scale 
 Their stairway toward the sky. 
 
 The restless, deep, dividing sea 
 
 That flows and foams from shore to shore, 
 
 Calls to its sunburned chivalry, 
 "Push out, set sail, explore!" 
 
 The bars of life at which we fret, 
 
 That seem to prison and control, 
 Are but the doors of daring, set 
 
 Ajar before the soul. 
 
 Say not, "Too poor," but freely give; 
 
 Sigh not, "Too weak," but boldly try; 
 You never can begin to live 
 
 Until you dare to die. xxvin, 260. 
 
 65 
 
The cause Often does it happen that a man who is 
 and the engaged in the noblest work needs to be re- 
 minded that the cause for which he is labour 
 ing is holier than himself. i, 60. 
 
 The pathos How the heart expands at such a view ! 
 
 of beauty Nine miles of shining water lay stretched be 
 fore us, opening through the mountains that 
 guarded it on both sides with lofty walls of 
 green and gray, ridge over ridge, point beyond 
 point, until the vista ended in 
 
 "Yon orange sunset waning slow." 
 
 At a moment like this one feels a sense of 
 exultation. It is a new discovery of the joy 
 of living. And yet, my friend and I con 
 fessed to each other there was a tinge of sad 
 ness, an inexplicable regret mingled with our 
 joy. Was it the thought of how few human 
 eyes had ever seen that lovely vision ? Was 
 it the dim foreboding that we might never see 
 it again ? Who can explain the secret pathos 
 of Nature s loveliness ? It is a touch of mel 
 ancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is 
 an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. 
 It is the sense that even if we should find 
 another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it 
 perfectly, nor stay in it forever. vi, 210. 
 
 66 
 
The evil voices in the souls of men, Optimism 
 
 Voices of rage and cruelty and fear 
 
 Have not dismayed me ; for I have perceived 
 
 The voices of the good, the kind, the true 
 
 Are more in number and excel in strength. 
 
 There is more love than hate, more hope than 
 
 fear, 
 In the mixed murmur of the human heart. 
 
 xiv, 50. 
 
 &ap niutf) 
 
 I saw him again at the foot of the pyra- A riddle 
 mids, which lifted their sharp points into the and 
 intense saffron glow of the sunset sky, change 
 less monuments of the perishable glory and 
 the imperishable hope of man. He looked up 
 into the vast countenance of the crouching 
 Sphinx and vainly tried to read the meaning 
 of the calm eyes and smiling mouth. Was 
 it, indeed, the mockery of all effort and all 
 aspiration, as Tigranes had said the cruel 
 jest of a riddle that has no answer, a search 
 that never can succeed ? Or was there a 
 touch of pity and encouragement in that 
 inscrutable smile a promise that even the 
 defeated should attain a victory, and the dis 
 appointed should discover a prize, and the 
 ignorant should be made wise, and the blind 
 should see, and the wandering should come 
 into the haven at last ? v, 54. 
 
 67 
 
tentf) 
 
 Wild For my own part, I approve of garden flow- 
 
 /lowers ers because they are so orderly and so certain ; 
 but wild flowers I love, just because there is 
 so much chance about them. Nature is all 
 in favor of certainty in great laws and of un 
 certainty in small events. You cannot ap 
 point the day and the place for her flower- 
 shows. If you happen to drop in at the right 
 moment she will give you a free admission. 
 But even then it seems as if the table of 
 beauty had been spread for the joy of a higher 
 visitor, and in obedience to secret orders which 
 you have not heard. xui, 83. 
 
 clclicnrl) 
 
 The part- If men would only hear it ! Oh that the 
 
 song of the deaf ear and the dull heart might be touched 
 seasons an d opened to the beautiful speech of the 
 
 seasons, so that plenty might draw all souls 
 to gratitude, and beauty move all spirits to 
 worship, and every fair landscape, and every 
 overflowing harvest, and every touch of love 
 liness and grace upon the face of the world, 
 might lift all souls that live and feel from 
 Nature up to Nature s God ! This is what He 
 longs for. This is what He means when He 
 tells us, in His impartial sunshine and rain, 
 that He is the Father of all mankind. iv, 201. 
 
 68 
 
ttoelftf) 
 
 We are often standing upon the hill of sighs, The hill of 
 and looking back to the pleasant places which 
 our feet shall tread no more, recalling the 
 opportunities which have departed, remember 
 ing the sweet Sabbaths in the home of child 
 hood, the mornings when we went with the 
 multitude of friends to the house of God, the 
 quiet evenings filled with the voice of sacred 
 song, the days when it seemed easy and nat 
 ural to be good, when gracious currents of 
 holy influence were bearing us onward, almost 
 without effort, towards a better life. I, 167. 
 
 tftirteentfj 
 
 The Bible, if indeed it be the true text-book The Bible 
 of religion, must contain the answer to man s 
 cry as a sinner to God as a Saviour. It must 
 disclose to man a remedy for the pain, a con 
 solation for the shame, a rescue from the fear, 
 and a confirmation of the secret hope, that he 
 dimly and confusedly feels in the sense of sin. 
 A Bible with no message of deliverance from 
 sin would be a useless luxury in a sinful 
 world. It would lack that quality of perfect 
 fitness to human need which is one of the 
 most luminous evidences of a divine word. 
 The presence of a clear message of salvation 
 is an essential element in the proof of inspi 
 ration. xii, 51. 
 
 69 
 
fourteenth 
 
 An angler* s When tulips bloom in Union Square, 
 wish And timid breaths of vernal air 
 
 Go wandering down the dusty town, 
 Like children lost in Vanity Fair ; 
 
 When every long, unlovely row 
 Of westward houses stands aglow, 
 
 And leads the eyes toward sunset skies 
 Beyond the hills where green trees grow ; 
 
 Then weary seems the street parade, 
 And weary books, and weary trade : 
 I m only wishing to go a-fishing; 
 For this the month of May was made. 
 
 ix, 6 
 
 fifteenth 
 
 Mutual In our own tongue the word to bless is de- 
 
 blessing rived from the same root as blithe and bliss. 
 It conveys the thought of peace and happi 
 ness. When we bless God we express the 
 sincere desire that He, as the source of all 
 light and life, as the maker and ruler of the 
 Universe, may ever be filled with infinite calm 
 and joy; that His glory may shine every 
 where, and that all His works may praise 
 Him in all places of His dominion. When 
 God blesses us, He promises to satisfy our 
 souls and make us happy. I, 250. 
 
 70 
 
gtjrteentft 
 
 Do you remember that fair little wood of <& wood- 
 silver birches on the West Branch of the land ban - 
 Neversink, somewhat below the place where 
 the Biscuit Brook runs in ? There is a 
 mossy terrace raised a couple of feet above 
 the water of a long, still pool ; and a very 
 pleasant spot for a friendship-fire on the 
 shingly beach below you ; and a plenty of 
 painted trilliums and yellow violets and white 
 foam-flowers to adorn your woodland ban 
 quet, if it be spread in the month of May, 
 when Mistress Nature is given over to em 
 broidery. xvi, 121. 
 
 gebenteentfj 
 
 The real location of a city house depends The magic 
 upon the pictures which hang upon its walls, of pictures 
 They are its neighbourhood and its outlook. 
 They confer upon it that touch of life and 
 character, that power to beget love and bind 
 friendship, which a country house receives 
 from its surrounding landscape, the garden 
 that embraces it, the stream that runs near it, 
 and the shaded paths that lead to and from its 
 door. 
 
 By this magic of pictures my narrow, up 
 right slice of living-space in one of the brown- 
 stone strata on the eastward slope of Man 
 hattan Island is transferred to an open and 
 agreeable site. xvi, 177. 
 
The way Who seeks for heaven alone to save his 
 
 soul, 
 May keep the path, but will not reach the 
 
 goal; 
 While he who walks in love may wander 
 
 far, 
 But God will bring him where the Blessed 
 
 are. xxvm, 358. 
 
 8aj> tuneteenrt) 
 
 The He that turneth from the road to rescue 
 
 helpers another, 
 
 Turneth toward his goal: 
 
 He shall arrive in time by the foot-path 
 of mercy, 
 
 God will be his guide. 
 
 He that speaketh comfortable words to 
 
 mourners, 
 
 Healeth his own hurt: 
 In the time of grief they will come to his 
 
 remembrance, 
 God will use them for balm. 
 
 He that careth for a wounded brother, 
 Watcheth not alone: 
 
 There are three in the darkness together, 
 And the third is the Lord. 
 
 Blessed is the way of the helpers, 
 
 The companions of the Christ. xxvm, 377. 
 
 72 
 
ttoentietg 
 
 Was it long ago, or was it but yesterday, The force 
 that we prayed for strength to perform a cer- that fails 
 tain duty, to bear a certain burden, to over- not 
 come a certain temptation, and received it ? 
 Do we dream that the Divine force was ex 
 hausted in answering that one prayer? No 
 more than the great river is exhausted by 
 turning the wheels of one mill. Put it to the 
 proof again with to-day s duty, to-day s bur 
 den, to-day s temptation. Thrust yourself fur 
 ther and deeper into the stream of God s 
 power, and feel it again, as you have felt it 
 before, able to do exceeding abundantly. Re 
 member and trust.- iv, 88. 
 
 Where you find a flower, you know there The flower 
 must have been a seed. Where you find a and the 
 river, you know there must be a spring, seed 
 Where you see a flame, you know there must 
 be a fire. Where you find a man beloved 
 and blessed of God, you know there must be 
 faith. Whether it is recorded or not, whether 
 you can see it or not, it must be there, germ 
 of his virtue, fountain-head of his goodness, 
 living source of warmth and light; for with 
 out faith it is impossible to please God. 
 iv, 31* 
 
 73 
 
The work We long to leave something behind us 
 
 that en- which shall last, some influence of good which 
 dures shall be transmitted through our children, some 
 
 impress of character or action which shall en 
 dure and perpetuate itself. There is only one 
 way in which we can do this, only one way 
 in which our lives can receive any lasting 
 beauty and dignity ; and that is by being taken 
 up into the great plan of God. Then the frag 
 ments of broken glass glow with an immortal 
 meaning in the design of His grand mosaic. 
 Then our work is established, because it be 
 comes part of His work. i, 23. 
 
 Spiritual The vision of spiritual power, even as we 
 
 power see it in the imperfect manifestations of hu 
 
 man life, is ennobling and uplifting. The 
 rush of courage along the perilous path of 
 duty is finer than the foaming leap of the tor 
 rent from the crag. Integrity resisting temp 
 tation overtops the mountains in grandeur. 
 Love, giving and blessing without stint, has a 
 beauty and a potency of which the sunlight is 
 but a faint and feeble image. When we see 
 these things they thrill us with joy ; they en 
 large and enrich our souls. iv, 80. 
 
 74 
 
ttoentp^fourtlj 
 
 Little rivers seem to have the indefinable 
 quality that belongs to certain people in the 
 world, the power of drawing attention with 
 out courting it, the faculty of exciting interest 
 by their very presence and way of doing things. 
 vi, 19. 
 
 A nameless 
 charm 
 
 The boy enjoyed this kind of father at the Fatherhood 
 time, and later he came to understand, with 
 a grateful heart, that there is no richer inheri 
 tance in all the treasury of unearned blessings. 
 For, after all, the love, the patience, the kindly 
 wisdom of a grown man who can enter into 
 the perplexities and turbulent impulses of a 
 boy s heart, and give him cheerful companion 
 ship, and lead him on by free and joyful ways 
 to know and choose the things that are pure 
 and lovely and of good report, make as fair an 
 image as we can find of that loving, patient 
 Wisdom which must be above us all if any 
 good is to come out of our childish race. 
 vi, 38. 
 
 75 
 
God s God s altar is in every loyal heart, 
 
 altar And every flame of love that kindles there 
 
 Ascends to Him and brightens with His 
 
 praise. 
 
 There is no other God ! But evil Powers 
 Make war against Him in the darkened 
 
 world; 
 
 And many temples have been built to them. 
 
 xxvni, 438. 
 
 The un- Man the maker of cities is also a builder 
 seen altar O f altars, 
 
 He setteth tables for the gods among his 
 habitations. 
 
 O my God, these are the altars of ignorance: 
 They are built by thy children who do not 
 know thee. 
 
 Then the Lord mercifully sent his angel 
 
 forth to lead me, 
 And I came through the courts of the tem 
 
 ple to the holy of holies. 
 
 Here the multitudes are kneeling in the 
 
 silence of the spirit, 
 They are kneeling at the unseen altar of 
 
 the lowly heart. xxvni, 372. 
 
 76 
 
To those who trust in the Lord and do Sleeping 
 good, to those who lie down with thoughts of and waking 
 His mercy and truth, it matters not whether 
 they awake in a curtained chamber or in a 
 wild cavern, " the light is sweet, and it is a 
 pleasant thing to behold the sun." I, 50. 
 
 ttocntp^mnrt) 
 
 Many people are so afraid to die that they Fear not, 
 have never begun to live. But courage eman- but live 
 cipates us and gives us to ourselves, that we 
 may give ourselves freely and without fear to 
 God. How sweet and clear and steady is the 
 life into which this virtue enters day by day, 
 not merely in those great flashes of excite 
 ment which come in the moments of crisis, 
 but in the presence of the hourly perils, the 
 continual conflicts. Not to tremble at the 
 shadows which surround us, not to shrink 
 from the foes who threaten us, not to hesitate 
 and falter and stand despairing still among the 
 perplexities and trials of our life, but to move 
 steadily onward without fear, if only we can 
 keep ourselves without reproach, surely that 
 is what the Psalmist meant by good courage 
 and strength of heart, and it is a most com 
 fortable, pleasant, peaceful, and happy virtue, 
 iv, 58. 
 
 77 
 
Decoration There is considerable talk just now about 
 Day the New South, as if this were a great dis 
 
 covery which some one had made, or a new 
 region which some fluent orator had created, 
 and as if this discovery or creation would 
 account for the present condition of affairs. 
 But in fact it is just the old South and the 
 old North, anointed with the oil of brotherly 
 love, which has flowed down from the head 
 even to the fringe of the garments. i, 241. 
 
 Tbe better Do we hear the voices of hope and cheer 
 future rising on every side and answering from land 
 to land, proclaiming the promise of a better 
 day in the future than any that have dawned 
 in the past, prophesying through all discour 
 agements and regrets that the course of man 
 kind is not downward but upward, acknowl 
 edging that when all men are like Christ earth 
 will be like heaven ? It is the divinity of King 
 Jesus, manifested in human flesh, real, living, 
 and eternal, the hope, the joy, the glory of 
 mankind. i, 126. 
 
 78 
 
Every meadow and every woodland is a The seeing 
 college, and every city square is full of teach- eye 
 ers. Do you know how the stream flows, 
 how the kingfisher poises above it, how the 
 trout swims in it, how the ferns uncurl along 
 its banks ? Do you know the structural 
 aspect of man s temples and palaces and 
 bridges, of nature s mountains and trees and 
 flowers ? Do you know the tones and ac 
 cents of human speech, the songs of birds, 
 the voices of the forests and the sea ? If not, 
 you need creative culture to make you a sen 
 sitive possessor of the beauty of the world. 
 xxn, 234. 
 
 geconb 
 
 By the faith that the flowers show when they Nature* 
 
 bloom unbidden, trust 
 
 By the calm of the river s flow to a goal that 
 
 is hidden, 
 By the trust of the tree that clings to its deep 
 
 foundation, 
 By the courage of wild birds wings on the 
 
 long migration, 
 (Wonderful secret of peace that abides in 
 
 Nature s breast !) 
 Teach me how to confide, and live my life, 
 
 and rest. xx, 41. 
 
 79 
 
tijirti 
 
 Song of a March on, my soul, nor like a laggard stay! 
 
 pilgrim- March swiftly on. Yet err not from the way 
 
 soul Where all the nobly wise of old have trod 
 
 The path of faith made by the sons of God. 
 
 Follow the marks that they have set beside 
 The narrow, cloud-swept track, to be thy 
 
 guide : 
 
 Follow, and honour what the past has gained, 
 And forward still, that more may be attained. 
 
 Something to learn, and something to forget : 
 Hold fast the good, and seek the better yet : 
 Press on, and prove the pilgrim-hope of 
 
 youth, 
 That Creeds are milestones on the road to 
 
 Truth. ix, 57. 
 
 fouttft 
 
 Loved into The special, personal, elective love of Christ 
 loving for His own is not exclusive ; it is magnifi 
 
 cently and illimitably inclusive. He loved 
 His disciples into loving their fellow-men. 
 He lifted them into union with God ; but He 
 did not lift them out of union with the world ; 
 and every tie that bound them to humanity, 
 every friendship, every fellowship, every link 
 of human intercourse, was to be a channel for 
 the grace of God that bringeth salvation, that 
 it might appear to all men. vn, 310. 
 
 80 
 
ftftlj 
 
 It is said that a friend once asked the great Cheerful 
 composer Haydn, why his church music was religion 
 always so full of gladness. He answered, u I 
 cannot make it otherwise. I write according 
 to the thoughts I feel ; when I think upon my 
 God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes 
 dance and leap from my pen ; and since God 
 has given me a cheerful heart, it will be par 
 doned me that I serve Him with a cheerful 
 spirit." 
 
 Pardoned ? Nay, it will be praised and 
 rewarded. For God looks with approval, 
 and man turns with gratitude, to every one 
 who shows by a cheerful life that religion is a 
 blessing for this world and the next. i, 96. 
 
 A dumb love is acceptable only from the Be not 
 lower animals. God has given us speech that silent 
 we should call upon His name. Worship is 
 to religion what fragrance is to the flower. 
 Be not ashamed to bow your knees 
 where men can see you. Be not ashamed to 
 sing His praise where men can hear you. There 
 is nothing that can become you so much as 
 to speak well of your heavenly Father. i, 256. 
 
 81 
 
Thorns and The best rose-bush, after all, is not that 
 
 roses which has the fewest thorns, but that which 
 
 bears the finest roses. xm, 149. 
 
 The river The river of dreams runs silently down 
 of dreams By a secret way that no man knows ; 
 
 But the soul lives on while the dream- 
 tide flows 
 Through the gardens bright, or the forests 
 
 brown ; 
 And I think sometimes that our whole 
 
 life seems 
 
 To be more than half made up of dreams. 
 For its changing sights, and its passing 
 
 shows, 
 And its morning hopes, and its midnight 
 
 fears, 
 
 Are left behind with the vanished years. 
 Onward, with ceaseless motion, 
 The life-stream flows to the ocean, 
 
 And we follow the tide, awake or asleep, 
 Till we see the dawn on Love s great 
 
 deep, 
 When the bar at the harbour-mouth is 
 
 crossed, 
 
 And the river of dreams in the sea is lost. 
 
 xiv, 83. 
 
 82 
 
nintJ) 
 
 When Christian Theology has fully re- Art and 
 turned to its vital centre in Christ, and its di- religion 
 vided forces are reunited, amid the hostile 
 camps and warring elements of modern soci 
 ety, in a simple and potent ministry of deliv 
 erance and blessing to all the oppressed and 
 comfortless "In His Name"; when art has 
 felt the vivid feality and the ideal beauty of 
 this humane gospel of the personal entrance 
 of God into the life of man, and has come 
 back to it for what art needs to-day more 
 than all else a deep, living, spiritual impulse 
 and inspiration then art will render a more 
 perfect service to religion, and religion will 
 give a new elevation to art. in, 109. 
 
 tcntJ) 
 
 Men draw a broad line between the public The city 
 and the private, and think that the evils of so- and the 
 ciety can be cured without paying any atten- home 
 tion to the virtues of the household, or that the 
 purity of family life can be maintained without 
 regard to the atmosphere of society. But the 
 Bible teaches us that the public and the pri 
 vate depend upon each other, and that the wel 
 fare of the city and the welfare of the home 
 are bound up together. i, 225. 
 
 83 
 
elefcentfj 
 
 Live your There is no good in praying for anything 
 
 prayers unless you will also try for it. All the sighs 
 
 and supplications in the world will not bring 
 wisdom to the heart that fills itself with folly 
 every day, or mercy to the soul that sinks itself 
 in sin, or usefulness and honor to the life that 
 wastes itself in vanity and inanity. I, 21. 
 
 Tbe gates Through the outer portals of the ear 
 
 of bearing Only the outer voice of things may pass ; 
 
 And through the middle doorways of the mind 
 Only the half- formed voice of human thoughts, 
 Uncertain and perplexed with endless doubt ; 
 But through the inmost gate the spirit hears 
 The voice of that great Spirit who is Life. 
 Beneath the tones of living things, He breathes 
 A deeper tone than ever ear hath heard ; 
 And underneath the troubled thoughts of men, 
 He thinks forever, and His thought is peace. 
 Behold, I touch thee once again, my child : 
 The third and last of those three hidden gates 
 That closed around thy soul and shut thee in, 
 Falls open now, and thou shalt truly hear. 
 
 xiv, 51. 
 
 84 
 
3fune tfnrteentf) 
 
 Thank God we can see, in the glory of morn, Banners 
 The invincible flag that our fathers de- offree- 
 
 fended; dom 
 
 And our hearts can repeat what the heroes 
 
 have sworn, 
 That war shall not end till the war-lust 
 
 is ended. 
 Then the bloodthirsty sword shall no longer 
 
 be lord 
 Of the nations oppressed by the conqueror s 
 
 horde, 
 
 But the banners of freedom shall peace 
 fully wave 
 
 O er the world of the free and the lands 
 of the brave. xxxn. 
 
 3[une tourteentf) 
 
 First of the flags of earth to dare "Old 
 A heraldry so high; Glory" 
 
 First of the flags of earth to bear 
 The blazons of the sky . . . 
 
 O bright flag, O brave flag, O flag to lead 
 
 the free ! 
 
 The hand of God thy colours blent, 
 And heaven to earth thy glory lent, 
 To shield the weak, and guide the strong 
 To make an end of human wrong, 
 And draw a countless human host to follow 
 after thee ! xxvm, 193, 201. 
 
 85 
 
A vagrant 
 wish 
 
 fifteenth 
 
 The harvest of the gardens and the or 
 chards, the result of prudent planting and pa 
 tient cultivation, is full of satisfaction. We 
 anticipate it in due season, and when it comes 
 we fill our mouths and are grateful. But 
 pray, kind Providence, let me slip over the 
 fence out of the garden now and then, to 
 shake a nut-tree that grows untended in the 
 wood. Give me liberty to put off my black 
 coat for a day, and go a-fishing on a free 
 stream, and find by chance a wild strawberry. 
 xm, 89. 
 
 Simplify We must get back from the confusions of 
 
 your faith theology to the simplicity that is in Christ. 
 We must see clearly that our central message 
 is not the gospel of a system, but the gospel 
 of a Person. We must hold fast the true 
 humanity of Jesus in order that we may know 
 what is meant by His true divinity. We must 
 recognize His supreme authority in the inter 
 pretation of the Bible itself. We must accept 
 His revelations of human liberty and divine 
 sovereignty. Above all, we must accept His 
 great truth of election to service as our only 
 salvation from the curse of sin, which is self 
 ishness. vn, ix. 
 
 86 
 
3fune gebenteentf) 
 
 Far richer than a thornless rose Thorn 
 
 Whose branch with beauty never glows, and rose 
 Is that which every June adorns 
 With perfect bloom among its thorns. 
 
 Merely to live without a pain 
 Is little gladness, little gain, 
 Ah, welcome joy tho mixt with grief, 
 The thorn-set flower that crowns the leaf. 
 
 xxxi, 52. 
 
 3[une etgjjteentf) 
 
 Gerasa was as really a part of God s big Divine 
 world as Shechem or Jezreel or Sychar. It equality 
 stood in His sight, and He must have re 
 garded the human souls that lived there. 
 He must have cared for them, and watched 
 over them, and judged them equitably, 
 dividing the just from the unjust, the chil 
 dren of love from the children of hate, even 
 as He did with men on the other side of 
 the Jordan, even as He does with all men 
 everywhere to-day. If faith in a God who 
 is the Father and Lord of all mankind means 
 anything it means this: equal care, equal 
 justice, equal mercy for all the world. 
 Gerasa has been forgotten of men, but 
 God never forgot it. xxvi, 195. 
 
 87 
 
Matins 
 
 nineteenth 
 
 Flowers, when the night is done, 
 Lift their heads to greet the sun ; 
 Sweetest looks and odours raise, 
 In a silent hymn of praise. 
 
 So my heart would turn away 
 PYom the darkness to the day; 
 Lying open, in God s sight, 
 As a flower in the light. ix, II. 
 
 ttoentietlj 
 
 Tbefriend- All he needs now, as he sets out to spend 
 tbip-jire a day on the Neversink, or the Willowemoc, 
 or the Shepaug, or the Swiftwater, is a good 
 lunch in his pocket, and a little friendship-fire 
 to burn pleasantly beside him while he eats 
 his frugal fare and prolongs his noonday rest. 
 This form of fire does less work than any 
 other in the world. Yet it is far from being 
 useless ; and I, for one, should be sorry to live 
 without it. Its only use is to make a visible 
 centre of interest where there are two or three 
 anglers eating their lunch together, or to sup 
 ply a kind of companionship to a lone fisher 
 man. It is kindled and burns for no other 
 purpose than to give you the sense of being 
 at home and at ease. Why the fire should do 
 this, I cannot tell, but it does. xiu, 226. 
 
 88 
 
Fiction, like wine, tastes best in the place 
 where it was grown. And the scenery of a 
 foreign land (including architecture, which is 
 artificial landscape) grows less dreamlike and 
 unreal to our perception when we people it 
 with familiar characters from our favourite 
 novels. Even on a first journey we feel our 
 selves among old friends. vi, 84. 
 
 Books and 
 travel 
 
 ttocntp^econti 
 
 In the time of adversity one should prepare Save some 
 for prosperity. I fancy there are a good many trees and 
 people unconsciously repeating the mistake of dreams 
 the Canadian farmer chopping down all the 
 native growths of life, clearing the ground of 
 all the useless pretty things that seem to cum 
 ber it, sacrificing everything to utility and suc 
 cess. We fell the last green tree for the sake 
 of raising an extra hill of potatoes ; and never 
 stop to think what an ugly, barren place we 
 may have to sit in while we eat them. The 
 ideals, the attachments yes, even the dreams 
 of youth are worth saving. For the artificial 
 tastes with which age tries to make good their 
 loss grow very slowly and cast but a slender 
 shade. vi, 201. 
 
 89 
 
Time Time is 
 
 Too Slow for those who Wait, 
 Too Swift for those who Fear, 
 Too Long for those who Grieve, 
 Too Short for those who Rejoice ; 
 But for those who Love, 
 
 Time is not. xx, 105. 
 
 Reliance Not to the swift, the race : 
 
 Not to the strong, the fight : 
 Not to the righteous, perfect grace : 
 Not to the wise, the light. 
 
 But often faltering feet 
 Come surest to the goal ; 
 And they who walk in darkness meet 
 The sunrise of the soul. 
 
 The truth the wise men sought 
 Was spoken by a child ; 
 The alabaster box was brought 
 In trembling hands defiled. 
 
 Not from my torch, the gleam, 
 But from the stars above : 
 Not from my heart, life s crystal stream, 
 
 But from the depths of Love. xx, 100. 
 
 90 
 
Christianity is complete, and has been so Hidden 
 ever since it was embodied in the life of treasures 
 Christ. Every one who has Christ in his 
 heart has the whole of it; nothing can be 
 added, nothing can be taken away. But the 
 understanding of it, the living sense of what 
 it means, comes only by degrees, to different 
 men and to different ages. Even yet, as we 
 gladly believe, the Church has much undis 
 covered country and many hidden treasures in 
 that territory of truth which she has possessed 
 from the beginning. in, 48. 
 
 The first time that I ever heard the skylark A skylark 
 was on the great plain of Salisbury. Sheep singing 
 were feeding and shepherds were watching 
 near by. From the contentment of her lowly 
 nest in the grass the songstress rose on quiver 
 ing wings, pouring out a perfect flood of joy. 
 With infinite courage the feathered atom 
 breasted the spaces of the sky, as if her music 
 lifted her irresistibly upward. With sublime 
 confidence she passed out of sight into the 
 azure ; but not out of hearing, for her cheer 
 ful voice fell yet more sweetly through the 
 distance, as if it were saying, " Forever, for 
 ever ! "i, 36. 
 
Content 
 ment 
 
 Why should we be disturbed, and harassed, 
 and filled with gloom, at the chances of com 
 merce and the changes of business ? Our 
 peace of mind is worth more than all things 
 else, and this we can keep in a log cabin or in 
 a hut of turf. Is not this the lesson which 
 Christ would have us learn from the lilies 
 and the sparrows ? God may give us more 
 or less, but so long as we are content, it will 
 always be enough and we cannot want. 
 
 The One The person of Jesus Christ stands solid in 
 
 Who abides the history of man. He is indeed more sub 
 stantial, more abiding, in human apprehension, 
 than any form of matter, or any mode of force. 
 The conceptions of earth and air and fire and 
 water change and melt around Him, as the 
 clouds melt and change around an everlasting 
 mountain peak. All attempts to resolve Him 
 into a myth, a legend, an idea, and hundreds of 
 such attempts have been made, have drifted 
 over the enduring reality of His character and 
 left not a rack behind. The result of all 
 criticism, the final verdict of enlightened com 
 mon-sense, is that Christ is historical. vn, 
 
 5 8. 
 
ttoentp^nintf) 
 
 who will walk a mile with me A mile 
 Along life s merry way ? with me 
 
 A comrade blithe and full of glee, 
 Who dares to laugh out loud and free, 
 And let his frolic fancy play, 
 Like a happy child, through the flowers gay 
 That fill the field and fringe the way 
 Where he walks a mile with me. 
 
 And who will walk a mile with me 
 
 Along life s weary way ? 
 A friend whose heart has eyes to see 
 The stars shine out o er the darkening lea, 
 And the quiet rest at the end o the day, 
 A friend who knows, and dares to say, 
 The brave, sweet words that cheer the way 
 
 Where he walks a mile with me. 
 
 With such a comrade, such a friend, 
 
 1 fain would walk till journeys end, 
 Through summer sunshine, winter rain, 
 And then ? Farewell, we shall meet again ! 
 
 xx, 75. 
 
 ^une tfjirtietf) 
 
 " Ride into the wind," said Lancelot, " and Life s ad- 
 what chance soever it blows thee, thereby do venture 
 thy best, as it were the first and the last. 
 Take not thy hand from it until it be ful 
 filled. So shalt thou most quickly and 
 worthily achieve knighthood." xvn, 51. 
 
 93 
 
Think of the beautiful charity which car 
 ries vast multitudes of little ones every sum 
 mer out of the crowded city into the fresh air 
 of the country. How did that begin ? In the 
 attempt of a country minister to bring a score 
 of poor children to spend a few days in the 
 farm-houses of his scanty parish. What can 
 we do ? Nothing. What can God do with 
 us ? Anything ; whatsoever He will. iv, 90. 
 
 But wherever you are, and whoever you 
 may be, there is one thing in which you and 
 I are just alike, at this moment, and in all the 
 moments of our existence. We are not at 
 rest ; we are on a journey. Our life is not a 
 mere fact ; it is a movement, a tendency, a 
 steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen 
 goal. We are gaining something, or losing 
 something every day. Even when our posi 
 tion and our character seem to remain pre 
 cisely the same, they are changing. For the 
 mere advance of time is a change. It is not 
 the same thing to have a bare field in January 
 and in July. The season makes the difference. 
 The limitations that are childlike in the child 
 are childish in the man. viu, 1 1 . 
 
 94 
 
tfjirfc 
 
 The inward joy and power of our life, in Gratitude 
 every sphere, come from the discovery that its as a law 
 highest obligation rests at last upon the law 
 of gratitude. In every tie that binds us we 
 are made free and glad to serve, when we 
 recognize that we have been " bought with a 
 price." iv, 109. 
 
 fouttft 
 
 The love of liberty. Indepcn- 
 
 There is no deeper passion than this, native dence Day 
 to the human heart. To be free, to move in 
 accordance with voluntary choice, to render 
 submission only where it is due, to follow 
 reason and conscience willingly without the 
 compulsion of brute force this is the in 
 stinct of personality. The nobler the race, 
 the more highly developed the individual, the 
 stronger and more ardent does this passion 
 become. It is no mere self-asserting spirit 
 of revolt against lawful authority, no wild, 
 untrammelled desire to fling the reins upon the 
 neck of appetite and indulge the personal im 
 pulses without restraint. The lover of liberty 
 is always a lover of law. He desires to follow 
 the best, not the worst ; and he rebels, not 
 against the restraints of justice, but against 
 the constraints of power ; not against the yoke 
 of service, but against the chains of bondage. 
 
 !> 177- 
 
 95 
 
American Democracy can never be extended by 
 
 ideals force, as you would fling a net over a flock 
 
 of birds ; but give it a chance and it will grow, 
 as a tree grows, by sending down its roots 
 into the heart of humanity and lifting its top 
 toward the light and spreading its arms wider 
 and wider until all the persecuted flocks of 
 heaven find refuge beneath its protecting shade. 
 The ideal of American manhood, the ideal 
 of American government, the ideal of Ameri 
 can glory and influence these three are the 
 ancestral ideals that have been the strength 
 and prosperity of America through the nine 
 teenth century. Will they endure through 
 the twentieth century ? xxn, 99. 
 
 The ascend- If you are looking for that which is best in 
 ing path the men and women with whom you come 
 into contact ; if you are seeking also to give 
 them that which is best in yourself; if you 
 are looking for a friendship which shall help 
 you to know yourself as you are and to ful 
 fill yourself as you ought to be ; if you are 
 looking for a love which shall not be a flat 
 tering dream and a madness of desire, but a 
 true comradeship and a mutual inspiration to 
 all nobility of living, then you are surely on 
 the ascending path. xviu, 33. 
 
" In la sua volontade e nostra pace" The Grea! 
 
 O mighty river ! strong, eternal Will, 
 Wherein the streams of human good and ill 
 Are onward swept, conflicting, to the sea, 
 The world is safe because it floats in Thee. 
 
 ix, 66, 
 
 The psalmists delight in the vision of the Beyond 
 world, and their joy quickens their senses to beauty 
 read alike the larger hieroglyphs of glory writ 
 ten in the stars and the delicate tracings of 
 transient beauty on leaf and flower ; to hear 
 alike the mighty roaring of the sea and the soft, 
 sweet laughter of the rustling cornfields. But 
 in all these they see and hear the handwriting 
 and the voice of God. It is His presence that 
 makes the world sublime and beautiful. The 
 direct, piercing, elevating sense of this pres 
 ence simplifies, enlarges, and ennobles their 
 style, and makes it different from other nature- 
 poetry. They never lose themselves, like 
 Theocritus and Wordsworth and Shelley and 
 Tennyson, in the contemplation and descrip 
 tion of natural beauty. They see it, but they 
 always see beyond it. xv, 24. 
 
 97 
 
ninrtj 
 
 Living at The people who always live in houses, and 
 
 secondhand sleep on beds, and walk on pavements, and 
 buy their food from butchers and bakers and 
 grocers, are not the most blessed inhabitants 
 of this wide and various earth. The circum 
 stances of their existence are too mathematical 
 and secure for perfect contentment. They 
 live at second or third hand. They are board 
 ers in the world. Everything is done for them 
 by somebody else. xm, 14. 
 
 tentfj 
 
 A defence Suppose the fish is not caught by an angler, 
 of angling what is his alternative fate? He will either 
 perish miserably in the struggles of the crowd 
 ed net, or die of old age and starvation like 
 the long, lean stragglers which are sometimes 
 found in the shallow pools, or be devoured by 
 a larger fish, or torn to pieces by a seal or an 
 otter. Compared with any of these miserable 
 deaths, the fate of a salmon who is hooked in 
 a clear stream and after a glorious fight re 
 ceives the happy dispatch at the moment when 
 he touches the shore, is a sort of euthanasia. 
 And, since the fish was made to be man s 
 food, the angler who brings him to the table 
 of destiny in the cleanest, quickest, kindest 
 way is, in fact, his benefactor. vi, 135. 
 
elebentf) 
 
 Imitation may be the sincerest flattery, but Likeness 
 imitation never produces the deepest resem- without 
 blance. The man who imitates is concerned imitation 
 with that which is outward ; but kinship of 
 spirit is inward. He who is next of kin to a 
 master-mind will be too great for the work of 
 a copyist ; he will be influenced, if at all, un 
 consciously ; and though the intellectual re 
 lationship may be expressed also in some ex 
 ternal traits of speech and manner, the true 
 likeness will be in the temper of the soul and 
 the sameness of the moral purpose. n, 93. 
 
 A vessel filled to the brim with water is A saint 
 apt to spill a little when it is shaken. Peter is with a full 
 so full of human nature that, whenever he is heart 
 excited or agitated, it seems to overflow, and 
 some word or deed comes out, which would 
 be almost childish in its impulsiveness, if it 
 were not for the virile force of the great strong 
 heart behind it. The consequence of this is, 
 that he is more often in trouble, more fre 
 quently rebuked and corrected, than any other 
 of the disciples. iv, 169. 
 
 99 
 
tfnrteentf) 
 
 America \ j ove thine }nland seagj 
 
 Thy groves of giant trees, 
 
 Thy rolling plains; 
 Thy rivers mighty sweep, 
 Thy mystic canyons deep, 
 Thy mountains wild and steep. 
 
 All thy domains; 
 
 Thy silver Eastern strands, 
 Thy Golden Gate that stands 
 
 Wide to the West; 
 Thy flowery Southland fair, 
 Thy sweet and crystal air, 
 O land beyond compare, 
 
 Thee I love best ! xxvm, 140. 
 
 3fulj> fourteentfj 
 
 France Give us a name to move the heart 
 
 With the strength that noble griefs impart, 
 A name that speaks of the blood outpoured 
 To save mankind from the sway of the 
 
 sword, 
 
 A name that calls on the world to share 
 In the burden of sacrificial strife 
 When the cause at stake is the world s free 
 
 life 
 
 And the rule of the people everywhere, 
 A name like a vow, a name like a prayer. 
 I give you France ! xxxii. 
 
 100 
 
fifteenth 
 
 Christianity is something more than a sys- The tide of 
 tern of doctrines ; it is a life, a tone, a spirit, f**tb 
 a great current of memories, beliefs, and hopes 
 flowing through millions of hearts. And he 
 who launches his words upon this current 
 finds that they are carried with a strength 
 beyond his own, and freighted often with a 
 meaning which he himself has not fully un 
 derstood as it flashed through him. u, 274. 
 
 gfrtcentfj 
 
 u Born within a lowly stable, where the cattle The King 
 
 round Me stood, of the 
 
 Trained a carpenter in Nazareth, I have toiled, workers 
 and found it good. 
 
 u They who tread the path of labour follow 
 
 where My feet have trod ; 
 They who work without complaining do the 
 
 holy will of God. 
 
 a Where the many toil together, there am I 
 
 among My own ; 
 Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am 
 
 I with him alone." xiv, 22. 
 
 101 
 
getoenteentfj 
 
 Wbither We cannot divide our work from ourselves, 
 
 bound? nor isolate our future from our qualities. A 
 ship might as well try to sail north with her 
 jib, and east with her foresail, and south with 
 her mainsail, as a man to go one way in con 
 duct, and another way in character, and an 
 other way in destiny. 
 
 What we do belongs to what we are ; and 
 what we are is what becomes of us. vin, 1 2. 
 
 tigfyttmty 
 
 Fruit in In the secluded garden of Christ s College, 
 
 old age at Cambridge, there is a mulberry-tree of 
 which tradition says that it was planted by 
 John Milton in his student days. I remember 
 sitting on the green turf below it, a few years 
 ago, and looking up at the branches, heavy 
 with age and propped on crutches, and won 
 dering to see that the old tree still brought 
 forth fruit. It was not the size nor the qual 
 ity of the fruit that impressed me. I hardly 
 thought of that. The strange thing, the beau 
 tiful thing, was that, after so many years, the 
 tree was yet bearing. u, 279. 
 
 102 
 
5fulp nineteenth 
 
 There are two good rules which ought to Two good 
 be written upon every heart. Never believe rules 
 anything bad about anybody, unless you posi 
 tively know that it is true. Never tell even 
 that, unless you feel that it is absolutely neces 
 sary, and that God is listening while you tell 
 it. i, 49. 
 
 3Wp ttoentietf) 
 
 Talk is that form of human speech which Talk 
 is exempt from all duties, foreign and do 
 mestic. It is the nearest thing in the world 
 to thinking and feeling aloud. It is necessa 
 rily not for publication solely an evidence of 
 good faith and mutual kindness. You tell 
 me what you have seen and what you are 
 thinking about, because you take it for granted 
 that it will interest and entertain me ; and you 
 listen to my replies and the recital of my ad 
 ventures and opinions, because you know I 
 like to tell them, and because you find some 
 thing in them, of one kind or another, that 
 you care to hear. It is a nice game, with 
 easy, simple rules, and endless possibilities of 
 variation. And if we go into it with the right 
 spirit, and play it for love, without heavy 
 stakes, the chances are that if we happen to 
 be fairly talkable people we shall have one of 
 the best things in the world, a mighty good 
 talk. xin, 59. 
 
 103 
 
The point Indeed, it is not from the highest peaks, 
 
 of view according to my experience, that one gets the 
 grandest prospects, but rather from those of 
 middle height, which are so isolated as to give 
 a wide circle of vision, and from which one 
 can see both the valleys and the summits. 
 Monte Rosa itself gives a less imposing view 
 than the Corner Grat. 
 
 It is possible, in this world, to climb too 
 high for pleasure. vi, 162. 
 
 ttoentp^econti 
 
 " In the shadow of thy wings I take refuge." 
 
 The pro- How exquisite is the beauty of this figure, 
 
 tecting and how perfect is the spiritual repose which 
 
 shadow i t expresses ! David was not content with 
 an image drawn from the cavern in which he 
 had found shelter. It was not enough for 
 him to say that the care in which he confided 
 was like the great walls and overarching roof 
 of the cave. He felt that God was nearer 
 than these, that He brooded above His people 
 as a mother-bird covers her nest with her own 
 feathers. High in the air the cruel hawks go 
 sailing by ; but they cannot reach the nest ; 
 even their black shadows cannot fall upon it 
 so long as it is protected by the shadow o/ 
 those other, greater wings. I, 46. 
 
 104 
 
ttoentj>=tfnrti 
 
 Now, far beyond all language and all art The Grand 
 In thy wild splendour, Canyon Marvellous, Canyon 
 The secret of thy stillness lies unveiled 
 In wordless worship ! This is holy ground, 
 Thou art no grave, no prison, but a shrine. 
 Garden of Temples filled with Silent Praise, 
 If God were blind thy Beauty could not be ! 
 
 xxxi, 8. 
 
 There was something in that land, surely, The Holy 
 some personal and indefinable spirit of Land 
 place, which was known and loved by 
 prophet and psalmist, and most of all by 
 Him who spread His table on the green 
 grass, and taught His disciples while they 
 walked the narrow paths waist-deep in 
 rustling wheat, and spoke His messages of 
 love from a little boat rocking on the lake, 
 and found His asylum of prayer high on 
 the mountainside, and kept His parting- 
 hour with His friends in the moon-silvered 
 quiet of the garden of olives. That spirit 
 of place, that soul of the Holy Land, is 
 what I fain would meet on my pilgrim 
 age, for the sake of Him who interprets it 
 in love. And I know well where to find it, 
 out-of-doors. xxvi, 6. 
 
 105 
 
The wak- And it is well also when the spiritual pow- 
 
 ing of the ers are roused with the physical. It is well 
 
 soul when the soul is active and excited ; moved 
 
 and thrilled by feeling, as the flowers in the 
 
 field are stirred by the morning breeze. Then 
 
 the sweet odours flow out. The bells do not 
 
 ring until they swing. The birds do not please 
 
 us until they leave their nests and begin to 
 
 warble their sweet notes. I, 50. 
 
 Qbserva- Do you suppose that this wondrous stage 
 
 tion as a of earth was set, and all the myriad actors on it 
 duty taught. to play their parts, without a spectator 
 
 in view ? Do you think that there is any 
 thing better for you and me to do, now and 
 then, than to sit down quietly in a humble 
 seat, and watch a few scenes in the drama ? 
 Has it not something to say to us, and do we 
 not understand it best when we have a peace 
 ful heart and free from dolor ? That is what 
 in-dolence means, and there are no better teach 
 ers of it than the light-hearted birds and un- 
 toiling flowers, commended by the wisest of 
 all masters to our consideration ; nor can we 
 find a more pleasant pedagogue to lead us to 
 their school than a small, merry brook. xiu, 
 194. 
 
 106 
 
Goodness of heart, freedom of spirit, gay- Four f 
 ety of temper, and friendliness of disposition, things 
 these are four fine things, and doubtless as 
 acceptable to God as they are agreeable to 
 men. The talkability which springs out of 
 these qualities has its roots in a good soil. 
 On such a plant one need not look for the 
 poison berries of malign discourse, nor for the 
 Dead Sea apples of frivolous mockery. But 
 fair fruit will be there, pleasant to the sight 
 and good for food, brought forth abundantly 
 according to the season. xiu, 61. 
 
 Poets like Shakespeare, Milton, and Words- The Bible 
 worth ; novelists like Scott and romancers like a bond of 
 Hawthorne ; essayists like Bacon, Steele, and sympathy 
 Addison ; critics of life, unsystematic philos 
 ophers, like Carlyle and Ruskin, all draw 
 upon the Bible as a treasury of illustrations, 
 and use it as a book equally familiar to them 
 selves and to their readers. It is impossible 
 to put too high a value upon such a universal 
 volume, even as a mere literary possession. 
 It forms a bond of sympathy between the 
 most cultivated and the simplest of the peo 
 ple. The same book lies upon the desk of 
 the scholar and in the cupboard of the peasant. 
 II, 246. 
 
 107 
 
Our stbool- 
 masters 
 
 Facts are teachers. Experiences are les- 
 sons. Friends are guides. Work is a master. 
 Love is an interpreter. Teaching itself is a 
 method of learning. Joy carries a divining 
 rod and discovers fountains. Sorrow is an 
 astronomer and shows us the stars. 
 
 What I have lived I really know, and what 
 I really know I partly own ; and so, begirt 
 with what I know and what I own, I move 
 through my curriculum, elective and required, 
 gaining nothing but what I learn, at once in 
 structed and examined by every duty and 
 every pleasure. xxi, 3. 
 
 3Wp t^trtietl) 
 
 Summer The night deepened around him and the 
 
 night sky hung out its thousand lamps. Odours of 
 
 the woods floated on the air : the spicy fra 
 grance of the firs ; the breath of hidden banks 
 of twin-flower. Musk-rats swam noiselessly 
 in the shadows, diving with a great commo 
 tion as the canoe ran upon them suddenly. 
 A horned owl hooted from the branch of a 
 dead pine-tree; far back in the forest a fox 
 barked twice. The moon crept up behind 
 the wall of trees and touched the stream with 
 silver. xvn, 144. 
 
 108 
 
It is here, in this quaint and carefully Geth- 
 tended garden, this precious place which semane 
 has been saved alike from the oblivious 
 trampling of the crowd and from the need 
 less imprisonment of four walls and a roof, 
 it is here in the open air, in the calm glow of 
 the afternoon, under the shadow of Mount 
 Zion, that we find for the first time that 
 which we have come so far to seek, the 
 soul of the Holy Land, the inward sense 
 of the real presence of Jesus. xxvi, 79. 
 
 first 
 
 A deeper crimson in the rose, Dorothea 
 
 A deeper blue in sky and sea, 
 And ever, as the summer goes, 
 A deeper loss in losing thee ! 
 
 A deeper music in the strain 
 Of hermit-thrush from lonely tree; 
 And deeper grows the sense of gain 
 My life has found in having thee. 
 
 A deeper love, a deeper rest, 
 A deeper joy in all I see; 
 And ever deeper in my breast 
 A silver song that comes from thee. 
 
 xxxi, 46. 
 109 
 
Seconb 
 
 The instruments were but the tools. The 
 composer was the master-designer. The 
 leader and his orchestra were the weavers 
 of the rich robe of sound, in which alone 
 the hidden spirit of Music, daughter of 
 Psyche and Amor, becomes perceptible to 
 mortal sense. 
 
 The smooth and harmonious action of 
 the players seemed to lend a new charm, 
 delicate and indefinable, to the develop 
 ment of the clear and heart-strengthening 
 theme with its subtle variations and its 
 powerful, emphatic close, like the fulness 
 of meaning in the last line of a noble sonnet. 
 
 xxix, 94. 
 
 Hiugugt tljtrb 
 
 But silence alone would not have healed 
 and restored his spirit. It needed the pres 
 ence of music: tones measured, ordered, 
 and restrained; varied and blended not by 
 chance, but by feeling and reason; sound 
 expressive of the secret life and the rhyth 
 mical emotion of the human heart. And 
 this he found flowing all around him, enter 
 ing deeply into him, filling all the parched 
 and empty channels of his being, as he 
 listened to Beethoven s great Symphony in 
 C Minor. xxix, 88. 
 
 no 
 
3tugut fourth 
 
 Every moment of life, I suppose, is more Critical 
 or less of a turning-point. Opportunities are moments 
 swarming around us all the time thicker than 
 gnats at sundown. We walk through a cloud 
 of chances, and if we were always conscious 
 of them they would worry us almost to death. 
 
 But happily our sense of uncertainty is 
 soothed and cushioned by habit, so that we 
 can live comfortably with it. xin, 35. 
 
 fifty 
 
 Music lends a strange sweetness to the re- Music 
 membrance of the past, and makes the troub 
 les of the present heavier, yet easier to bear. 
 And then it borrows the comfort of hope. 
 It drops the threads of sorrow one by one, 
 and catches the sweet beams of light reflected 
 from the future, and weaves them magically in 
 among its harmonies, blending, brightening, 
 softening the mystic web, until we are en 
 closed, we know not how, in a garment of 
 consolation, and the cold, tired heart finds 
 itself warmed, and rested, and filled with 
 courage. Most gracious ministry of music ! 
 Happy are they who know how to exercise 
 it in simplicity and love ; happy they whose 
 life-pilgrimage is cheered and lightened by 
 such service. I, 164. 
 
 in 
 
The liberty " A man s life consisteth not in the abun- 
 of joy dance of the things which he possesseth." 
 
 The land of wealth is not the empire of peace. 
 Joy is not bounded on the north by poverty, 
 on the east by obscurity, on the west by sim 
 plicity, and on the south by servitude. It 
 runs far ove-r these borders on every side. 
 The lowliest, plainest, narrowest life may be 
 the sweetest. vn, 289. 
 
 Stugugt 
 
 The meas- What does it profit a man to be the landed 
 ure of sue- proprietor of countless acres unless he can 
 ce * s reap the harvest of delight that blooms from 
 
 every rood of God s earth for the seeing eye 
 and the loving spirit ? And who can reap 
 that harvest so closely that there shall not be 
 abundant gleaning left for all mankind ? The 
 most that a wide principality can yield to its 
 legal owner is a living. But the real owner 
 can gather from a field of golden-rod, shining 
 in the August sunlight, an unearned incre 
 ment of delight. 
 
 We measure success by accumulation. 
 The measure is false. The true measure is 
 appreciation. He who loves most has most. 
 xiii, 178. 
 
 152 
 
3!ugut etgfjtij 
 
 i r ou see we are all scholars, boarding Play-time 
 scholars, in the House of Life, from the 
 moment when birth matriculates us to the 
 moment when death graduates us. We 
 never really leave the big school, no matter 
 what we do. But my point is this: the 
 lessons that we learn when we do not know 
 that we are studying are often the pleas- 
 antest, and not always the least important. 
 There is a benefit as well as a joy in finding 
 out that you can lay down your task for 
 a proper while without being disloyal to 
 your duty. Play-time is a part of school- 
 time, not a break in it. xxv, 4. 
 
 Etigust nintfj 
 
 Here our white tents are pitched among Jerusalem 
 the trees, with the dear flag of our home camp 
 flying over them. Here the big stars will 
 look kindly down upon us through the sil 
 very leaves, and the sounds of human tur 
 moil and contention will not trouble us. 
 The distant booming of the bell on the 
 Mount of Olives will mark the night-hours 
 for us, and the long-drawn plaintive call of 
 the muezzin from the minaret of the little 
 mosque at the edge of the grove will wake 
 us to the sunrise. xxvi, 42. 
 
tentf) 
 
 A prayer Grant us the knowledge that we need 
 for light To solve the questions of the mind ; 
 
 Light Thou our candle while we read, 
 
 And keep our hearts from going blind ; 
 Enlarge our vision to behold 
 The wonders Thou hast wrought of old ; 
 Reveal thyself in every law, 
 And gild the towers of truth with holy awe. 
 
 ix, 86. 
 
 On the Jesus wrote not with a pen upon enduring 
 
 tablets of parchment, nor with a stylus upon imperish- 
 tbe heart able brass : 
 
 " He stooped 
 And wrote upon the unrecording ground." 
 
 He would not leave even a single line of manu 
 script where His followers could preserve it 
 with literal reverence and worship it as a sa 
 cred relic. He chose to inscribe His teach 
 ing upon no other leaves than those which 
 are folded within the human soul. He chose 
 to trust His words to the faithful keeping of 
 memory and love ; and He said of them, with 
 sublime confidence, that they should never 
 pass away. He chose that the truth which 
 He declared and the life which He lived should 
 never be divided, but that they should go down 
 together through the ages. vn, 184. 
 
 114 
 
ttoelftf) 
 
 But when man abides in tents, after the At the sign 
 manner of the early patriarchs, the face of the of the 
 world is renewed. The vagaries of the clouds Green Tree 
 become significant. You watch the sky with 
 a lover s look, eager to know whether it will 
 smile or frown. When you lie at night upon 
 your bed of boughs and hear the rain patter 
 ing on the canvas close above your head, you 
 wonder whether it is a long storm or only a 
 shower. xiu, 15. 
 
 tyirteentlj 
 
 There is a beautiful legend in the Itinerary 
 of St. Anthony. An old pilgrim narrates that, 
 every morning at sunrise, a handful of dew 
 floated down from Hermon and fell upon the 
 Church of St. Mary, where it was immediately 
 gathered by the Christian physicians, and was 
 found a sovereign remedy for all diseases. 
 What is this dew but the word of Jesus Christ ? 
 u This is my commandment, that ye love 
 one another." It falls from heaven upon the 
 church But it is not meant for her refresh 
 ment alone. It is intended to be a cure for 
 all the evils of society ? spreading from heart to 
 heart, from land to land, until the last desert 
 vanishes and the lost Paradise is regained. 
 I, 246. 
 
 "5 
 
 The dew of 
 Hermon 
 
fourteenth 
 
 A wbim of The theory that Adam lived out in the 
 heredity woods for some time before he was put into 
 the garden of Eden " to dress it and to keep 
 it " has an air of probability. How else shall 
 we account for the arboreal instincts that cling 
 to his posterity ? 
 
 There is a wilding strain in our blood that 
 all the civilization in the world will not eradi 
 cate. I never knew a real boy or, for that 
 matter, a girl worth knowing who would not 
 rather climb a tree, any day, than walk up a 
 golden stairway. xiu, 84. 
 
 fifteenth 
 
 Martin Do you remember Martin Luther s reason- 
 
 Lutber on ing on the subject of " excellent large pike " ? 
 large pike He maintains that God would never have cre 
 ated them so good to the taste, if He had not 
 meant them to be eaten. And for the same 
 reason I conclude that this world would never 
 have been left so full of uncertainties, nor hu 
 man nature framed so as to find a peculiar joy 
 and exhilaration in meeting them bravely and 
 cheerfully, if it had not been divinely intended 
 that most of our amusement and much of our 
 education should come from this source. 
 XIII, IO. 
 
 116 
 
The life of man is a demonstrated daily The daily 
 miracle. It shows that the physical laws miracle 
 which we know and the physical forces which 
 we can measure, are traversed by spiritual laws 
 which we do not know and spiritual forces 
 which we cannot measure. It proves the 
 reality and potency of that which is invisible 
 and imponderable. xn, 91. 
 
 9tugut 
 
 There is a peculiar pleasure in doing a thing 
 like this, catching trout in a place where no 
 body thinks of looking for them, and at an 
 hour when everybody believes they cannot be 
 caught. It is more fun to take one good fish 
 out of an old, fished-out stream, near at hand 
 to the village, than to fill a basket from some 
 far-famed and well-stocked water. It is the 
 unexpected touch that tickles our sense of 
 pleasure. While life lasts, we are always hop 
 ing for it and expecting it. There is no coun 
 try so civilized, no existence so humdrum, 
 that there is not room enough in it somewhere 
 for a lazy, idle brook, an encourager of indo 
 lence, with hope of happy surprises. xui, 
 203. 
 
 117 
 
 Unexpected 
 fortune 
 
3lugut eigljteentf) 
 
 Personal What is property, after all ? The law says 
 
 property there are two kinds, real and personal. But 
 it seems to me that the only real property is 
 that which is truly personal, that which we 
 take into our inner life and make our own for 
 ever, by understanding and admiration and 
 sympathy and love. This is the only kind of 
 possession that is worth anything. xni, 176. 
 
 The unfail 
 ing foun 
 tain 
 
 9tugut nineteenth 
 
 All the streams were larger in our boyhood 
 than they are now, except, perhaps, that which 
 flows from the sweetest spring of all, the foun 
 tain of love, which John Ridd discovered be 
 side the Bagworthy River, and I, on the wil 
 low-shaded banks of the Patapsco, where the 
 Baltimore girls fish for gudgeons and you ? 
 Come, gentle reader, is there no stream whose 
 name is musical to you, because of a hidden 
 spring of love that you once found on its shore ? 
 The waters of that fountain never fail, and in 
 them alone we taste the undiminished fulness 
 of immortal youth. xm, 146. 
 
 118 
 
ttoentietJ) 
 
 Then come, my friend, forget your foes, and 
 
 leave your fears behind, 
 And wander forth to try your luck, with 
 
 cheerful, quiet mind ; 
 For be your fortune great or small, you ll take 
 
 what God may give, 
 And all the day your heart shall say, " Tis 
 
 luck enough to live." xiv, 68. 
 
 Luck 
 
 enough 
 
 live! 
 
 Some day, I suppose, all things in the 
 heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and 
 in the hearts of the men and women who 
 dwell between, will be investigated and ex 
 plained. We shall live a perfectly ordered 
 life, with no accidents, happy or unhappy. 
 Everybody will act according to rule, and 
 there will be no dotted lines on the map of 
 human existence, no regions marked ct unex 
 plored." Perhaps that golden age of the ma 
 chine will come, but you and I will hardly 
 live to see it. And if that seem to you a 
 matter for tears, you must do your own weep 
 ing, for I cannot find it in my heart to add a 
 single drop of regret. xiu, 88. 
 
 119 
 
 Mean- 
 while, let 
 us play 
 
What lies 
 
 behind 
 
 fortune 
 
 When I talk to you of fisherman s luck, I 
 do not forget that there are deeper things be 
 hind it. I remember that what we call our 
 fortunes, good or ill, are but the wise dealings 
 and distributions of a Wisdom higher, and a 
 Kindness greater, than our own. And I sup 
 pose that their meaning is that we should 
 learn, by all the uncertainties of our life, even 
 the smallest, how to be brave and steady and 
 temperate and hopeful, whatever comes, be 
 cause we believe that behind it all there lies 
 a purpose of good, and over it all there 
 watches a providence of blessing. xiu, 30. 
 
 How to If we can only come back to nature to- 
 
 keep young gether every year, and consider the flowers 
 forever and the birds, and confess our faults and mis 
 takes and our unbelief under these silent stars, 
 and hear the river murmuring our absolution, 
 we shall die young, even though we live long : 
 we shall have a treasure of memories which 
 will be like the twin-flower, always a double 
 blossom on a single stem, and carry with us 
 into the unseen world something which will 
 make it worth while to be immortal. vi, 276. 
 120 
 
9Eugut 
 
 Favonius has the good sense to talk about The salt of 
 himself occasionally and tell his own experi- conver- 
 ence. The man who will not do that must sat ion 
 always be a dull companion. Modest egoism 
 is the salt of conversation : you do not want 
 too much of it ; but if it is altogether omitted, 
 everything tastes flat. vi, 133. 
 
 Every afternoon there were long walks 
 with the Mistress in the old-fashioned garden, 
 where wonderful roses were blooming ; or 
 through the dark, fir-shaded den where the 
 wild burn dropped down to join the river : or 
 out upon the high moor under the waning 
 orange sunset. Every night there were lumi 
 nous and restful talks beside the open fire in 
 the library, when the words came clear and 
 calm from the heart, unperturbed by the vain 
 desire of saying brilliant things, which turns so 
 much of our conversation into a combat of 
 wits instead of an interchange of thoughts. 
 Talk like this is possible only between two. 
 The arrival of a third person sets the lists for 
 a tournament, and offers the prize of appro 
 bation for a verbal victory. But where there 
 are only two, the armour is laid aside, and 
 there is no call to thrust and parry. vi, 108. 
 
 121 
 
 An old 
 friend 
 
The faith There is a new cry for a Christ who shall 
 of a doubt- fulfil the hopes of all the ages. There is a 
 ing age new love waiting for Him, a new devotion 
 ready to follow His call. Doubt, in its nobler 
 aspect honest, unwilling, morally earnest 
 doubt has been a John the Baptist to pre 
 pare the way for His coming. The men of 
 to-day are saying, as certain Greeks said of 
 old, u Sirs, we would see Jesus." The dis 
 ciple who can lead the questioning spirits to 
 Him, is the man who has the Gospel for an 
 Age of Doubt. vn, 40. 
 
 "The King will follow Christ, and we the King. " 
 
 The leader Compare this line with the words of St. 
 
 as follower Paul: Be ye followers of me even as I also am 
 of Christ. They teach us that the lasting 
 devotion of men is rendered not to the human, 
 but to the divine, in their heroes. He who 
 would lead others must first learn to follow 
 one who is higher than himself. Without 
 faith it is not only impossible to please God, 
 but also impossible to rule men. II, 253. 
 
 122 
 
3Uugut 
 
 Life is an arrow therefore you must know The arrow 
 What mark to aim at, how to use the bow 
 Then draw it to the head, and let it go ! 
 
 ix, 65. 
 
 In talk it is not correctness of grammar nor A touch of 
 elegance of enunciation that charms us ; it is the brogue 
 spirit, verve, the sudden turn of humour, the 
 keen, pungent taste of life. For this reason 
 a touch of dialect, a flavour of brogue, is de 
 lightful. Any dialect is classic that has con 
 veyed beautiful thoughts. Who that ever 
 talked with the poet Tennyson, when he let 
 himself go, over the pipes, would miss the 
 savour of his broad-rolling Lincolnshire vow 
 els, now heightening the humour, now deepen 
 ing the pathos, of his genuine manly speech ? 
 There are many good stories lingering in the 
 memories of those who knew Dr. James Mc- 
 Cosh, the late president of Princeton Uni 
 versity, stories too good, I fear, to get into a 
 biography ; but the best of them, in print, 
 would not have the snap and vigour of the 
 poorest of them, in talk, with his own inimi 
 table Scotch-Irish brogue to set it forth.^- 
 xm, 67. 
 
 123 
 
Hidden 
 forces 
 
 An open 
 secret 
 
 3tugut ttjirtietf) 
 
 The forces that impel action reside in tem- 
 perament. The ideals and convictions that 
 guide it are hidden in the mind and heart. 
 A man moves slowly or swiftly, he does his 
 work weakly or strongly, according to the 
 energy that is in him. But the direction of 
 his life, this way or that way, follows the un 
 seen influence of what he admires and loves 
 and believes in. xxii, v. 
 
 Christ says that it was a Samaritan, a man 
 of property, riding on his own beast and car 
 rying a little spare capital in his pocket, who 
 lifted up the wounded stranger, and gave him 
 oil and wine, and brought him into a place of 
 security, and paid for his support. And to 
 everyone who hears the parable Christ says : 
 u Go thou and do likewise." Here is the 
 open secret of the regeneration of society in 
 the form of a picture. 
 
 If we want it in the form of a philosophy, 
 we may get it from St. Paul in five words : 
 
 u Let him that stole, steal no more " that 
 is reformation ; u but rather let him labour " 
 that is industry ; u working with his hands 
 that which is good" that is honesty ; "that 
 he may have " that is property ; u to give to 
 him that needeth " that is charity. xxn, 
 207. 
 
 124 
 
Religion without a great hope would be The fire on 
 like an altar without a living fire. v, 13. the altar 
 
 There the workman saw his labour taking Tbe glory 
 form and bearing fruit, of work 
 
 Like a tree with splendid branches rising from 
 a humble root. 
 
 Looking at the distant city, temples, houses, 
 
 domes, and towers, 
 Felix cried in exultation : " All the mighty 
 
 work is ours. 
 
 " Every mason in the quarry, every builder on 
 the shore, 
 
 Every chopper in the palm-grove, every rafts 
 man at the oar 
 
 u Hewing wood and drawing water, splitting 
 
 stones and cleaving sod 
 All the dusty ranks of labour, in the regiment 
 
 of God, 
 
 " March together toward His triumph, do the 
 
 task His hands prepare : 
 Honest toil is holy service ; faithful work is 
 
 praise and prayer." xiv, 17. 
 
 125 
 
The lasting 
 ideal 
 
 tftirti 
 
 The one ideal that is pure and permanent 
 and satisfying, the one ideal that actually has 
 had power to keep itself alive and prove itself 
 victorious over the disintegrating forces of sin 
 and death, is the ideal in Jesus Christ. The 
 men and women who have built upon that 
 foundation have been the best men and women, 
 and have left behind them the most enduring 
 and glorious work, even in the very domain 
 where the human ideals have been erected as 
 supreme. iv, 250. 
 
 fourtfj 
 
 There is a breath of fragrance on the cool 
 shady air beside our little stream, that seems 
 familiar. It is the first week of September. 
 Can it be that the twin-flower of June, the 
 delicate Linntea borealis, is blooming again ? 
 Yes, here is the threadlike stem lifting its two 
 frail pink bells above the bed of shining leaves, 
 How dear an early flower seems when it 
 comes back again and unfolds its beauty in a 
 St. Martin s summer ! How delicate and 
 suggestive is the faint, magical odour ! It is 
 like a renewal of the dreams of youth. vi, 
 276. 
 
 126 
 
fiftfj 
 
 A settled, unchangeable, clearly foreseeable The vari- 
 order of things does not suit our constitution, able order 
 It tends to melancholy and a fatty heart. 
 Creatures of habit we are undoubtedly ; but 
 it is one of our most fixed habits to be fond 
 of variety. The man who is never surprised 
 does not know the taste of happiness, and 
 unless the unexpected sometimes happen to 
 us, we are most grievously disappointed. 
 
 XIII, 12. 
 
 There are multitudes of people in the world 
 to-day who are steering and sailing for Ophir, 
 simply because it is the land of gold. What 
 will they do if they reach their desired haven ? 
 They do not know. They do not even ask 
 the question. They will be rich. They will 
 sit down on their gold. 
 
 Let us look our desires squarely in the face ! 
 To win riches, to have a certain balance in 
 the bank, and a certain rating on the ex 
 change, is a real object, a definite object ; but 
 it is a frightfully small object for the devotion 
 of a human life, and a bitterly disappointing 
 reward for the loss of an immortal soul. If 
 wealth is our desired haven, we may be sure 
 that it will not satisfy us when we reach it. 
 
 VIII, 
 
 23- 
 
 What is 
 wealth 
 worth ? 
 
 127 
 
September 
 
 Vital My trust was not in princes; for the crown, 
 
 power The sceptre, and the purple robe are not 
 
 Significant of vital power. The man 
 Who saves his brother-men is he who lives 
 His life with Nature, takes deep hold on 
 
 truth, 
 And trusts in God. xxvm, 425. 
 
 Home- I read within a poet s book 
 
 sweet- A word that starred the page: 
 
 home "Stone walls do not a prison make, 
 
 Nor iron bars a cage!" 
 
 Yes, that is true, and something more: 
 You ll find, where er you roam, 
 
 That marble floors and gilded walls 
 Can never make a home. 
 
 But every house where Love abides, 
 And Friendship is a guest, 
 
 Is surely home, and home-sweet-home: 
 For there the heart can rest. 
 
 xxvm, 261. 
 
 128 
 
nmtl) 
 
 " Every man is immortal until his work is Trust and 
 done." So long as God has anything for us work 
 to do in the world He will take care of us 
 and deliver us from danger. We may lay 
 aside all anxiety and fear. We may rejoice 
 in the stream of inward peace which makes 
 glad the city of God. We may go forth to 
 our labours and our conflicts with good cour 
 age and a cheerful heart. Be sure that noth 
 ing can harm you while you are with Him. 
 I, 142. 
 
 tenti) 
 
 All through the summer that is past, the Nature s 
 sun has been shining and the rain has been generosity 
 falling on the fields without regard to the 
 moral or religious differences of their owners. 
 There is no peculiar blessing on Protestant 
 potatoes. The corn and pumpkins in the 
 stingy farmer s fields are ripening just as 
 surely and just as abundantly as those which 
 have been planted and hoed by the most gen 
 erous of men. All you have to do is to sow 
 the seed and till the soil, and Nature will do 
 the rest without asking what manner of man 
 you are. iv, 193. 
 
 129 
 
..September defcentl) 
 
 The soul of Let us never be so foolish as to think that 
 conduct it makes no difference whether we believe or 
 not. Faith is the soul of conduct ; faith is 
 the bloom, the breath, the vital power of re 
 ligion ; without it, virtue is the alabaster box, 
 empty ; faith is the precious ointment whose 
 fragrance fills the house. Therefore without 
 faith it is impossible to please God. iv, 47. 
 
 <eptcm6cr ttoelftij 
 
 Tbe sadness There is a sadness of youth into which the 
 of youth old cannot enter. It seems to them unreal 
 and causeless. But it is even more bitter and 
 burdensome than the sadness of age. There 
 is a sting of resentment in it, a fever of angry 
 surprise that the world should so soon be a 
 disappointment, and life so early take on the 
 look of a failure. It has little reason in it, 
 perhaps, but it has all the more weariness and 
 gloom, because the man who is oppressed by 
 it feels dimly that it is an unnatural and an 
 unreasonable thing, that he should be sepa 
 rated from the joy of his companions, and 
 tired of living before he has fairly begun to 
 live. xi, 4. 
 
 130 
 
tfjirteentlj 
 
 Let a man live now in the light of the Immortal- 
 knowledge that he is to live forever. How #? 
 it will deepen and strengthen the meaning 
 of his existence, lift him above petty cares 
 and ambitions, and make the things that are 
 worth while precious to his heart ! Let him 
 really set his affections on the spiritual side 
 of life, let him endure afflictions patiently 
 because he knows that they are but for a 
 moment, let him think more of the soul than 
 of the body, let him do good to his fellow- 
 men in order to make them sharers of his 
 immortal hope, let him purify his love and 
 friendship that they may be fit for the heav 
 enly life. xix, 27. 
 
 fourteenth 
 
 I remember an old woodsman in the Getting up 
 Adirondack forest who used to say that he in the 
 wanted to go to the top of a certain mountain world 
 as often as possible, because it gave him such 
 a feeling of " heaven-up-histedness." That 
 is an uncouth, humble, eloquent phrase to 
 describe the function of a great literature. 
 
 " Unless above himself he can 
 Erect himself, how mean a thing is man ! " 
 
 xxn, 170. 
 
fifteenth 
 
 The glory The glory of our life below 
 
 of life Comes not from what we do, or what we 
 
 know, 
 
 But dwells forevermore in what we are. 
 There is an architecture grander far 
 Than all the fortresses of war, 
 More inextinguishably bright 
 Than learning s lonely towers of light. 
 Framing its walls of faith and hope and love 
 In deathless souls of men, it lifts above 
 The frailty of our earthly home 
 
 An everlasting dome ; 
 The sanctuary of the human host, 
 The living temple of the Holy Ghost. ix, 84. 
 
 gfrteentfj 
 
 The The thought of the Divine excellence and 
 
 thought of beauty, how far it is exalted above us and yet 
 how sweetly it shines upon us, how it belongs 
 to the lofty and eternal sphere of heaven, but 
 also to the lowly and familiar sphere of earth, 
 how it rises like the sun, far away from us, 
 and yet sheds its light and joy upon us and 
 upon every living thing, this is the most sub 
 lime, comforting, and elevating thought that 
 can ever visit the soul. i, 51. 
 
 132 
 
getoenteentfj 
 
 The vision of God in Christ is the greatest Election fo 
 gift in the world. It binds those who receive service 
 it to the highest and most consecrated life. 
 To behold that vision is to be one of God s 
 elect. But the result of that election depends 
 upon the giving of ourselves to serve the world 
 for Jesus sake. Noblesse oblige. vu, 316. 
 
 The best 
 choice 
 
 To desire and strive to be of some service 
 to the world, to aim at doing something 
 which shall really increase the happiness and 
 welfare and virtue of mankind, this is a 
 choice which is possible for all of us ; and 
 surely it is a good haven to sail for. 
 
 The more we think of it, the more attrac 
 tive and desirable it becomes. To do some 
 work that is needed, and to do it thoroughly 
 well ; to make our toil count for something in 
 adding to the sum total of what is actually 
 profitable for humanity j to make two blades 
 of grass grow where one grew before, or, better 
 still, to make one wholesome idea take root in 
 a mind that was bare and fallow; to make 
 our example count for something on the side 
 of honesty, and cheerfulness, and courage, 
 and good faith, and love, this is an aim for 
 life which is very wide, as wide as the world, 
 and yet very definite, as clear as light. vui, 
 26. 
 
 133 
 
nineteentft 
 
 Poetry, After all, the true mission of poetry is to 
 
 joy, and increase joy. It must, indeed, be sensitive to 
 
 * ve sorrow and acquainted with grief. But it has 
 
 wings given to it in order that it may bear us 
 
 up into the ether of gladness. 
 
 There is no perfect joy without love. 
 Therefore love-poetry is the best. But the 
 highest of all love-poetry is that which cele 
 brates, with the Psalms, 
 
 " that Love which is and was 
 My Father and my Brother and my God." 
 
 XV, 26. 
 
 eptcmfier ttocntieti) 
 
 Faith and Life is self-change to meet environment. 
 
 freedom Liberty is self-exertion to unfold the soul. 
 The law of natural selection is that those who 
 use a faculty shall expand it, but those who 
 use it not shall lose it. Religion is life, and 
 it must grow under the laws of life. Faith is 
 simply the assertion of spiritual freedom ; it is 
 the first adventure of the soul. Make that 
 adventure towards God, make that adventure 
 towards Christ, and the soul will know that 
 it is alive. So it enters upon that upward 
 course which leads through the liberty of the 
 sons of God to the height of heaven, 
 
 " Where love is an unerring light 
 And joy its own security." 
 
 vii, 242. 
 
 134 
 
I do not mean to say that the possession of 
 much money is always a barrier to real wealth 
 of mind and heart. Nor would I maintain 
 that all the poor of this world are rich in faith 
 and heirs of the kingdom. But some of them 
 are. And if some of the rich of this world 
 (through the grace of Him with whom all 
 things are possible) are also modest in their 
 tastes, and gentle in their hearts, and open in 
 their minds, and ready to be pleased with un- 
 bought pleasures, they simply share in the best 
 things which are provided for all. xm, 177. 
 
 Rich and 
 poor 
 
 An honest, earnest, true heart ; a hand that Evidences 
 will not stain itself with unjust gain, or hold of Chris- 
 an unequal balance, or sign a deceitful letter, tianity. 
 or draw an unfair contract ; a tongue that will 
 not twist itself to a falsehood or take up an 
 evil report ; a soul that points as true as a 
 compass to the highest ideal of manhood or 
 womanhood, these are the marks and quali 
 ties of God s people everywhere. I, 66. 
 
 135 
 
The Bib[e 
 as litera 
 ture 
 
 As the worshipper in the Temple would ob 
 serve the art and structure of the carven beams 
 of cedar and the lily-work on the tops of the 
 pillars the more attentively because they beau 
 tified the house of his God, so the man who 
 has a religious faith in the Bible will study 
 more eagerly and carefully the literary forms 
 of the book in which the Holy Spirit speaks 
 forever. xv, 6. 
 
 Talkable, 
 not talk 
 
 ative 
 
 ttoetttj^fourtfj 
 
 A talkative person is like an English spar 
 row, a bird that cannot sing, and will sing, 
 and ought to be persuaded not to try to sing. 
 But a talkable person has the gift that belongs 
 to the wood-thrush and the veery and the 
 wren, the oriole and the white-throat and the 
 rose-breasted grosbeak, the mocking-bird and 
 the robin (sometimes) ; and the brown thrush; 
 yes, the brown thrush has it to perfection, if 
 you can catch him alone, the gift of being 
 interesting, charming, delightful, in the most 
 off-hand and various modes of utterance. 
 
 xm, 57, 
 
 136 
 
September ttoentp^fiftf) 
 
 Music, in thee we float, Immortal 
 
 And lose the lonely note music 
 
 Of self in thy celestial-ordered strain, 
 
 Until at last we find 
 
 The life to love resigned 
 In harmony of joy restored again ; 
 
 And songs that cheered our mortal days 
 Break on the coast of light in endless hymns 
 of praise. xx, 24. 
 
 Look around you in the world and see The good 
 what way it is that has brought your fellow- wa y 
 men to peace and quietness of heart, to se 
 curity and honour of life. Is it the way of 
 unbridled self-indulgence, of unscrupulous 
 greed, of aimless indolence? Or is it the 
 way of self-denial, of cheerful industry, of 
 fair dealing, of faithful service? If true 
 honour lies in the respect and grateful love of 
 one s fellow-men, if true success lies in a 
 contented heart and a peaceful conscience, 
 then the men who have reached the highest 
 goal of life are those who have followed most 
 closely the way to which Jesus Christ points 
 us and in which He goes before us. xix > 
 
 73< 
 
 137 
 
Small Size is not the measure of excellence. 
 
 packages Perfection lies in quality, not in quantity. 
 Concentration enhances pleasure, gives it a 
 point, so that it goes deeper. xm, 81. 
 
 Tastes It was not necessary that everybody should 
 
 differ t a fc e the same view of life that pleased us. 
 
 The world would not get on very well with 
 out people who preferred parlour-cars to ca 
 noes, and patent-leather shoes to India-rubber 
 boots, and ten-course dinners to picnics in the 
 woods. These good people were uncon 
 sciously toiling at the hard and necessary work 
 of life in order that we, of the chosen and 
 fortunate few, should be at liberty to enjoy 
 the best things in the world. 
 
 Why should we neglect our opportunities, 
 which were also our real duties ? The ner 
 vous disease of civilization might prevail all 
 around us, but that ought not to destroy our 
 grateful enjoyment of the lucid intervals that 
 were granted to us by a merciful Providence. 
 xm, 190. 
 
 138 
 
All around the circle of human doubt and A strojige* 
 despair, where men and women are going faith 
 out to enlighten and uplift and comfort and 
 strengthen their fellow-men under the per 
 plexities and burdens of life, we hear the cry 
 for a gospel which shall be divine, and there 
 fore sovereign and unquestionable and sure 
 and victorious. All through the noblest as 
 pirations and efforts and hopes of our age of 
 doubt, we feel the longing, and we hear the 
 demand, for a new inspiration of Christian 
 faith. vii, 39. 
 
 cjrtem6er tftirti 
 
 The day is coming when all shadows shall The com- 
 depart and light be everywhere. The day is ing day 
 coming when all rebellion shall cease and 
 peace be everywhere. The day is coming 
 when all sorrow shall vanish and joy be every 
 where. The day is coming when all discord 
 shall be silent, and angels leaning from the 
 battlements of heaven shall hear but one word 
 encircling earth with music : 
 
 "All nations shall call him BLESSED." 
 
 1, 126. 
 
 139 
 
<cto&er firgt 
 
 The sun- The shadow by my finger cast 
 
 Divides the future from the past : 
 Before it, sleeps the unborn hour 
 In darkness, and beyond thy power : 
 Behind its unreturning line, 
 The vanished hour, no longer thine : 
 One hour alone is in thy hands, 
 The NOW on which the shadow stands. 
 
 xx, 1 1 6. 
 
 geccmti 
 
 Inward Beyond the world of outward perception 
 
 vision there is another world of inward vision, and 
 
 the key to it is imagination. To see things 
 as they are that is a precious gift. To see 
 things as they were in their beginning, or as 
 they will be in their ending, or as they ought 
 to be in their perfecting ; to make the ab 
 sent, present ; to rebuild the past out of a 
 fragment of carven stone ; to foresee the 
 future harvest in the grain of wheat in the 
 sower s hand; to visualize the face of the in 
 visible, and enter into the lives of all sorts 
 and conditions of unknown men that is a 
 far more precious gift. xxu, 236. 
 
 140 
 
<cto6er tljirfc 
 
 Nothing in the world can so enlarge the The open 
 heart and set its sympathies free to go out to door 
 all men as a true knowledge of Christ and a 
 true devotion to Him. When we enter 
 through Him into the secret of what real love 
 means when we learn from Him that it is 
 not getting but giving, and that the heart finds 
 its deepest joy in bestowing happiness upon 
 others, then the door is open and we may go 
 out and find pasture. xvm, 12. 
 
 <cto6er fourtlj 
 
 There is a loftier ambition than merely to The gener- 
 stand high in the world. It is to stoop down osity of true 
 and lift mankind a little higher. There is a virtu * 
 nobler character than that which is merely 
 incorruptible. It is the character which acts 
 as an antidote and preventive of corruption. 
 Fearlessly to speak the words which bear 
 witness to righteousness and truth and purity ; 
 patiently to do the deeds which strengthen 
 virtue and kindle hope in your fellow-men ; 
 generously to lend a hand to those who are 
 trying to climb upward ; faithfully to give 
 your support and your personal help to the 
 efforts which are making to elevate and purify 
 the social life of the world that is what it 
 means to have salt in your character. xvm, 
 
 73- 
 
 141 
 
fifty 
 
 The great Many beautiful poems, and some so noble 
 elegy that they are forever illustrious, have blossomed 
 
 in the valley of the shadow of death. But 
 among them all none is more rich in signifi 
 cance, more perfect in beauty of form and 
 spirit, or more luminous with the triumph of 
 light and love over darkness and mortality, 
 than In Memoriam, the greatest of English 
 elegies. n, 131. 
 
 Tennyson From the misty shores of midnight, touched 
 in Lucem with splendours of the moon, 
 
 Transitus, To the singing tides of heaven, and the light 
 October 6, more clear than noon, 
 
 1892 Passed a soul that grew to music till it was 
 
 with God in tune. 
 
 Brother of the greatest poets, true to nature, 
 
 true to art ; 
 Lover of Immortal Love, uplifter of the hu 
 
 man heart ; 
 Who shall cheer us with high music, who 
 
 shall sing, if thou depart ? 
 
 Silence here, for love is silent, gazing on the 
 
 lessening sail ; 
 Silence here, for grief is voiceless when the 
 
 mighty poets fail; 
 Silence here, but far beyond us, many voices 
 
 crying, Hail ! ix, 35. 
 
 142 
 
<cto&er 
 
 The record of a faith sublime, i n mg . 
 
 And hope, through clouds, far-off dis- moriam" 
 cerned ; 
 
 The incense of a love that burned 
 Through pain and doubt defying Time: 
 
 A light that gleamed across the wave 
 
 Of darkness, down the rolling years, 
 
 Piercing the heavy mist of tears 
 A rainbow shining o er the grave : 
 
 The story of a soul at strife 
 
 That learned at last to kiss the rod, 
 And passed through sorrow up to God, 
 
 From living to a higher life. ix, 46. 
 
 <cto6er tigfytfy 
 
 If this age of ours, with its renaissance of 7^ a ~ e 
 art and its catholic admiration of the beautiful an d the 
 in all forms, classical and romantic ; with its poet 
 love of science and its joy in mastering the 
 secrets of Nature ; with its deep passion of 
 humanity protesting against social wrongs and 
 dreaming of social regeneration j with its intro 
 spective spirit searching the springs of charac 
 ter and action ; with its profound interest in 
 the problems of the unseen, and its reaction 
 from the theology of the head to the religion 
 of the heart, if this age of ours is a great 
 age, then Tennyson is a great poet, for he is 
 the clearest, sweetest, strongest voice of the 
 century. u, 343. 
 
 143 
 
Love a 
 working 
 
 nintft 
 
 The various kinds of energy which are de 
 veloped from heat are not more real, nor more 
 powerful, than the actual working force which 
 is developed in the world from love in the in 
 ner life of man. xn, 91. 
 
 OMofier tentf) 
 
 Faith an That is the law of the life of faith. The 
 
 adventure man who takes a principle into his heart com 
 mits himself to an uncertainty, he enters upon 
 an adventure. He must be ready for unex 
 pected calls and new responsibilities. 
 
 The Samaritan who rode down from Jeru 
 salem to Jericho had nothing to do in the 
 morning but follow that highway, and take 
 care that his beast did not stumble or hurt it 
 self, or get tired out so that it could not finish 
 the journey. He was just a solitary horseman, 
 and all that he needed to do was to have a 
 good seat in the saddle and a light hand on 
 the bit. But at noon, when he came to the 
 place where that unknown pilgrim lay sense 
 less and bleeding beside the road, then, in a 
 moment, the Samaritan s duty changed, and 
 God called him to be a rescuer, a nurse, a 
 helper of the wounded. iv, 140. 
 144 
 
eletoentfj 
 
 Sin is the separation of man from God. Home 
 
 The sense of sin is God s unbroken hold thoughts 
 upon the heart of man. a f ar 
 
 The sacrifices on myriad altars bear wit- country 
 ness to it. The prayers of penitence rising 
 from all dark corners of the earth bear witness 
 to it. The tremulous homeward turnings of 
 innumerable souls from far countries of misery 
 and loneliness bear witness to it. 
 
 " Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
 in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son ! " 
 
 But mark, he still says, Father ! xu, 48. 
 
 ttoelftf) 
 
 We do not dare to think that there is even Not one 
 one forgotten, despised, disowned. God will forgotten 
 not let us think so. With clear, sweet, but 
 silent voice, He is assuring every child of 
 man that the heavens above his head are not 
 empty, but filled with the presence of a Di 
 vine Father, and that the earth beneath his 
 feet is not a strange and desert place, but the 
 soil of his own home, in which paternal 
 bounty will make provision for his wants. 
 Every ray of sunlight that falls from heaven, 
 every drop of rain that waters the fruitful 
 ground, is saying to the heart of man, " My 
 child, this a Father s impartial kindness sends 
 to thee." iv, 200. 
 
 145 
 
t&irteenrt) 
 
 Personal This is the true meaning of personal re- 
 
 religion ligion : not merely that the faith and love and 
 hope of the believer proceed from a personal 
 source within himself and are independent of 
 all outward circumstances, but that they cen 
 tre in a Personal Being, who has made us 
 for Himself and bestows Himself upon us. 
 And this truth finds its most perfect disclosure 
 in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. I, 105. 
 
 October faurtccntf) 
 
 Daily For the spiritual as truly as for the tempo* 
 
 orders ral life the rule is, " Nothing venture, nothing 
 
 win." And is it not infinitely nobler and 
 more inspiring to enter upon a career like that, 
 a career which is to run so close to God 
 that He can speak into it and fill it with new 
 meanings, new possibilities, new tasks, at 
 any moment, is not that infinitely finer and 
 more glorious than to make a contract to do 
 a certain thing for a certain price, as if God 
 were a manufacturer and we were his mill- 
 hands ? It seems to me that this is the very 
 proof and bond of friendship with Him, this 
 calling of faith to an unlimited and undefined 
 obedience. iv, 142. 
 
 146 
 
fifteenth 
 
 We men that go down for a livin in ships A sailor s 
 
 to the sea, love 
 
 We love it a different way from you poets 
 
 that bide on the land. 
 We are fond of it, sure ! But, you take it 
 
 as comin from me, 
 There s a fear and a hate in our love that 
 
 a landsman can t understand. 
 
 xxxi, 32. 
 
 October sixteenth 
 
 Once, when I was hunting in the Bad American 
 Lands of North Dakota, and had lost my humour 
 way, I met a solitary horseman in the 
 desert and said to him, "I want to go to 
 the Cannon-ball River." "Well, stranger," 
 he answered, looking at me with a solemn 
 air of friendly interest, "I guess ye can go 
 if ye want to; there ain t no string on ye." 
 But when I laughed and said what I really 
 wanted was that he should show me the 
 way, he replied, "Why didn t ye say so?" 
 and rode with me until we struck the trail 
 to camp. xxvu, 270. 
 
 147 
 
<cto&er getoenteentfj 
 
 Trying to The effort after holiness always intensifies 
 
 be good the consciousness of sin. The purest souls 
 are those who cling most closely to God as 
 their Redeemer and Helper. The doctrine of 
 the forgiveness of sins and good hope through 
 grace is most precious to those who are 
 climbing upward, with painful steps, to seek 
 the face of God. I, 66. 
 
 eigljtcenrt) 
 
 Take your The wild desire to be forever racing against 
 time old Father Time is one of the kill-joys of 
 
 modern life. That ancient traveller is sure to 
 beat you in the long run, and as long as you 
 are trying to rival him, he will make your life 
 a burden. But if you will only acknowledge 
 his superiority and profess that you do not 
 approve of racing after all, he will settle down 
 quietly beside you and jog along like the most 
 companionable of creatures. It is a pleasant 
 pilgrimage in which the journey itself is part 
 of the destination. vi, 125. 
 
 148 
 
Not otherwise does God deal with us. He Daily 
 does not show us exactly what it will cost to sacrifice 
 obey Him. He asks us only to give what He 
 calls for from day to day. Here is one sacrifice 
 right in front of us that we must make now 
 in order to serve God, some evil habit to be 
 given up, some lust of the flesh to be crucified 
 and slain ; and that is our trial for to-day. 
 iv, 136. 
 
 <ttoBet ttoentictf) 
 
 The perfect manhood of Him whom all The borne 
 Christendom adores as the Son of God was 
 matured and moulded in the tender shelter of 
 the home. It was there that He felt the in 
 fluences of truth and grace. To that source 
 we may trace some of the noblest qualities of 
 His human character. And yet, if there is 
 anything which Christendom appears to be in 
 danger of losing, it is the possibility of such a 
 home as that in which Jesus grew to the meas 
 ure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 Is it not true ? 
 
 " The world is too much with us, late and soon, 
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. * 
 
 Ill, 232. 
 149 
 
The Be Thou our strength when war s wild gust 
 
 fortress Rages around us, loud and fierce ; 
 
 Confirm our souls and let our trust 
 Be like a wall that none can pierce; 
 
 Give us the courage that prevails, 
 
 The steady faith that never fails, 
 
 Help us to stand in every fight 
 
 Firm as a fortress to defend the right. ix, 86. 
 
 October ttocntp^econti 
 
 Conflicts With the materialism, the sensuality, the 
 
 and pride of our age, Christianity stands in con- 
 
 alliances flict. With the altruism, the humanity, the 
 sympathy of our age, Christianity must stand 
 in loving and wise alliance. A simpler creed 
 and a nobler life will prepare the way for a 
 renaissance of religion greater and more potent 
 than the world has known for centuries. It 
 seems as if we stood on the brightening bor 
 der of the new day. The watchword of its 
 coming is the personal gospel of Jesus Christ, 
 in whom we find the ideal man and the real 
 God. VH, xi. 
 
 150 
 
October 
 
 When you have good luck in anything, you Gladness 
 ought to be glad. Indeed, if you are not glad, good luck 
 you are not really lucky. xiu, 27. 
 
 You have half forgotten many a famous Little 
 scene that you travelled far to look upon. Memories 
 You cannot clearly recall the sublime peak of 
 Mont Blanc, the roaring curve of Niagara, 
 the vast dome of St. Peter s. The music of 
 Patti s crystalline voice has left no distinct 
 echo in your remembrance, and the blossom 
 ing of the century-plant is dimmer than the 
 shadow of a dream. But there is a nameless 
 valley among the hills where you can still trace 
 every curve of the stream, and see the foam- 
 bells floating on the pool below the bridge, 
 and the long moss wavering in the current. 
 There is a rustic song of a girl passing through 
 the fields at sunset, that still repeats its far-off 
 cadence in your listening ears. There is a 
 small flower trembling on its stem in some 
 hidden nook beneath the open sky, that never 
 withers through all the changing years; the 
 wind passeth over it, but it is not gone it 
 abides forever in your soul, an amaranthine 
 word of beauty and truth. vi, 105. 
 
Life and " What means the voice of Life ? " She an- 
 
 lov e swered, " Love ! 
 
 For love is life, and they who do not love 
 Are not alive. But every soul that loves, 
 Lives in the heart of God and hears Him 
 speak." xiv, 53. 
 
 The name John turned to Hermas, and his tone soft- 
 of peace e ned as he said : " My son, you have sinned 
 deeper than you know. The word with which 
 you parted so lightly is the keyword of all life 
 and joy and peace. Without it the world has 
 no meaning, and existence no rest, and death 
 no refuge. It is the word that purifies love, 
 and comforts grief, and keeps hope alive for 
 ever. It is the most precious thing that ever 
 ear has heard, or mind has known, or heart 
 has conceived. It is the name of Him who 
 has given us life and breath and all things 
 richly to enjoy ; the name of Him who, though 
 we may forget Him, never forgets us ; the 
 name of Him who pities us as you pity your 
 suffering child ; the name of Him who, though 
 we wander far from Him, seeks us in the wil 
 derness, and sent His Son, even as His Son 
 has sent me this night, to breathe again that 
 forgotten name in the heart that is perishing 
 without it. Listen, my son, listen with all 
 your soul to the blessed name of God our 
 Father." xi, 69. 
 
 152 
 
That Christ s mission was one of joy and 
 peace needs no proof. The New Testament 
 is a book that throbs and glows with inex 
 pressible gladness. It is the one bright spot 
 in the literature of the first century. The 
 Christians were the happiest people in the 
 world. Poor, they were rich ; persecuted, 
 they were exultant ; martyred, they were vic 
 torious. The secret of Jesus, as they knew 
 it, was a blessed secret. It filled them with 
 the joy of living. Their watchword was, 
 " Rejoice and be exceeding glad." xn, 101. 
 
 Christiani 
 ty means 
 
 Remember that in this world every moun 
 tain-top of privilege is girdled by the vales of 
 lowly duty. 
 
 Remember that the transfiguration of the 
 soul is but the preparation and encouragement 
 for the sacrifice of the life. 
 
 Remember that we are not to tarry in the 
 transitory radiance of Mount Hermon, but 
 to press on to the enduring glory of Mount 
 Zion, and that we can only arrive at that 
 final and blessed resting-place by the way of 
 Mount Calvary. iv, 189. 
 
 153 
 
 The moun 
 tain and 
 the valley 
 
ttoctttp^nintfj 
 
 Finding a A theory of friendship is a good thing for 
 friend you to have. It is precious. It elevates and 
 
 cheers your mind. But presently, as you go 
 on your way through the world, you find a 
 friend : one who comes close to you in that 
 mysterious contact of personalities which is 
 the most wonderful thing in the world ; one 
 who knows you, cares for you, loves you, 
 gives you the sacred gifts of fellowship and 
 help. Trouble befalls you. Your friend 
 stands by you, strengthens you, counsels you, 
 helps you to fight your way out of that which 
 is conquerable and to endure patiently that 
 which is inevitable. xviu, 126. 
 
 tfjirtietl) 
 
 Friendship And now your theories of friendship are 
 realized in translated into your thoughts of your friend. 
 a person They are clarified, corrected it may be, puri 
 fied and intensified if your experience is a 
 deep and true one ; at all events, they are 
 transformed into something very different 
 from what they were before. Once you 
 reasoned about them ; now you feel them. 
 Once they belonged to your philosophy ; now 
 they belong to your life. Once you believed 
 in friendship ; now you trust your friend. 
 xvm, 126. 
 
 154 
 
Are you richer to day than you were yes- " En voy- 
 terday ? No ? Then you are a little poorer, age " 
 Are you better to-day than you were yester 
 day ? No ? Then you are a little worse. 
 Are you nearer to your port to-day than you 
 were yesterday ? Yes, you must be a little 
 nearer to some port or other ; for since your 
 ship was first launched upon the sea of life, 
 you have never been still for a single mo 
 ment ; the sea is too deep, you could not find 
 an anchorage if you would ; there can be no 
 pause until you come into port. vni, 1 1. 
 
 firgt 
 
 The things that are revealed belong unto Not wide, 
 us and to our children forever, is not that but deep 
 what our hearts desire and crave ? A religion 
 which shall really belong to us, be a part of 
 us, enter into us, abide with us, and not with 
 us only, but with our children, forever. Not 
 many doctrines, but solid. It need not be 
 very wide, but it must be very deep. It must 
 go down to the bottom of our hearts and 
 dwell there as a living certainty. iv, 231. 
 
 155 
 
geconfc 
 
 A biovem- Once the daisies gold and white 
 
 her daisy Sea-like through the meadows rolled : 
 
 Once my heart could hardly hold 
 All its pleasures, I remember, 
 In the flood of youth s delight 
 Separate joys were lost to sight. 
 That was summer ! Now November 
 Sets the perfect flower apart ; 
 Gives each blossom of the heart 
 Meaning, beauty, grace unknown, 
 Blooming late and all alone. 
 
 xiv, 76, 
 
 tfjitfc 
 
 Gratitude The inspiration of the service that we 
 in religion render in this world to our homes, our coun 
 try, our fellow-men, springs from the recog 
 nition that a price has been paid for us ; the 
 vital power of noble conduct rises from the 
 deep fountain of gratitude, which flows not 
 with water, but with warm heart s-blood. 
 How then, shall a like power come into our 
 religion, how shall it be as real, as living, as 
 intimate, as our dearest human tie, unless we 
 knew and feel that God has paid a price for 
 us, that He has bought us with His own 
 precious life ? iv, 116. 
 
 156 
 
fourti) 
 
 The Psalms are rightly called lyrics because 
 they are chiefly concerned with the immediate 
 and imaginative expression of real feeling. It 
 is the personal and emotional note that pre 
 dominates. They are inward, confessional, 
 intense ; outpourings of the quickened spirit ; 
 self-revelations of the heart. It is for this 
 reason that we should never separate them in 
 our thought from the actual human life out 
 of which they sprang. We must feel the 
 warm pulse of humanity in them in order to 
 comprehend their meaning and eternal worth. 
 So far as we can connect them with the actual 
 experience of men, this will help us to appre 
 ciate their reality and power. xv, 15. 
 
 Poetry, the 
 flower of 
 real life 
 
 fifty 
 
 " Public office is a public trust." The dis- The service 
 charge of duty to one s fellow-men, the work of man, the 
 of resisting violence and maintaining order ^^rsbip of 
 and righting the wrongs of the oppressed, is 
 higher and holier than the following of visions. 
 The service of man is the best worship of 
 God. n, 178. 
 
 157 
 
Gifts of 
 nature 
 
 The results of education and social disci 
 pline in humanity are fine. It is a good thing 
 that we can count upon them. But at the 
 same time let us rejoice in the play of native 
 traits and individual vagaries. Cultivated 
 manners are admirable, yet there is a sudden 
 touch of inborn grace and courtesy that goes 
 beyond them all. No array of accomplish 
 ments can rival the charm of an unsuspected 
 gift of nature, brought suddenly to light. I 
 once heard a peasant girl singing down the 
 Traunthal, and the echo of her song outlives, 
 in the hearing of my heart, all memories of 
 the grand opera. xiu, 88. 
 
 Wishes As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, 
 
 mould our and so is his world. For those whose thoughts 
 world are earthly and sensual, this is a beast s world. 
 
 For those whose thoughts are high and noble 
 and heroic, it is a hero s world. The strength 
 of wishes transforms the very stuff of our exist 
 ence, and moulds it to the form of our heart s 
 inmost desire and hope. vm, 35. 
 
 158 
 
The Christ of the Gospels is bone of our The human 
 bone, flesh of our flesh, mind of our mind, life of God 
 heart of our heart. He is in subjection to 
 His parents as a child. He grows to man 
 hood. His character is unfolded and per 
 fected by discipline. He labours for daily 
 bread, and prays for Divine grace. He hun 
 gers, and thirsts, and sleeps, and rejoices, and 
 weeps. He is anointed with the Spirit for 
 His ministry. He is tempted. He is lonely 
 and disappointed. He asks for information. 
 He confesses ignorance. He interprets the 
 facts of nature and life with a prophetic in 
 sight. vii, 144. 
 
 nintf) 
 
 Anything that a telescope could discover The divine 
 among the stars, anything that logic could mystery 
 define and explain and fit into an exact philo 
 sophical system, would not be God. For it 
 belongs to His very essence that He transcends 
 our thought, and that His judgments are un 
 searchable and His ways past finding out. We 
 do not know anything about God unless we 
 know that we cannot know Him perfectly.- 
 iv, 216. 
 
 159 
 
tentfj 
 
 The joy of Jesus does not differ from other masters in 
 living that He teaches us to scorn earthly felicity. 
 
 The divine difference is that He teaches us 
 how to attain earthly felicity, under all cir 
 cumstances, in prosperity and in adversity, 
 in sickness and in health, in solitude and in 
 society, by taking His yoke upon us, and 
 doing the will of God, and so finding rest 
 unto our souls. That is the debt which every 
 child of God owes not only to God, but also 
 to his own soul, to find the real joy of living. 
 vn, 293. 
 
 Love leads The truth is that love, considered merely 
 on as the preference of one person for another of 
 
 the opposite sex, is not " the greatest thing in 
 the world." It becomes great only when it 
 leads on, as it often does, to heroism and self- 
 sacrifice and fidelity. Its chief value for art 
 (the interpreter) lies not in itself, but in its 
 quickening relation to the other elements of 
 life. It must be seen and shown in its due 
 proportion, and in harmony with the broader 
 landscape. xiu, 102. 
 
 160 
 
ttodftf) 
 
 Nay, I wrong you, little flower, Sf. Mar- 
 
 Reading mournful mood of mine # * little 
 
 In your looks, that give no sign summer 
 
 Of a spirit dark and cheerless : 
 
 You possess the heavenly power 
 
 That rejoices in the hour, 
 
 Glad, contented, free, and fearless, 
 
 Lifts a sunny face to heaven 
 
 When a sunny day is given ; 
 
 Makes a summer of its own, 
 
 Blooming late and all alone. xiv, 75. 
 
 tfjirteentlj 
 
 Men have assured us, in these latter days, Art and 
 that faith and art have parted company ; that foito 
 faith is dead, and art must live for itself alone. 
 But while they were saying these things in 
 melancholy essays and trivial verses, which 
 denied a spiritual immortality and had small 
 prospect of a literary one, the two highest 
 artists of the century, Tennyson and Brown 
 ing, were setting their music to the key-note 
 of an endless life, and prophesying with the 
 harp, according as it is written : / believe, and 
 therefore sing. II, 301. 
 
 161 
 
fourteenth 
 
 In quiet- This fair tree that shadows us from the 
 
 ness ana sun hath grown many years in its place with- 
 confdence out more unhappiness than the loss of its 
 leaves in winter, which the succeeding season 
 doth generously repair ; and shall we be less 
 contented in the place where God hath 
 planted us ? or shall there go less time to the 
 making of a man than to the growth of a 
 tree ? This stream floweth wimpling and 
 laughing down to the great sea which it 
 knoweth not ; yet it doth not fret because the 
 future is hidden ; and doubtless it were wise 
 in us to accept the mysteries of life as cheer 
 fully and go forward with a merry heart, 
 considering that we know enough to make us 
 happy and keep us honest for to-day. A 
 man should be well content if he can see so 
 far ahead of him as the next bend in the 
 stream. What lies beyond, let him trust in 
 the hand of God. xvi, 129. 
 
 IjJotoemfier fifteenth 
 
 One mark It is one mark of a good friend that he 
 
 of a good makes you wish to be at your best while you 
 
 friend are with him. The blessed persons who 
 
 have this influence are made in the likeness 
 
 of that heavenly Friend whose presence is at 
 
 once a stimulus and a help to purity of heart 
 
 and nobleness of demeanor. xvin, 141. 
 
 162 
 
To my mind the most beautiful of all the 
 references to the New Testament is the pas 
 sage in In Memoriam which describes the re 
 union of Mary and Lazarus after his return 
 from the grave. With what a human interest 
 does the poet clothe the familiar story ! How 
 reverently and yet with what natural and sim 
 ple pathos does he touch upon the more inti 
 mate relations of the three persons who are 
 the chief actors ! The question which has 
 come a thousand times to every one that has 
 lost a dear friend, the question whether love 
 survives in the other world, whether those who 
 have gone before miss those who are left be 
 hind and have any knowledge of their grief, 
 this is the suggestion which brings the story 
 home to us and makes it seem real and living. 
 II, 258. 
 
 The true lover of the Bible has an interest 
 in all the elements of its life as an immortal 
 book. He wishes to discern, and rightly to 
 appreciate, the method of its history, the spirit 
 of its philosophy, the significance of its fiction, 
 the power of its eloquence, and the charm of 
 its poetry. He wishes this all the more because 
 he finds in it something which is not in any 
 other book : a vision of God, a hope for man, 
 and an inspiration to righteousness which are 
 evidently divine. xv, 6. 
 
 163 
 
 "How 
 fares it 
 with the 
 happy 
 dead?" 
 
 The Bible 
 
 many-sided 
 
eig&teentl) 
 
 When men When a Christian means one whose word 
 live as they is his bond, who can be trusted with untold 
 P ra y treasure without fear of his stealing, whose 
 
 praise is an honour and whose friendship is a 
 jewel of priceless value ; one who does his 
 duty towards his fellow-men as a service to his 
 God ; one whom you can more certainly trust 
 to paint your house, or make your clothes, or 
 draw your will, or take care of the health of 
 your family, because he is a Christian ; one 
 whose outward integrity is the proof of in 
 ward purity, then the church will have great 
 praise and large triumph. I, 66. 
 
 $otoem&er nineteenth 
 
 Solomon s If God says to us, in the bright promise of 
 
 choice youth, u Ask what I shall give thee," let us 
 
 make the best choice, and answer, " Give me 
 grace to know thy Son, the Christ, and to 
 grow like Him ; for that is the true wisdom 
 which leads to eternal life, and that is the true 
 royalty which brings dominion over self, and 
 that is the true happiness which flows un 
 sought from fellowship with the Divine Life." 
 iv, 165. 
 
 164 
 
ttoentietfj 
 
 Christ is the Light of all Scripture. Christ The source 
 is the Master of holy reason. Christ is the of author- 
 sole Lord and Life of the true Church. By ty 
 His word we test all doctrines, conclusions, 
 and commands. On His word we build all 
 faith. This is the source of authority in the 
 kingdom of heaven. Let us neither forget 
 nor hesitate to appeal to it always with un- 
 trembling certainty and positive conviction. 
 vii, 199. 
 
 ttocntp^ftrgt 
 
 To be sure of God, most wise, most Concen- 
 mighty, most holy, most loving, our Father trafe your 
 in heaven and on earth ; to be sure of Christ, 
 divine and human, our Brother and our 
 Master, the pattern of excellence and the 
 Redeemer from sin, the Saviour of all who 
 trust in Him ; to be sure of the Holy Spirit, 
 the Comforter, the Guide, the Purifier, given 
 to all who ask for Him ; to be sure of im 
 mortality, an endless life in which nothing 
 can separate us from the love of God, let us 
 concentrate our faith upon these things. iv, 
 231. 
 
 165 
 
The 
 hearthstone 
 
 Jlotoem&er ttocntp^econti 
 
 When the logs are burning free, 
 Then the fire is full of glee : 
 When each heart gives out its best. 
 Then the talk is full of zest : 
 Light your fire and never fear, 
 Life was made for love and cheer. 
 
 xx, 113 
 
 A giver The strongest impulse in his nature was 
 
 of joy to be a giver of entertainment, a source of joy 
 
 in others, a recognized element of delight in 
 the little world where he moved. He had the 
 artistic temperament in its most primitive and 
 nai ve form. Nothing pleased him so much 
 as the act of pleasing. Music was the 
 means which Nature had given him to fulfil 
 this desire. He played, as you might say, 
 out of a certain kind of selfishness, because 
 he enjoyed making other people happy. He 
 was selfish enough, in his way, to want the 
 pleasure of making everybody feel the same 
 delight that he felt in the clear tones, the 
 merry cadences, the tender and caressing flow 
 of his violin. xvi, 33. 
 
 166 
 
j^obember ttoent|>=fourtf) 
 
 This was all that we saw of the wedding Wedding 
 at Kafr Kenna just a vivid, mysterious at Cana 
 flash of human figures, drawn together by 
 the primal impulse and longing of our 
 common nature, garbed and ordered by 
 the social customs which make different 
 lands and ages seem strange to each other, 
 and moving across the narrow stage of 
 Time into the dimness of that Arab village, 
 where Jesus and His mother and His dis 
 ciples were guests at a wedding long ago. 
 
 xxvi, 238. 
 
 JJotoember ttoentHtftfj 
 
 Whatever gifts and mercies to my lot may Gratitude 
 fall, 
 
 I would not measure 
 As worth a certain price in praise, or great 
 
 or small; 
 
 But take and use them all with simple 
 pleasure. 
 
 For when we gladly eat our daily bread, 
 we bless 
 
 The Hand that feeds us; 
 And when we tread the road of Life in 
 
 cheerfulness, 
 
 Our very heart-beats praise the Love 
 that leads us. 
 
 xxvin, 315. 
 167 
 
The tun Behind every manifestation of spiritual life 
 
 behind the there is the Spirit. Behind Christianity there 
 sunlight is Christ. Behind Christ there is God. For 
 He is the brightness of the Father s glory, 
 and the express image of his person ; and the 
 power that works in Him, the power that has 
 raised Him from the dead and set Him at 
 God s right hand in heavenly places, is the 
 power that is saving every one that believeth, 
 and reconciling the world to God. When 
 we know that, despair ceases to exist, and joy 
 fills the heart with music. iv, 94. 
 
 Unseen There are many noble principles and beau- 
 
 foundations tiful characters unconsciously built upon a 
 Christian foundation, laid by a mother s 
 prayers, a father s example, though the build 
 er may not know or acknowledge it. Yes, 
 there are even larger edifices, societies, na 
 tions, it may be, which are unconsciously 
 based upon the moral ideal which is in Christ, 
 and which silently acknowledge Christianity 
 as the law of laws, even though God be not 
 named in their constitution. They are like 
 the villages in Egypt which were unwittingly 
 erected upon the massive foundations of some 
 ancient temple. iv, 247. 
 
 168 
 
But how close together are the fountains of The sadness 
 grief and gladness ! How often the flood of of festival* 
 tears mingles with the stream of rejoicing ! 
 The festival which is all brightness to the 
 young, brings to the old, memories of loss and 
 sadness. Christmas and Thanksgiving Day, 
 with all their merriment and laughter, awaken 
 echoes in the house, in the heart, which whis 
 per " Nevermore ; " and the joy of the pres 
 ent seems to fade and grow dull compared 
 with the joy that has departed. The past wins 
 
 " A glory from its being far, 
 
 And orbs into the perfect star 
 We saw not when we moved therein." 
 
 I, 207, 
 
 ttoctttp^mntfj 
 
 There are many kinds of love, as many kinds Loving up- 
 of light, 
 
 And every kind of love makes a glory in the 
 night. 
 
 There is love that stirs the heart, and love that 
 gives it rest, 
 
 But the love that leads life upward is the no 
 blest and the best. ix, 52. 
 
 169 
 
tljirtiett) 
 
 Two paths There are two paths in love and friendship, 
 One leads downward, with pride and folly, 
 selfishness and lust as guides, toward the 
 earthly, the sensual, and at last the devilish. 
 The other leads upward, with purity and 
 honour, generosity and self-sacrifice as guides, 
 toward the celestial, the ideal, the God-like. 
 Love is a fire ; sometimes it kindles a harbor 
 light to guide the heart to peace; sometimes 
 it kindles a false beacon to lure the heart 
 to wreck. There is a friendship which 
 saves, and there is a friendship which ruins. 
 xvm, 32. 
 
 ^December firgt 
 
 The only I believe in a church which goes out, 
 
 real heaven through Christ and with Christ, to seek and 
 begins on to save the lost. I believe in a Christianity 
 earth which is a giving, forgiving, sympathizing, 
 
 sacrificing, self-forgetting, and happy life of 
 ministry to the souls of others. And I be 
 lieve that the perfection and everlasting con 
 tinuance of that life is the joy of heaven. 
 
 " Rejoice, we are allied 
 To that which doth provide 
 And not partake, effect and not receive j 
 A spark disturbs our clod 
 Nearer we held of God 
 Who gives, than of his tribes that take, I must believe. * 
 
 xvin, 14. 
 
 170 
 
And now that his story is told, what does The mean- 
 
 it mean ? 
 
 How can I tell ? What does life mean ? 
 If the meaning could be put into a sentence 
 there would be no need of telling the story. 
 
 -V, Xll. 
 
 ing and the 
 story 
 
 SDccem&cr 
 
 You tell me that it matters not whether the 
 hand that guides the plough be pure and clean, 
 or wicked and defiled. Nature feels alike and 
 will do alike for both. I say, Not if God is be 
 hind Nature, not if Nature is the expression of 
 his will. He may do alike, but He does not feel 
 alike. As well say that He who made light 
 and darkness cannot distinguish between 
 them, as that He whose will is the moral law 
 ever forgets it, ignores it, casts it aside, in any 
 sphere or mode of his action. Evermore He 
 loves the good, the true, the noble. Ever 
 more He hates the base, the false, the evil. 
 Evermore iniquity is an abomination unto 
 Him, and righteousness is his delight. iv, 1970 
 
 171 
 
 Nature is 
 impartial^ 
 but God 
 
 cares 
 
SDecem&er fourtfj 
 
 Visions for We are on a path which leads upward, by 
 guidance sure and steady steps, when we begin to look 
 at our future selves with eyes of noble hope 
 and clear purpose, and see our figures climb 
 ing, with patient, dauntless effort, towards the 
 heights of true manhood and womanhood. 
 Visions like these are Joseph s dreams. They 
 are stars for guidance. They are sheaves of 
 promise. The very memory of them, if we 
 cherish it, is a power of pure restraint and 
 generous inspiration. vm, 30. 
 
 SDecem&er fiftfj 
 
 The spirit The moment we see God behind the face 
 behind the of Nature, the .moment we believe that this 
 face vast and marvellous procession of seasons 
 
 and causes and changes, this array of inter- 
 working forces, is directed and controlled by 
 a Supreme, Omniscient, Holy Spirit, whose 
 will is manifest in the springing of the seed, 
 the ripening of the fruit, the fading of the 
 leaf, the shining of the sun, and the falling of 
 the rain, this indifference becomes incom 
 prehensible and impossible. It cannot be that 
 God is indifferent. It cannot be that He 
 cares not whether the dwellers upon his earth 
 are wicked or righteous, foul or pure, selfish 
 or generous. iv, 196. 
 172 
 
To see Christ as the true Son of God and Sure of 
 
 the brother of all men, is to be sure that the three 
 
 soul is free, and that God is good, and that things 
 the end of life is noble service. vn, xvi. 
 
 SDcccmfier gebentfj 
 
 Here are two women going down to work A differ- 
 among the sick and the poor. One goes ence in good 
 because there is a fashion of it, because she deeds 
 would fain have the credit which belongs to 
 the lady bountiful. She moves among them 
 like an iceberg, and they hate her. She brings 
 a chill with her which all her coals and blank 
 ets can never warm away. The other goes 
 because she believes in it, believes that God 
 wants her to do it, believes that the sorrow 
 ful and the distressed are Christ s brethren, 
 and that she is bound to them, and that they 
 have immortal souls which she may win for 
 Him. She moves among them like a sister 
 of Jesus and a friend of God ; and of her the 
 Master says, " Inasmuch as she hath done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 she hath done it unto me." iv, 46. 
 
 i73 
 
SDeccmficr eigfjtlj 
 
 Into wiser For what is it that faith does with these 
 bands lives of ours ? It just takes them up out of 
 
 our weak, trembling, uncertain control and 
 puts them into the hands of God. It makes 
 them a part of his great plan. It binds them 
 fast to his pure and loving will, and fills them 
 with his life. iv, 131. 
 
 DecemBet ninrt) 
 
 A word of Hear the Master s risen word ! 
 Jesus Delving spades have set it free, 
 
 Wake ! the world has need of thee, 
 Rise, and let thy voice be heard, 
 Like a fountain disinterred, 
 
 Upward springing, singing, sparkling ; 
 Through the doubtful shadows darkling j 
 Till the clouds of pain and rage 
 Brooding o er the toiling age, 
 As with rifts of light are stirred 
 By the music of the Word ; 
 Gospel for the heavy-laden, answer to the 
 
 labourer s cry ; 
 
 u Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me . 
 cleave the wood, and there am I." 
 
 xiv, 5, 
 
 174 
 
SDecem&er tentf) 
 
 Is there anything that pleases you more than The joy of 
 to be trusted, to have even a little child look being 
 up into your face, and put out its hand to trusted 
 meet yours, and come to you confidingly ? 
 By so much as God is better than you are, by 
 so much more does He love to be trusted. 
 . . . There is a hand stretched out to 
 you, a hand with a wound in the palm of it. 
 Reach out the hand of your faith to clasp it, 
 and cling to it, for without faith it is impossi 
 ble to please God. iv, 48. 
 
 SDecemfier 
 
 The humanity of Jesus was not the veil- The bu- 
 ing but the unveiling of the divine glory, manity of 
 The limitations, temptations, and sufferings Jesus 
 of manhood were the conditions under which 
 alone Christ could accomplish the greatest 
 work of the Deity, the redemption of a sin 
 ful race. The seat of the divine revelation 
 and the centre of the divine atonement was 
 and is the human life of God. vn, 149. 
 
 175 
 
2Decem6er ttoelftl) 
 
 Life Let me but live my life from year to year, 
 
 With forward face and unreluctant soul ; 
 Not hurrying to, nor turning from, the goal ; 
 Not mourning for the things that disappear 
 In the dim past, nor holding back in fear 
 From what the future veils ; but with a 
 
 whole 
 
 And happy heart, that pays its toll 
 To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer. 
 
 So let the way wind up the hill or down, 
 O er rough or smooth, the journey will be 
 
 joy: 
 
 Still seeking what I sought when but a boy, 
 New friendship, high adventure, and a crown, 
 My heart will keep the courage of the quest, 
 And hope the road s last turn will be the best. 
 
 xx, 50. 
 
 SDecemficr tfjirteentij 
 
 Be yourself Individualism is a fatal poison. But indi 
 viduality is the salt of common life. You 
 may have to live in a crowd, but you do not 
 have to live like it, nor subsist on its food. 
 You may have your own orchard. You may 
 drink at a hidden spring. Be yourself if you 
 would serve others. xxi, 33. 
 
 176 
 
Decem&er fourteenth 
 
 The sense of sin, is not by any means a Pain, a 
 hopeless thing. It is an evidence of life, in proof of lift 
 its very pain ; of enlightenment, in its very 
 shame ; of nearness to God, in its very hu 
 miliation before Him. xu, 34. 
 
 JDecemfier fifteenth 
 
 We must ask if we would receive, we must The in- 
 seek if we would find. We must knock if stinct of 
 we desire to have the door of heaven opened prayer 
 to us. 
 
 Prayer is something that no man can un 
 derstand ; there is a mystery about it. We 
 cannot explain how the voice of a mortal 
 creature should have any influence upon the 
 immortal God ; how there should be any con 
 nection between the supplications which are 
 wrung from our hearts by the pressure of want 
 and danger and the fulfilment of those vast 
 designs which have been formed from all 
 eternity. But however that may be, prayer 
 is an instinct of the human heart, and the re 
 ligion which did not provide for it would be 
 no religion at all. I, 198. 
 
 177 
 
J^ecemfcer srtxteentfj 
 
 We often fancy, in this world, that beau 
 tiful and pleasant things would satisfy us 
 better if they could be continued, without 
 change, forever. We regret the ending of 
 a good day off. We are sorry to be com 
 ing out of the woods instead of going in. 
 And that regret is perfectly natural and 
 all right. It is part of the condition on 
 which we receive our happiness. The mis 
 take lies in wishing to escape from it by a 
 petrification of our joys. The stone forest 
 in Arizona will never decay, but it is no 
 place for a man to set up his tents forever. 
 
 xxv, 317. 
 
 J^ecemfcer gebenteentf) 
 
 A new It was in the quest of this Jesus, in the 
 
 vision hope of somehow drawing nearer to Him, 
 
 that we made our pilgrimage to the Holy 
 Land. And now, in the cool of the eve 
 ning at Caesarea Philippi, we ask ourselves 
 whether our desire has been granted, our 
 hope fulfilled ? 
 
 Yes, more richly, more wonderfully than 
 we dared to dream. For we have found a 
 new vision of Christ, simpler, clearer, more 
 satisfying, in the freedom and reality of 
 God s out-of-doors. xxvi, 285. 
 
 178 
 
SDecemfcer eigfjteentl) 
 
 Are you willing to stoop down and con- Christmas 
 sider the needs and the desires of little chil- coming 
 dren ; to remember the weakness and loneli 
 ness of. people who are growing old; to stop 
 asking how much your friends love you, and 
 ask yourself whether you love them enough ; 
 to bear in mind the things that other people 
 have to bear on their hearts ; to try to under 
 stand what those who live in the ^ame house 
 with you really want, without waiting for 
 them to tell you ; to trim your lamp so that 
 it will give more light and less smoke, and to 
 carry it in front so that your shadow will fall 
 behind you ; to make a grave for your ugly 
 thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feel 
 ings, with the gate open are you willing to 
 do these things even for a day ? Then you 
 can keep Christmas. xxiu, 47. 
 
 2Decem6er nineteenth 
 
 In the outer circles, cheerful greetings, Cbristmas- 
 courtesy, consideration ; in the inner circles, living is 
 sympathetic interest, hearty congratulations, Christmas* 
 honest encouragement ; in the inmost circle, 
 comradeship, helpfulness, tenderness, 
 
 " Beautiful friendship tried by sun and wind 
 Durable from the daily dust of life." 
 
 After all, Christmas-living is the best kind 
 of Christmas-giving. xxiu, 40. 
 
 179 
 
SDecembcr ttoentietfj 
 
 One side of u Look you, my friends," said Winfried, 
 religion " how sweet and peaceful is this convent to 
 night, on the eve of .the nativity of the Prince 
 of Peace ! It is a garden full of flowers in 
 the heart of winter ; a nest among the branches 
 of a great tree shaken by the winds ; a still 
 haven on the edge of a tempestuous sea. And 
 this is what religion means for those who are 
 chosen and called to quietude and prayer and 
 meditation." x, 16. 
 
 Tbe other " But out yonder in the wide forest, who 
 side of re- knows what storms are raving to-night in the 
 ligion hearts of men, though all the woods are still ? 
 
 Who knows what haunts of wrath and cruelty 
 and fear are closed to-night against the ad 
 vent of the Prince of Peace ? And shall I 
 tell you what religion means to those who are 
 called and chosen to dare and to fight, and to 
 conquer the world for Christ ? It means to 
 launch out into the deep. It means to go 
 against the strongholds of the adversary. It 
 means to struggle to win an entrance for 
 their Master everywhere. x, 17. 
 
 180 
 
Joy is essential to true religion. A gloomy 
 religion is far from God. A sad gospel is a 
 contradiction in terms, like a black sun. " Be 
 hold," said the angel, u I bring you good tid 
 ings of great joy, which shall be to all people." 
 And that message was simply the news of a 
 great power which had appeared in the world 
 for salvation. iv, 93. 
 
 No sadgos* 
 pel 
 
 SDecemfier 
 
 Christmas is truly the festival of childhood ; The festi- 
 but it should also be the festival of mother- val of 
 hood, for the child, even the holiest, is not motherhood 
 divided from the mother. We may learn to 
 think of infancy as sacred in the light that 
 flows from the manger-cradle of Jesus. Yet 
 it seems to me we cannot receive that truth 
 perfectly unless we first learn to think of 
 motherhood as holy in the memory of her 
 whose virginal and stainless love found favour 
 with God to receive and guard and cherish 
 the Son of the Highest. in, 43. 
 
 181 
 
SDecemfcer ttoentp^fourtl) 
 
 The first " And here," said he, as his eyes fell on a 
 
 Christmas- young fir-tree, standing straight and green, 
 tree with its top pointing towards the stars, amid 
 
 the divided ruins of the fallen oak, " here is 
 the living tree, with no stain of blood upon it, 
 that shall be the sign of your new worship. 
 See how it points to the sky. Let us call it 
 the tree of the Christ-child. Take it up and 
 carry it to the chieftain s hall. You shall go 
 no more into the shadows of the forest to 
 keep your feasts with secret rites of shame. 
 You shall keep them at home, with laugh 
 ter and song and rites of love. The thunder- 
 oak has fallen, and I think the day is coming 
 when there shall not be a home in all Ger 
 many where the children are not gathered 
 around the green fir-tree to rejoice in the 
 birth-night of Christ." x, 72. 
 
 Christmas Could every time-worn heart but see Thee 
 
 once again, 
 A happy human child, among the homes of 
 
 men, 
 The age of doubt would pass, the vision of 
 
 Thy face 
 Would silently restore the childhood of the 
 
 race. ix, 59. 
 
 182 
 
The birth of Jesus is the sunrise of the Anno 
 Bible. Towards this point the aspirations of Domini 
 the prophets and the poems of the psalmists 
 were directed as the heads of flowers are turned 
 towards the dawn. From this point a new 
 day began to flow very silently over the world 
 a day of faith and freedom, a day of hope 
 and love. When we remember the high 
 meaning that has come into human life and 
 the clear light that has flooded softly down 
 from the manger-cradle in Bethlehem of 
 Judea, we do not wonder that mankind has 
 learned to reckon history from the birthday of 
 Jesus, and to date all events by the years be 
 fore or after the Nativity of Christ. in, 47. 
 
 SDeccmfiei: 
 
 Modern art, splendidly equipped and full of Art and 
 skill, waits for an inspiration to use its powers benefcence 
 nobly. Modern beneficence, practical and en 
 ergetic, lacks too often the ideal touch, the 
 sense of beauty. Both these priceless gifts, 
 and who can tell how many more, may be re 
 ceived again when the heart of our doubting 
 age, still cherishing a deep love of faith and a 
 strong belief in love, comes back to kneel at 
 the manger-cradle where a little babe reveals 
 the philanthropy of God. in, x. 
 
 183 
 
2Decem6cir 
 
 Novels that I do not ask my novelist to define and dis- 
 strengthen cuss his doctrinal position, or to tell me what 
 
 7 i 
 
 tve reader religious denomination he belongs to. I ask 
 him only to show me good as good and evil 
 as evil ; to quicken my love for those who do 
 their best, and deepen my scorn for those 
 who do their worst ; to give me a warmer 
 sympathy with all sorts and conditions of 
 men who are sincere and loyal and kind ; to 
 strengthen my faith that life is worth living 
 even while he helps me to realize how hard 
 it is to live; to leave me my optimism, but 
 not to leave it stone-blind ; not to depress me 
 with cheap cynicism, but to nourish and 
 confirm my heart in Sir Walter Scott s manly 
 faith, that " to every duty performed there is 
 attached an inward satisfaction which deep 
 ens with the difficulty of the task and is its 
 best reward." xxn, 163. 
 
 SDecem&er ttoentp^ninrtj 
 
 Thy neigh- Life teaches all but the obstinate and mean 
 
 hour as thy- how to find a place in a free and noble state 
 
 se y and grow therein. A true love of others is the 
 
 counterpart of a right love of self; that is, a 
 
 love for the better part, the finer, nobler self, 
 
 the man that is 
 
 " to arise in me, 
 That the man that I am may cease to be." 
 
 xxi, 32. 
 
 184 
 
2DecemBer tljirtietlj 
 
 The day is coming when the great ship of The ship 
 the world, guided by the hand of the Son of and the 
 God, shall float out of the clouds and storms, *&* 
 out of the shadows and conflicts, into the per 
 fect light of love, and God shall be all in all. 
 The tide that bears the world to that glorious 
 end is the sovereignty of God. vn, 279. 
 
 SDecemficr 
 
 There seems to be a natural instinct which A benedic- 
 makes us desire that every religious service tion 
 should end with a blessing. For nothing is 
 more grateful and quieting to the heart than 
 
 "the benediction 
 That follows after prayer." 
 
 After this old fashion would I close my book. 
 The faces of my readers are unknown to me, 
 even as the pilgrims who called through the 
 darkness were unknown to the watchmen upon 
 the Temple walls. But whoever you are, at 
 least a benediction shall go after you. Your 
 life is a pilgrimage. May mercy follow you 
 out of Zion, and peace bring you to your home ! 
 
 I, 259. 
 
 185 
 
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