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 TIME FLIES: 
 
 A READING DIARY 
 
 o 
 
 CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " LETTER AND SPIRIT," ETC. 
 
 "A day's march nearer home." 
 
 James Montgomery. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 
 
 1S95.
 
 8RIJ- 
 
 ocf35l7*>77% 
 
 TO 
 
 MY BELOVED EXAMPLE, FRIEND, 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 : Her children arise up, and call her blessed."
 
 TIME FLIES: 
 
 January 1. 
 
 The Feast of the Circumcision. 
 
 MOTHER Church who opens the ecclesiastical year 
 for her children with the alarum of Advent, opens for 
 them the civil year with a Divine example of self 
 denial. 
 
 For whatever Christ did or suffered for us was all, 
 first and last, the loving choice of His own free Will. 
 
 Christ met but a cold welcome into this cold world 
 when a public inn could not take Him in; "there 
 was no room for Him," and only a stable afforded Him 
 shelter : thus He began His natural human life. 
 
 And He was but eight days old when He shed the 
 first drops of His Blood : thus (in a sense) He began 
 His spiritual life. 
 
 His natural and His spiritual life began one with 
 privation, the other with suffering. 
 
 Let us not be too eager to lie soft and warm, or too 
 chary of undergoing pain. Had anyone been ready 
 to forego bed on that first Christmas Eve in favour of 
 a poor wayfaring woman ill fitted to encounter the 
 brunt of hardship, he also like St. Joseph would have 
 ranked as the Lord's foster-father. 
 
 B
 
 TIME FLIES: 
 
 In these days and to the end of time the Beatitude 
 stands open to all : " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have 
 done it unto Me." 
 
 January 2. 
 
 A CERTAIN masterly translator has remarked that 
 whatever may or may not constitute a good transla- 
 tion, it cannot consist in turning a good poem into a 
 bad one. 
 
 This suggestive remark opens to investigation a 
 world-wide field. Thus, for instance, he (or she) 
 cannot be an efficient Christian who exhibits the 
 religion of love as unlovely. 
 
 Christians need a searching self-sifting on this 
 point. They translate God's law into the universal 
 tongue of all mankind : all men of all sorts can read 
 them, and in some sort cannot but read them. 
 
 Scrupulous Christians need special self-sifting. They 
 too often resemble translations of the letter in defiance 
 of the spirit : their good poem has become unpoetical. 
 
 They run the risk of figuring as truthful offensively, 
 conscientious unkindly, firm feebly, in the right ridi- 
 culously. Common sense has forsaken them : and 
 what gift or grace can quite supply the lack of com- 
 mon sense? 
 
 Reverently I quote to my neighbour (and to myself) 
 the grave reproof of St. James : (i My brethren, these 
 things ought not so to be." 
 
 Stars, like Christians, utter their silent voice to all 
 lands and their speechless words to the ends of the 
 world. Christians are called to be like stars, luminous, 
 steadfast, majestic, attractive.
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 January 3. 
 
 SCRUPULOUS persons, — a much tried and much trying 
 sort of people, looked up to and looked down upon by 
 their fellows. 
 
 Sometimes paralysed and sometimes fidgeted by 
 conscientiousness, they are often in the way yet 
 often not at hand. 
 
 The main pity is that they do not amend them- 
 selves. Next to this, it is a pity when they gratuit- 
 ously attempt what under the circumstances they 
 cannot perform. 
 
 Listen to an anecdote or even to a reminiscence 
 from their lips, and you are liable to hear an exercise 
 on possible contingencies : a witticism hangs fire, a 
 heroic example is dwarfed by modifying suggestions. 
 Eloquence stammers in their mouth, the thread even 
 of logic is snapped. 
 
 Their aim is to be accurate ; a worthy aim : but do 
 they achieve accuracy? Such handling as blunts the 
 pointed and flattens the lofty cannot boast of ac- 
 curacy. 
 
 These remarks have,, I avow, a direct bearing on 
 my own case. I am desirous to quote here or there 
 an illustrative story or a personal reminiscence : am I 
 competent so to do ? I may have misunderstood, I 
 may never have understood, I may have forgotten, in 
 some instances I cannot recall every detail. 
 
 Yet my story would point and clench my little 
 essay. 
 
 So here once for all I beg my readers to accept 
 such illustrations as no more than I give them for ; 
 true or false, accurate or inaccurate, as the case may 
 
 B 2
 
 TIME FLIES : 
 
 be. One perhaps embellished if I have the wit to 
 embellish it, another marred by my clumsiness. 
 
 All alike written down in the humble wish to help 
 others by such means as I myself have found helpful. 
 
 January 4. 
 
 A HEAVY heart, if ever heart was heavy, 
 I offer Thee this heavy heart of me. 
 
 Are such as this the hearts Thou art fain to levy- 
 To do and dare for Thee, to bleed for Thee? — 
 Ah, blessed heaviness, if such they be ! 
 
 Time was I bloomed with blossom and stood leafy 
 How long before the fruit, if fruit there be : 
 
 Lord, if by bearing fruit my heart grows heavy, 
 Leafless and bloomless yet accept of me 
 The stript fruit-bearing heart I offer Thee. 
 
 Lifted to Thee my heart weighs not so heavy, 
 It leaps and lightens lifted up to Thee ; 
 
 It sings, it hopes to sing amid the bevy 
 
 Of thousand thousand choirs that sing, and see 
 Thy Face, me loving for Thou lovest me. 
 
 January 5. 
 
 Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished ? 
 Yes : work never begun. 
 
 "Well begun is half done," says our English pro- 
 verb. 
 
 Whilst the Italians say : " II piu duro passo e quello 
 della soglia " (The hardest step is at the threshold) : 
 and again, " Cosa fatta capo ha " (That which is done 
 has a beginning). 
 
 True, the final verdict depends on the ending : but
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 neither good nor bad ending can ensue except from 
 some manner of beginning. 
 
 I have heard tell of a painter who sought far and 
 wide for an atmosphere wherein to paint. At last he 
 found an available atmosphere in Italy : and returning 
 thither he worked ? . . . not so : he died. 
 
 A bad beginning may be retrieved and a good 
 ending achieved. No beginning, no ending. 
 
 It is bad to work loiteringly : it may be worse to 
 loiter instead of beginning to work at all. 
 
 January 6. 
 
 Feast of the Epiphany. 
 
 " LORD Babe, if Thou art He 
 We sought for patiently, 
 Where is Thy court? 
 Hither may prophecy and star resort ; 
 Men heed not their report." — 
 
 " Bow down and worship, righteous man : 
 This Infant of a span 
 
 Is He man sought for since the world began/' 
 "Then, Lord, accept my gold, too base a thing 
 For Thee, of all kings King." 
 
 ' Lord Babe, despite Thy youth 
 I hold Thee of a truth 
 Both Good and Great : 
 
 But wherefore dost Thou keep so mean a state, 
 Low lying .desolate ? " — 
 
 "Bow down and worship, righteous seer: 
 The Lord our God is here 
 Approachable. Who bids us all draw near."- 
 " Wherefore to Thee I offer frankincense, 
 Thou Sole Omnipotence."
 
 TIME FLIES: 
 
 ' ; But I have only brought 
 Myrrh ; no wise afterthought 
 Instructed me 
 
 To gather pearls or gems, or choice to see 
 Coral or ivory." — 
 
 " Not least thine offering proves thee wise : 
 For myrrh means sacrifice, 
 And He that lives, this same is He that dies.' 
 " Then here is myrrh : alas ! yea, woe is me 
 That myrrh befitteth Thee." 
 
 Myrrh, frankincense and gold : 
 
 And lo ! from wintry fold 
 
 Good will doth bring 
 
 A Lamb, the innocent likeness of this King 
 
 Whom stars and seraphs sing : 
 
 And lo ! the bird of love, a Dove 
 
 Flutters and cooes above : 
 
 And Dove and Lamb and Babe agree in love 
 Come, all mankind, come, all creation, hither, 
 Come, worship Christ together. 
 
 January 7. 
 
 " Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea 
 in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came 
 wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where 
 is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have 
 seen His star in the east, and are come to worship 
 Him." 
 
 Popular tradition fixes the number of the Magi or 
 Wise Men at three. Be their number what it may, 
 we cannot doubt that set against the total number 
 of their countrymen it was very small. 
 
 Let us then call them three. Out of a whole
 
 A READING DIARY 
 
 nation dwelling under one and the same sky, three 
 individuals beheld a star, and in consequence of that 
 sight started on a journey. 
 
 Did those three alone see the star? Presumably 
 not. Did others seeing arise ? We read of none such. 
 
 Faith and good will made all the difference between 
 seer and seer. 
 
 As then, so now. 
 
 The starry heavens are so far like their (and our) 
 Maker, that they answer and instruct each man 
 according to his honest intention, his tolerated 
 stumbling-block, his bosom-idol, as the case may be. 
 
 To some they say nothing. 
 
 Some they address through the intellect exclusively. 
 
 While to Magi (that is, to Wise Men) they declare 
 the Glory of God, and show His handiwork. 
 
 January 8. 
 
 Feast of St. Lucian, Priest: by tradition, a Bishop. 
 
 A DEGREE of obscurity invests this Saint, by some 
 deemed a disciple of St. Peter, by others an emissary 
 sent by St. Clement (Pope) into Gaul. Be his date 
 what it may (3rd century?), it seems certain both 
 that he carried the Gospel into Gaul, and that at 
 Beauvais, of which place he has been styled the 
 Apostle, he won the martyr's crown. 
 
 Even his identity, however, has been so far ques- 
 tioned that conjecturally he has been viewed as an 
 independent saint indeed, yet, as regards the Anglican 
 Calendar, merely as a mistake for a more noted 
 St. Lucian, celebrated elsewhere in Christendom one 
 day earlier. 
 
 Supposing these two holy Lucians to be cognisant 
 of all this confusion, with what peace and pleasure
 
 8 TIME FLIES : 
 
 must they abide within the Knowledge and Love of 
 God, and therefore in loving unity with each other! 
 To be done justice to on earth, is nothing now to 
 them : is it in truth anything even now to us ? 
 
 To be misunderstood by men cannot withdraw 
 anyone from the Divine Protection or from the Com- 
 munion of Saints. What can it effect : anything, or 
 
 nothing ? 
 
 January 9. 
 
 "Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went 
 before them. . . . When they saw the star, they re- 
 joiced with exceeding great joy." 
 
 One beginning was not enough. Those Magi from 
 afar had not only to start but to overcome subsequent 
 doubt and discouragement ; to commence, persevere, 
 recommence. 
 
 '•Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that 
 obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in dark- 
 ness, and hath no light ? let him trust in the Name of 
 the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 
 They endured as seeing Him Who is invisible. The 
 trial of their faith worked patience, and patience ex- 
 perience, and experience hope. [Would their experi- 
 ence have worked hope in ordinary persons? in us? 
 in me?] 
 
 The star had vanished : so, at least, we infer. For 
 the sublime and beautiful teaching of a star they 
 had to substitute and accept man's word. And not 
 even a good man's or a wise man's word, but Herod's 
 first and last, he acting towards them as mouthpiece 
 of the Jewish priesthood. Truly might they have 
 affirmed : " I have more understanding than my 
 teachers." Nevertheless it behoved them to crave
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 and follow the guidance of men who yet stood in sorer 
 need of their guidance. 
 
 For the faithful wise may lack knowledge for a 
 while : but alas ! for the unwise learned who lack 
 faith permanently. 
 
 "Before honour is humility." God Who was pleased 
 first to instruct their ignorance by ordinary means, 
 afterwards relit for them the preternatural illumination 
 of a star. 
 
 January 10. 
 
 VIEWED in one light Epiphany seems well-nigh the 
 most joyous of Christian Feasts : in the sense, that is, 
 of its having no gloomy side. 
 
 For before this Festival our dearest Saviour has 
 already made that incalculable descent which His 
 Incarnation involved. 
 
 He has been overlooked by the first instalment of 
 His own who received Him not: witness. His birth in 
 a stable. 
 
 He has deigned to shed the first drops oi His pure 
 Blood, thereby "fulfilling all righteousness " in the rite 
 of Circumcision. 
 
 All those humiliations are over. 
 
 Even Herod and his troubled Jerusalem have been 
 weighed, found wanting, and for the moment left be- 
 hind. 
 
 And now the Wise Men arrive with gifts, worship, 
 love ; their gifts sanctified by worship, their worship 
 vivified by love. 
 
 Their love more precious than gold, more accept- 
 able than frankincense, more needful than myrrh. 
 
 For that incorruptible Body needed not myrrh for 
 Its preservation even in the dust of death. Whereas 
 the loving Lord deigns to need their love, — and ours.
 
 IO TIME FLIES 
 
 Theirs, to have Him in everlasting remembrance. 
 Ours, to celebrate His memory and show forth His 
 Death until His coming again. 
 
 January 11. 
 
 Example kindles enthusiasm, enthusiasm aspires 
 to emulate. 
 
 But unfortunately pseudo-aspiration often selects 
 points impossible to be emulated, and overlooks at 
 least some one point within the boundary of possible 
 imitation. 
 
 How great a dignity, how great a happiness, to 
 have been one of the Magi ! 
 
 This, however, we cannot be. Our Saviour no 
 longer dwells in a small humble house; ready to be 
 worshipped with men's hands as though He needed 
 anything. Neither does any star traverse heaven as 
 our guide. Neither does any dream enable us to 
 mock the counsels of a king. 
 
 Nevertheless as those Wise Men offered their trea- 
 sures to the Visible Presence, so can we offer ours to 
 the Invisible. 
 
 Not frankincense or myrrh, necessarily : nay, nor 
 gold either, necessarily. Yet such as they are, our 
 treasures. 
 
 And though not to Christ Whom mortal eyes can 
 look upon, yet as truly to Christ unseen in His 
 Temple or veiled in His poor. 
 
 If not gold, then silver ; if not silver, then copper. 
 
 Yet if our hearts were set on reproducing the Magi 
 in some one particular, I suppose many of us could 
 find gold (though it were only the least gold coin) for 
 our Epiphany offering.
 
 A READING DIARY. n 
 
 Perhaps many have tried to do so and have suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 Perhaps not one has tried to do so and has failed. 
 
 January 12. 
 
 Who cares for earthly bread though white? 
 
 Nay, heavenly sheaf of harvest corn ! 
 Who cares for earthly crown to-night? 
 
 Nay, heavenly crown to-morrow morn! 
 I will not wander left or right, 
 
 The straightest road is shortest too ; 
 
 And since we hold all hope in view 
 And triumph where is no more pain, 
 
 To-night I bid good night to you 
 And bid you meet me there again. 
 
 January 13. 
 
 Feast of St. Hilary. Chosen Bishop of Poictiers about the year 
 353. Died (according to the majority of historians) 368. 
 
 The great work of St. Hilary's public life was to 
 uphold Catholic truth against the Arian heresy. 
 
 The great sacrifice of his private life may have been 
 that severing of the marriage tie which ensued on his 
 becoming a bishop. To which dignity he was elevated 
 straight perhaps from the laity. 
 
 Before his consecration his wife had borne him a 
 daughter, Apra by name. Who later on being 
 asked in marriage, followed her father's counsel and 
 devoted herself rather to the exclusive love of Christ ; 
 ceasing to live, when God pleased, without pain or 
 apparent disease. 
 
 Now of St. Hilary's wife I read nothing further, 
 beyond such a hint of her career as is involved in that
 
 12 TIME FLIES 
 
 of her husband. Wherefore of her I am free to think 
 as of one "unknown and yet well known:" on earth 
 of less dignified name than her husband and daughter, 
 in Paradise it may well be of equal account. 
 
 For many are they of whom the world is both " not 
 worthy" and ignorant. 
 
 Moreover it is written : " Many that are first shall 
 be last; and the last shall be first." 
 
 January 14. 
 
 Where love is, there comes sorrow 
 To-day or else to-morrow : 
 Endure the mood, 
 Love only means our good. 
 
 Where love is, there comes pleasure 
 With or withouten measure 
 Early or late 
 Cheering the sorriest state. 
 
 Where love is, all perfection 
 Is stored for heart's delection ; 
 For where love is 
 Dwells every sort of bliss. 
 
 Who would not choose a sorrow 
 Loves self will cheer to-morrow? 
 One day of sorrow, 
 Then such a long; to-morrow! 
 
 January 15. 
 
 " In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
 earth." 
 
 Both perfect, and no mention of hell.
 
 A READING DIARY. 13 
 
 No hell needed, while heaven and earth abode as 
 God made them. 
 
 Hell is not a primary necessity, but a contingent 
 necessity. 
 
 " Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made 
 man upright ; but they have sought out many in- 
 ventions." 
 
 Satan's initial work is not on record for us. 
 
 Adam's initial work of production (so far as we are 
 told) was sin, death, hell, for himself and his posterity. 
 
 Not that he made them in their first beginning : 
 but he, as it were, re-made them for his own behoof. 
 Never had the flame kindled upon him or the smell 
 of fire passed upon him, but for his own free will, 
 choice, and deed. 
 
 January 16. 
 
 LOVE understands the mystery, whereof 
 We can but spell a surface history : 
 
 Love knows, remembers : let us trust in Love : 
 Love understands the mystery. 
 
 Love weighs the event, the long pre-history, 
 Measures the depth beneath, the height above, 
 The mystery, with the ante-mystery. 
 
 To love and to be grieved befits a dove 
 
 Silently telling her bead-history: 
 Trust all to Love, be patient and approve: 
 
 Love understands the mystery. 
 
 January 17. 
 
 Epiphanytide at the shortest amounts to twelve 
 days and terminates on January the 17th. 
 
 Even when it consists of twelve only, it yet invites
 
 14 TIME FLIES: 
 
 us day by day to meditate upon twelve Manifestations 
 of Christ. 
 
 His Names and Titles manifest Him as our All in all. 
 
 Emmanuel, God with us. "Abide with us." — " Lo, 
 I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
 Amen." 
 
 Jesus, Saviour. " The Father sent the Son to be the 
 Saviour of the world." — " Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners." — " My soul doth magnify the 
 Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." 
 
 The Word. " In the beginning was the Word, and 
 the Word was with God, and the Word was God." — 
 "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : 
 and His Name is called The Word of God." — "Lord, 
 to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal 
 life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that 
 Christ, the Son of the Living God." 
 
 The Way. "Jesus saith, ... I am the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the Father, 
 but by Me." — " A new and living way, which He hath 
 consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, 
 His Flesh." 
 
 The Truth. " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us, . . . full of grace and truth . . . Grace and 
 truth came by Jesus Christ." — "Everyone that is of 
 the truth heareth My voice." 
 
 The Life. "As the Father hath Life in Himself; 
 so hath He given to the Son to have Life in Himself." 
 — " I am the Resurrection, and the Life." — " The Life 
 was manifested, and we have seen It." — "When Christ, 
 Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear 
 with Him in glory." 
 
 The Master. " One is your Master, even Christ." — ■ 
 " It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master." 
 — "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 5 
 
 The Lord. "Ye call Me Master and Lord : and ye 
 say well ; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and 
 Master, have washed your feet ; ye also ought to wash 
 one another's feet . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 The servant is not greater than his Lord." 
 
 The Intercessor. "He is able also to save them to 
 the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing 
 He ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
 
 The Light of the World. " God is Light."—" I am 
 the Light of the world : he that followeth Me shall 
 not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life/' 
 — " In Thy light shall we see light." — " That great 
 city, the holy Jerusalem . . . The Glory of God did 
 lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof." 
 
 The Good Shepherd. " I am the Good Shepherd : 
 the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." — - 
 " We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of 
 His hand." — " The Lord is my Shepherd : therefore 
 can I lack nothing." 
 
 The Rock of Ages (Is. xxvi. 4, margin). " He is 
 the Rock ... a God of Truth, and without iniquity. . . . 
 The Rock of his salvation." — "Thou shalt smite the 
 rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the 
 people may drink." — "They drank of that spiritual 
 Rock that followed them : and that Rock was Christ." 
 — " Blessed be my Rock ; and let the God of my sal- 
 vation be exalted." 
 
 " Yea, He is altogether lovely." 
 
 January 18. 
 
 Feast of St. Prisca, Virgin Martyr. 
 ABOUT the year 50, in the reign of the First Em- 
 peror Claudius, St. Prisca, then aged thirteen, refusing 
 to sacrifice to idols, by steps of ignominy and torture 
 went up to her glorious death by decapitation.
 
 16 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Two prodigies are narrated as connected with her 
 martyrdom : a lion to which she was exposed crouched 
 harmless at her feet ; an eagle protected her corpse 
 from dogs until her fellow Christians gave it burial. 
 
 Likewise two alleged errors beset her identity: one 
 confounds her with the admirable Priscilla, or Prisca, 
 of St. Paul's circle ; a second modernizes her date by 
 more than two centuries. 
 
 Perhaps we feel a momentary disappointment on 
 finding that this St. Prisca is not the beloved friend 
 of St. Paul. Ytt what follows? For one saint we 
 were aware of, behold, we become aware of two ! 
 
 Whereat, if we share the spirit of St. John the 
 Divine, we shall rejoice. For he wrote : " I have no 
 greater joy than to hear that my children walk in 
 truth," speaking of all those good Christians without 
 a shadow of favoritism. 
 
 Favoritism is quite possible, but is highly objection- 
 able in our love of saints. "Enviest thou for my sake?" 
 said Moses. 
 
 January 19. 
 
 JOY is but sorrow, 
 
 While we know 
 It ends to-morrow : — 
 
 Even so ! 
 Joy with lifted veil 
 Shows a face as pale 
 As the fair changing moon so fair and frail. 
 
 Pain is but pleasure. 
 
 If we know 
 It heaps up treasure : — 
 
 Even so ! 
 Turn, transfigured Pain, 
 Sweetheart, turn again, 
 For fair art thou as moon-rise after rain.
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 January 20. 
 
 Feast of St. Fabian, Pope: and Martyr in the year 250. 
 
 IT is related that St. Fabian was elevated to the 
 See of Rome under direct Divine sanction : the elect- 
 ing brethren, by individual mental impression, fixing 
 upon him exclusively, despite other eligible and 
 eminent persons there present ; and a Dove alighting 
 upon his head, and resting there. 
 
 For sixteen years he "fed the flock of God," until 
 in the persecution under Decius he sealed his faith 
 with his blood. 
 
 Holy and blessed is the marvel of election to dignity 
 by help of a visible Dove. More holy, more blessed 
 is the mystery of each ordinary baptized Christian's 
 election to salvation by operation of the Invisible 
 Divine Dove. Even as Christ Himself assures us : 
 " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
 believed." 
 
 In accordance with which Divine standard St. Paul 
 declares : "We look not at the things which are seen, 
 but at the things which are not seen : for the things 
 which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are 
 not seen are eternal." 
 
 January 21. 
 
 Feast of St. Agnes, Virgin Martyr about the year 304. 
 BY name "chaste" (Greek), and "a lamb" (Latin), 
 this loveliest girl of thirteen, noble and wealthy, was 
 sought in marriage by a youth of distinguished birth. 
 But she, for spouse, would have none save the Lamb 
 of God : Who keeping her pure alike in body and 
 in soul, accepted her as His whole burnt offering. 
 Nevertheless the lighted pyre on which she prayed 
 died out of itself: and unscathed by that death, and 
 
 c
 
 TIME FLIES: 
 
 unshackled by man, she won her victory by submitting 
 to the sword in the persecution under Diocletian. 
 
 Her lover, at first of base mind, became afterwards 
 ashamed : "There is a shame which is glory and grace." 
 Wherefore since he remained accessible to shame, we 
 may deem hopefully of him as accessible no less to 
 honour. 
 
 And we may rejoice with St. Agnes, who along with 
 the greater, may also these fifteen hundred years have 
 inherited the lesser love " in spirit and in truth," in 
 that land where " they neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage." Even as Solomon, who discreetly choosing 
 "a wise and an understanding heart," received with it 
 the " riches and honour " which he asked not. 
 
 January 22. 
 
 Feast of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr. 
 
 On this day, in the year 304, St. Vincent of Sara- 
 gossa died a most true martyr, and yet not directly 
 under any one instrument of martyrdom. 
 
 For Dacian, Governor of Spain, had done his worst 
 by torture, by persuasion, by renewed and augmented 
 torture, to shake the saint's constancy: he had done 
 his worst, and that worst had failed. Then — please 
 God, it was for pity's sake ! — he changed his policy, 
 and commanded a cessation of torment. Whereupon 
 kind Christian persons gathered around the exhausted 
 indomitable champion, cared for him tenderly, and 
 provided a soft bed, whereon being laid he at once 
 expired. 
 
 St. Vincent feared not them who could kill the 
 body, and after that had no more that they could do. 
 He feared (and let us fear) Him only Who is able to 
 destroy both soul and body in hell. 
 
 "Fear God, and give glory to Him."
 
 A READING DIARY. 19 
 
 January 23. 
 
 "JESUS . . . found in the Temple those that sold 
 oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money- 
 sitting : and when He had made a scourge of small 
 cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, and the 
 sheep, and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' 
 money, and overthrew the tables ; and said unto them 
 that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make not 
 My Father's House an house of merchandise." (St. 
 John ii. 13-16.) 
 
 In conversation lately, a friend' set this passage in 
 a light altogether new to me. 
 
 We behold the Temple cleared' summarily of sheep 
 and oxen, of their owners, and of the money-changers. 
 These were all driven forth together when Christ 
 "made a way to His indignation," were driven forth 
 without one recorded word bestowed upon them, 
 and without appeal. 
 
 Not so, as regards " them that sold doves." Them 
 only the Lord rebuked and exhorted, giving them 
 time to remove their live-stock. 
 
 Now it seems probable that the former classes of 
 offenders were comparatively rich, the latter poor. To 
 trade in beasts or in specie implies substance : to bring 
 a few doves to market lies within the power of a mere 
 peasant. 
 
 Wherefore my friend inferred that the rich were 
 those more severely dealt with, because they had no 
 stress of poverty to plead. While the poor folk, 
 having want as a temptation, and evil example as a 
 standard, were more tenderly dealt with by that 
 gracious Master, Who came to preach the Gospel to 
 the poor. 
 
 Finally, it was pointed out to me that at His second 
 C 2
 
 20 TIME FLIES 
 
 cleansing of the Temple our Lord drew no distinction 
 between the rich and poor traders : both classes had 
 been chastised, both had returned to their sin, both at 
 last had to be alike expelled : — 
 
 " Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out 
 all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and 
 overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the 
 seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It 
 is written, My House shall be called the house of 
 prayer ; but ye have made it a den of thieves."' 
 .(St. Matt. xxi. 12, 13.) 
 
 January 24. 
 
 Many years ago a friend wrote and gave me a 
 Sonnet, which now, as best I may, I reproduce from 
 memory. I think it devotional ; perhaps others may 
 think it so too : — 
 
 " ' Give Me thy heart.' I said : Can I not make 
 Abundant sacrifice to Him Who gave 
 Life, health, possessions, friends, of all I have, 
 All but my heart once given? Lord, do not take 
 It from its happy home or it will break. 
 
 * Give Me thy broken heart.' Can love enslave? 
 Must it be forced to look beyond the grave 
 For its fruition ? Lord, for Thy Love's sake 
 Let this thing be : as two streams journeying on 
 
 Melt into one and widen to the sea, 
 So let two souls love-burdened make but one, 
 And one full heart rest all its love on Thee. 
 'Alas, frail man, for thine infirmity! 
 Thy God is Love/ — Then, Lord, Thy Will be done."
 
 A READING DIARY. 2 1 
 
 January 25. 
 
 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul in the year 35. 
 
 Such Festivals as commemorate Divine Mysteries 
 always excepted, the Gentile Church may surely keep 
 this Feast of the Apostle of the Gentiles with pre- 
 eminent exultation. 
 
 Because we are Gentiles, still more because we are 
 Christians, let us thank God and take courage, and 
 '• run all." 
 
 O blessed Paul elect to grace, 
 
 Arise and wash away thy sin, 
 Anoint thy head and wash thy face, 
 Thy gracious course begin. 
 
 To start thee on thy outrunning race 
 Christ shows the splendour of His Face : 
 What shall that Face of splendour be 
 When at the goal He welcomes thee? 
 
 January 26. 
 
 O Christ our All in each, our All in all ! 
 Others have this or that, a love, a friend, 
 A trusted teacher, a long-worked-for end : 
 But what to me were Peter or were Paul 
 
 Without Thee r fame or friend if such might be ? 
 Thee wholly will I love, Thee wholly seek, 
 Follow Thy foot-track, hearken for Thy call. 
 O Christ mine All in all, my flesh is weak, 
 A trejnbling fawning tyrant unto me : 
 
 Turn, look upon me, let me hear Thee speak : 
 Tho' bitter billows of Thine utmost sea 
 Swathe me, and darkness build around its wall, 
 Yet will I rise, Thou lifting when I fall, 
 
 And if Thou hold me fast, yet cleave to Thee.
 
 22 TIME FLIES: 
 
 January 27. 
 I. 
 
 " Nemico del bene e il meglio " (Better is foe to 
 well). 
 
 Much good work has been hindered by such an 
 anxiety to do better as deters one from promptly 
 doing one's best. 
 
 Acquiescence in remediable shortcoming degrades : 
 resignation to unavoidable shortcoming ennobles. 
 
 When we so set our hearts on doing well that 
 practically we do nothing, we are paralysed not by 
 humility but by pride. If in such a temper we 
 succeeded in making our light to shine, it would 
 shine not in glorification of our Heavenly Father but 
 of ourselves. 
 
 Suppose our duty of the moment is to write: why 
 do we not write ? — Because we cannot summon up 
 anything original, or striking, or picturesque, or elo- 
 quent, or brilliant. 
 
 But is a subject set before us? — It is. 
 
 Is it true ? — It is. 
 
 Do we understand it? — Up to a certain point 
 we do. 
 
 Is it worthy of meditation ?— Yes, and prayerfully. 
 
 Is it worthy of exposition ? — Yes, indeed. 
 
 Why then not begin ? — 
 
 " From pride and vain glory, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 January 28. 
 
 Patience! At any rate let us enquire what we 
 propose to do instead of grappling with that dis- 
 tasteful duty.
 
 A READING DIARY. 23 
 
 Are we inclined to pray ? — No, for that would end 
 in our having to set about the evaded task. 
 
 Or to praise and give thanks? — No, for we have 
 not put on our armour, much less are we taking 
 it off. 
 
 Or to meditate? — No, for meditation would harp 
 on the silenced string. 
 
 What then? — It is vain saying "what" in particular. 
 Centuries ago an inspired Apostle summed up all 
 alternatives for duty in a brief quotation : " Let us 
 eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 
 
 " From sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 January 29. 
 
 A life of hope deferred too often is 
 
 A life of wasted opportunities ; 
 
 A life of perished hope too often is 
 
 A life of all-lost opportunities: 
 
 Yet hope is but the flower and not the root, 
 
 And hope is still the flower and not the fruit ;- 
 
 Arise and sow and weed : a day shall come 
 
 When also thou shalt keep thy harvest home. 
 
 January 30. 
 
 " I AM Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the 
 Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and 
 which is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. i. 8.) 
 
 This is the Beginning of all beginnings, this the 
 Origin not of species only but of genera. 
 
 The Beginning without beginning, the Beginning 
 that endeth not. 
 
 " Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever
 
 24 TIME FLIES 
 
 Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even 
 from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." 
 
 The aftercourse may perplex and trouble us : but 
 whoso reverts and has recourse to this Beginning and 
 takes refuge therein, and in this all-pervading Presence 
 abides, has peace though the world be in an uproar 
 and has stability though the world quake. 
 
 For what is it perplexes and troubles us ? an intel- 
 lectual obscurity. And what is it we know not ? 
 somewhat which we need not know. 
 
 January 31. 
 
 A FRIEND once put it to me that the choice of each 
 man's free will must be unknown beforehand even to 
 God Omniscient Himself. To foreknow would involve 
 to preordain, and that which is ordained is not free : — 
 so, I suppose, my friend might have gone on to argue, 
 handling a mystery far beyond my comprehension. 
 
 Yet one thing I seem to comprehend clearly. 
 Either we must accept God's Omniscience as com- 
 patible with man's freedom of choice, or else we in 
 truth set human free will as a limit of Divine Omni- 
 science. 
 
 Limited Omniscience is a contradiction in terms. 
 
 A being any one of whose attributes is limited, 
 cannot be our Infinite Lord God. 
 
 February 1. 
 
 Vigil of the Purification. 
 
 " OUR Lady of February " is one name for a snow- 
 drop, called also " Purification Flower." The modest 
 snowdrop hangs its head without anything to blush 
 for : how should it blush, with green veins ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 2^ 
 
 February is one of the snowy months, moreover a 
 month of lambs : snow symbolizes purity, a lamb 
 innocence. 
 
 This Vigil of the Purification, being the first vigil 
 since Christmas turned all to joy, bids us watch and 
 keep guard : for purity is soon sullied and is not 
 easily restored. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see 
 God." 
 
 February 2. 
 
 Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, com- 
 monly called, The Purification of St. Mary the Virgin. 
 
 PURITY born of a Maid, — 
 
 Was such a Virgin defiled ? 
 
 Nay, by no shade of a shade. — 
 
 She offered her gift of pure love, 
 
 A dove with a fair fellow dove. 
 
 She offered her Innocent Child, 
 
 The Essence and Author of Love ; 
 
 The Lamb that (conceived by The Dove) 
 
 Was spotless, and holy, and mild ; 
 
 More pure than all other, 
 
 More pure than His Mother, 
 
 Her God and Redeemer and Child. 
 
 February 3. 
 
 Feast of St. Blasius or Blaise, Bishop and Martyr. 
 This Saint was Bishop of Sebaste, a city of Cappa- 
 docia, and whilst fulfilling his episcopal duties found 
 leisure for much devout retirement. Under Diocletian, 
 his eminent position, Christian work and contempla- 
 tive piety naturally led him up to the glory of 
 martyrdom, which glory he attained at an uncertain 
 date early in the 4th century.
 
 26 TIME FLIES 
 
 Now it was a hill to which St. Blaise was used to 
 resort for holy privacy : and we may contemplate him 
 as " set on a hill " for our edification. Or again, if 
 we view him as an elevated candle showing light to 
 all the household, this figure falls in with the fact 
 that tapers and bonfires belonged of yore to the 
 observance of his festival. 
 
 This connexion of fire with St. Blaise is not, it 
 seems, accounted for : the fact however remains cer- 
 tain. A pun on his name of " Blaise " has been 
 suggested as the connecting link, but only to be 
 branded as " absurd " by at least one author of 
 repute. Yet let us hope that this particular pun if 
 baseless is also blameless. 
 
 Can a pun profit ? Seldom, I fear. Puns and such 
 like are a frivolous crew likely to misbehave unless 
 kept within strict bounds. " Foolish talking " and 
 "jesting," writes St. Paul, "are not convenient." Can 
 the majority of puns be classed as wise talking ? 
 
 February 4. 
 
 Up, my drowsing eyes ! 
 
 Up, my sinking heart ! 
 Up to Jesus Christ ! arise 
 
 Claim your part 
 In all raptures of the skies. 
 
 Yet a little while, 
 
 Yet a little way, 
 Saints shall reap and rest and smile 
 
 All the day: — 
 Up ! let's trudge another mile.
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 February 5. 
 
 Feast of St. Agatha, Virgin Martyr. Suffered death 
 about the year 251. 
 
 ^ SICILY lays undoubted claim to this heroine of 
 piety, Catania and Palermo meanwhile disputing for 
 the honour of her birthplace : evidence turns the scale 
 perhaps in favour of Catania. 
 
 Quintianus, Consular of Sicily under Decius, loved 
 St. Agatha after his own fashion. When he found 
 her an invincible Christian, " espoused ... as a chaste 
 virgin to Christ," his base love turned to hatred, and 
 he exhausted cruelty and torture on her person while 
 she set her face as a flint to endure unto the end. 
 The great fight of her afflictions accomplished, she 
 was returned to prison ; and there, " more than 
 conqueror" through Him Who loved her, fell asleep 
 in the same Jesus. 
 
 The love of Christ, like a touchstone, has tested 
 much human affection, and over and over again has 
 proved it dross. Yet now and then two who have 
 differed — and two who differ cannot both hold the 
 entire truth — have loved on faithfully, believing and 
 hoping the best of each other, one (perhaps each) 
 praying for the other, both alike exercising themselves 
 to have always a conscience void of offence. In such 
 a case, where both have loved the Truth and have 
 accounted it "great . . . and mighty above all things," 
 there surely remains a strong consolation of hope to 
 flee unto. For can an utter alien from God love 
 Truth and make sacrifices for Truth's sake ? 
 
 " I found an altar with this inscription, To the 
 Unknown God."
 
 28 TIME FLIES 
 
 February 6. 
 
 2. 
 
 The Triangle is a received emblem of the Most 
 Holy Trinity in Unity. 
 
 Christians have been accused of loving and wor- 
 shipping Christ to the practical superseding of the 
 love and worship of God the Father. 
 
 If any of us have fallen into so grave an error, we do 
 not, so far, deserve to be called Christians ; "... every 
 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father." 
 
 Now the Island of Sicily is in outline triangular. 
 Let St. Agatha who, while dwelling in her three- 
 sided native land, clave to Christ with a love strong 
 as death, be our pattern of the true Christian adoring 
 the All Holy Undivided Trinity. 
 
 " O Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, Three 
 Persons and One God : have mercy upon us miserable 
 sinners." 
 
 " The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love 
 of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be 
 with us all evermore. Amen." 
 
 February 7. 
 
 Who scatters tares shall reap no wheat 
 But go hungry while others eat. 
 
 Who sows the wind shall not reap grain, 
 The sown wind whirleth back again. 
 
 What God opens must open be 
 Tho' man pile the sand of the sea. 
 
 What God shuts is opened no more 
 Tho 1 man weary himself to find the door.
 
 A READING DIARY. 20. 
 
 February 8. 
 
 T. 
 
 A HEAVEN of ceaseless music, — a monotonous 
 heaven, a heaven of ceaseless endless weariness, say 
 some. 
 
 Yet surely this heaven of music (if for argument's 
 sake we may so define the Christian heaven of the 
 Beatific Vision) is obviously and characteristically 
 otherwise. 
 
 For is music monotonous? On the contrary, a 
 monotone is not music. 
 
 No single note, however ravishing, amounts to 
 music : musical it may be, but not music. 
 
 How is it to become an element of music ? By 
 forming part of a sequence. Change, succession, are 
 of the essence of music. 
 
 Therefore, when our Christian heaven is by con- 
 descension to man's limited conceptions represented 
 as a heaven of music, that very figure stamps it as a 
 heaven, not of monotony, but of variety. 
 
 For in music one sound leads unavoidably to a 
 different sound, one harmony paves the way to a 
 diverse harmony. 
 
 A heaven of music seems rather a heaven of end- 
 less progression, of inexhaustible variety, than a 
 heaven of monotony. 
 
 
 February 9. 
 2. 
 
 If music, because opposed to monotony, typifies 
 celestial ever fresh delight; vocal music, as the high- 
 est form of so high an art, exhibits special apposite- 
 ness in illustration of heaven.
 
 30 TIME FLIES : 
 
 For the voice is inseparable from the person to 
 whom it belongs. The voice which charms one gene- 
 ration is inaccessible to the next. Words cannot 
 describe it, notes cannot register it ; it remains as a 
 tradition, it lingers only as a regret : or, if by mar- 
 vellous modern appliances stored up and re-uttered, 
 we listen not to any imitative sound, but to a repro- 
 duction of the original voice. 
 
 In St. John's vision we read of " the harps of God" : 
 but the human voices worthy of such accompanying 
 instruments are the actual voices of the redeemed who 
 sing the new song. 
 
 The song indeed is new : but those singing voices 
 are the selfsame which spake and sang on earth, the 
 same which age enfeebled and death silenced. 
 
 " And I look for the Resurrection of the Dead." 
 
 February 10. 
 
 Perhaps one reason why music is made so pro- 
 minent among the revelations vouchsafed us of heaven, 
 is because it imperatively requires living agency for 
 its production. 
 
 For I think that from this connection music pro- 
 duced by mere clockwork is fairly excluded : in- 
 genious it may be, but inferior it cannot but be. 
 
 Music, then, demands the living voice for its utter- 
 ance, or, at the least, the living breath or the living 
 finger to awaken a lifeless instrument. 
 
 Written notes are not music until they find a voice. 
 
 Written words are words even while unuttered, for 
 they convey through the eye an intellectual meaning. 
 But musical notes express sound, and nought beside 
 sound.
 
 A READING DIARY. 31 
 
 A silent note, then, is a silent sound : and what can 
 a silent sound be? 
 
 The music of heaven, to become music, must have 
 trumpeters and harpers as well as harps and trumpets, 
 must have singers as well as songs. 
 
 " Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. 
 . . . As well the singers as the players on instruments 
 shall be there." 
 
 February 11. 
 
 1. 
 
 "I see that all things come to an end." 
 
 No more! while sun and planets fly 
 And wind and storm and seasons four, 
 
 And while we live and while we die, — 
 No more. 
 
 Nevertheless old ocean's roar 
 And wide earth's multitudinous cry 
 And echo's pent reverberant store 
 
 Shall hush to silence bye and bye : — 
 Ah, rosy world gone cold and hoar! 
 
 Man opes no more a mortal eye, 
 No more. 
 
 February 12. 
 
 2. 
 "But Thy commandment is exceeding broad." 
 
 ONCE again to wake, nor wish to sleep ; 
 
 Once again to feel, nor feel a pain ! — 
 Rouse thy soul to watch and pray and weep 
 
 Once again.
 
 32 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Hope afresh, for hope shall not be vain: 
 Start afresh along the exceeding steep 
 Road to glory, long and rough and plain. 
 
 Sow and reap : for while these moments creep, 
 Time and earth and life are on the wane. 
 
 Now, in tears ; to-morrow, laugh and reap 
 Once again. 
 
 February 13. 
 
 TACT is a gift : it is likewise a grace. As a gift it 
 may or may not have fallen to our share : as a grace 
 we are bound either to possess or to acquire it. 
 
 Tact has, as all human good things have, a weak 
 side open to temptation. Its love of conciliation and 
 abhorrence of jars too readily incline it to overstep 
 the boundary of truth, or at the least to curve that 
 straight line of limitation. 
 
 Yet we can scarcely overstate the daily practical 
 value of tact, if only kept pure from insincerity. Take 
 a story in illustration : — 
 
 A certain man on being challenged to fight a duel 
 became, of course, entitled to choose his weapon. 
 " Javelins," said he. " But whoever heard of such a 
 weapon?"— "Well, that is mine." And the duel 
 never came off. 
 
 February 14. 
 
 Feast of St. Valentine. 
 
 Various saints of this name are commemorated 
 to-day. One, a priest, was put to death for the faith 
 under the second Emperor Claudius about the year 
 270. 
 
 With St. Valentine's Day stands popularly asso- 
 ciated the interchange of " Valentines " : this custom
 
 A READING DIARY. 33 
 
 having its origin, we are informed, in a pagan cere- 
 mony wisely exchanged for a Christian observance. 
 
 And thus our social habit, even if degenerate, as- 
 sumes a certain dignity : we connect it not merely 
 with mirth and love, but with sanctity and suffering. 
 The love exhibits a double aspect and accords, or 
 should accord, with heaven as well as with earth. 
 
 Never is interchange of affection more appropriate 
 than on a holy day : only let the sentiment be serious, 
 modest, honourable, ready for self-sacrifice. £; Fair 
 maid of February " is a name for the snowdrop, and 
 seems to wed love to innocence. Valentines as pure 
 as snowdrops will not disgrace the Day even of a 
 martyr who has washed his " robes, and made them 
 white in the Blood of the Lamb." 
 
 February 15. 
 
 "Doeth well, . . . doeth. better."— (1 Cor. vii. 38.) 
 
 My love whose heart is tender said to me, 
 
 " A moon lacks light except her sun befriend her. 
 
 Let us keep tryst in heaven, dear Friend," said she, 
 My love whose heart is tender. 
 
 From such a loftiness no words could bend her ; 
 Yet still she spoke of " us," and spoke as " we," 
 Her hope substantial while my hope grew slender. 
 
 Now keeps she tryst beyond earth's utmost sea, 
 
 Wholly at rest tho' storms should toss and rend her; 
 
 And still she keeps my heart and keeps its key, 
 My love whose heart is tender. 
 
 February 16. 
 
 Man, endowed with free will, rebels against God 
 and defies Him. "Who is Lord over us?" saith he. 
 God, Author and Giver of free will, Whose gifts are 
 D
 
 34 TIME FLIES 
 
 without repentance, overrides not by His own Will 
 that of His creature but defers to man's freedom of 
 choice. "Return unto Me, and I will return unto 
 you/' He saith, and awaiteth the issue. 
 
 So also our Divine Redeemer Himself speaketh, 
 saying: "Abide in Me, and I in you:" thus leaving 
 as dependent upon man the sacred mutual indwelling. 
 
 Human free will is a profound mystery, so also is 
 Divine predestination. The twain being revealed co- 
 exist, whether or not mortal faculties avail to reconcile 
 them. But surely if our own conscience attests either 
 and not both, that one is free will rather than pre- 
 destination. 
 
 We all talk of the sun rising and the sun setting: 
 yet in neither case is any motion of the sun really in 
 question, but only a revolution of the earth. 
 
 February 17. 
 
 ONE whom I knew intimately and whose memory 
 I revere once in my hearing remarked that unless we 
 love people we cannot understand them. This was 
 a new light to me. 
 
 Another time, after she had taken a decisive step in 
 religion, a friend appealed to her not to be alienated 
 from her regard : and she answered that goodness 
 wheresoever found she thought she loved more than ever. 
 
 Thus in her lips was the law of kindness. Wisdom 
 rooted in love instructed her how to give a right 
 answer. 
 
 Love is all happiness, love is all beauty, 
 
 Love is the crown of flaxen heads and hoary, 
 
 Love is the only everlasting duty, 
 
 And love is chronicled in endless story 
 And kindles endless glory.
 
 A READING DIARY. 35 
 
 February 18. 
 
 " What a good thing my feet are large, for so 
 anyone can wear my boots :" such a remark I once 
 heard made by one of the kindest-hearted of my 
 friends. 
 
 A quaint remark and humorous, as she uttered it. 
 I do not think she entertained an idea that she was 
 propounding any high or deep or spiritually helpful 
 truth. 
 
 Yet such surely we may find it to be : a key at least 
 in part to the why and the wherefore of some irre- 
 mediable blemishes, a comfort under the depression of 
 lifelong inferiority. 
 
 For oftentimes our disadvantage promotes the wel- 
 fare of others, or our weak-point nerves them to 
 endure their own. 
 
 If really and truly we loved our neighbour as our- 
 self, such aspects of our sorry plight would brighten 
 its gloom and blunt its sting. 
 
 If only we could and would estimate every blame- 
 less blemish in ourselves, not as a personal hardship, 
 but as a helpful possibility ; as, so to say, large feet 
 in doubly available boots ! 
 
 February 19. 
 
 HOME by different ways. Yet all 
 
 Homeward bound thro' prayer and praise, 
 
 Young with old and great with small 
 Home by different ways. 
 
 Many nights and many days 
 Wind must blow and rain must fall, 
 Quake the quicksand, shift the haze. 
 D 2
 
 36 TIME FLIES 
 
 Life hath called and death will call 
 Saints who praying kneel at gaze, 
 
 Ford the flood or leap the wall 
 Home by different ways. 
 
 February 20. 
 
 A GREAT many years ago, I do not recall how many, 
 I visited a large waxwork exhibition brilliant with 
 costumes, complexions, and historical effigies. 
 
 And entering that gorgeous assembly I literally 
 felt shy ! 
 
 The real people present did not abash me : it was 
 the distinguished waxen crowd which put me out of 
 countenance. 
 
 Now looking back I laugh at my own absurdity. 
 Why then recount it ? Because it seems to furnish a 
 parable of many passages in many lives. 
 
 Things seen are as that waxwork, things unseen as 
 those real people. Yet over and over again we are 
 influenced and constrained by the hollow momentary 
 world we behold in presence, while utterly obtuse 
 as regards the substantial eternal world no less present 
 around us though disregarded. 
 
 Will we not rise above an awe of waxwork ? 
 
 February 21. 
 
 1. 
 
 " A SQUARE man in a round hole," — we behold him 
 incompatible, irreconcileable, a standing incongruity. 
 
 This world is full of square men in round holes ; 
 of persons unsuited to their post, calling, circum- 
 stances. 
 
 What is our square man to do? Clearly one of two
 
 A READING DIARY. 37 
 
 things : he must either get out of his round hole, or 
 else he must stay in it. 
 
 If he can get out by any lawful exit, let him up 
 and begone, and betake himself to a square habitat. 
 
 But for one cubic man who can shift quarters, there 
 may be a million who cannot. And this notwith- 
 standing that many such ought never to have stepped 
 into a circular hole at all : once in, therein they must 
 abide. 
 
 Our permanent square tenant, then : what shall he 
 do to mitigate the misfit which cannot be rectified ? 
 
 He can turn that very misfit to account by sitting 
 loose among his surroundings. If it brings home to 
 him daily that " this is not our rest" it will be blessed 
 to him. If so uneasy a present "city" moves him to 
 seek " one to come " blessed will be his lot. 
 
 In one sense we are all alike square people in round 
 holes, inasmuch as we are made less for our actual 
 environment of earth and time than for heaven and 
 eternity. Thus it appears that the main change must, 
 after all, be wrought not in our surroundings but 
 in ourselves : for the circle symbolizes eternity ; and 
 to fit into any round, any square must sacrifice its 
 angles. 
 
 February 22. 
 
 2. 
 
 Or to reverse the figure. Let our man be round 
 and let him occupy a square hole. 
 
 Let man thus appear to us as in truth he is, 
 primarily tenant not to a finite "square" but to an 
 infinite " circle." 
 
 He feels ill at ease in his square : or thus, at least, 
 he ought to feel. 
 
 He abides cramped, dwarfed; he cannot expand
 
 38 TIME FLTES 
 
 evenly and harmoniously in all directions with perfect 
 balance of parts. Wherever he expands he is liable 
 to graze and get jammed against prison confines. 
 
 Ought he to feel habitually comfortable? He ought 
 to be incessantly thankful, contented, joyful, hopeful : 
 scarcely, perhaps, prevalently comfortable. 
 
 We do not expect a caged eagle to look comfortable. 
 We rather expect him to exhibit noble indignant 
 aspiration and the perpetual protest of baulked latent 
 power. 
 
 February 23. 
 Vigil of St. Matthias. 
 
 It is impossible for us to disentangle the memory of 
 St. Matthias from the memory of Judas Iscariot : im- 
 possible, at least in this life. 
 
 As impossible as for the tide not to stand connected 
 in thought with the ebb, or light with darkness. 
 
 So, too, hope and fear tremble responsively. 
 
 To be remembered somehow, anyhow, by the 
 righteous, seems perhaps less terrible than to be clean 
 forgotten and out of mind. 
 
 If there is a text more dreadful than " He shall be 
 tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
 the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb," 
 is it not that which saith "DEPART from Me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire " ? 
 
 February 24. 
 
 Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle. 
 
 St. Matthias is conjectured to have been at first 
 one of our Lord's Seventy Disciples. The fall of 
 Judas Iscariot made room for him among the Twelve 
 Apostles. According to tradition the scene of his
 
 A READING DIARY. 39 
 
 evangelistic labours after the apostolic dispersion 
 from Jerusalem may have been Cappadocia, and the 
 date of his death by martyrdom among the fierce 
 Cappadocians about the year 64. 
 
 But for the apostacy of Judas St. Matthias must 
 perforce apparently have occupied a less exalted 
 station : there, doubtless, he would thankfully have 
 remained, rather than make his stepping-stone of such 
 a ruin ; for he cannot but have been one who, at least 
 in will, loved his neighbour as himself. A heavenly 
 temper of primary importance, but by flesh and blood 
 not lightly attainable. 
 
 Thus even Jonah, inspired Prophet as he was, seems 
 to have grudged Nineveh its uncovenanted overflow of 
 mercy : presumably on patriotic grounds, yet none the 
 less with a resentment far removed from the Divine 
 good pleasure. 
 
 Whenever our own personal gain depends on a 
 neighbour's loss, do we, at least in will, steadily and 
 practically love him as ourself ? 
 
 If not, how shall we face him, though not to-day or 
 to-morrow, yet assuredly at the last great Day of 
 Judgment? when all things covered shall be revealed, 
 or hidden shall be made known. 
 
 February 25. 
 
 "One sorrow more? I thought the tale complete." — 
 He bore amiss who grudges what he bore : 
 Stretch out thy hands and urge thy feet to meet 
 One sorrow more. 
 
 Yea, make thy count for two or three or four: 
 The kind Physician will not slack to treat 
 
 His patient while there 's rankling in the sore.
 
 40 TIME FLIES 
 
 Bear up in anguish, ease will yet be sweet ; 
 
 Bear up all day, for night has rest in store : 
 Christ bears thy burden with thee, rise and greet 
 
 One sorrow more. 
 
 February 26. 
 
 Sloth does not at a first glance seem the deadliest 
 of the seven deadly sins, yet under one aspect it can 
 fairly be reckoned such. The others may consist with 
 energy, and energy may always be turned to good 
 account. 
 
 Sloth precludes energy. 
 
 Sloth may accompany a great many amiable tem- 
 pers and skin-deep charms : but sloth runs no race. 
 
 And a race is the one thing set before us. We are 
 not summoned to pose picturesquely in tableaux 
 vivants, or die away gracefully like dissolving views. 
 
 We are called to run a race, and woe is us if we run 
 it not lawfully, and with patience and with pressing 
 toward the mark. 
 
 Sloth tends to paralyse the will. Blessed are those 
 merciful who labour to help the self-helpless slothful, 
 and betimes to arouse him. 
 
 It is never too early to fight against sloth in one 
 committed to my charge, — or in myself. It is never 
 too early, but ere long it may be too late. 
 
 Febrtiary 27. 
 
 A HANDY Mole who plied no shovel 
 
 To excavate his vaulted hovel, 
 
 While hard at work met in mid-furrow 
 
 An Earthworm boring out his burrow. 
 
 Our Mole had dined and must grow thinner 
 
 Before he gulped a second dinner, •
 
 A READING DIARY. 41 
 
 And on no other terms cared he 
 To meet a worm of low degree. 
 The Mole turned on his blindest eye 
 Passing that base mechanic by ; 
 The Worm entrenched in actual blindness 
 Ignored or kindness or unkindness ; 
 Each wrought his own exclusive tunnel 
 To reach his own exclusive funnel. 
 
 A plough its flawless track pursuing 
 Involved them in one common ruin. 
 Where now the mine and countermine, 
 The dined-on and the one to dine? 
 The impartial ploughshare of extinction 
 Annulled them all without distinction. 
 
 February 28. 
 
 The difference between heaven and human attempts 
 at describing heaven may, I think, be illustrated by the 
 difference between pure colour and pigments or dyes. 
 
 Such colour as is cast by a prism is absolutely pure, 
 intangible, incapable (it would appear) of analysis. It 
 is not so much as a film : it is, so to say, a mode, a 
 condition. 
 
 Far otherwise is it with dyes and pigments. These 
 exhibit colour, while their substance is by no means 
 colour, but is merely that field upon which light ren- 
 ders visible one or other of its component tints. 
 Animal, vegetable, or mineral, the substance may be ; 
 oily, gummy, watery, simple, compound ; however 
 dense or however translucent, equally an appreciable 
 body. 
 
 Now just as prismatic hues take no hold of aught 
 on which they fall, but like the pure light which is
 
 42 TIME FLIES 
 
 their parent are shifting, evanescent, intangible ; while 
 dyes seize on what they come in contact with and 
 affect it permanently : so any literal revelation of 
 heaven would appear to be over spiritual for us ; we 
 need something grosser, something more familiar and 
 more within the range of our experience. 
 
 The heavenly symbol attracts : what will be the 
 heavenly reality? 
 
 It was blessed to know Christ on earth : what will 
 it be to know Him not as mortal eye hath seen, or 
 mortal ear heard, or mortal heart conceived ? 
 
 February 29. 
 
 "SEEING is believing." This proverb conveys some- 
 times a truth, sometimes an untruth : for less depends 
 on the ''seeing" than on the seer. 
 
 " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear : 
 but now mine eye seeth Thee/' said pious Job ; and 
 forthwith abhorred his errors, repenting in dust and 
 ashes. His was the genuine seeing eye, for his was 
 the honest godly heart. 
 
 On the other hand, of the multitude who gazed on 
 Christ crucified, how many discerned Him? Their 
 chief priests and scribes said in mockery: "Let Christ 
 the king of Israel descend now from the cross, that 
 we may see and believe." Yet would He not descend 
 thence: even because to be that very King of Israel at 
 whom they cavilled, it behoved Christ to suffer those 
 things and by that road to enter into His glory. 
 
 "And this is the condemnation, that light is come 
 into the world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds were evil." 
 
 " From all blindness of heart, Good Lord, deliver 
 us."
 
 A READING DIARY. 43 
 
 March 1. 
 
 Feast of St. David, Archbishop of the Welsh Church, and ac- 
 counted Patron Saint of Wales. Died presumably in the year 544 ; at 
 which period, according to different dates proposed for his birth, he was 
 aged either eighty-two or ninety-eight. 
 
 To him the honour appertains of having convened 
 in the year 529 a Synod whereby the Pelagian heresy 
 was overthrown : which Synod was thence styled the 
 Synod of Victory. 
 
 Glorious and happy are those champions who purge 
 the Church from error : this is the privilege of a few. 
 among whom St. David ranks. Meanwhile all Chris- 
 tians, the lofty and the lowly alike, are called to walk 
 in daily holiness : and to such no less St. David sets 
 a pattern. Study his portrait as handed down to us 
 by Giraldus Cambrensis (I quote at second hand) : — 
 
 " He was a doctrine to his hearers, a guide to the 
 religious, a light to the poor, a support to the orphans, 
 a protection to widows, a father to the fatherless, a 
 rule to monks, and a path to seculars, being made all 
 things to all men that he might bring all to God." 
 
 %* My "black letter Feasts" have been studied mainly from "The 
 Lives of the Saints," by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould ; from which interest- 
 ing work most of my quotations, whether at first hand or at second 
 hand, are taken. Recording these facts, I record no less my permanent 
 obligation to the Author. 
 
 March 2. 
 
 Feast of St. Chad, Bishop of Lichfield: born in the year 620 (?), 
 died about 672. 
 
 HOLY in retirement and holy in public life this saint 
 preferred lowliness to pomp, and in his first Bishoprick 
 performed pastoral journeys not on horseback but
 
 44 TIME FLIES: 
 
 on foot. Some irregularity may have attended his 
 elevation to the episcopacy : if so, this was afterwards 
 rectified by Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. 
 
 Bishop Chad sets us an example of godly fear : — 
 " If it happened that there blew a strong gust of wind, 
 when he was reading or doing anything else, he at 
 once called upon God for mercy, and begged it might 
 be extended to all mankind. If it blew stronger, he, 
 prostrating himself, prayed more earnestly. But if it 
 proved a violent storm of wind or rain, or of thunder 
 and lightning, he would pray and repeat Psalms in the 
 church till the weather became calm. Being asked 
 by his followers why he did so, he answered, ' Have ye 
 not read, — The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 
 and the Highest gave forth His voice ; yea, He sent 
 out His arrows and scattered them, and He shot out 
 lightnings and discomfited them ? For the Lord 
 moves the air, raises the winds, darts lightning, and 
 thunders from heaven to excite the inhabitants of the 
 earth to fear Him ; to put them in mind of the future 
 judgment ; to dispel their pride and vanquish their 
 boldness, by bringing into their thoughts that dreadful 
 time when, the heavens and the earth being in a flame, 
 He will come in the clouds with great power and 
 majesty, to judge the quick and the dead. Wherefore 
 it behoves us to answer His heavenly admonition with 
 due fear and love.' " 
 
 March 3. 
 
 LAUGHING Life cries at the feast, — 
 Craving Death cries at the door, — 
 
 " Fish, or fowl, or fatted beast ? " — 
 "Come with me, thy feast is o'er."-
 
 A READING DIARY. 45 
 
 "Wreathe the violets."— "Watch them fade."— 
 " I am sunlight." — " I am shade : 
 
 I am the sun-burying west." — 
 " I am pleasure/' — " I am rest : 
 
 Come with me, for I am best." 
 
 March 4. 
 
 My first vivid experience of death (if so I may term 
 it) occurred in early childhood in the grounds of a 
 cottage. 
 
 This little cottage was my familiar haunt: its 
 grounds were my inexhaustible delight. They then 
 seemed to me spacious, though now I know them to 
 have been narrow and commonplace. 
 
 So in these grounds, perhaps in the orchard, I 
 lighted upon a dead mouse. The dead mouse moved 
 my sympathy : I took him up, buried him com- 
 fortably in a mossy bed, and bore the spot in 
 mind. 
 
 It may have been a day or two afterwards that 
 I returned, removed the moss coverlet, and looked . . . 
 a black insect emerged. I fled in horror, and for long 
 years ensuing I never mentioned this ghastly ad- 
 venture to anyone. 
 
 Now looking back at the incident I see that neither 
 impulse was unreasonable, although the sympathy 
 and the horror were alike childish. 
 
 Only now contemplating death from a wider and 
 wiser view-point, I would fain reverse the order of 
 those feelings : dwelling less and less on the mere 
 physical disgust, while more and more on the rest 
 and safety ; on the perfect peace of death, please 
 God.
 
 46 TIME FLIES: 
 
 March 5. 
 
 Where shall I find a white rose blowing ?— 
 Out in the garden where all sweets be. — 
 
 But out in my garden the snow was snowing 
 And never a white rose opened for me. 
 
 Nought but snow and a wind were blowing 
 
 And snowing. 
 
 Where shall I find a blush rose blushing? — 
 On the garden wall or the garden bed. — 
 
 But out in my garden the rain was rushing 
 And never a blush rose raised its head. 
 
 Nothing glowing, flushing or blushing ; 
 
 Rain rushing. 
 
 Where shall I find a red rose budding? — 
 Out in the garden where all things grow. — 
 
 But out in my garden a flood was flooding 
 And never a red rose began to blow. 
 
 Out in a flooding what should be budding? 
 
 All flooding! 
 
 Now is winter and now is sorrow, 
 
 No roses but only thorns to-day: 
 Thorns will put on roses to-morrow, 
 
 Winter and sorrow scudding away. 
 No more winter and no more sorrow 
 To-morrow. 
 
 March 6. 
 
 In a certain little nest, built almost if not quite upon 
 the grassy ground, having a sheltering bush behind it, 
 and not far in front a railing, I one day saw three 
 naked young birds consisting mainly of three gaping 
 beaks.
 
 A READING DIARY. 47 
 
 Neither father nor mother in sight, there sat the 
 three wide open birds and beaks handy and prompt 
 in case anything edible should drop in. 
 
 There seemed a thousand chances that these par- 
 ticular nestlings should never attain to feathers and 
 years of discretion ; for like their own beaks their nest 
 spread wide open, and any passing cat might in a mo- 
 ment " finish the birds with the bones and the beaks." 
 Occasional cats were known to haunt those grounds. 
 
 Yet feather by feather the three became fledged ; 
 until deserting their nest they fluttered, perched, made 
 merry, among the world-wide family of birds. 
 
 Part of all this I saw, part was told me. I had felt 
 in doubt about the three and their prospects : but as 
 it turned out I had better have learnt a lesson they 
 were teaching me open-beaked. 
 
 With well-placed blind confidence they sat ready 
 and adapted to be fed. No visible agency did / dis- 
 cern at the moment, yet they gaped on unabashed and 
 unwearied. They settled themselves and persevered 
 in the attitude of recipients, and they lacked nothing. 
 
 I might well have recalled (though I did not) that 
 familiar verse of the Psalm : " Open thy mouth wide, 
 and I shall fill it." 
 
 " Ask now ... the fowls of the air, and they shall 
 tell thee." 
 
 March 7. 
 
 FEAST OF St. PERPETUA, Carthaginian Martyr under the Emperor 
 Severus in the year 203. 
 
 Vivia Perpetua of gentle birth and married as 
 befitted her birth, favourite child of her father, and 
 mother of a sucking baby, at the age of twenty-two 
 was cast into prison for the faith ; happy in this, that
 
 48 TIME FLIES: 
 
 an elect company went with her to bonds and to death. 
 Hard usage she sustained unflinchingly. Keener 
 still, she withstood her loving father's anger, his en- 
 treaties at her feet, his pleading her infant's helpless- 
 ness, his incurring a blow for her sake. She who 
 could triumph thus far was well able to triumph in the 
 arena over the wild cow which tossed but failed to 
 kill her, and afterwards over the unskilful gladiator 
 whose clumsiness prolonged her death pangs. 
 
 Noble she in every way : yet not more intrinsically 
 noble than the woman slave Felicitas, who enduring 
 with her to the end, with her likewise won a crown 
 "where there is neither . . . bond nor free : but Christ 
 is all, and in all." 
 
 March 8. 
 
 After midnight, in the dark 
 
 The clock strikes one, — 
 
 New day has begun. 
 Look up and hark ! 
 With singing heart forestall the carolling lark. 
 
 After midday, in the light 
 
 The clock strikes one, — 
 
 Day fall has begun. 
 Cast up, set right 
 The day's account against the on-coming night. 
 
 After noon and night, one day 
 
 For ever one 
 
 Ends not, once begun. 
 Whither away, 
 O brothers and O sisters'? Pause and pray.
 
 A READING DIARY. 49 
 
 March 9. 
 
 Dirt has been hopefully denned as "something out 
 of place." 
 
 This admirable definition applies no less encourag- 
 ingly to some faults. Where actually placed, they are 
 faults : placed elsewhere they might develop into 
 virtues. 
 
 Let obstinacy cleave to the right side, avarice hoard 
 in heaven, covetousness hanker after " the best gifts, ' 
 rashness launch out into ventures of faith, timidity fear 
 not them that can " kill the body, but Him Who can 
 destroy both soul and body in hell," — and then ob- 
 stinacy, avarice, covetousness, rashness, timidity, ma)' 
 look up and lift up their heads for their redemption 
 draweth nigh. 
 
 March. 10 
 
 The Table of days upon which Easter can possibly 
 fall, shows that there are twelve days which must in 
 all years alike be included among the forty-six week- 
 days and Sundays of Lent. 
 
 Of these the 10th of March is the first, the 21st 
 the last. 
 
 At this point a grand idea suggests itself: that for 
 nearly nineteen centuries these twelve solemn days, 
 like twelve Sybils arrayed in mourning robes, have 
 year by year sounded an alarm throughout the 
 Church's holy mountain ; calling on the faithful to 
 bewail the past, amend the present, face the future. 
 
 A grand idea if only it were a sound one ! But 
 varieties in the mode of computing Easter (not to 
 mention any other difficulty) forbid it. So all that 
 I can do with my " grand idea/' is to set it aside : 
 sound must give way to sense, fancy to fact. 
 
 E
 
 50 TIME FLIES : 
 
 For pious frauds are pinchbeck : pious honesty and 
 accuracy are gold. 
 
 March the ioth will do us great good, if it con- 
 duces to our becoming accurate. Many other achieve- 
 ments may look more impressive at first sight : but 
 let us wait and see ; for time will show, or if not time 
 eternity. Sooner or later we are likely to find 
 accuracy itself a solemn thing : most formidable when 
 infringed, yet sometimes when adhered to only less 
 formidable than when violated : a solemn duty, a 
 solemn discipline. 
 
 March 11. 
 
 Earth has clear call of daily bells, 
 A rapture where the anthems are, 
 A chancel-vault of gloom and star, 
 
 A thunder when the organ swells : 
 
 Alas, man's daily life— what else? — 
 
 Is out of tune with daily bells. 
 
 While Paradise accords the chimes 
 
 Of Earth and Heaven : its patient pause 
 Is rest fulfilling music's laws. 
 Saints sit and gaze, where oftentimes 
 Precursive flush of morning climbs 
 And air vibrates with coming chimes. 
 
 March 12. 
 
 Feast of St. Gregory the Great, Monk and Pope. Born of an 
 illustrious Roman family, about the middle of the sixth century, died 
 604. 
 
 THIS great Pope stands out among his fellow-men 
 by the lustre of his many gifts and graces. Noble 
 birth and wealth rendered accessible to him the high 
 places of this world, and he became Praetor of Rome.
 
 A READING DIARY. 51 
 
 Nor (according to some accounts) was it without a 
 conflict that the Grace of God weaned him from luxury 
 and splendour, nevertheless that sufficing Grace won 
 the victory : and after the year 574 the superb Praetor 
 had vanished, to reappear as the self-impoverished 
 Benedictine, the endower of monasteries, and bene- 
 factor of the poor. 
 
 As a monk he outran the austerities of his brethren 
 and undermined his health, devoting himself to mental 
 pursuits and to prayer. 
 
 Called in 577 to be a Cardinal Deacon, he was 
 afterwards sent on an embassy to Constantinople, 
 where he resided six years. Thence he returned to 
 his monastery, and by election of his brethren he be- 
 came their abbot. 
 
 In the year 590, on the death of Pope Pelagius II, 
 the unanimous voice of Rome called him to ascend 
 the pontifical throne. Vainly he appealed to the 
 Emperor Maurice, vainly he fled : the voice of the 
 nation, in this instance we may well believe the Voice 
 of God, spake, and it had to be done. 
 
 Thus the devout monk filled the papal chair, an 
 eminence demanding along with the spiritual graces 
 of a saint, the dominant gifts of a statesman : nor did 
 he fail under either aspect. He withstood and abased 
 theological error ; he carried further the liturgical 
 work of his predecessors by giving to public devotion 
 its actual form of words ; he added to words the 
 elevated musical tones which bear his name ; he in- 
 fluenced for good both France and Spain. Yet are 
 we of England bound beyond others to revere his 
 memory, for at his word St. Augustine came over and 
 helped our heathen forefathers to turn from darkness 
 to light. 
 
 One stain is alleged as marring the glory of St. 
 E a
 
 52 time flies: 
 
 Gregory, — an unworthy complacency to the murder- 
 ous usurping Emperor Phocas. Nevertheless to our- 
 selves he is truly a Father in God, to be venerated even 
 as our own Venerable Bede teaches us : " If Gregory be 
 not to others an apostle, he is one to us, for the seal 
 of his apostleship are we in the Lord.'"' 
 
 March 13. 
 
 Can false etymology ever be of use ? I think in 
 one instance it has been of use to me. 
 
 " Lent." Good as it is to understand one's own 
 language, I feel neither incited nor helped to observe 
 Lent by being referred to a German root. 
 
 But when once (however erroneously) I connect the 
 word with " a loan " : that which is lent, that which 
 being lent, not bestowed, will some day be with- 
 drawn : then it sounds an alarm in my ears. 
 
 Forty chances to be used or abused. 
 
 Forty appeals to be responded to or resisted. 
 
 Forty battles to be lost or won. 
 
 Forty days to be utilized or wasted. 
 
 And then the account to be closed, and the result 
 registered. 
 
 March 14. 
 
 2. 
 
 Or again, and yet more solemnly. 
 
 Lent : a loan of forty days : but such a loan as is 
 terminable at the pleasure of the Lender. 
 
 Lent : a loan of unguaranteed duration : the be- 
 ginning, by God's mercy, ours ; the end not assured 
 to us. 
 
 Lent : a period set us wherein specially to prepare
 
 A READING DIARY. $$ 
 
 for eternity : forty days long at the longest : can 
 forty days be accounted long when eternity is at 
 stake ? 
 
 " In the Day of Judgment, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 March 15. 
 
 Thy lilies drink the dew, 
 Thy lambs the rill, and I will drink them too ; 
 
 For those in purity 
 And innocence are types, dear Lord, of Thee. 
 
 The fragrant lily flower 
 Bows and fulfils Thy Will its lifelong hour; 
 
 The lamb at rest and play 
 Fulfils Thy Will in gladness all the day ; 
 
 They leave to-morrow's cares 
 Until the morrow, what it brings it bears. 
 
 And I, Lord, would be such ; 
 Not high, or great, or anxious overmuch, 
 
 Bat pure and temperate, 
 Earnest to do Thy Will betimes and late, 
 
 Fragrant with love and praise 
 And innocence through all my appointed days ; 
 
 Thy lily I would be 
 Spotless and sweet, Thy lamb to follow Thee. 
 
 March 16. 
 
 THE Impious Cudweed, — how can any weed have 
 earned so grim a title ? 
 
 In a very simple manner. 
 
 This cudweed puts forth a blossom which in its 
 turn puts forth around itself other blossoms. 
 
 The first-formed blossom stands like a father en- 
 circled by his children, their stock and source. 
 
 But the blossoms of the second generation lengthen
 
 54 TIME FLIES 
 
 their necks, and hold their heads high : they overtop 
 their parent : in a figure, they look down upon him. 
 
 For which loftiness our wise forefathers stigmatised 
 this plant as the Impious Cudweed. 
 
 March 17. 
 
 What is it Jesus saith unto the soul? — 
 
 " Take up the Cross, and come and follow Me." 
 One word He saith to all men : none may be 
 
 Without a Cross yet hope to touch the goal. 
 
 Then heave it bravely up, and brace thy whole 
 Body to bear ; it will not weigh on thee 
 Past strength ; or if it crush thee to thy knee 
 
 Take heart of grace, for grace shall be thy dole. 
 
 Give thanks to-day, and let to-morrow take 
 
 Heed to itself; to-day imports thee more, 
 To-morrow may not dawn like yesterday : 
 Until that unknown morrow, go thy way, 
 
 Suffer, and work, and strive for Jesus' sake : — 
 
 Who tells thee what to-morrow keeps in store ? 
 
 March 18. 
 
 Feast of St. Edward, King of the West Saxons. Born about 
 the year 962 ; murdered, 978 or 979. 
 
 We are happy in that the Anglican Calendar does 
 not appear to define this good young monarch as a 
 martyr, though elsewhere he has been styled such. 
 By a popular account he fell a victim to the jealousy 
 of his stepmother Elfrida, who, wishing her own son 
 to mount the throne, opened a way by causing Ed- 
 ward the elder half-brother to be stabbed. 
 
 Great is our privilege as members of the English 
 Church, in that we are not commanded, or invited, or
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 in any way encouraged to assert what contradicts 
 history, or to override facts by pious beliefs, or in any 
 form to hold " the thing that is not." 
 
 When we reflect on points susceptible of improve- 
 ment in our beloved Mother Church, it is well to 
 betake ourselves to prayer ; well also to give thanks 
 for her grace of sincerity, and to sue out, each one of 
 us for himself, his own individual share of so funda- 
 mental a grace. 
 
 If we are not truthful one by one, we shall never 
 add up as a truthful community. 
 
 March 19. 
 
 Watch yet a while, 
 
 Weep till that day shall dawn when thou shalt smile : 
 
 Watch till the day 
 
 When all save only Love shall pass away. 
 
 Then love rejoicing shall forget to weep, 
 
 Shall hope or fear no more, or watch or sleep, 
 
 But only love and stint not deep beyond deep. 
 
 Now we sow love in tears, but then shall reap. 
 
 Have patience as True Love's own flock of sheep: 
 
 Have patience with His love 
 
 Who served for us, Who reigns for us above. 
 
 March 20. 
 
 IT is good to be last not first 
 
 Pending the present distress, 
 It is good to hunger and thirst 
 
 So it be for righteousness. 
 It is good to spend and be spent, 
 
 It is good to watch and to pray, 
 Life and Death make a goodly Lent 
 
 So it leads us to Easter Day.
 
 56 TIME FLIES 
 
 March 21. 
 
 Feast of St. Benedict, Abbot. Born about the year 480 ; died 
 standing at the foot of the Altar of Monte Cassino, and beside his twin 
 sister's grave opened to receive him, 543. 
 
 This is that great and holy Benedict, by birth 
 noble, the Patriarch of Western Monachism. About 
 the age of fourteen he fled from the world and its 
 delights, and in a cave near Subiaco as a most austere 
 hermit conquered first himself; afterwards waxing 
 mighty to conquer a multitude of souls for Christ. 
 Disciples flocked around him. Yet a while, and 
 he removed with a small body of his spiritual sons to 
 Monte Cassino, and there founded the renowned 
 monastery, whence he migrated no more. 
 
 Amongst his chief glories ranks the conciliatory 
 influence whereby he promoted amity between the 
 barbarian conquerors of Italy and the down-trodden 
 sons of that lovely land. 
 
 He was a "repairer of the breach," a "restorer of 
 paths to dwell in." To God be the praise, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 March 22. 
 
 Christ's Heart was wrung for me, if mine is sore 
 
 And if my feet are weary, His have bled ; 
 
 He had no place wherein to lay His Head ; 
 If I am burdened, He was burdened more. 
 The cup I drink, He drank of long before ; 
 
 He felt the unuttered anguish which I dread ; 
 
 He hungered Who the hungry thousands fed, 
 And thirsted Who the world's refreshment bore.
 
 A READING DIARY. 57 
 
 Tf grief be such a looking-glass as shows 
 
 Christ's Face and mans in some sort made alike, 
 Then grief is pleasure with a subtle taste : 
 Wherefore should any fret, or faint, or haste? 
 Grief is not grievous to a soul that knows 
 
 Christ comes,— and listens for that hour to strike. 
 
 March 23. 
 
 In common parlance Strong and Weak are merely 
 relative terms : thus the "strong " of one sentence will 
 be the " weak " of another. 
 
 We behold the strong appointed to help the weak : 
 Angels who " excel in strength," men. And equally 
 the weak the strong : woman " the weaker vessel," 
 man. 
 
 This, though it should not inflate any, may fairly 
 buoy us all up. For every human creature may lay 
 claim to strength, or else to weakness : in either case 
 to helpfulness. " We that are strong," writes St. Paul, 
 proceeding to state a duty of the strong. We who 
 are weak may study the resources of the weak. 
 
 Of our Divine Lord a prophetic Psalm speaking in 
 His Person saith : "I am feeble and sore smitten," 
 and this in close connexion with that almighty work 
 of Atonement, whereby He took our place, and bore 
 our guilt and our penalty. 
 
 And following afar off in Christ's footsteps, the 
 many-sided St. Paul asks : " Who is weak, and I am 
 not weak ? " 
 
 Now helpfulness being constituted our privilege^ of 
 necessity it becomes likewise our duty. The dignity 
 entails the charge. 
 
 How, then, can you or I help? One obvious un- 
 answerable answer is, " By prayer" : yet must we not
 
 58 TIME FLIES 
 
 make of prayer a lazy substitute for other forms of 
 help. 
 
 By peering all round us (in hopes of seeing and 
 not of not seeing) we may very likely discern quite 
 unforeseen openings for rendering assistance forspend- 
 ing and being spent. For instance: Can a child save his 
 country? Hear what a boy only eight years old did. 
 
 He was I suppose a Dutch boy, doubtless aware in 
 his childish way of the all-importance of dams and 
 dykes. One evening returning home from a visit, he 
 noticed a dribble through one of those flood-barriers. 
 How cope with this literal "letting out of water"? 
 Some might have fetched help : not so he. He thrust 
 his eight-year-old finger into the leak, and all night 
 long held it there, plugging out the advancing ruin. 
 In the morning there he was found, worn indeed, but 
 not worn out. 
 
 " Who follows in his train ? " 
 
 March 24. 
 
 Vigil of the Annunciation. 
 
 The month of March is liable to frost and to 
 boisterous wind, yet its sun has acquired strength, and 
 its earth puts forth violets. 
 
 Such a world as March favours seems the very world 
 for this vigil : rich in firstfruits of life, rich in promise, 
 yet withal cold and full of unrest ; visited by strong 
 sunshine to remind us how the Archangel Gabriel, 
 "the strength of God/' came down from heaven 
 bearing to this groaning and travailing creation a 
 message of consolation and revival ; and putting forth 
 violets with bowed heads, veiling leaves, exquisite 
 fragrance, to set before us in a symbol the Virgin 
 "Handmaid of the Lord" in the loveliness of her 
 gifts and graces.
 
 A READING DIARY. 59 
 
 March 25. 
 
 Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 " BEHOLD the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto 
 me according to thy word." Thus, as on this day, 
 " the choice one of her that bare her " answered the 
 angelic announcement that she should bring forth the 
 Son of God. 
 
 An Archangel visited a Saint, a Saint received an 
 Archangel. 
 
 We discern, so to say, nothing but angels and saints 
 taking sweet counsel together and walking in that 
 house of God as friends ; their thoughts engrossed by 
 God, their hearts set not on themselves or on each 
 other, but on God. 
 
 If the approach of Christ wrought up these twain to 
 such a height of piety, whereunto cannot His indwell- 
 ing exalt us? 
 
 St. Paul wrote : " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
 in me;" and again: "I can do all things through 
 Christ which strengthened! me." 
 
 March 26. 
 
 A BURDENED heart that bleeds and bears, 
 
 And hopes and waits in pain, 
 And faints beneath its fears and cares, 
 Yet hopes again. 
 
 Wilt Thou accept the heart I bring, 
 
 O gracious Lord and kind, 
 
 To ease it of a torturing sting, 
 
 And staunch and bind ?
 
 60 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Alas, if Thou wilt none of this, 
 
 None else have I to give : 
 Look Thou upon it as it is, 
 Accept, relieve. 
 
 Or if Thou wilt not yet relieve, 
 
 Be not extreme to sift : 
 Accept a faltering will to give, — 
 Itself Thy gift. 
 
 March 27. 
 
 By the Mosaic Law fish were omitted and honey 
 was excluded from sacrifice. 
 
 Beasts and birds appear privileged, fish humiliated ; 
 flour, oil, exalted, honey abased. 
 
 Look again. 
 
 The only time that we are distinctly told what ordi- 
 nary food it was which Christ partook of, was when ac- 
 cepting from His disciples " a piece of a broiled fish, 
 and of an honeycomb," He did eat before them. 
 
 Christ, God of God, Very God of Very God. 
 
 This life is full of shallow judgments and one-sided 
 estimates. 
 
 If in this world Apostles were "the offscouring of 
 all things," we may well hope that much besides of the 
 overlooked refuse of earth will reappear amongst the 
 treasure of heaven. 
 
 We may well hope that it will reappear. " Let us 
 also fear," lest we be not there to recognise it. 
 
 March 28. 
 
 Is it any disadvantage when the performance of duty 
 is attended by unavoidable pain or difficulty, and so by 
 an involuntary tinge of disrelish ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 6l 
 
 Not necessarily a disadvantage. Grievous beset- 
 ments may turn to our greater edification and profit, 
 so long as we guard against difficulty breeding discon- 
 tent, or pain a grudge. 
 
 Such a point was once illustrated to me in conversa- 
 tion : — 
 
 A vigorous man strolls a couple of miles along 
 country lanes to call on an acquaintance : the act is 
 friendly, and as such it is accepted. The same man, 
 grown gouty, hobbles his two miles on tortured feet, 
 reluctant, yet eager, because he " loveth at all times." 
 Which walk gives the higher proof of love ? Which 
 will most endear him to his friend ? 
 
 March 29. 
 
 LIE still, my restive heart, lie still : 
 God's Word to thee saith, " Wait and bear." 
 The good which He appoints is good, 
 The good which He denies were ill : 
 Yea, subtle comfort is thy care, 
 Thy hurt a help not understood. 
 
 " Friend, go up higher," to one : to one, 
 
 " Friend, enter thou My joy," He saith : 
 
 To one, " Be faithful unto death." 
 
 For some a wilderness doth flower, 
 
 Or day's work in one hour is done, — 
 
 "But thou, could'st thou not watch one hour?" 
 
 March 30. 
 
 I. 
 
 ONCE in Scotland, while staying at a hospitable 
 friend's castle, I observed, crossing the floor of my
 
 62 TIME FLIES 
 
 bedroom, a rural insect. I will call it, though I dare- 
 say it was not one in strictness, a pill millepede. 
 
 Towards my co-tenant I felt a sort of good will not 
 inconsistent with an impulse to eject it through the 
 window. 
 
 I stooped and took it up, when in a moment a 
 swarm of baby millepedes occupied my hand in their 
 parent's company. 
 
 Surprised, but resolute, I hurried on, and carried out 
 my scheme successfully ; observing the juniors retire 
 into cracks outside the window as adroitly as if they 
 had been centenarians. 
 
 Pondering over this trifle, it seems to me a parable 
 setting forth visibly and vividly the incalculable ele- 
 ment in all our actions. I thought to pick up one 
 millepede, and behold ! I was transporting a numerous 
 family. 
 
 If thus we cannot estimate the full bearing of action, 
 how shall we hope to estimate the full extent of 
 influence ? I thought to catch one millepede, and an 
 entire family lay at my mercy! 
 
 March 31. 
 
 2. 
 
 In that self-same bedchamber I used to answer 
 matutinal taps, supposing myself called : and lo ! it 
 was only a tapping of jackdaws or of starlings lodged 
 in the turrets. 
 
 Winged creatures they were, but neither angel 
 visitants nor warning summoners. How many fancied 
 calls or omens are in fact no more significant than 
 jackdaws or starlings ? 
 
 On the other hand : to him " that hath ears to hear," 
 any good creature of God may convey a message.
 
 A READING DIARY. 63 
 
 April 1. 
 
 A Castle-builder's World. 
 "The line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." — (Isaiah xxxiv.i I.) 
 
 Unripe harvest there hath none to reap it 
 
 From the misty, gusty place ; 
 Unripe vineyard there hath none to keep it 
 
 In unprofitable space. 
 Living men and women are not found there, 
 
 Only masks in flocks and shoals ; 
 Flesh-and-bloodless hazy masks surround there 
 
 Ever wavering orbs and poles ; 
 Flesh-and-bloodless vapid masks abound there. 
 
 Shades of bodies without souls. 
 
 April 2. 
 
 I HAVE an impression (for I will not relate my ad- 
 venture quite positively) that in my youth, being at 
 that time too ignorant to appreciate such a rarity, in 
 one of my country walks I found what I can only call 
 a four-leafed trefoil. 
 
 Perhaps I plucked and so destroyed it : I certainly 
 left it, for most certainly I have it not. 
 
 Not that I thought nothing of it : I thought it 
 curious, pointed it out, I daresay, to my companion, 
 and left it. 
 
 Now I would give something to recover that 
 wonder : then, when I might have had it for the carry- 
 ing, I left it. 
 
 Once missed, one may peer about in vain all the 
 rest of one's days for a second four-leafed trefoil. 
 
 No one expects to find whole fields of such : even 
 one, for once, is an extra allowance. 
 
 Life has, so to say, its four-leafed trefoils for a
 
 64 TIME FLIES : 
 
 favoured few : and how many of us overlook once and 
 finally our rare chance ! 
 
 Well, whether literally or figuratively, but one thing 
 then remains tor us to do : to walk humbly and thank- 
 fully among this world's whole fields of three-leafed 
 trefoil. 
 
 April 3. 
 
 Feast of St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester. Born about the year 
 1198, died 1253. 
 
 St. Richard had his share of public troubles faced 
 and borne as became a Christian ; and lightened to 
 him doubtless by the support of Divine Grace, even 
 more than by that kindly and affectionate heart, which 
 having endeared his person to his familiars, now en- 
 dears his memory to ourselves. 
 
 As in life, so in death, he edifies us : — 
 " When he was standing hearing Mass, he fell down 
 in a fit, and was carried into his bed in the ward of 
 the hospital. On coming to himself, he told his 
 chaplain that he would never rise again from that bed, 
 and he bade him secretly prepare everything for his 
 funeral. His old friend, Master Simon de Terring, 
 who had entertained him during the time that the 
 property of the see was confiscated, drew near the 
 bed; St. Richard turned his peaceful face towards 
 him, and said, ' I was glad when they said unto me, 
 We will go into the house of the Lord.' " 
 
 April 4. 
 
 Feast of St. Ambrose, Confessor and Bishop of Milan. Born about 
 the year 340, died 397. 
 
 Two glorious deeds stand out prominently in the 
 career of St. Ambrose. He put the Emperor Theo- 
 dosius to public penance for a horrid massacre whereby
 
 A READING DIARY. 65 
 
 he had stained his soul : and he became God's instru- 
 ment in the conversion to the true faith of St. Augustin, 
 afterwards Bishop of Hippo. 
 
 No less venerable does he appear as a defender of 
 the Catholic Church against the Arian heresy, and as 
 a Father and Doctor whose writings form part of that 
 Church's permanent dowry of wisdom. 
 
 A pretty story is related of his infancy : how a 
 swarm of bees alighted on his mouth while he slept, 
 and took wing again leaving him unhurt. Which 
 incident conveyed to paternal affection an augury of 
 his mature eloquence. 
 
 Thus lips for the moment speechless, and creatures 
 permanently destitute of speech, combined to deliver 
 an intelligible message to one who had love for an 
 interpreter. 
 
 All creation would teach us spiritual lessons and 
 gladden us by heavenly meanings, if we cherished 
 that same interpreter. 
 
 " Beloved, let us love one another : for love is of 
 God ; and every one that loveth is born of God, and 
 knoweth God." 
 
 April 5. 
 
 Heaven's chimes are slow, but sure to strike at last 
 Earth's sands are slow, but surely dropping through 
 And much we have to suffer, much to do, 
 Before the time be past. 
 
 Chimes that keep time are neither slow nor fast : 
 Not many are the numbered sands nor few : 
 A time to suffer, and a time to do, 
 And then the time is past. 
 F
 
 66 TIME FLIES 
 
 April 6. 
 
 WEIGH all my faults and follies righteously, 
 Omissions and commissions, sin on sin ; 
 Make deep the scale, O Lord, to weigh them in ; 
 
 Yea, set the Accuser vulture-eyed to see 
 
 All loads ingathered which belong to me : 
 That so in life the judgment may begin, 
 And Angels learn how hard it is to win 
 
 One solitary sinful soul to Thee. 
 
 I have no merits for a counterpoise : 
 Oh vanity my work and hastening day, 
 
 What can I answer to the accusing voice? 
 
 Lord, drop Thou in the counterscale alone 
 One Drop from Thine own Heart, and overweigh 
 My guilt, my folly, even my heart of stone. 
 
 April 7. 
 
 " I HAVE prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not," 
 spake our Adorable Almighty Lord to St. Peter. 
 
 Yet the Apostle's faith failed, not finally indeed, but 
 with a pitiable temporary lapse. 
 
 Wherefore does our Lord thus, by His Evangelist, 
 declare to His whole cherished Church that even His 
 own intercession was not at once and to the full 
 efficacious ? 
 
 Surely not for our discouragement, but rather to 
 uphold us by the strong consolation of an inexhaustible 
 hope. 
 
 He, perfect in wisdom, power, love, waited patiently 
 for His prayer's fulfilment, enduring for the moment 
 that it should apparently fail. 
 
 If in the light of His Example we cannot wait 
 patiently, and thus waiting cannot pray and pray
 
 A READING DIARY. 67 
 
 again for those we love trembling, if we will not endure 
 rebuffs, and hope against hope, yea, and though God 
 slay us and ours still trust in Him, then is our own 
 faith faltering if it has not already failed. 
 
 How reinforce it? There may be higher and better 
 ways, yet I think this humble way will not displease 
 Him : by an appeal for that gift of faith without 
 which it is impossible to please God, and on the very 
 ground that without it we cannot offer up availing 
 intercessions. 
 
 April 8. 
 
 "Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate; 
 . . . even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths." — (Lev xxvi' 
 34-) 
 
 NOW this territory whereof the text speaks was the 
 Holy Land, the abode of the Holy Nation. 
 
 Viewed in reference to each other, it was the nation 
 that sanctified the land rather than the land the na- 
 tion : and this, because it appertains to the higher 
 and not to the lower element to consecrate its fellow. 
 
 It was so, that is, in theory. In practice, Israel 
 oftentimes and widely desecrated their hallowed 
 dwelling-place. They, living, were the nobler ele- 
 ment; she, lifeless, whilst filled with them became 
 defiled by their defilements ; emptied of them, re- 
 covered her passive proper sanctity. 
 
 They were like the soul, she like the body. 
 
 Let us thus think of all our dead, reverencing and 
 hoping for them. Be they what they may, their bodies 
 are for the present keeping sabbath: and "if Thou, 
 Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, 
 O Lord, who may abide it?" 
 
 "He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge 
 nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who 
 
 ¥ %
 
 68 TIME FLIES : 
 
 both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
 and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts : 
 and then shall every man have praise of God." 
 
 It was again a holy nation which at last re-entered 
 its own holy land of promise. 
 
 " He putteth his mouth in the dust ; if so be there 
 may be hope." 
 
 April 9. 
 
 REST remains, when all is done, 
 Work and vigil, prayer and fast, 
 All fulfilled from first to last, 
 All the length of time gone past 
 
 And eternity begun. 
 
 Fear and hope and chastening rod 
 Urge us on the narrow way : 
 Bear we now as best we may 
 Heat and burden of to-day, 
 
 Struggling, panting up to God. 
 
 April 10. 
 
 One day long ago I sat in a certain garden by 
 a certain ornamental water. 
 
 I sat so long and so quietly that a wild garden 
 creature or two made its appearance : a water rat, 
 perhaps, or a water-haunting bird. Few have been 
 my personal experiences of the sort, and this one 
 gratified me. 
 
 I was absorbed that afternoon in anxious thought, 
 yet the slight incident pleased me. If by chance 
 people noticed me they may have thought how dull 
 and blank I must be feeling : and partly they would 
 have been right, but partly wrong.
 
 A READING DIARY. 69 
 
 Many (I hope) whom we pity as even wretched, 
 may in reality, as I was at that moment, be conscious 
 of some small secret fount of pleasure : a bubble, per- 
 haps, yet lit by a dancing rainbow. 
 
 I hope so and I think so : for we and all creatures 
 alike are in God's hand, and God loves us. 
 
 April 11. 
 
 AMONG duties which are characteristically Christian 
 there is not one more plainly prescribed than the love 
 of enemies. Moreover, this duty once laid down 
 commends itself forthwith to man's noblest sympathies : 
 it appears ravishingly lovely, irresistibly attractive, to 
 eyes inured to gaze on Christ. 
 
 Most people, I assume, have no private and personal 
 enemies of their own : but so long as they themselves 
 are ranged on God's side, God's enemies become 
 theirs. 
 
 All sinners, all shortcomers,all criminals, all are to 
 be beloved, if not as friends then as enemies. 
 
 But which of us is the lover and which the beloved 
 in this connexion? The best of us is a sinner, the 
 worst of us may become a saint. 
 
 If we love all, we shall be the less likely to class 
 erroneously either ourself or our neighbour. 
 
 April 12. 
 
 "His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his de- 
 sire upon his enemies." — (Ps. cxii. 8.) 
 
 What desire ? The Psalmist does not say. 
 
 But Christians are privileged to read the sentence 
 in the light of Gospel perfection : to us Christ has 
 said : " Love your enemies."
 
 70 TIME FLIES 
 
 What then is a worthy desire for enemies? The 
 same as for friends. As St. Paul writes to his 
 beloved Corinthians: "We are glad . . . when ye 
 are strong : and this also we wish, even your perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 But mounting higher he writes to the Romans : 
 "God commendeth His love toward us . . . when we 
 were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death 
 of His Son." 
 
 Yet far above, as it were even out of St. Paul's 
 sight, Christ Himself ascends when He calls those 
 same enemies friends, saying : " Greater love hath no 
 man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
 friends." 
 
 " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
 is none of His." 
 
 " Go, and do thou likewise." 
 
 April 13. 
 
 A COLD wind stirs the blackthorn 
 
 To burgeon and to blow, 
 Besprinkling half-green hedges 
 
 With vegetable snow. 
 
 Through coldness and through keenness, 
 
 Dear hearts, take comfort so : 
 Somewhere or other doubtless, 
 
 These make the blackthorn blow. 
 
 April 14. 
 
 To be a saint at all, man must become like God : 
 to be at all like God, man must become a saint. 
 
 I suppose there is no Divine Perfection more
 
 A READING DIARY. 71 
 
 vividly reflected in the dim human mirror than the 
 Divine Love of sinners. 
 
 In the purest, loftiest, most spiritual heart of man 
 or woman, oftentimes next to God Supreme, sits en- 
 shrined some one beloved sinful soul. 
 
 Sinful, I mean, among sinners : for if any of us 
 " say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
 the truth is not in us." 
 
 On behalf of such cherished souls no gift is grudged: 
 not tears, or prayers, or agony of fear, or anguish of a 
 lifetime. For their sakes hearts more precious than 
 most precious alabaster are broken and pour forth 
 fragrance, and drain out the last drops of life, and 
 would and can keep back nothing, if so be their sacri- 
 fice may win acceptance. 
 
 Of those who " love much," many love thus : and is 
 not theirs a life worth living, leading up, and not down, 
 to a death worth dying? 
 
 April 15. 
 
 I HAVE never forgotten the courageous reverence 
 with which one to whom a friend was exhibiting prints 
 from the Book of Job, avowed herself afraid to look at 
 a representation which went counter to the Second 
 Commandment, and looked not at it. 
 
 A host of us talk " as seeing Him Who is invisible:" 
 she so acted. 
 
 Blessed she who then set to her seal that God is 
 true, and since then has " died in faith." 
 
 Oh ! what is earth, that we should build 
 Our houses here, and seek concealed 
 Poor treasure, and add field to field,
 
 72 TIME FLIES 
 
 And heap to heap, and store to store, 
 Still grasping more, and seeking more, 
 While step by step Death nears the door ? 
 
 April 16. 
 
 Some people have it as their lifelong characteristic 
 to rank not first but second in their particular world, 
 circle, career, groove. 
 
 Such persons may be positively good, comparatively 
 inferior : positively liked, comparatively unloved. 
 
 They are the Ajax Telamons of everyday life. 
 
 Amongst the few familiar to me, Ajax Telamon 
 stands out as one of the noblest and most pathetic 
 figures of mythical (?) antiquity. As a warrior un- 
 surpassed, except by rapid-footed Achilles. Mighty to 
 hoist and hurl a rock, yet at the game of hurling out- 
 done by Polypoetes. Gigantic in strength, yet at a 
 trial of strength foiled by adroit Ulysses ; who subse- 
 quently contested with him and won the Vulcanian 
 Arms. Losing heart at last and self-destroyed, the 
 victim of sheer shame. 
 
 But after all I fancy that some of us (I certainly for 
 one) care more now for Ajax than for those who at 
 some point excelled him. The comparative aspect has 
 faded away, the positive remains. 
 
 If even time lasts long enough to reverse a verdict 
 of time, how much more eternity? 
 
 Let us take courage, secondary as we may for the 
 present appear. Of ourselves likewise the compara- 
 tive aspect will fade away, the positive will remain.
 
 A READING DIARY. 73 
 
 April 17. 
 
 "Our soul loatheth this light bread."— (Numbers xxi. 5.) 
 "Is there any taste in the white of an egg?" — (Job vi. 6.) 
 
 THAT first is the speech of certain carnal Israelites 
 concerning the Manna : that last, of one sorely tried 
 Saint concerning the natural food in question. 
 
 Manna, we know on Divine authority, is a type of 
 the Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood 
 (see St. John vi. 26-58). An egg (though not by 
 revelation) is one commonly accepted symbol of the 
 Resurrection. Thus both combine in bearing a re- 
 ference to the same life-sustaining Sacrament. 
 
 And, alas ! if the two symbols bear such a reference, 
 so also do the two murmurs. Still the natural man 
 craves not for spiritual nourishment of his spiritual 
 self, but rather for gross relishing bodily indulgence : 
 and still many a harassed saint feels in silence — God 
 grant to us all the grace at least of silence — that there 
 is no " taste " for him in "the Life of the world." 
 
 Let us turn to a different discouragement : perhaps 
 one may throw light upon the other. 
 
 I suppose I do not stand alone in feeling (at least 
 on unreasoning impulse) as if our Blessed Lord in 
 the days of His mortality, whilst man's eyes could 
 look upon and his hands handle that living and 
 breathing " Word of Life," appeared more winningly 
 accessible, less awe-striking, less overwhelming than 
 He does now. The element of doubt was in great 
 measure excluded from Face to face intercourse with 
 Him. Men, women, children could see and hear, and 
 in some degree could estimate His inviting Aspect, 
 His gracious Voice: when He said "Come unto Me," 
 "Follow Me," His Will and pleasure were spoken 
 plainly and not in parables.
 
 74 TIME FLIES 
 
 We ourselves, on the contrary, look forward to 
 never beholding Him until He comes " to be our 
 Judge," revealing that Face from which earth and 
 heaven shall flee away. Meanwhile we approach His 
 Altar in dimness : our own sinfulness comes home to 
 us by every channel of conviction; "Him we see 
 not." 
 
 Lord, make us even as those Thy beloved blind 
 men who first beheld Thy Face of Love when their 
 eyes were opened, but on whom Thy Face of Love 
 was also bent while they beheld it not. Amen. 
 
 April 18. 
 
 1 REMEMBER rising early once to see the sun rise. 
 
 I rose too early, and waited wearily and impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 At length the sun rose. 
 
 At length ? Scarcely. The sun kept time, though 
 I kept it not : the sun lagged not because I hurried. 
 
 If the material sun fails not, much more is that 
 supreme "Sun" infallible whereof we read: "Unto 
 you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness arise." 
 
 Therefore, neither doth our Lord delay His coming, 
 however the Church expectant may reiterate, " Why 
 is His chariot so long in coming? why tarry the 
 wheels of His chariots ? " 
 
 " Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that 
 one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack 
 concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; 
 but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any 
 should perish, but that all should come to repent- 
 ance."
 
 A READING DIARY. 75 
 
 April 19. 
 
 Feast of St. Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury. Born 
 in Brita n, about the year 954; died 1012. 
 
 In early life St. Alphege renounced the world and 
 took up his abode in a monastery. There, with great 
 devotion to God, he carried on the labour of self- 
 conquest. He became an abbot; then Bishop of 
 Winchester; finally, on the death of Archbishop Aelfric, 
 he was translated to the see of Canterbury, in the year 
 1006. 
 
 In his days Denmark scourged England, and by the 
 Danes he met his death. A captive in their hands, he 
 was rated by them at a heavy ransom, but remained 
 resolute that no such sum should for his sake be 
 wrung from his already impoverished country. Which 
 patriotism cost him his life : he was pelted with bones 
 and horns, until one of the Danes (there is room to 
 hope from a merciful motive) struck him dead with an 
 axe. 
 
 It has been questioned whether St. Alphege, who 
 died not for the truth's sake, but by an heroic impulse 
 of self-sacrifice, is entitled to be styled a Martyr. 
 St. Anselm, however, acknowledges him as such. In 
 any case we may praise God for him as for one " of 
 whom the world was not worthy." 
 
 April 20. 
 
 PITEOUS my rhyme is, 
 What while I muse of love and pain, 
 Of love misspent, of love in vain, 
 Of love that is not loved again : 
 
 And is this all then ?
 
 j6 TIME FLIES: 
 
 As long as time is 
 Love loveth. Time is but a span, 
 The dalliance space of dying man : 
 And is this all immortals can? 
 
 The gain were small then. 
 
 Love loves for ever, 
 And finds a sort of joy in pain, 
 And gives with nought to take again, 
 And loves too well to end in vain: 
 
 Is the gain small then? 
 
 Love laughs at " never," 
 Outlives our life, exceeds the span 
 Appointed to mere mortal man : 
 That which love is and does and can, 
 
 Is all in all then. 
 
 April 21. 
 
 Once in conversation I happened to lay stress on 
 the virtue of resignation, when the friend I spoke to 
 depreciated resignation in comparison with conformity 
 to the Divine Will. 
 
 My spiritual height was my friend's spiritual hillock. 
 
 Not that he reproved me : standing on a higher 
 level he made the way obvious for others also to 
 ascend. 
 
 Now he was a man in continual pain, hindered and 
 hampered in his career by irremediable ill-health. 
 And moreover he was in occasional social intercourse 
 one of the most cheerful people I ever knew. 
 
 If only we — if only I were as resigned as he was 
 conformed ! 
 
 And why not ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 77 
 
 April 22. 
 
 ONE of the most genuine Christians I ever knew, 
 once took lightly the dying out of a brief acquaint- 
 ance which had engaged her warm heart, on the 
 ground that such mere tastes and glimpses of con- 
 genial intercourse on earth wait for their development 
 in heaven. 
 
 Then she knew Whom she trusted : nozu (please 
 God) she knows as she is known. 
 
 Lord, I had chosen another lot, 
 But then I had not chosen well ; 
 Thy choice and only Thine is good : 
 No different lot, search heaven and hell, 
 Had blessed me, fully understood ; 
 None other, which Thou orderest not. 
 
 April 23. 
 
 Feast of St. George, Martyr ; accounted Patron Saint of Eng- 
 land. The year 2S5 has been assigned as the date of his martyrdom ; 
 which event, however, has likewise been attributed to the year 303. 
 
 By a conjecture St. George is that certain man 
 (mentioned but unnamed in history) of whom it is 
 related that in the city of Nicomedia he publicly 
 tore to shreds an edict of Diocletian, as impious 
 and unworthy of observance. For this act he forfeited 
 mortal life, and went up to the glory of the life 
 immortal. 
 
 Far different from so kindling yet sober a narrative 
 is the career of our saint, according to widespread 
 romantic legend. Who does not think of St. George
 
 78 TIME FLIES 
 
 as a quasi-impossible personage slaying a dragon and 
 rescuing a princess ? 
 
 And by all means let us so picture him, only turning 
 the wild legend into a parable of truth. Thus the 
 dragon becomes the devil, whom the Christian cham- 
 pion overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and by the 
 word of his testimony, when he loved not his life unto 
 the death ; and the princess whom he protected and 
 served appears as no mortal bride of his own, but as 
 the Church, "the bride, the Lamb's wife." 
 
 Fabrications, blunders, even lies, frequently contain 
 some grain of truth : and though life at the longest 
 cannot be long enough for us to sift all, one occasion- 
 ally may repay the sifting. 
 
 April 24. 
 
 LORD, what have I to offer? sickening fear 
 
 And a heart-breaking loss. 
 Are these the cross Thou givest me? then dear 
 
 I will account this cross. 
 
 If this is all I have, accept even this 
 
 Poor priceless offering, 
 A quaking heart with all that therein is, 
 
 O Thou my thorn-crowned King. 
 
 Accept the whole, my God, accept my heart 
 
 And its own love within : 
 Wilt Thou accept us and not sift apart? 
 
 — Only sift out my sin.
 
 A READING DIARY. 79 
 
 April 25. 
 
 Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist; died about the year 68. 
 
 POPULAR though not undisputed tradition assigns a 
 Martyr's Crown to St. Mark ; a crown won in Egypt, 
 where as Bishop of Alexandria he was done to death 
 by an idolatrous mob : thus the legend imports. 
 
 Whether or not this evangelist is the same as 
 " Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas," named by St. Paul, 
 he was presumably that "Marcus my son" mentioned 
 by St. Peter ; this Apostle having, it is supposed, 
 supplied materials for St. Mark's Gospel. 
 
 But thus St. Mark's personality remains involved 
 in doubt. We know not whether, for aught that is 
 recorded to the contrary, he did not proceed in one 
 unbroken course on his road to perfection: or whether 
 he was once guilty of a grave backsliding narrated in 
 the Book of Acts, and afterwards apparently retrieved. 
 
 In the one case, his example inspirits saints to press 
 onward to the goal : in the other, it encourages peni- 
 tents to arise and return into the way of righteousness. 
 Either with Moses at the Red Sea he bids the people 
 go forward : or else with a Greater than Moses beside 
 another sea he tenderly provokes to good works, 
 saying, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how 
 great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath 
 had compassion on thee" — Divine words so fully 
 recorded in no Gospel besides his own. 
 
 April 2 6. 
 
 WHEN sick of life and all the world — 
 How sick of all the earth but Thee! — 
 I lift mine eyes up to the hills, 
 Eyes of my heart that see,
 
 8o TIME FLIES 
 
 I see beyond all death and ills 
 Refreshing green for heart and eyes, 
 The golden streets and gateways pearled, 
 The trees of Paradise. 
 
 " There is a time for all things," saith 
 The Word of Truth, Thyself the Word, 
 And many things Thou reasonest of: 
 
 A time for hope deferred, 
 But time is now for grief and fears ; 
 A time for life, but now is death ; 
 Oh ! when shall be the time of love, 
 
 When Thou shalt wipe our tears? 
 
 Then the new Heavens and Earth shall be 
 Where righteousness shall dwell indeed ; 
 There shall be no more blight, nor need, 
 
 Nor barrier of the sea ; 
 No sun and moon alternating, 
 For God shall be the Light thereof; 
 No sorrow more, no death, no sting, 
 
 For God Who reigns is Love. 
 
 April 27. 
 
 " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh, 
 it is a tree of life." — (Prov. xiii. 12.) 
 
 We feel or fancy ourselves quite at home in the first 
 clause of this proverb, whether or not we have deeply 
 and keenly experienced the heart sickness of which 
 it speaks. 
 
 But how about the second clause? 
 
 Left to myself, I at any rate might never have 
 caught its most blessed meaning. But one from whose 
 words I ought to have imbibed much wisdom, and
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 from whose example many virtues, once pointed out 
 the Cross of Christ Crucified as that Tree of Life 
 which satisfied the world's heartsick hope. 
 
 And if it suffices to slake a world's desire, whose 
 desire sufficeth it not to slake ? 
 
 Even as the Lord hath said : " I, if I be lifted up 
 from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." 
 
 " Draw me, we will run after Thee." 
 
 April 28. 
 
 A FRIEND once vividly described to me how in a 
 country walk he had remarked cobwebs shaped more 
 or less like funnels or tunnels, one end open to the 
 road, while deep down at the other end lay in wait 
 the spider. 
 
 I walked a little about the same country, and failed 
 to observe the spider. Fortunately for me I was not 
 a fly. 
 
 The spider was on the alert in his sphere, my 
 friend was on the alert in his higher sphere ; I alone, 
 it would seem, was not on the alert in either sphere. 
 
 If we turn all this into a parable, and magnify the 
 spider to human or superhuman scale, what must be- 
 come of the wayfarer who strolls along not on the 
 alert in any sphere ? 
 
 April 29. 
 
 2. 
 
 That funnel web seems to me an apt figure of the 
 world. 
 
 It exhibits beauty, ingenuity, intricacy. Imagine 
 G
 
 82 TIME FLIES: 
 
 it in the early morning jewelled with dewdrops, and 
 each of these at sunny moments a spark of light or a 
 section of rainbow. Woven, too, as no man could 
 weave it, fine and flexible, frail and tenacious. 
 
 Yet are its beauties of brilliancy and colour no real 
 part of it. The dew evaporates, the tints and sparkle 
 vanish, the tenacity remains, and at the bottom of all 
 lurks a spider. 
 
 Meanwhile a fly has been tempted in through the 
 wide mouth of easy access : a fly who returns no more. 
 What becomes of the fly takes place (happily) out of 
 sight : the less seen of that fly the better. 
 
 Or suppose that a pitiful passer by stops and stoops 
 to rescue the fly in mid funnel before the spider 
 clutches it. Out it comes alive indeed, but to what a 
 life! 
 
 If its wings are not left behind, they are swathed 
 around it as by a mummy cloth ; and if its legs 
 remain, so also are they. 
 
 Fine and flexible, frail and tenacious, the web 
 clings to the fly, although the fly clings not willingly 
 to the web. 
 
 At the worst, it must lie immovable and starve. At 
 the best, it must live an uncouth, hampered, degraded 
 life, at least for a time. 
 
 And this creature that can scarcely, or that cannot 
 crawl, is a creature endowed with wings ! 
 
 April 30. 
 
 " Eve hath not seen : " — yet man hath known and 
 weighed 
 A hundred thousand marvels that have been: 
 What is it which (the Word of Truth hath said) 
 Eye hath not seen?
 
 A READING DIARY. 83 
 
 " Ear hath not heard :" — yet harpings of delight, 
 Trumpets of triumph, song and spoken word, 
 Man knows them all : what lovelier, loftier might 
 Hath ear not heard ? 
 
 " Nor heart conceived :" — yet hath man now desired 
 Beyond all reach, beyond his hope believed, 
 Loved beyond death : what fire shall yet be fired, 
 No heart conceived? 
 
 " Deep calls to deep : " — man's depth would be despair 
 But for God's deeper depth : we sow to reap, 
 Have patience, wait, betake ourselves to prayer : 
 Deep answereth deep. 
 
 May 1. 
 
 Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles. 
 
 The Gospel tells us little specially of St. Philip, and 
 even less of St. James (the Less). Alike in office and 
 in grace, their careers, according to tradition, differed 
 widely. St. Philip, father of a family, endured mar- 
 tyrdom in the midst of certain benighted heathen : 
 St. James, in inviolate celibacy, was done to death at 
 Jerusalem by his own doubly benighted apostate coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 On their Feast Day they stand before us as it were 
 hand in hand: '"Behold, how good and joyful a thing 
 it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity!" 
 
 Whatever remains uncertain about them, of two 
 facts we rest assured : they loved God, and therefore 
 they cannot but have loved one another. 
 
 This double yet indivisible point of excellence is 
 indisputably true of all saints and of each saint. This 
 
 G 2
 
 84 TIME FLIES 
 
 we know of every one, even while of millions we can 
 ascertain nothing besides. 
 
 The world will know enough about us, if it know 
 this much : and even if the world know it not, it suffi- 
 ces so long as God knows it. 
 
 May 2. 
 
 Man's life is death. Yet Christ endured to live, 
 Preaching and teaching, toiling to and fro, 
 
 Few men accepting what He yearned to give, 
 Few men with eyes to know 
 His Face, that Face of Love He stooped to show. 
 
 Man's death is life. For Christ endured to die, 
 
 In slow unuttered weariness of pain, 
 A curse and an astonishment, passed by, 
 
 Pointed at, mocked again, 
 
 By men for whom He shed His blood — in vain? 
 
 May 3. 
 
 Feast of the Invention of the Cross. 
 
 According to a popular tradition St. Helena, 
 mother of Constantine the Great, " invented " or (as 
 we should now say) discovered the true Cross in the 
 earlier half of the fourth century. 
 
 If so, great was the privilege of St. Helena. 
 
 She sought (says the legend) for the sacred Cross 
 by removing an idol-temple from the site of the 
 crucifixion, and by causing the hallowed soil to be 
 excavated. Three crosses then came to light, when 
 our Lord's was identified by help of a miracle. If thus 
 she did once for all, she did it of course to the exclu- 
 sion of all mankind who should come after.
 
 A READING DIARY. 85 
 
 Must then our own privilege be less than hers? 
 Surely it may be far greater. 
 
 For our Lord Himself ever since the supreme Day 
 of Pentecost seeks (so to say) for His Cross, not in 
 senseless earth, but in each warm human heart. In 
 yours, in mine, He seeks it : does He find it ? 
 
 He finds it in every heart that for love of Him 
 suffers patiently, and at the least thankfully, if not 
 joyfully. 
 
 We are certain to know what suffering is, this needs 
 no disquisition : but do we know what patience is ? 
 If not, He finds not His Cross enshrined in our hearts 
 ... in my heart. 
 
 And if His Cross be not there, " what good shall 
 my life do me?" 
 
 May 4. 
 
 " One swallow does not make a summer." 
 
 A Rose which spied one swallow 
 
 Made haste to blush and blow : 
 
 "Others are sure to follow:" 
 
 Ah no, not so! 
 
 The wandering clouds still owe 
 
 A few fresh flakes of snow, 
 
 Chill fog must fill the hollow, 
 
 Before the bird-stream flow 
 
 In flood across the main 
 
 And winter's woe 
 
 End in glad summer come again. 
 
 Then thousand flowers may blossom by the shore, 
 
 But that Rose never more.
 
 86 TIME FLIES 
 
 May 5. 
 
 Love said nay, while Hope kept saying 
 
 All his sweetest say, 
 Hope so keen to start a-maying! — 
 
 Love said nay. 
 
 Love was bent to watch and pray : 
 
 Long the watching, long the praying : — 
 Hope grew drowsy, pale and grey. 
 
 Hope in dreams set off a-straying, 
 All his dreamworld flushed by May ; 
 
 While unslumbering, praying, weighing 
 Love said nay. 
 
 Slay 6. 
 
 Feast of St. John before the Latin Gate. 
 
 Would we fain know whether St. John the Apostle 
 and Evangelist did really at the Latin Gate under 
 persecuting Domitian descend into a caldron of boil- 
 ing oil, and having thus in will endured martyrdom, 
 return to his daily life scatheless and refreshed ? 
 
 The wish is quite harmless : yet for the present it 
 seems not very profitable. Meanwhile historical 
 probability is brought forward as contrary to the 
 alleged event. 
 
 If we knew, we should not be the better : by not 
 knowing, we are none the worse. 
 
 One use, however, we can confidently make of a 
 dubious legend, and it is this : we can meditate upon 
 it as one instance (if of nothing else) of the innumer- 
 able array of points which lying apart from our 
 vocation we shall not be required to give account of 
 at the Day of Judgment.
 
 A READING DIARY. 87 
 
 About such points we may innocently feel curious, 
 but we should not wax excited or argue obstinately. 
 For if they will not import to us then, neither can 
 they truly import to us now. 
 
 " The secret things belong unto the Lord our 
 God." 
 
 May 7. 
 
 A LOVELY young woman (not then of my acquaint- 
 ance) went one evening to a concert, her face swollen 
 and bound up, observing that she went not to be 
 seen but to hear. 
 
 She had, I believe, a methodical brain in that 
 charming head of hers. Certainly on this occasion 
 she drew the line accurately between what is and what 
 is not essential to a listener. Thus, despite her 
 swollen face, she went with a fair prospect of enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 Half the mortifications of life (many of them life- 
 long mortifications) spring from a confusion in our 
 own minds as to what the particular occasion, con- 
 nexion, circumstance, demands of us. 
 
 We insist on being attractive, when all that is re- 
 quired of us is to be attracted, edified, or it may be 
 merely entertained. It is not our neighbour's standard 
 but our own we fall short of, if our utmost efforts leave 
 us unsightly, uninteresting. 
 
 Our neighbour, according to his (or her) gift, sings, 
 listens, looks beautiful, simply and contentedly. 
 
 If only we too would adorn ourselves with sim- 
 plicity and contentment, at the worst we could sit 
 listening with pleasure and profit. Meanwhile it is very 
 likely that a cheerful, radiant heart would light up even 
 our faces with some charm we hanker after and miss. 
 
 A corrosive mind gives plain features no chance.
 
 TIME FLIES: 
 
 May 8. 
 I. 
 
 There is a design by William Blake symbolic of 
 the Resurrection. In it I behold the descending 
 soul and the arising body rushing together in an in- 
 dissoluble embrace : and this design, among all I 
 recollect to have seen, stands alone in expressing the 
 rapture of that reunion. 
 
 Not more enkindling perhaps, yet potent to stir a 
 tenderer depth, is a passage in the Divina Commedia, 
 which describes a company of the blessed yearning 
 for the Resurrection: not, as Dante conjectures, for 
 their own perfection's sake merely, but likewise for 
 the renewal's sake of beloved ties. 
 
 I cannot show you the engraving, but hearken to 
 the poet : — 
 
 " Our person shall be dearer in God's face 
 From its rebuilding, when the glorious 
 And hallowed body it shall re-embrace. 
 
 Thence will increase the light gratuitous, 
 That Sovran Goodness will on us bestow, 
 Light, which on Him to look empowereth us; 
 
 And thereby shall our insight greater grow, 
 So shall the ardor, which is thereby lit, 
 So shall the rays, that from this ardor flow. 
 
 But as you see the brands, that flame emit 
 
 Around them, and their own distinctness hold, 
 From their keen whiteness overpowering it, 
 
 So must the light, which doth us now enfold, 
 Be past in glory by those bodies bright, 
 The same that, late and early, mix with mould.
 
 A READING DIARY. 89 
 
 Nor shall we be fatigued by so much light, 
 For strong the organs of the new-made men 
 Shall wax, to bear all workings of delight. 
 
 So prompt and eager both the rings were then, 
 That well they seemed to cherish true desires, 
 For their cold bodies, when they called Amen, 
 
 Perhaps not for themselves, but for their Sires, 
 Their Mothers, and for all that had been dear, 
 Or ever they became perpetual fires." 
 
 Paradise, canto 14 (Cay ley's translation). 
 
 May 9. 
 
 2. 
 
 "A FRIEND loveth at all times." 
 
 Let us thank God that this blessed text is without 
 limitation. Once loving, we cannot love too long. 
 
 Death and the grave need make no difference. 
 " Out of sight, in mind," would be a proverb worthy 
 of Christians. 
 
 Are we trembling, are we in agony, for our beloved 
 dead ? Very well ; it is God's Will all-holy that so 
 for the present it should be : but this does not by one 
 hair's breadth trench on our privilege of loving " at all 
 times." 
 
 What in this case or in that may befit us through- 
 out eternity, we cannot foresee : but all time, to the 
 end of our days, is covered by that word of consola- 
 tion, "A friend loveth at all times."
 
 90 TIME FLTES: 
 
 May 10. 
 
 3- 
 
 AND if during our mortal frailty we are thus in- 
 vited, and so by inference are directed, to " love at all 
 times," we may well thank God and take courage in 
 the trust that such dear saints as on earth loved us, 
 are not because they have been set free from infirmity 
 ceasing to love us. 
 
 Purified and perfected, they have become more like 
 Christ : who ever became more like Christ by loving 
 less ? 
 
 If love on earth is man's exclusive (because all- 
 inclusive) preparation for heaven, surely the result 
 must be led up to and not led away from by the pre- 
 paration. 
 
 In ordinary education the subject we are set to 
 study is that very subject we shall be examined in, 
 and in which proficiency will be required of us ; the 
 accomplishment we are set to practise is that one in 
 which it is hoped we shall at a future period excel. 
 
 And if so in nature, why not so in grace ? 
 
 May 11. 
 
 Lord, when my heart was whole I kept it back, 
 
 And grudged to give it Thee. 
 Now then that it is broken, must I lack 
 
 Thy kind word " Give it Me " ? 
 Silence would be but just, and Thou art just. 
 Yet since I lie here shattered in the dust. 
 With still an eye to lift to Thee, 
 
 A broken heart to give, 
 
 I think that Thou wilt bid me live, 
 
 And answer " Give it Me."
 
 A READING DIARY. 91 
 
 May 12. 
 
 An Oriental legend celebrates the beauty of Joseph, 
 son of Jacob, by saying that when the submerged lily 
 of the Nile beheld him, she rose to the surface as at 
 sight of the sun. 
 
 A parable, I think. 
 
 So human love rises and responds to human beauty, 
 excellence, endearment. 
 
 Yet that to which it rises is not a light-giver, but a 
 shadow-caster : is not God, but man. 
 
 May 13. 
 
 Nay, but there is a brighter side to such a parable ! 
 
 Even St. Peter in passing by cast a shadow, and in 
 that shadow faith sought, and therefore may well have 
 found healing. 
 
 Even the eagle gazes not upon the sun, except 
 under shelter of a special optical guard. 
 
 Us, too, shadows will benefit, if faith unseals to us 
 their virtue. Us, too, physical conditions will aid, if 
 through them we seek to find the Uncreated Light. 
 
 " Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear." 
 
 May 14. 
 
 YOUNG girls wear flowers, 
 
 Young brides a flowery wreath, 
 
 But next we plant them 
 In garden plots of death. 
 
 Whose lot is best : 
 
 The maiden's curtained rest,
 
 92 TIME FLIES 
 
 Or bride's whose hoped-for sweet 
 
 May yet outstrip her feet? 
 Ah ! what are such as these 
 To death's sufficing ease ? 
 He sleeps indeed who sleeps in peace 
 
 Where night and morning meet. 
 
 Dear are the blossoms 
 
 For bride's or maiden's head, 
 But d-earer planted 
 
 Around our blessed dead. 
 Those mind us of decay 
 And joys that fade away, 
 
 These preach to us perfection, 
 
 Long love, and resurrection. 
 We make our graveyards fair 
 For spirit-like birds of air, 
 For Angels may be finding there 
 
 Lost Eden's own delection. 
 
 May 15. 
 
 I HAVE long remembered a story I was once told 
 as a party of us sat at luncheon. 
 
 The speaker, a General, had had a pet robin, a 
 tame wild robin if I may call it so, a free familiar 
 bird, fed and cared for by him and his. 
 
 One day coming home from shooting he aimed his 
 last random shot at a speck in the sky. No startling 
 result ensued : what should ensue from a shot aimed 
 at such a safe altitude ? 
 
 Alas, a presumable result did ensue, not visible, but 
 unalterably invisible. The tame robin never came 
 again : and the soldier who loved it, and as he be- 
 lieved shot it, could not, when I listened to him, tell 
 the story without emotion.
 
 A READING DIARY. 93 
 
 How many of us in heedlessness or in haste have 
 ere now wounded some affection dear to us as our 
 own heart. Perhaps a friend would pardon so grave 
 an offence the more readily did he but realise how 
 much sorer in such a case must be the offender's own 
 wound than any other. Let us have mercy on each 
 other and forgive : even a wronged robin's silence and 
 absence were hard to bear. 
 
 May 16. 
 
 If love is not worth loving, then life is not worth 
 living, 
 Nor aught is worth remembering but well forgot, 
 For store is not worth storing and gifts are not worth 
 giving, 
 If love is not ; 
 
 And idly cold is death-cold, and life-heat idly hot, 
 And vain is any offering and vainer our receiving, 
 And vanity of vanities is all our lot. 
 
 Better than life's heaving heart is death's heart un- 
 heaving, 
 Better than the opening leaves are the leaves that 
 rot, 
 For there is nothing left worth achieving or retrieving, 
 If love is not. 
 
 May 17. 
 
 1. 
 
 In many cases the person who annoys and the 
 person who is annoyed are both in the right, or (if 
 you please) are both in the wrong. 
 
 An Englishman travelling in the East offered
 
 94 TIME FLIES: 
 
 hospitality to an Arab chief, and they sat down to a 
 meal together. 
 
 Each had his national mode of eating, and standard 
 of good breeding. 
 
 The host, surprised at foreign manners, contem- 
 plated his feeding guest ; until at last, observing him 
 on the point of putting into his mouth a morsel to 
 which a chance hair was attached, he stopped him in 
 the act. 
 
 Up rose the stately Arab, saying : " I will not eat 
 with a man who watches his guest so closely that a 
 hair cannot be swallowed unseen." 
 
 Were both quite right, or were both a little wrong? 
 
 Such questions become important when annoyances 
 befall us : still more, when through us they befall 
 others. 
 
 May 18. 
 
 2. 
 
 I INCLINE to think that the Englishman behaved 
 worse in one way, the Arab in another. 
 
 The first presumably stared beyond the limits of 
 sood manners. The other took offence where no 
 offence, but a trifling service was intended. 
 
 The Englishman gave the provocation, but without 
 ill will. The Arab received it with at least a shade 
 of resentment. 
 
 Thus the curiosity deserved rebuke, yet that re- 
 buke came not altogether well from him who ad- 
 ministered it. 
 
 If only the twain could and would have made 
 allowances for each other, they might have wound up 
 with coffee and sweets ! 
 
 Why then should not you and I under any such trying 
 circumstances wind up with sweets, if not with coffee?
 
 A READING DIARY. 95 
 
 May 19. 
 
 Feast of St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 St. DUNSTAN (according to documents more or 
 less conclusive) was born in the year 925 and died in 
 968. He ruled the monks of Glastonbury as Abbot, 
 was consecrated Bishop of Worcester, afterwards, 
 though without vacating his actual See, became 
 Bishop of London, and terminated his career as Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. He lived in times troublous 
 for Church and State : as an ecclesiastic he stood 
 forth as champion of a celibate clergy; as a states- 
 man he faced monarchs and factions, and waged battle 
 for the right. 
 
 This seems to be a fairly accurate skeleton-sketch 
 of a life full of turmoil and conflict. 
 
 But is this, or anything elaborated from such 
 material as this, the picture which rises before our 
 mental eye at the name of St. Dunstan ? Surely not. 
 He rises before us as a legendary personage in the act 
 of routing a besetting devil by dint of a pair of tongs ! 
 
 The historical St. Dunstan will benefit us if we 
 study his career with an impartial love of right, and 
 hatred of wrong, wheresoever found. 
 
 But the legendary St. Dunstan ? He and such as 
 he will do us no good if, overlooking the grave lesson 
 of self-conquest and sin-conquest, we assimilate no- 
 thing but tongs and a devil. 
 
 The devil whom St. Dunstan foiled will end by 
 foiling us.
 
 9^ TIME FLIES 
 
 May 20. 
 
 THAT Song of Songs which is Solomon's, 
 Sinks and rises, and loves and longs, 
 
 Through temperate zones and torrid zones, 
 That Song of Songs. 
 
 Fair its floating moon with her prongs : 
 Love is laid for its paving stones : 
 
 Right it sings without thought of wrongs. 
 
 Doves it hath with music of moans, 
 
 Birds in throngs and damsels in throngs, 
 
 High tones and mysterious undertones, 
 That Song of Songs. 
 
 May 21. 
 
 " The half was not told me," said Sheba's Queen, 
 Weighing that wealth of wisdom and of gold : 
 
 " Thy fame falls short of this that I have seen : 
 The half was not told. 
 
 Happy thy servants who stand to behold. 
 Stand to drink in thy gracious speech and mien ; 
 Happy, thrice happy, the flock of thy fold. 
 
 As the darkened moon, while a shadow between 
 Her face and her kindling sun, is rolled, 
 
 I depart ; but my heart keeps memory green : 
 The half was not told."
 
 A READING DIARY. 97 
 
 May 22. 
 
 An English tourist in Sicily relates how he met with 
 general kindness and hospitality. At one single house, 
 however, the tone, though not the broad basis of 
 hospitality, changed. 
 
 The family did not come forward to welcome him, 
 but a depressed staff of domestics received and waited 
 on him. 
 
 He lacked nothing, save a welcome. Arriving one 
 day and departing the next, unwelcomed he arrived, 
 and unwelcomed he departed. 
 
 This treatment left upon him a gloomy impression. 
 How should meat, drink, shelter suffice and solace an 
 unwelcomed guest? 
 
 Yet afterwards he saw cause to revise and reverse 
 his estimate, becoming aware that the undemonstrative 
 family who had harboured him laboured at that very 
 time under the anxiety of a bitter grief. Rejoice with 
 him they could not, burden him with a share of their 
 own misery they would not ; all that they had to give 
 they gave, and hid from their guest an irremediable 
 sorrow. 
 
 How often we judge unjustly when we judge harshly. 
 The fret of temper we despise may have its rise in the 
 agony of some great, unflinching, unsuspected, self- 
 sacrifice, or in the sustained strain of self-conquest, or 
 in the endurance of unavowed, almost intolerable 
 pain. 
 
 Whoso judges harshly is sure to judge amiss. 
 
 " Judge not, and ye shall not be judged : condemn 
 not, and ye shall not be condemned." 
 
 II
 
 98 TIME FLTES: 
 
 May 23. 
 
 " Armiamoci ed andate." Thus, the story goes, a 
 General preparing for war addressed his soldiers. If 
 only the words could be rendered into neat and pointed 
 English ! but this cannot be done : I, at least, cannot 
 do it. 
 
 " Let us arm ourselves, and go you." Such a lame 
 translation conveys the meaning stripped of grace. 
 Fortunately it is the meaning I want, not the manner. 
 
 So many of us, alas ! exhort in the style of that 
 General. 
 
 "This heart-rending distress: won't you relieve? 
 This crying evil : can't you remedy?" 
 
 It is marvellous what openings invite our neighbour 
 to head forlorn hopes, storm breaches, grapple with 
 sanitary, or social, or spiritual, or what-not foes. Yet 
 more marvellous is it that we do not see our own way 
 even to bringing up the rear of a hopeful hope. 
 
 Far from wedging ourselves in breaches, not so 
 much as a door with a practicable approach seems to 
 us to exist within our personal radius. 
 
 Many doors have doorsteps, and many doors with- 
 out doorsteps have their threshold level with the 
 ground. Amongst the cityfull of accessible doors, does 
 not one within our reach stand open ? If all are shut, 
 does not one possess a knocker? 
 
 May 24. 
 
 1. 
 
 A certain Englishman sojourning in the East, and 
 
 by mishap breaking a valuable pipe, the property of 
 
 his entertainer, felt abashed, when his host took up 
 
 the word : " In a stranger the destruction of so costly
 
 A READING DIARY. 99 
 
 an article might cause displeasure, but in a friend every 
 action has its charm." 
 
 One friend I once possessed who would, I think, on 
 occasion have been capable of such graciousness. But 
 why (if so it be) have I known one such only ? and 
 why am I (alas !) not myself the second ? 
 
 Whoso loves generously need not fall short even of 
 such a standard as this : for to reassure a friend is 
 sweeter than to hoard a treasure. And besides, if all 
 things do really work together for good to them that 
 love God, then amongst " all things " cannot but be in- 
 cluded accidents and losses : whence to fret over such 
 must be either to quarrel with a blessing, or to pass 
 sentence on ourselves as not entitled to it. 
 
 May 25. 
 
 Nay, but, not to dwell on mere social contrarieties, 
 it were well if, with instant and absolute sweetness of 
 acquiescent welcome we comported ourselves towards 
 every direct dispensation of God's most holy Will. 
 
 Which of us has the grace to feel on the instant, and 
 heartily to protest : " Every change and chance, dis- 
 appointment, duty, denial, cross, has its charm " — to 
 feel this at once and for ever, and therein to abide at 
 peace ? 
 
 " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you : 
 not as the world giveth, give I unto you/' says our 
 Divine Master, Whose gift implies a promise of strength 
 to appropriate it. 
 
 " The peace of God, which passeth all understand- 
 ing, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
 Jesus," writes in benediction, by the pen of His apostle, 
 God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 H 2
 
 lOO TIME FLIES 
 
 " Let him seek peace, and ensue it " sums up in one 
 sentence this our duty with its inalienable privilege. 
 
 May 26. 
 
 Feast of St. Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 This " Apostle of the English," sent on his mission 
 by St. Gregory the Great (Pope), died about the year 
 605. Of his early life nothing appears to be known. 
 He is rendered illustrious by the great work he wrought 
 for God in converting Ethelbert, King of Kent, with a 
 multitude of the Anglo-Saxons, from heathenism to 
 Christianity : for which blessed achievement we of 
 England may well hold him in honour from generation 
 to generation for ever. 
 
 Not at all points does St. Augustine shine, accord- 
 ing to one version of his history, which represents him 
 as arrogant and unbrotherly towards a British Hier- 
 archy, his predecessors and fellow-labourers on the 
 same soil. Yet none the less, by all of English race, 
 from his own day down to this very day on which I 
 write, is he to be revered as a benefactor : as such, let 
 us remember him lovingly and gratefully. 
 
 Such a rule may safely be observed towards all 
 benefactors, whether spiritual or temporal. 
 
 " Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake 
 not." 
 
 May 27. 
 
 Feast of St. Bede the Venerable : born about the year 673, 
 - died about 735. 
 
 The Venerable Bede was a monk of Jarrow, priest, 
 teacher, writer in various branches of literature. His 
 great work, an Ecclesiastical History of England, re- 
 mains both as a monument of his ability and industry, 
 and as almost the sole authority on its own subject and 
 for the period in question.
 
 A READING DIARY. lOI 
 
 His life, though not entirely exempt from crosses, 
 appears to have been passed in the tranquil happiness 
 of a devout ascetic student. As such let us contem- 
 plate him, and (if ought of the kind be our proper 
 gift) humbly try to follow him; to which holy course 
 a few words of his own, uttered towards the close of 
 his life, may inspirit us, our first quotation being 
 poetical : — 
 
 " None is wiser than him needeth, ere his departure, 
 than to ponder ere the soul flits, what good, what evil 
 it hath wrought, and how after death it will be 
 judged." 
 
 " O Glorious King, Lord of all Power, Who, tri- 
 umphing this day, didst ascend up above the heavens, 
 leave us not orphans ; but send down on us from the 
 Father the Spirit of Truth, which Thou hast promised. 
 Hallelujah." 
 
 " I will not have my pupils read what is untrue, nor 
 labour on what is profitless after my death." 
 
 And because by grace he had lived the life of the 
 righteous, therefore by help of that same grace he 
 cheerfully died the death of the righteous : — " Singing 
 ' Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
 Holy Ghost,' he breathed his last, as he uttered the 
 Name of the Holy Ghost, and so departed to the 
 heavenly kingdom." 
 
 Slay 28. 
 
 They lie at rest, our blessed dead : 
 The dews drop cool above their head, 
 They knew not when fleet summer fled. 
 
 Together all, yet each alone : 
 Each laid at rest beneath his own 
 Smooth turf or white allotted stone.
 
 T02 TIME FLIES 
 
 When shall our slumber sink so deep, 
 And eyes that wept and eyes that weep 
 Weep not in the sufficient sleep ? 
 
 God be with you, our great and small, 
 Our loves, our best-beloved of all, 
 Our own beyond the salt sea wall. 
 
 May 29. 
 
 A GLOOMY Christian is like a cloud before the rain- 
 bow was vouchsafed. 
 
 We all (or almost all) more or less present cloudy 
 aspects, thanks to tempers, griefs, anxieties, disap- 
 pointments. 
 
 But the heavenliest sort of Christian exhibits more 
 bow than cloud, walking the world in a continual 
 thanksgiving ; and " a joyful and pleasant thing it is to 
 be thankful." 
 
 At unequal distances behind and below him tramp 
 on graduated Christians of every density and tinge : 
 some with full-coloured bows, some with a faint bit of 
 broken bow, some with the merest tint of prismatic 
 colour at a torn edge ; all bearing some sign of God's 
 gracious covenant with them. 
 
 In this company we fail to trace the gloomy Chris- 
 tian, all cloud, no bow. 
 
 But if he really and truly is not traceable high or 
 low among the caravan of pilgrims with their badge of 
 hope, where is he to be sought for on holy ground ? 
 
 May 30. 
 
 PARTING after parting, 
 Sore loss and gnawing pain : 
 Meeting grows half a sorrow, 
 Because of parting again.
 
 A READING DIARY. 103 
 
 When shall the day break, 
 That these things shall not be ? 
 When shall new earth be ours 
 Without a sea, 
 And time that is not time, 
 But eternity? 
 
 Kay 31. 
 
 A CIVILIZED man complaining of having little time, 
 an uncivilized man, who heard him, retorted that he 
 supposed he had all there was to be had. So runs the 
 story. 
 
 That savage taught not his hearer only, but me 
 also. 
 
 Each of us, then, possesses all the time there is for 
 any one : an obvious truth, but one which never struck 
 me so forcibly before. 
 
 What is meant by "want of time?" What do I 
 mean by the words ? 
 
 It seems that I must mean one of two things : either 
 that I lack time for duties because I devote it to non- 
 duties, or that, devoting it to duties, I feel discontented 
 at lacking leisure for non-duties. 
 
 Non-duties may be attractive ; they may even 
 appear on occasion heroic or self-devoted : but we 
 may be sure they are not duties so long as there 
 honestly is not time for them. 
 
 On the contrary, taking the place of duties, they 
 would degenerate into offences. 
 
 If we are bound to pronounce ourselves " unprofit- 
 able servants," even when " we have done that which 
 was our duty to do," what are we to be called when 
 we have not done so ? when we have done something 
 else ? or when we have done nothing ?
 
 104 TIME FLTES 
 
 June 1. 
 
 Feast of St. Nicomede, Priest and Martyr. First Century. 
 
 THIS holy man having first rendered himself con- 
 spicuous and obnoxious by bestowing Christian burial 
 on a virgin martyr, refused to apostatize from Christ 
 by offering sacrifice to the false gods, and was beaten 
 to death. His corpse was cast into the Tiber, but 
 being recovered thence by piety similar to his own, 
 was after all consigned to consecrated earth. 
 
 Thus making good King Solomon's proverb : "He 
 that watereth shall be watered also himself," and the 
 Divine sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ : "With the 
 same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured 
 to you again." 
 
 June 2. 
 
 " As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." 
 
 " Golden haired, lily white, 
 
 Will you pluck me lilies? 
 Or will you show me where they grow, 
 
 Show where the limpid rill is? 
 But is your hair of gold or light, 
 
 And is your foot of flake or fire, 
 And have you wings rolled up from sight, 
 
 And songs to slake desire?" 
 
 " I pluck fresh flowers of Paradise, 
 
 Lilies and roses red, 
 A bending sceptre for my hand, 
 
 A crown to crown my head. 
 I sing my songs, I pluck my flowers 
 
 Sweet-scented from their fragrant trees : 
 I sing, we sing amid the bowers, 
 
 And gather palm branches/'
 
 A READING DIARY. 105 
 
 " Is there a path to Heaven 
 
 My stumbling foot may tread? 
 And will you show that way to go, 
 That bower and blossom bed?" 
 " The path to Heaven is steep and straight 
 And scorched, but ends in shade of trees, 
 Where yet awhile we sing and wait, 
 And gather palm branches." 
 
 June 3. • 
 
 1. 
 
 " THE bottomless pit " mentioned several times in 
 the Apocalypse is not (I believe) named in any other 
 Book of Holy Scripture. To us Christians it is re- 
 vealed " for our admonition, upon whom the ends of 
 the world are come." 
 
 Whatever other idea we may form of the bottomless 
 pit, whatever other feature we may think to detect 
 within its undefined horror, two points stand out un- 
 mistakably : as a pit it is a place into which to fall ; 
 as bottomless, it appears to be one within which to fall 
 lower and lower for ever and ever. 
 
 Herein lies one distinct thought for ourselves : an 
 awful thought. A deep fall, indefinitely deep, so long as 
 any bottom at any depth underlies the lapser, must at 
 length be arrested and must stop. However mangled 
 or shattered, and on whatever floorlanded, the wretch 
 cannot cease there to lie : self-destroyed, indeed, yet 
 accessible to Mercy and Help if these deign to look so 
 low, and lift with recovering hands, and carry home on 
 shoulders rejoicing. 
 
 But in the bottomless pit I see a symbol of that 
 eternal antagonism and recession by which created 
 free will seems able to defy and baffle even the
 
 \o6 TIME FLIES 
 
 Almighty Will of the Creator. At a standstill any- 
 where, though on the extreme boundary of time or 
 space, the sinner might be overtaken by the pursuing 
 Love of God : but once passing beyond those limits, 
 eternity sets in ; the everlasting attitude appears taken 
 up, the everlasting recoil commenced. 
 
 Beyond the grave no promise is held out to us of 
 shipwreck, great fish, dry land, to turn us back towards 
 the Presence of God from our self- chosen Tarshish. 
 
 June 4. 
 
 2. 
 
 I HAVE read how matter can be exploded, or at the 
 least can be conceived of as exploded, from the sun, 
 with such tremendous force as to carry it beyond the 
 radius of solar attraction. 
 
 That attraction which unifies and sways a whole 
 harmony of dependent planets, recalls not one atom 
 which has passed beyond the pale. 
 
 O Christ my God Who seest the unseen, 
 
 O Christ my God Who knowest the unknown, 
 Thy mighty Blood was poured forth to atone 
 
 For every sin that can be or hath been. 
 
 O Thou who seest what I cannot see, 
 Thou Who didst love us all so long ago, 
 O Thou Who knowest what I must not know, 
 
 Remember all my hope, remember me.
 
 A READING DIARY. 107 
 
 Jane 5. 
 
 Feast of St. Boniface, otherwise Winfrid, styled the Apostle of 
 Germany ; Archbishop of Mainz, and Martyr. Born at Crediton, near 
 Exeter, about the year 680 ; slain on a mission and with about fifty 
 companions by certain pagans of East Friesland, 755. 
 
 GREAT is England's glory in having given birth to 
 so eminent a hero of the Faith. From early child- 
 hood the little Winfrid set his heart on piety and the 
 service of God. At first his father entertained for him 
 secular views, but after a while he sanctioned his son's 
 obvious vocation : the lad assumed a religious habit, 
 took the name of Boniface 3 and about the age of thirty 
 was ordained priest. 
 
 But the safe and peaceful duties of an English priest 
 sufficed not this ardent spirit. Bishop Willibrord, of 
 Utrecht, was labouring among the heathens of Frisia : 
 this Boniface knew, " the fire kindled," and he sailed to 
 join that mission. 
 
 His first expedition, however, failing, he returned to 
 his cloister : but only to quit it once more, betake 
 himself to Rome, and solicit from Pope Gregory II 
 missionary powers. 
 
 Invested with these, he started anew for Frisia, and 
 entered on those devoted labours which won thousands 
 of converts to Christianity, and at length earned for 
 himself the martyr's unfading palm. 
 
 A while he worked under Bishop Willibrord : but 
 when that now aged prelate desired to raise him also 
 to the Episcopate, St. Boniface shunned the dignity 
 and departed to a fresh field. His obedience, how- 
 ever, equalled his self-devotion and humility : and 
 when it became the Pope's expressed pleasure to ele- 
 vate him to so lofty a sphere of duty, he submitted to 
 undergo consecration at Rome ; and returned to his
 
 Io8 TIME FLIES 
 
 beloved field of toil, not as Bishop of one assigned 
 locality, but as general episcopal pastor of any flock he 
 could gather in that wide German territory. 
 
 A man he was of many toils and of much love, 
 faithful to old associations and unforgetful. In need 
 of missionaries he looked to England, and thence re- 
 ceived a noble response ; devoted men and devoted 
 women betaking themselves to break up under him 
 the fallow ground, or to occupy the land reclaimed for 
 Christ. 
 
 He ordained Bishops, and under his auspices mo- 
 nasteries were founded and throve. He preached the 
 simplest sermons to his rugged converts, teaching them 
 in plain words the lovely Gospel history, instructing 
 them what to do and wherein to sin no more. 
 
 At length, in old age, having provided for himself a 
 successor in the See of Mainz, he started afresh on a 
 personal mission into a still heathen portion of Fries- 
 land. There for a time his work prospered, and many 
 were converted to Christ. But on a day when the 
 lately baptized should have undergone confirmation, a 
 savage band of pagans bore down on the missionaries 
 and slew them : — " The Archbishop himself, when he 
 saw that his hour was come, took a volume of the 
 Gospels, and making it a pillow for his head, stretched 
 forth his neck for the blow, and in a few moments re- 
 ceived his release." 
 
 June 6. 
 
 Heartsease I found, where Love-lies-bleeding 
 
 Empurpled all the ground : 
 Whatever flowers I missed unheeding, 
 
 Heartsease I found.
 
 A READING DIARY. 109 
 
 Yet still my garden mound 
 Stood sore in need of watering, weeding, 
 And binding things unbound. 
 
 Ah, when shades fell to light succeeding, 
 
 I scarcely dared look round : 
 " Love-lies-bleeding " was all my pleading, 
 
 Heartsease I found. 
 
 June 7. 
 
 Who could have foreseen that Manna, type of 
 "the true Bread from heaven," would have been 
 withheld on the Sabbath Day, which day prefigures 
 that final rest which remaineth for the people of 
 God? 
 
 Nay, rather : for that one day the Manna assumed 
 permanence. 
 
 The Israelites no longer gathered, because they 
 possessed it. On other days they measured it ; on 
 that holyday of rest they no longer measured, but 
 simply enjoyed it. 
 
 Even so throughout the eternal Sabbath there will 
 be no need of Sacraments, those outward and visible 
 signs of inward and spiritual grace given unto us ; 
 because the elect will be once and for ever one with 
 Christ. 
 
 Moreover, since each -Jewish Sabbath prefigured 
 that supreme Sabbath Day which was truly an high 
 day, and which we Christians observe as Easter 
 Even ; therefore it doubly behoved that no Manna 
 should fall thereon, for Christ Himself hath said : 
 " The days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be 
 taken away from them, and then shall they fast in 
 those days."
 
 IIO TIME FLIES 
 
 June 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 Nevertheless, although the Manna on six suc- 
 cessive days fell within the reach of all, those only 
 who had gathered and stored it on the sixth day of 
 toil, possessed it on the final day of rest. 
 
 On that seventh day, any who had it not already 
 laid up could not find it, though they might seek it 
 carefully with tears. 
 
 Some who thus sought and found it not, were re- 
 1 >r< »ved ; and the fault was laid to their own charge. 
 
 We Christians in the Sacrament of Christ's Most 
 Blessed Body and Blood, enjoy access to the True 
 Bread from heaven ; and to us our loving Lord has 
 said : " This do in remembrance of Me." If in our 
 present day of discipline we neglect thus to lay up 
 Christ in our hearts., and so despise our birthright ; 
 on what plea can we lay claim to our blessing, even 
 indissoluble union with Christ, in the day of blessing? 
 
 June 9. 
 
 ROSES on a brier, 
 
 Pearls from out the bitter sea. 
 Such is earth's desire 
 
 However pure it be. 
 
 Neither bud nor brier> 
 
 Neither pearl nor brine for me : 
 
 Be stilled, my long desire ; 
 There shall be no more sea. 
 
 Be stilled, my passionate heart ; 
 
 Old earth shall end, new earth shall be ; 
 Be still, and earn thy part 
 
 Where shall be no more sea.
 
 A READING DIARY. Ill 
 
 June 10. 
 
 Wherein lies the saddening influence of mountain 
 scenery? For I suppose many besides myself have 
 felt depressed when approaching; the " everlasting- 
 hills." 
 
 Their mass and loftiness dwarf all physical magni- 
 tudes familiar to most eyes, except the low-lying 
 vastness of the ocean and the boundless overarching 
 sky. They touch and pass through those clouds 
 which limit our vision. 
 
 Perhaps their sublimity impresses us like want of 
 sympathy. 
 
 Well, saddened and probably weary, I ended one 
 delightful day's journey in Switzerland ; and passed 
 indoors, losing sight for a moment of the mountains. 
 
 Then from a window I faced them again. And, lo ! 
 the evening flush had turned snow to a rose, " and 
 sorrow and sadness fled away." 
 
 " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art 
 with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me." 
 
 June 11. 
 
 Feast of St. Barnabas, Apostle. 
 
 This Levite of Cyprus bore the name of Joses, until 
 those who were Apostles before him renamed him 
 Barnabas ; by interpretation, the Son of Consolation. 
 
 His first recorded deed is one of Christian liber- 
 ality : having land, he sold it, and laid the money at 
 the Apostles' feet. 
 
 Afterwards he introduced St. Paul to the mistrust- 
 ful Church, and vouched for him.
 
 112 TIME FLIES 
 
 He rejoiced over the conversion of many in An- 
 tioch, exhorting them to steadfastness. 
 
 He laboured and suffered among the Jews : he 
 laboured and suffered among the Gentiles. 
 
 Thus far Holy Writ. Tradition completes his 
 history by martyrdom in his native island of Cyprus. 
 
 First and last his career shines and glows with 
 love. For the way of love is that path of the just 
 which is as the shining light that shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day. 
 
 "Lord, . . . how can we know the way? Jesus 
 saith . . ., I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life : no 
 man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." 
 
 June 12. 
 
 A ROSE, a lily, and the Face of Christ 
 
 Have all our hearts sufficed : 
 For He is Rose of Sharon nobly born, 
 
 Our Rose without a thorn ; 
 And He is Lily of the Valley, He 
 
 Most sweet in purity. 
 But when we come to name Him as He is, 
 
 Godhead, Perfection, Bliss, 
 All tongues fall silent, while pure hearts alone 
 
 Complete their orison. 
 
 June 13. 
 
 i. 
 
 Years ago a small party of us crossed the Alps 
 into Italy by the Pass of Mount St. Gotthard. 
 
 We did not tunnel our way like worms through 
 its dense substance. We surmounted its crest like 
 eagles.
 
 A READING DIARY. 113 
 
 Or, if you please, not at all like eagles : yet as- 
 suredly as like those born monarchs as it consisted 
 with our possibilities to become. 
 
 To act like an eagle is so far to emulate an eagle. 
 To act by preference like a worm, is voluntarily to 
 discard any shadow of resemblance to its betters. 
 
 Better be the last of eagles than the first of worms. 
 
 June 14. 
 
 2. 
 
 At a certain point of the ascent Mount St. Gott- 
 hard bloomed into an actual garden of forget-me-nots. 
 
 Unforgotten and never to be forgotten that lovely 
 lavish efflorescence which made earth cerulean as the 
 sky. 
 
 Thus I remember the mountain. But without that 
 flower of memory could I have forgotten it? 
 
 Surely not : yet there, not elsewhere, a countless 
 multitude of forget-me-nots made their home. 
 
 Such oftentimes seems the principle of allotment 
 (if reverently I may term it so) among the human 
 family. Many persons whose chief gifts taken one 
 by one would suffice to memorialise them, engross not 
 those only but along with them the winning graces 
 which endear. Forget-me-nots enamel the height. 
 
 And what shall they do, who display neither lofti- 
 ness nor loveliness ? If " one member be honoured, 
 all the members rejoice with it." 
 
 Or, if this standard appears too exalted for frail 
 flesh and blood to attain, then send thought onwards. 
 
 The crowning summit of Mount St. Gotthard abides 
 invested, not with flowers, but with perpetual snow : 
 not with life, but with lifelessness. 
 
 I
 
 I 14 TIME FLIES 
 
 In foresight of the grave, whither we all are hasten- 
 ing, is it worth while to envy any ? " There is no 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
 grave, whither thou goest." " Grudge not one against 
 another, brethren, lest ye be condemned : behold, the 
 Judge standeth before the door." 
 
 June 15. 
 
 The lowest place. Ah, Lord, how steep and high 
 That lowest place whereon a saint shall sit ! 
 
 Which of us halting, trembling, pressing nigh, 
 Shall quite attain to it ? 
 
 Yet, Lord, Thou pressest nigh to hail and grace 
 
 Some happy soul, it may be still unfit 
 For Right Hand or for Left Hand, but whose place 
 
 Waits there prepared for it. 
 
 June 16. 
 
 I HAVE read how on one certain occasion, out of a 
 whole shipfull, two men were pious, God-fearing 
 Christians. Only, being of two different nations and 
 languages, it seemed very doubtful whether they ever 
 would make each other out as citizens of the same 
 city. 
 
 One day one of them sat reading his Bible, as 
 solitary as Elijah, when he asserted " I only : " till 
 the other's eye lighted on the unmistakable- looking 
 page ; when by signs, gestures, anyhow, somehow, he 
 claimed his brother ; and they both expressed com- 
 mon joy, reciprocal affection. 
 
 Still intercourse was denied them. Until one in 
 exuberant bliss uttered the word Allelujah ! Where- 
 unto the other responded Amen.
 
 A READING DIARY. II, 
 
 Speech pithy, pointed, and profitable to mutual edi- 
 fication. " Golden words, silver silence," to recast the 
 popular phrase. 
 
 Which phrase is too often illustrated, revised in a 
 second and reverse sense : " Words of dross, alloyed 
 silence : " for idle gossip and detraction and indis- 
 cretion ply glib tongues, and their conversational 
 pauses are far from silvery. 
 
 Whoso cannot give forth silver words, let him main- 
 tain golden silence. 
 
 June 17. 
 
 Feast of St. Alban, styled the Protomartyr of Britain. Beheaded 
 about the year 304. 
 
 This gracious personage was born at ancient Ve- 
 rulam, hard by the ruins of which important place our 
 city of St. Alban's now stands. 
 
 On him lighted down the blessing of one who re- 
 ceives a prophet. He was still living in paganism 
 when he gave shelter to a Christian priest fleeing from 
 persecution : and in" guerdon of this good deed Christ 
 was preached to him. Thus each saved the other's 
 life : one the life temporal, the other the life 
 eternal. 
 
 The emissaries of death arrived at St. Alban's door 
 on the track of their prey ; but he who had been a 
 soldier of Rome, was not one to flinch as a soldier of 
 Christ. He exchanged cloaks with his guest, sped him 
 on his journey, and in his stead confronted the hostile 
 party. Taken before the governor, his faith armed 
 him against all terrors : scourged, he rejoiced ; led to 
 death, he was satisfied. 
 
 The first man appointed to slay him, responding to 
 the sudden call of Divine Grace, avowed himself a 
 
 I z
 
 1 16 TIME FLIES 
 
 Christian : whereupon the twain were decapitated 
 together. 
 
 " The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
 brance." 
 
 June 18. 
 
 FRIENDS, I commend to you the narrow way : 
 Not because I, please God, will walk therein, 
 But rather for the Love Feast of that day, 
 
 The exceeding prize which whoso will may win. 
 Earth is half spent and rotting at the core, 
 Here hollow death's-heads mock us with a grin, 
 
 Here heartiest laughter leaves us tired and sore. 
 Men heap up pleasures and enlarge desire, 
 Outlive desire, and famished evermore 
 
 Consume themselves within the undying fire. 
 Yet not for this God made us ; not for this 
 Christ sought us far and near to draw us nigher, 
 
 Sought us and found and paid our penalties. 
 If one could answer " nay " to God's command, 
 Who shall say " nay " when Christ pleads all He is 
 
 For us, and holds us with a wounded Hand ? 
 
 June 19. 
 
 The science of one age proves oftentimes to be the 
 ignorance of a more advanced age. To balance which 
 circumstance, a random guess or flash of insight over- 
 looked or set aside at one moment, does sometimes 
 reappear as the discovery of a later moment. 
 
 I know of a little girl who not far from half a cen- 
 tury ago, having heard that oil calmed troubled waters, 
 suggested to her Mother its adoption for such a pur- 
 pose in case of sea storm.
 
 A READING DIARY. l 1 7 
 
 Her suggestion fell flat, as from her it deserved to 
 fall. Yet nowadays, here is science working out the 
 babyish hint of ignorance ! 
 
 " Precept upon precept ; . . . line upon line ; here a 
 little, and there a little : " a hundred times over, and 
 in a hundred ways, we are taught how things hidden 
 from the wise and prudent are once and again revealed 
 unto babes. 
 
 June 20. 
 
 Feast of the Translation of St. Edward, King. 
 [See also March 18.] 
 
 This transaction took place in the year 980 (982 ?), 
 when, from an unhallowed grave at Wareham, the 
 young king's body was by Queen Elfrida's order re- 
 moved to Shaftesbury, and there with due pomp and 
 solemnity laid at rest in a Convent of Benedictine 
 Nuns. 
 
 One wicked ambitious woman took away his life, 
 a congregation of devout women honoured his re- 
 mains. Thus recalling a prophecy of our Lord's own 
 most sacred death and entombment : " He made His 
 grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His 
 death." 
 
 Blessed is that life which imitates Christ's Life, 
 blessed that death which is conformed to His Death. 
 How blessed will be that resurrection which shall show 
 forth the likeness of His Resurrection ! 
 
 " He that endureth to the end shall be saved." 
 
 June 21. 
 
 O YE, who are not dead and fit 
 Like blasted tree beside the pit 
 But for the axe that levels it, —
 
 I liS TIME FLTES: 
 
 Living show life of love, whereof 
 
 The force wields earth and heaven above : 
 
 Who knows not love begetteth love ? 
 
 Love poises earth in space, Love rolls 
 Wide worlds rejoicing on their poles, 
 And girds them round with aureoles. 
 
 Love lights the sun, Love through the dark 
 Lights the moon's evanescent arc, 
 Lights up the star, lights up the spark. 
 
 O ye who taste that love is sweet, 
 Set waymarks for all doubtful feet 
 That stumble on in search of it. 
 
 Sing notes of love ; that some who hear 
 Far off inert may lend an ear, 
 Rise up and wonder and draw near. 
 
 Lead life of love ; that others who 
 Behold your life, may kindle too 
 With love and cast their lot with you. 
 
 June 22. 
 
 Darkness instinctively repels, light attracts us. 
 
 Yet only according to the good pleasure of God's 
 Will, can either of them help or hinder us : true, both 
 literally and figuratively. 
 
 Let us seek for a " treasure of darkness." 
 
 We who are born to trouble as the sparks fly 
 upward, cannot, except by a process which consumes 
 us, fly up at all. 
 
 To fly up on any terms, on any wings, must be 
 beneficial.
 
 A READING DIARY. 119 
 
 Now we all have seen a literal fire pale and dwindle 
 under strong sunshine, but when screened off into 
 comparative darkness, regain colour and recover 
 strength. 
 
 Thus sunshine of earthly happiness may easily 
 prove too exhausting for some souls. And then it will 
 be the good hand of our God upon them which sends 
 darkness of sorrow, even if need be darkness of 
 death. 
 
 Nor (except as His Will may ordain for better, for 
 worse) can there as regards ourselves be any in- 
 equality between light and darkness : so long, that is, 
 as instead of murmuring " Peradventure the darkness 
 shall cover me," we conform our own mind to the 
 Divine Mind, and abide ready to sing with adoring 
 David : " Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee, 
 but the night is as clear as the day : the darkness and 
 light to Thee are both alike." 
 
 June 23. 
 
 Vigil of St. John Baptist. 
 
 St. John Baptist himself, in reference to our Lord, 
 stands as the Vigil to the Feast. 
 
 He simply leads to Christ. Except the Lord had 
 followed, he had not come. 
 
 His aspect is austere, Christ's winning. 
 
 He is the salient figure of repentance : Christ the 
 pure embodiment of Love. 
 
 Repentance is valueless, except it ends in love. 
 
 What indeed is there of any value, except it foster 
 love? 
 
 And what Saint will profit us one whit, except he 
 helps us nearer to Christ Who is Incarnate Love?
 
 120 TIME FLIES 
 
 " God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwell- 
 eth in God, and God in him." 
 
 " John stood, and two of his disciples ; and looking 
 upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the 
 Lamb of God !" 
 
 June 24. 
 Feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist. 
 
 " He was a burning and a shining light : and ye 
 were willing for a season to rejoice in his light," 
 spake our Blessed Lord, honouring His forerunner. 
 
 To whom spake He thus? To Jews, mostly un- 
 converted. 
 
 Were then those carnal men capable of rejoicing in 
 a luminary which lit up the valley of humiliation, the 
 penitential pathway unto righteousness ? Yea, for 
 the Truth hath said it. 
 
 And even thus we read elsewhere of King Herod, 
 how he " feared John, knowing that he was a just 
 man and an holy, and observed him ; and when he 
 heard him, he did many things, and heard him 
 gladly." 
 
 Nevertheless, neither the monarch nor his subjects 
 did the one thing needful : they picked and chose 
 amongst their sins ; of which some may have fared like 
 discarded favourites, while the favourites of the hour 
 were retained. 
 
 Half-hearted and double-faced such men resemble 
 husbandmen who prune salient twigs from a poisonous 
 plant, by that very pruning strengthening the deep- 
 seated unattacked root. 
 
 So, after a while, Herod slew the Baptist. And 
 again, after a while, Herod mocked the Lord Christ 
 and the Jews crucified Him.
 
 A READING DIARY. 121 
 
 It is then possible (though possible only up to a 
 certain point) for sinners to admire virtue, practise 
 righteousness, approve things more excellent, extol 
 repentance, skim amendment, yet all the time to abide 
 at enmity with God. 
 
 It was possible for many of old : it is possible for 
 ourselves of to-day. 
 
 " Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart : 
 prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if 
 there be any way of wickedness in me : and lead me 
 in the way everlasting." 
 
 June 25. 
 
 Lord, grant me grace to love Thee in my pain, 
 Through all my disappointment love Thee still, 
 Thy love my strong foundation and my hill, 
 
 Though I be such as cometh not again, 
 
 A fading" leaf, a spark upon the wane. 
 So evermore do Thou Thy perfect Will 
 Beloved through all my good, through all mine ill 
 
 Beloved though all my love beside be vain. 
 
 If thus I love Thee, how wilt Thou love me, 
 
 Thou Who art greater than my heart? (Amen!) 
 Wilt Thou bestow a part, withhold a part? 
 
 The longing of my heart cries out to Thee, 
 The hungering, thirsting, longing of my heart : 
 
 What I forewent wilt Thou not grant me then? 
 
 June 26. 
 
 IF ever I deciphered a " Parable of Nature " surely 
 I did so one summer night at Meads. 
 
 The gas was alight in my little room with its paper- 
 less bare wall.
 
 122 TIME FLIES: 
 
 On that wall appeared a spider, himself dark and 
 defined, his shadow no less dark and scarcely if at all 
 less defined. 
 
 They jerked, zigzagged, advanced, retreated, he and 
 his shadow posturing in ungainly indissoluble harmony. 
 He seemed exasperated, fascinated, desperately en- 
 deavouring and utterly helpless. 
 
 What could it all mean? One meaning and one 
 only suggested itself. That spider saw without recog- 
 nising his black double, and was mad to disengage 
 himself from the horrible pursuing inalienable pre- 
 sence. 
 
 I stood watching him awhile. (Presumably when I 
 turned off the gas he composed himself.) 
 
 To me this self-haunted spider appears a figure of 
 each obstinate impenitent sinner, who having outlived 
 enjoyment remains isolated irretrievably with his own 
 horrible loathsome self. 
 
 And if thus in time, how throughout eternity? 
 
 June 27. 
 
 A Bishop's Pastoral Staff has two quaint likenesses 
 among natural objects: a curled-up elephant's trunk, 
 and a young budding frond of fern. 
 
 There is a theory that the soul within moulds the 
 outer frame. Hence surface similarity suggests a cor- 
 responding similarity underlying the surface. 
 
 Whence — at least as a harmless fancy— I infer that 
 the Staff may advantageously study an elephant's 
 trunk as a pattern of delicately discriminating tact, 
 copying its nicety of touch in minute matters and its 
 vigorous hold on things broad and weighty. 
 
 While the frond will teach ways of bowing grace- 
 fully, of being pliant without weakness, of profiting by
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 23 
 
 light and not losing ground in darkness, of bearing 
 storms from any quarter. 
 
 .... But Bishops should write for me, not I for 
 Bishops ! 
 
 For my own behoof therefore I wind up by reflect- 
 ing that every Christian is constituted " king and 
 priest ' : in our Father's kingdom : that in consequence 
 some grade of pastoral work devolves on each of us, 
 if not as a dignity yet as a responsibility : and that 
 as regards every soul within reach of our influence we 
 all are in truth our " brother's keeper." 
 
 So that we all may meditate profitably on a Pas- 
 toral Staff. 
 
 June 28. 
 
 Vigil of the Feast of St. Peter. 
 
 Had not ambition and pride, jealousy and envy, 
 said their say to the embroilment of the subject and 
 the abashing of the meek, would any impartial 
 ordinary reader call in question that some sort of 
 advantage, precedence, pre-eminence, did according to 
 the inspired Gospel record really and truly appertain 
 to St. Peter? 
 
 To deny so much, unless it be false, lands us in 
 Babel, the city of confusion. To acknowledge so 
 much, if it be true, will not by itself "violently turn 
 and toss" us out of our venerable Anglican Mother 
 Church. 
 
 This Vigil of St. Peter invites us all to one of two 
 profitable exercises : — whoso holds the truth, let him 
 cleave thereto thankfully : whoso detects or suspects 
 himself as being in error, let him " pray that he may 
 interpret " at least to himself. 
 
 Only the envious can be injured by St. Peter's 
 primacy, whatsoever it amounts to.
 
 124 TIME FLIES 
 
 Only the ambitious can profit by his exaltation 
 above his genuine level. 
 
 Now there is nothing injurious in such an injury, 
 nor aught profitable in such a profit. 
 
 June 29. 
 
 Feast of St. Peter, Apostle and Martyr. 
 
 "Lovest thou Me more than these ? . . . Lovest thou 
 Me? . . . Lovest thou Me? ..." spake to His Apostle 
 the Lord God, the Wise Master, the injured Friend. 
 " Peter was grieved. . . . And he said unto Him, Lord, 
 Thou knowest all things ; Thou knowest that I love 
 Thee." 
 
 But if St. Peter knew it, much more Christ. Even 
 throughout the threefold denial, while, it may be, for 
 the moment the fallen saint himself knew it not ; yet 
 He who was greater than his heart and knew all things, 
 still knew it. 
 
 Then Christ " looked " in love, and Peter went out 
 and wept bitterly. Now Christ questioned in love, 
 and Peter was grieved. 
 
 These grievous dealings were the faithful wounds of 
 a friend who loveth at all times : for if the servant 
 loved his Lord, much more that Lord His servant. 
 
 Whatever may appear disputable about St. Peter, 
 his love is indisputable. If other branches of study 
 suitable to his Festival are too difficult for us, let us 
 contentedly study love. 
 
 But which love, the lesser or the greater? St. Peter 
 himself could by no means love God, except as having 
 been first loved by God. 
 
 We shall love St. Peter and all other saints well, 
 when we love our Lord Jesus better still. " Love all
 
 A READIXG DIARY. 1 25 
 
 for Jesus, but Jesus for Himself," writes a master in 
 the science of love. 
 
 And whatever may be doubtful, this remains certain : 
 every man who loves God a little, is loved by Him 
 much : every man who loves God much, is still loved 
 by Him more. 
 
 June 30. 
 
 Saints are like roses when they flush rarest. 
 Saints are like lilies when they bloom fairest, 
 Saints are like violets sweetest of their kind. 
 Bear in mind 
 
 This to-day. Then to morrow : — 
 All like roses rarer than the rarest, 
 All like lilies fairer than the fairest, 
 All like violets sweeter than we know. 
 Be it so. 
 
 To-morrow blots out sorrow. 
 
 July 1. 
 
 LORD God of Hosts most Holy and most High, 
 
 What made Thee tell Thy Name of Love to me? 
 What made Thee live our life? what made Thee die? 
 " My love of thee." 
 
 I pitched so low, Thou so exceeding high, 
 
 What was it made Thee stoop to look at me 
 While flawless sons of God stood wondering by? 
 "My love of thee." 
 
 What is there which can lift me up on high 
 
 That we may dwell together, Thou with me, 
 When sin and death and suffering are gone by? 
 " My love of thee."
 
 120 TIME FLIES 
 
 O Lord, what is that best thing in the sky 
 
 Which makes heaven heaven as Thou hast 
 promised me, 
 Yea, makes it Christ to live and gain to die? 
 " My love of thee." 
 
 July 2. 
 
 Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 This Visitation of St. Mary to her cousin " righteous" 
 Elisabeth, was the occasion on which the unborn 
 Baptist did homage to the coming Christ, and the 
 Virgin Mother spake the Magnificat. 
 
 Long ago a lover of " things lovely" suggested to 
 me as an appropriate text for the Salutation : "Right- 
 eousness and peace have kissed each other." 
 
 The dear speaker herself was humble and righteous, 
 and has since then entered (I trust) into peace. Yet 
 not for works of righteousness of man's doing, but 
 according to His mercy God saveth all, both first and 
 last, who are or who shall be saved. 
 
 Even the Blessed Virgin said and said truly : " My 
 soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath re- 
 joiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded 
 the lowliness of His handmaiden." 
 
 July 3. 
 
 Love doth so grace and dignify, 
 
 That beggars treat as king with king 
 Before the Throne of God most High : 
 Love recognises love's own cry 
 And stoops to take love's offering,
 
 A READING DIARY. 127 
 
 A loving heart though soiled and bruised, 
 A kindling heart though cold before : — 
 Whoever came and was refused 
 By Love? Do, Lord, as Thou art used 
 To do, and make me love Thee more. 
 
 July 4. 
 
 Feast of the Translation of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. 
 (This saint we shall meet with again, and in person, on November 11.) 
 
 As a general proposition, it surely is most pious 
 and most reverential to leave the dead at rest in their 
 graves. 
 
 Often, moreover, as in the case of this St. Martin, 
 holy men have loved and observed an ascetic retirement 
 which seems doubly indisposed towards posthumous 
 translation. 
 
 Had this well-meant rite been more charily prac- 
 tised, such reticence might at least in some measure 
 have checked that scandalous multiplicity of relics, 
 which has assigned duplicate heads and an overplus of 
 members to the same Saint in the face of abashed 
 Christendom. 
 
 Not but what some exhumations for honourable 
 enshrinement may have been praiseworthy : amongst 
 which let us hope this of St. Martin ranks. Indeed, 
 as a case more or less in point and " written for our 
 learning," we read in Genesis how "Joseph took an 
 oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely 
 visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence : " 
 which oath being observed, the Patriarch's remains 
 were transported out of Egypt into the Holy Land of 
 Promise. But as bearing on ourselves and on 011 r 
 own practice, surely all Christendom is "holy ground."
 
 128 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Now if I have betrayed prejudice, I beg my reader's 
 pardon. Meanwhile I well remember how one no 
 longer present with us, but to whom I cease not to 
 look up, shrank from entering the Mummy Room at 
 the British Museum under a vivid realisation of how 
 the general resurrection might occur even as one stood 
 among those solemn corpses turned into a sight for 
 sightseers. 
 
 And at that great and awful day, what will be 
 thought of supposititious heads and members ? 
 
 July 5. 
 
 Innocent eyes not ours, 
 
 Are made to look on flowers, 
 Eyes of small birds and insects small : 
 
 Morn after summer morn, 
 
 The sweet rose on her thorn 
 Opens her bosom to them all. 
 
 The least and last of things 
 
 That soar on quivering wings, 
 Or crawl among the grass-blades out of sight, 
 Have just as clear a right 
 To their appointed portion of delight, 
 
 As Queens or Kings. 
 
 July 6. 
 
 Two frogs I met in early childhood have lingered 
 in my memory : I frightened one frog, and the other 
 frog frightened me. 
 
 The frightened frog evinced fear by placing its two 
 hands on its head : at least, I have since understood 
 that a frog assumes this attitude when in danger, and 
 my frog assumed it.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 29 
 
 The alarming frog startled me, "gave me quite a 
 turn," as people say, by jumping when I did not know- 
 it was near me. 
 
 My fright was altogether without justifying cause. 
 Not so the first frog's : for presumably my warm finger 
 made the cool creature uncomfortable. Besides, how 
 could it tell what was coming next ? although in truth 
 I meant it no harm. 
 
 I wish that as regards their intention as much could 
 nowadays be certified for some of the wisest of this 
 world, and that every scared frog were like my scared 
 self, unreasonable. 
 
 But seeing that matters are as they are — because 
 frogs and such like cannot in reason frighten us now, — 
 is it quite certain that no day will ever come when 
 even the smallest, weakest, most grotesque, wronged 
 creature will not in some fashion rise up in the Judg- 
 ment with us to condemn us, and so frighten us effec- 
 tually once for all ? 
 
 July 7. 
 
 Contemptuous of his home beyond 
 
 The village and the village pond, 
 
 A large-souled Frog who spurned each byeway, 
 
 Hopped along the imperial highway. 
 
 Nor grunting pig nor barking dog 
 
 Could disconcert so great a frog. 
 
 The morning dew was lingering yet 
 
 His sides to cool, his tongue to wet ; 
 
 The night dew when the night should come 
 
 A travelled frog would send him home. 
 
 Not so, alas! the wayside grass 
 Sees him no more:— not so, alas! 
 K
 
 30 TIME FLIES 
 
 A broadwheeled waggon unawares 
 Ran him down, his joys, his cares. 
 From dying choke one feeble croak 
 The Frog's perpetual silence broke : 
 •'Ye buoyant Frogs, ye great and small, 
 Even I am mortal after all. 
 My road to Fame turns out a wry way: 
 I perish on this hideous highway, — 
 Oh for my old familiar byeway!" 
 
 The choking: Frog sobbed and was gone 
 
 The waeeroner strode whistling; on. 
 
 l St3 
 
 Unconscious of the carnage done, 
 Whistling that waggoner strode on, 
 Whistling (it may have happened so) 
 "A Froggy would a-wooing go:" 
 A hypothetic frog trolled he 
 Obtuse to a reality. 
 
 O rich and poor, O great and small, 
 
 Such oversights beset us all : 
 
 The mangled frog abides incog, 
 
 The uninteresting actual frog ; 
 
 The hypothetic frog alone 
 
 Is the one frog we dwell upon. 
 
 July 8. 
 i. 
 
 An apter flower for love-lore could scarcely be 
 selected than the forget-me-not. 
 
 It expresses a lofty affection, inasmuch as its corolla 
 is heavenly blue : but this is picked out with pink, to 
 stamp it as human and homely. It suggests how good
 
 A READING DIARY. 131 
 
 stands not still, but goes on to become better ; for its 
 buds are prevalently pink, its expanded blossoms 
 chiefly blue. Its centre is golden, love being a great 
 giver and giving of its best. 
 
 While by a crowning touch of appropriateness, its 
 blossom stalk has a habit of dividing into a double 
 spike of bloom. Thus showing us two that make up 
 but one. 
 
 " What therefore God hath joined together, let not 
 man put asunder." 
 
 July 9. 
 
 2. 
 
 I HAVE seen too — once indeed I possessed, so I 
 write from memory — a most exquisite shell, composed 
 of two halves, which joined together make up one 
 flawless heart. 
 
 Each separate half is beautiful, shaded with darker 
 and lighter rose tints, worked in grooves and curves, 
 and finished with a notched edge. Yet each by itself 
 remains obviously imperfect and purposeless. 
 
 Join them together and notch fits into notch; each 
 brings out, proves, achieves, the perfection of the 
 other. 
 
 Does such an illustration seem to excel and shame 
 the possibilities of even the highest and purest human 
 love ? 
 
 Nay, but St. Paul quoted that same mutual human 
 love in illustration of a Love which is not human 
 merely but Divine also : — 
 
 " A man . . . shall be joined unto his wife, and they 
 two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery ; but 
 I speak concerning Christ and the Church." 
 
 K 2
 
 132 TIME FLIES 
 
 July 10. 
 
 The less symbolizes the greater, the lower the 
 higher. 
 
 Our study of a forget-me-not and of a shell will not 
 entail loss of time — that irreparable loss ! — if it helps 
 us to realize that all reciprocal human love worthy of 
 the name, exhibits a tinge of heaven as well as a 
 warmth and colouring of earth. 
 
 That it is so far selfless as to be only one harmo- 
 nious part of a better whole. 
 
 That it is faithful, fitting into nothing except its own 
 other self- 
 
 And that unless it sets Christ before us at least as 
 in a glass darkly, it were good for it not to have been 
 born. 
 
 July 11. 
 
 Man's life is but a working day 
 
 Whose tasks are set aright : 
 
 A time to work, a time to pray, 
 
 And then a quiet night. 
 
 And then, please God, a quiet night 
 
 Where palms are green and robes are white, 
 
 A long-drawn breath, a balm for sorrow, — 
 
 And all things lovely on the morrow. 
 
 July 12. 
 
 A FONDLING Dog and a fondling Donkey : the old 
 fable tells us how differently they fared. 
 
 And thus it ever has been, and thus presumably it 
 ever will be ; but is it thus right and reasonable ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 33 
 
 In a measure it is, in a measure it is not. 
 
 If we examine ourselves on the " Dog and Donkey ' 
 question, I think many of us may find that not the 
 deed, often not even the manner of doing, but con- 
 tinually the doer, makes all the difference to us. 
 " Dogs " we pet, " Donkeys " we flout. 
 
 The Dog may lick us unrebuked : the Donkey 
 must not so much as brush us with his nice hairy 
 long ear. 
 
 Or granting that the Donkey is clumsy and coarse : 
 can nothing be condoned to his obviously virtuous in- 
 tention ? 
 
 A number of good kind people correspond more or 
 less with the demonstrative Donkey; but why? just 
 because they desire to be agreeably sociable. How- 
 ever clumsy their attempts, nothing can disguise the 
 fact that they mean well. 
 
 Perhaps, even, they are misled by the success of 
 some general favourite, who says, proposes, does 
 everything with all ingratiating tact. 
 
 Wherefore they also aim at repartee, and take to 
 catching us up ; at jocoseness, and jar our nerves. 
 Our pet nerve they grate upon : a hint as broad as a 
 scowl suffices not to suppress them. 
 
 Well, dense they may be, but they mean well by all 
 men. 
 
 We are highly strung, sensitively refined, our tact 
 amounts to intuition, not one weak point should we 
 exhibit but for super-exquisite delicacy. Only do we, 
 with equal consistency of honest purpose and endeavour, 
 mean well by all men ?
 
 134 TIME FLIES 
 
 July 13. 
 
 LET none despair of any grace, however remote from 
 their original lot. 
 
 I once looked over a fine collection of old Venetian 
 glass vessels. 
 
 By no means, I suppose, were any two of these pre- 
 cisely similar, not a mould from without but a breath 
 or a blast from within having shaped them. 
 
 Some perhaps might be described as quaint, others 
 certainly as elegant, many, if not all, as beautiful. 
 
 But the point of beauty which astonished me was 
 that one or more of the specimens had caught, as it 
 were, a momentary grace such as charms us in many 
 flowers. Such a contour, a curve, an attitude if I may 
 so call it, did here or there one of these old glasses 
 exhibit, as a petrified blossom bell might retain, or as 
 flexibility itself or motion might show forth if these 
 could be embodied and arrested. 
 
 Inert glass moulded from within caught the sem- 
 blance of such an alien grace. 
 
 Now God's grace moulds us from within. 
 
 July 14. 
 
 2. 
 
 In the same collection of glass, but not among the 
 Venetian specimens, stood two antique Greek vases, 
 mended, I believe, though to all intents flawless, portly 
 and oxydised. 
 
 What words can describe their beauty ? Placed as 
 they were aloft in my friend's drawing-room, one 
 might stand for sunrise, the other for moonrise.
 
 A READING DIARY. 135 
 
 Sunrise was brilliant as the most gorgeous pheasant ; 
 moonrise exquisite as the most harmonious pigeon. 
 But, as I said before, words do not describe them : I 
 cannot exaggerate, I can only misrepresent their ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Well, with these unrivalled vases vivid in my 
 memory, I one day rescued from an English roadside 
 ditch a broken bottle : and it was also oxydised ! So, 
 at least, I conclude : for in a minor key it too dis- 
 played a variety of iridescent tints, a sort of dull rain- 
 bow. 
 
 Now my treasure-trove was nothing to those others : 
 yet could not their excess of beauty annul its private 
 modicum of beauty. 
 
 There are, I presume, many more English ditches 
 than Greek Islands, many more modern broken bottles 
 than antique lustrous vases. If it is well for the few 
 to rejoice in sunrise and moonrise, it is no less well for 
 the many to be thankful for dim rainbows. 
 
 July 15. 
 
 Feast of St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester. Born presumably 
 towards the commencement of the ninth century: died in the year 862. 
 (Strictly speaking, however, it appears that the 2nd of July is St. 
 Swithun's own day, the 15th the day of the Translation of his remains.) 
 
 We read that in his youth St. Swithun was dis- 
 tinguished by humility. " Before honour is humility." 
 In later life he became the associate and counsellor of 
 kings, directing, assisting, reproving them. 
 
 Whatever else we may or may not know of this 
 eminent Prelate, we are almost certain to connect an 
 idea of fine or wet weather with the day of his Trans- 
 lation. The story goes how by a downpour of rain he 
 opposed the removal of his body, although at length 
 that removal was effected.
 
 130 TIME FLIES: 
 
 If we connect this alleged opposition with the saint's 
 humility, the legend will serve to illustrate the virtue. 
 And as everything under the sun may be turned to 
 good account, this story must be susceptible of the 
 process : shall it teach us humility? 
 
 July 16. 
 
 Have I not striven, my God, and watched and 
 prayed ? 
 
 Have I not wrestled in mine agony ? 
 
 Wherefore dost Thou still turn Thy Face from 
 me ? 
 Is Thine Arm shortened that Thou canst not aid ? 
 Thy silence breaks my heart : speak though to up- 
 braid, 
 
 For Thy rebuke yet bids us follow Thee. 
 
 I grope and grasp not ; gaze, but cannot see. 
 When out of sight and reach, my bed is made, 
 And piteous men and women cease to blame, 
 
 Whispering and wistful of my gain or loss ; 
 
 Thou Who for my sake once didst feel the Cross, 
 
 Lord, wilt Thou turn and look upon me then, 
 And in Thy glory bring to nought my shame, 
 
 Confessing me to angels and to men ? 
 
 July 17. 
 
 i. 
 
 To this hour I remember a certain wild strawberry 
 growing on a hedgerow bank, watched day by day 
 while it ripened by a little girl and by my yet younger 
 self. 
 
 My elder instructed me not to pluck it prematurely, 
 and I complied.
 
 A READING DTARY. 137 
 
 I do not know which of us was to have had it at 
 last, or whether we were to have halved it. As it was 
 we watched,, and as it turned out we watched in vain : 
 for a snail, or some such marauder, must have fore- 
 stalled us at a happy moment. One fatal day we 
 found it half-eaten, and good for nothing. 
 
 Thus then we had watched in vain : or was it alto- 
 gether in vain ? On a very lowly level we had obeyed 
 a counsel of prudence, and had practised self-restraint. 
 
 And shall the baulked watches of after-life prove in 
 vain ? " Let patience have her perfect work." 
 
 July 18. 
 
 ' ; HALF-EATEN and good for nothing," said I of the 
 strawberry. I need not have expressed myself with 
 such sweeping contempt. 
 
 Some snail may have been glad to finish up that 
 wreck. Some children might not have disdained the 
 final bite. 
 
 Yet to confine my reflections to snails and their 
 peers : why should not they have a share in straw- 
 berries ? 
 
 Man is very apt to contemplate himself out of all 
 proportion to his surroundings : true, he is " much 
 better than they," yet have they also their assigned 
 province and their guaranteed dues. 
 
 Fruits for man, green herb for other living creatures, 
 including creepers on the earth, is the decree in Genesis. 
 Thus for the Garden of Eden : and why not thus, as 
 regards the spirit of the decree, here and now ? 
 
 But man, alas ! finds it convenient here to snap off a 
 right and there to chip away a due. Greed grudges
 
 t 38 TIME FLIES : 
 
 their morsel to hedgerow birds, and idleness robs the 
 provident hare of his winter haystack, and science pares 
 away at the living creature bodily, " And what will 
 ye do in the end thereof? " 
 
 July 19. 
 
 A Word for the Dumb. 
 
 PITY the sorrows of a poor old dog, 
 
 Who wags his tail a begging in his need ; 
 Despise not even the sorrows of a frog, 
 
 God's creature too, and that's enough to plead ; 
 Spare puss, who trusts us, purring on our hearth ; 
 
 Spare bunny, once so frisky and so free ; 
 Spare all the harmless tenants of the earth ; 
 
 Spare and be spared, — or who shall plead 
 for thee ? 
 
 July 20. 
 
 Feast of St. Margaret or Marina, Virgin Martyr. Her 
 martyrdom took place, perhaps, in the third century. 
 
 I READ that no trustworthy authority has come to 
 light for any details regarding this personage. Even 
 her existence does not admit of proof. 
 
 Her legendary acts represent her as brought up by 
 a Christian nurse, and as herself a Christian. Where- 
 fore her pagan father disowned her. At length, after 
 various trials, tortures, and triumphs, she died by de- 
 capitation. 
 
 Nevertheless — and this undermines meditation — we 
 cannot feel assured that she lived at all, or died, or 
 went up to glory. Yet should not her memory, or her 
 phantom as the case may be, do us some good ? Let 
 her not engross one day in the year for nothing !
 
 A READING DIARY. 135 
 
 On one supposition we can picture her in accordance 
 with her name of Margaret as a modest daisy, growing 
 where for the present we cannot come : or as a pearl 
 not yet brought up from hidden depths to the sun- 
 lighted surface. Or dwelling on her alternative name 
 of Marina, we can look forward to knowing her when 
 both sea and earth render up the dead. 
 
 On the other hand should she not exist, we shall 
 yet have gained and not lost if this Feast Day (though 
 it be not her Festival) have led us to think of" things 
 pure and lovely, of virtue, and of praise. 
 
 July 21. 
 
 The sinner's own fault? So it was. 
 If every own fault found us out, 
 Dogged us and hedged us round about, 
 
 What comfort should we take, because 
 Not half our due we thus wrung out? 
 
 Clearly his own fault. Yet I think 
 My fault in part, who did not pray, 
 But lagged, and would not lead the way. 
 
 I, haply, proved his missing link. 
 
 God help us both to mend and pray. 
 
 July 22. 
 
 Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. The date of her death is unknown. 
 
 A RECORD of this Saint is a record of love. She 
 ministered to the Lord of her substance, she stood by 
 the Cross, she sat over against the Sepulchre, she 
 sought Christ in the empty grave, and found Him and 
 was found of Him in the contiguous garden. 
 
 Yet this is that same Mary Magdalene out of whom 
 aforetime He had cast seven devils.
 
 140 TIME FLIES 
 
 Nevertheless, the golden cord of love we are con- 
 templating did all along continue unbroken in its chief 
 strand : for before she loved Him, He loved her. 
 
 Thus love it was which brought Christ and that soul 
 together, and bound them together first and last. Or 
 rather, first and not last : for time must end in eternity, 
 and eternity must end which never endeth, before the 
 mutual love of Christ and His saints shall end. 
 
 To love first is God's prerogative. But blessed be 
 He Who humbles not His least saint by loving 
 last. 
 
 July 23. 
 
 Who would wish back the Saints upon our rough, 
 Wearisome road ? 
 
 Wish back a breathless soul 
 Just at the goal ? 
 My soul, praise God 
 For all dear souls which have enough. 
 
 I would not fetch one back to hope with me 
 A hope deferred, 
 
 To taste a cup that slips 
 From thirsting lips : — 
 Hath he not heard 
 And seen what was to hear and see? 
 
 How could I stand to answer the rebuke, 
 If one should say : 
 
 " O friend of little faith, 
 Good was my death, 
 And good my day 
 Of rest, and good the sleep I took " ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 141 
 
 July 24. 
 
 Vigil of St. James the Great. 
 
 VIGILS prepare for Feasts : but Feasts of Saints 
 (mostly) celebrate the Saint's death. 
 
 Thus mortal life corresponds with a Vigil, death 
 with a Festival. 
 
 We discern this clearly in the case of St. James, and 
 of other such eminent saints ; we acquiesce in it cheer- 
 fully and are fully persuaded that so it is. 
 
 But when ourselves come into question, we seem to 
 see all reversed : our own life, that is, appears as 
 something of a festival, though chequered ; our own 
 death as an appalling and beyond experience anxious 
 vigil. 
 
 " My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth 
 a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water 
 and bitter ? " 
 
 July 25. 
 
 Feast of St. James the Great, Apostle and Martyr. Killed 
 with the sword in the year 44. 
 
 St. James, who had craved the Right Hand or the 
 Left Hand seat, and had accepted the cup and bap- 
 tism proposed to him, was the first of the Apostles to 
 lay down life for his Master's sake. 
 
 St. John, who had proffered the same prayer and 
 incurred the same obligation, was the last of them 
 all to die, and that not by martyrdom. 
 
 Together they had left nets and boat for Christ. 
 Together they had borne the title of Sons of 
 Thunder. Together they had companied with the 
 Lord Jesus, and afterwards had seen Him ascend into 
 heaven. Together they had received the Gift of the
 
 142 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Holy Ghost, and had preached the Gospel by words 
 and by lives more eloquent than words. 
 
 Till a day came when one was taken, the other left : 
 one " followed," the other " tarried." Lovely and 
 pleasant in their lives, in their death they were 
 divided. 
 
 Now these twain were princes and great men of the 
 better Israel ; true yokefellows, moreover, and fellow 
 heirs ; set side by side in their high places on the battle- 
 field of the world and in the kingdom of the Church. 
 
 Yet each had to finish separately and differently the 
 course begun hand in hand and alike. 
 
 Only now once more, and for these eighteen hundred 
 years past, they are together. 
 
 Whence we feel vividly that as " circumcision is 
 nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping 
 of the commandments of God," so also life or death, so 
 also even martyrdom or a natural death is u nothing," 
 but the doincr or suffering the Will of God. Amen. 
 
 July 26. 
 
 Feast of St. Anne. Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 THAT the Lord's Handmaiden had a mother is in- 
 dubitable ; that she was blessed with a holy mother is 
 conjecturable. That this pious mother bore the name 
 of Anne is quite uncertain: but under this name we do 
 well to venerate the memory of her who, bearing what- 
 ever name, was privileged to become an ancestress of 
 the Son of God, and so was constituted a link in that 
 providential chain of persons and events which ended 
 in the atoning Cross. 
 
 It is comfortable to turn from saints whose history 
 is unauthenticated, to saints whose history is assured,
 
 A READING DIARY. 
 
 H3 
 
 from the Worthies of tradition to the Worthies of Holy 
 Scripture. At every turn that which is human fails or 
 eludes us, that which is Divine endures and suffices. 
 
 " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life." 
 
 July 27. 
 
 i. 
 
 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may 
 sift you as wheat."— (St. Luke xxii. 31.) 
 
 These words of our Blessed Lord, spoken in the 
 first instance to one Apostle, have ever since warned, 
 and still cease not to warn, each Christian soul. 
 
 For though an ordinary Christian is no conspicuous 
 prey, like the College of Apostles, yet Satan deems 
 him well worth a shake of the sieve. 
 
 The warning conveyed by our Lord's words is 
 awful : for our " adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, 
 walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." A 
 flesh and blood lion is appalling to human flesh and 
 blood : how tenfold appalling is a spiritual roaring, 
 devouring lion to man's spirit. 
 
 But the encouragement in those same precious words 
 rings through and above the alarm they sound. " Satan 
 hath desired " to have us : but of whom ? Of Him to 
 Whom we are as the apple of the eye. 
 
 And wherefore does he desire to have us ? That he 
 may sift us as wheat. We are certified as good seed 
 by Satan's desiring permission to sift us : for who ever 
 heard of his desiring to sift tares ? 
 
 As to tares, Satan is quite satisfied so long as they 
 grow unmolested, ripen, shed seed, propagate, flourish 
 until the harvest. 
 
 Wheat only does he reckon worth his sifting : there- 
 fore whatever he sifts is wheat.
 
 144 TIME FLIES 
 
 July 28. 
 
 2. 
 
 Temptation is Satan's sieve : and a wonderful 
 sieve-maker is Satan. 
 
 For he can ply as sieves advantages, gifts, even 
 graces. 
 
 More than this : he can turn what we have not into 
 an exceptionally searching sieve. 
 
 In one case pride, vanity, self-confidence, contempt 
 of others, are likely to come to the surface. In the 
 other case discontent, envy, rebellion. All alike hideous 
 blotches, eating ulcers. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is at his own cost that he sifts, and 
 not necessarily at all at ours ; although for the time 
 being it cannot but be at our deadly peril. 
 
 For he can never carry his point and destroy us. 
 unless we first make a covenant with death and an 
 agreement with hell : whereas we shall infallibly save 
 our souls alive, if holding fast our profession and our 
 patience, we are careful to maintain good works. 
 
 Meanwhile he is doing us an actual service by bring- 
 ing to the surface what already lurked within. How- 
 ever tormenting and humiliating declared leprosy may 
 be, it is less desperate than suppressed leprosy. 
 
 Or rather, nothing is desperate which can and will 
 turn to Christ : — 
 
 "There came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and 
 kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou 
 wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved 
 with compassion, put forth His Hand, and touched 
 him, and saith unto him, I will ; be thou clean. And 
 as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy 
 departed from him, and he was cleansed."
 
 A READING DIARY. 145 
 
 July 29. 
 
 Through burden and heat of the day- 
 How weary the hands and the feet, 
 
 That labour with scarcely a stay, 
 Through burden and heat ! 
 
 Tired toiler whose sleep shall be sweet, 
 Kneel down, it will rest thee to pray : 
 Then forward, for daylight is fleet. 
 
 Cool shadows grow lengthening and grey, 
 Cool twilight will soon be complete : — 
 
 What matters this wearisome way 
 Through burden and heat ? 
 
 July 30. 
 
 " He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
 loveth Me." — (St. John xiv. 21.) 
 
 Such is our Lord's own authoritative definition of 
 His true lover. 
 
 But not seldom it would seem as if this His defini- 
 tion fails to satisfy His disciples. Thus one, a self- 
 deceiver, substitutes an emotion for obedience : while 
 another, a self-tormentor, depreciates the obedience 
 he can and (allowing for human frailty) does render, 
 in comparison with emotions he longs after but cannot 
 experience. 
 
 The self-deceiver's remedy is simple strenuous obe- 
 dience, without reference either to sensibility or in- 
 sensibility. 
 
 The self-tormentor's remedy is cheerful trustful 
 obedience " as to the Lord, and not unto men : " for 
 whosoever studies himself in his obedience is — is he 
 
 L
 
 146 TIME FLIES: 
 
 not? — obeying as "unto a man" rather than "as to 
 the Lord." 
 
 Such an honest scrupulous person may, perhaps, 
 derive comfort from a very homely illustration. When 
 water boils, the bottom of the vessel containing it can 
 be touched with impunity: wherefore? because it 
 lacks heat? on the contrary, because all its heat is 
 carried upward and away from itself. 
 
 July 31. 
 
 Why is " the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears " 
 culpable ? 
 
 Not, surely, because of any involuntary deafness : 
 but because whatever degree of infirmity she may or 
 may not have laboured under, she willed to be and to 
 remain deaf. 
 
 Honest difficulties in the way of her hearing may 
 have existed : incomparably beyond them in baneful 
 influence appears to have been the circumstance that 
 she stopped her ears. 
 
 We may fairly conclude that had her deafness been 
 absolute she would not have felt any impulse to stop 
 her ears : she could not have apprehended enough to 
 set her against apprehending more. 
 
 Because she heard somewhat, she stopped her ears : 
 and because hearing somewhat she took measures to 
 hear no more, therefore she abides condemned. 
 
 If because we see her stop her ears we judge and 
 condemn her on that very evidence of her having 
 heard, let us judge ourselves no less honestly. 
 
 The responsibility we avoid facing, we have already 
 caught a glimpse of : we are at the least so far cogni- 
 sant of it as to know that we might ascertain more.
 
 A READING DIARY. 147 
 
 August 1. 
 
 Lammas Day. Kept in commemoration of St. Peter's miraculous 
 deliverance "out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of 
 the people of the Jews." 
 
 Both Lamb-Mass and Loaf-Mass have been pro- 
 posed as the original form of our word Lammas : 
 which in the first case would allude to a lamb offered 
 annually in York Cathedral; in the second would 
 recall an English festival of first-fruits ; both alike 
 belonging to this day. 
 
 York Cathedral is dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula : 
 and our Lord's words to him beside the Sea of Ti- 
 berias, " Feed My lambs," have led to the great 
 Apostle's being regarded as patron of lambs. 
 
 Yet in the highest sense there is but One Good 
 Shepherd whose own the flock is. All other men, 
 even the holiest, can be but His under shepherds 
 feeding "the flock of God not by constraint but 
 willingly." 
 
 Better it is that a lamb should remind us of Christ 
 than of St. Peter : ' ; Behold the Lamb of God ! " 
 
 And while a loaf may profitably put us in mind to 
 bring forth fruit thirty or sixty or a hundred-fold, 
 it may best dispose us so to do, by setting before us in 
 a figure Christ the Bread of Life. Christ the Corn of 
 Wheat which to quicken us fell into the ground and 
 died. 
 
 August 2. 
 
 A Dialogue. 
 
 " The fields are white to harvest, look and see, 
 Are white abundantly. 
 The full-orbed harvest moon shines clear, 
 The harvest time draws near, 
 Be of good cheer." 
 
 L 2
 
 148 TIME FLIES 
 
 " Ah woe is me ! 
 I have no heart for harvest time, 
 Grown sick with hope deferred from chime to 
 chime." 
 
 " But Christ can give thee heart Who loveth thee : 
 Can set thee in the eternal ecstasy 
 Of His great jubilee : 
 
 Can give thee dancing heart and shining face. 
 And lips filled full of grace, 
 And pleasures as the rivers and the sea. 
 Who knocketh at His door 
 He welcomes evermore: 
 Kneel down before 
 That ever open door 
 (The time is short) and smite 
 Thy breast, and pray with all thy might." 
 
 "What shall I say?" 
 
 " Nay, pray. 
 Though one but say ' Thy Will be done,' 
 He hath not lost his day 
 At set of sun." 
 
 August 3. 
 
 There exists of the mezereon a certain foreign 
 species whereof the inner bark resembles lace : in- 
 somuch that the women of the same region do actually 
 make use of it as lace. 
 
 The plant wears its lace within, the women wear 
 theirs without : the twain seem in some sort to make 
 up between them one image of that "King's daughter"
 
 A READING DIARY. 149 
 
 who being " all glorious within" is also " brought unto 
 the King in raiment of needlework;" the lace and 
 the needlework in question being alike such as no 
 needle on earth could embroider. 
 
 Yet the mezereon clad in its own lace lining, mani- 
 fests one marked superiority over women arrayed 
 visibly in the same lace : for not they but the plant 
 becomes our emblem of St. Peter's ideal matron 
 " whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning 
 ... of putting on of apparel ; but let it be the hidden 
 man of the heart." 
 
 The Creator of all things good has Himself decked 
 a plant with hidden lace. Is the whole of our lace on 
 the surface? 
 
 August 4. 
 
 When I was in north Italy, a region rich in sun- 
 shine, heat, beauty, it struck me that after all our 
 English wild scarlet poppies excelled the Italian pop- 
 pies in gorgeous colour. 
 
 I should have expected the direct contrary; the 
 more sunshine, surely the more glow and redness : yet 
 it appeared otherwise when I came to look. 
 
 Perhaps sheer stress of sunshine tended to bleach as 
 well as to dye those poppies. 
 
 And if so, they aptly symbolize those " always re- 
 joicing" Christians who are, notwithstanding, so sor- 
 rowful during the present distress. 
 
 For on earth souls need bleaching as well as de- 
 veloping and embellishing. Only in heaven will the 
 sun cease to smite on the just made perfect, and the 
 vehement east wind cease to beat on them.
 
 150 TIME FLIES 
 
 August 5. 
 
 Of each sad word, which is more sorrowful, 
 "Sorrow" or "Disappointment?" I have heard 
 
 Subtle inflections baffling subtlest rule, 
 Of each sad word. 
 
 Sorrow can mourn : and lo ! a mourning bird 
 Sings sweetly to sweet echoes of its dule, 
 While silent disappointment broods unstirred. 
 
 Yet both nurse hope ; where Penitence keeps school 
 Who makes fools wise and saints of them that 
 erred : 
 
 Wise men shape stepping-stone, or curb, or tool, 
 Of each sad word. 
 
 August 6. 
 
 Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord. 
 
 Heaven, Paradise, Earth, each was represented on 
 the Mount of Transfiguration. For Christ is that Son 
 of Man Who came down from Heaven and is in 
 Heaven : Moses and Elias reappeared from whatever 
 blessed abode enshrined them : St. Peter, St. James, 
 St. John, still drew mortal breath. If brief that meet- 
 ing, brief also that parting : long ago (please God) they 
 met anew to part no more, where none who meet shall 
 ever part again. 
 
 Well was it for St. Peter that he was not taken at 
 his word and permitted to set up his "three taber- 
 nacles." Earth at its loftiest and loveliest is still only 
 earth : and though God's appointment makes it "good 
 for us to be here," in itself and compared with the 
 lowest place in heaven earth is not good.
 
 A READING DIARY. 151 
 
 Yet for a moment the eyes of an Apostle were 
 arrested here, his heart paused here. And no marvel : 
 for where Christ is is the Presence of God } and the 
 Presence of God is Heaven. 
 
 August 7. 
 
 Feast of the Name of Jesus. 
 
 JESUS, Lord God from all eternity, 
 
 Whom love of us brought down to shame, 
 
 I plead Thy life with Thee, 
 
 I plead Thy death, I plead Thy Name. 
 
 Jesus, Lord God of every living soul, 
 Thy Love exceeds its uttered fame, 
 
 Thy Will can make us whole, 
 
 I plead Thyself, I plead Thy Name. 
 
 August 8. 
 
 Holy Scripture bids us "run with patience the race 
 that is set before us." 
 
 One might have anticipated that energy or zeal 
 would be the word, rather than patience : but no, it is 
 patience. 
 
 If not even a race, then surely nothing that apper- 
 tains to duty should be done in mere hurry or depend 
 upon impulse. Our race is for life or death, yet must 
 it be run peacefully. 
 
 One element of excitement is far removed from it. 
 A race it is, yet only to attain a goal, not to outstrip 
 competitors. On the contrary, there is scarcely a 
 greater help to one's own running than to lend a hand 
 to a halting brother or sister.
 
 152 TIME FLTES: 
 
 Our mighty Forerunner Whom no saint follows ex- 
 cept at an infinite distance, even Christ Who in all 
 things hath the pre-eminence, ran His mortal race with 
 glory as of the sun, and alacrity as of a bridegroom, 
 and strength as of a giant : nevertheless He ran it with 
 such peace and patience that He vouchsafed to become 
 as one who carries lambs in his bosom and gently 
 leads the feeble ones. 
 
 As of yore to our forefathers, so to-day He saith 
 to us : " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke 
 upon you." Now a yoke is not for standing still, 
 but for toiling forward : and thus He promises us 
 rest while we toil, even as He requires of us patience 
 while we run our race. 
 
 Lord Jesus, who would think that I am Thine ? 
 
 Ah, who would think 
 Who sees me ready to turn back or sink, 
 
 That Thou art mine? 
 
 I cannot hold Thee fast, tho' Thou art mine : 
 
 Hold Thou me fast, 
 So earth shall know at last and heaven at last 
 
 That I am Thine. 
 
 August 9. 
 
 Yea, if Thou wilt, Thou canst put up Thy sword : 
 But what if Thou shouldst sheathe it to the hilt 
 
 Within the heart that sues to Thee, O Lord? 
 Yea, if Thou wilt. 
 
 For if Thou wilt Thou canst purge out the guilt 
 Of all, of any, even the most abhorred : 
 
 Thou canst pluck down, rebuild, build up the unbuilt.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 53 
 
 Who wanders, canst Thou gather by love's cord? 
 
 Who sinks, uplift from the under-sucking silt 
 To set him on Thy rock within Thy ward? 
 
 Yea, if Thou wilt. 
 
 August 10. 
 
 Feast of St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr. 
 
 DURING the persecution under Valerian in the year 
 258, this heroic saint died a torturing death over a 
 slow fire. 
 
 It is related of him, as of St. Stephen, that while 
 undergoing his agony his face was glorified as the 
 face of an angel. His eyes gazed fixedly on heaven, 
 his countenance remained unruffled. 
 
 To so sweet a soul, sorer perhaps than pangs of the 
 body, had been that pang of parting when three days 
 earlier his beloved Priest and Pope St. Sixtus went 
 up before him by the road of martyrdom to the 
 kingdom of peace. 
 
 To meet, worth living for; 
 
 Worth dying for, to meet; 
 To meet, worth parting for, 
 
 Bitter forgot in sweet : 
 To meet, worth parting before 
 Never to part more. 
 
 August 11. 
 
 " How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them 
 be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into 
 the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be 
 that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, 
 than of the ninety and nine which went not astray."— (St. Matt, xviii. 
 12, 13.) 
 
 And so do we. So, at least, seem oftentimes 
 to do the most fervent intercessors: red-hot for
 
 J 54 TIME FLIES 
 
 the salvation of saints, at white heat for the salva- 
 tion of sinners. 
 
 Whence further it would almost appear that excel- 
 lent pious people love the guilty more than the 
 innocent, scarlet sinners more than fellow saints. 
 
 Are any of us disheartened hereby and driven out 
 of sympathy with our brethren ? Nay, there lies an 
 effectual remedy within reach. 
 
 Let us but humbly recognise ourselves as the 
 sinners God discerns us to be, and we shall thankfully 
 accept a share in the effectual fervent prayers of 
 those who praying always faint not. 
 
 August 12. 
 i. 
 
 "Behold the Lamb of God."— (St. JOHN i. 36.) 
 
 LET us study a lamb, in hopes of learning from it 
 something concerning our adorable Saviour. For 
 such similitudes as are employed in Holy Scripture 
 must contain a lesson for us. 
 
 The lamb, Divinely appointed for sacrifice, does 
 obviously typify Christ sacrificed as our atonement. 
 
 But this is, so to say, the lamb's office, not his essence. 
 So that we may still ask : wherefore was a lamb, 
 rather than another living creature, chosen for so 
 sacred a purpose? 
 
 The main answer may indeed lie beyond our reach 
 in a region of mysteries : yet none the less some 
 wisdom within our reach may lie upon the surface. 
 
 At first sight, then, a lamb is a picture of innocence. 
 Its woolly white face looks as pure as a snowdrop, its 
 voice has a plaintive tone of perpetual appeal which 
 goes to the heart. It is cheerful, moreover, full of
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 55 
 
 pretty ways and contentment. It is born when earth, 
 arraying herself in renewed verdure, prepares to 
 blossom as a step towards fruitfulness : it inhabits clean 
 green meadows, and drinks sweet clean water. 
 
 August 13. 
 
 2. 
 
 "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." — 
 (St. John i. 29.) 
 
 Jesus is no mere picture of innocence, but is very 
 Innocence incarnate. A lamb and all other things 
 innocent and pure are His picture. 
 
 That " Voice " which His sheep hear and know is 
 a voice not of command merely but also of winning 
 appeal. He invites us: "Come unto Me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 He urges us : " If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 Me, and drink." He reproaches us: "Ye will not 
 come to Me, that ye might have life." He pleads for 
 us : " Lord, let it alone this year also." He probes 
 our hearts : " Lovest thou Me?" 
 
 Well may we read how once even in the synagogue of 
 Nazareth " the eyes of all . . . were fastened on Him 
 . . . And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the 
 gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth." 
 — " Full of grace are Thy lips." 
 
 And if lambs liable to sacrifice were contented and 
 cheerful creatures (though they, indeed, in ignorance), 
 surely " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world" was far beyond such as they, contented and 
 desirous in His self-sacrifice : " With desire I have 
 desired," said He of the supper ; and how not of the
 
 1.^6 TIME FLIES 
 
 Passion? I once read a work concerning Holy Com- 
 munion, devout in intention, but (as it struck me) 
 laying stress of such a sort on our Lord's con- 
 descension and patience, as suggested that He Who 
 willingly had lived and died for men now found it 
 hard to put up with us sinners, and for our sake to 
 secrete Himself in the Sacrament of His most Blessed 
 Body and Blood. May I have misunderstood the 
 tone of that book ! 
 
 Lastly, if Christmas as we keep it in December be 
 the actual season of our Lord's birth, then in that (as 
 in the rest) He leaves lambs far behind Him, being 
 born into this world at a more desolate moment than 
 they. Earth at mid-winter is comparatively bare ; 
 leaves, blossoms and delights come back with spring. 
 
 August 14. 
 
 " Fra Modesto non fu mai Priore," say the Italians: 
 or in English, " Brother Modestus never became 
 Prior." 
 
 '• Brother Modestus was sure to make a mess of 
 it," " Brother Modestus was a fool for his pains," — • 
 exclaim worldly worldlings and worldly churchlings 
 in chorus. 
 
 A "mess" and a "fool" undeniably, according to 
 their standard who in their generation are wiser than 
 the children of light. 
 
 Inflated bladders, puff balls, loud and hollow drums : 
 such symbols as these tally with too many of the 
 successes and of the successful of this world. 
 
 And by comparison, Brother Modestus and his 
 career are mere collapse : drum him out of the world ! 
 
 But behold ! he wishes nothing better. He has 
 made his count for nothing to-day, all to-morrow;
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 57 
 
 nothing on earth, all in heaven. He knows Whom 
 he has believed, and is persuaded that He is able to 
 keep all things committed unto Him against that 
 day. 
 
 Now, he that ruleth his spirit is better than he 
 that taketh a city. 
 
 August 15. 
 
 A PEBBLE dropped into a pool disturbs the water 
 in a circle widening without definite boundary. 
 
 Motion displaces air, nor can we assign any limit to 
 the extent of such displacement. 
 
 Earth revolving within space carries along with 
 itself its own vast atmosphere. 
 
 And more or less like each of these, personal in- 
 fluence is certain and is incalculable ; is a mighty 
 engine inseparable from a proportionate burden of 
 responsibility. None are too great, none too small, 
 for this burden. St. Paul laid himself out, moulded 
 himself, spent himself to bear it worthily ; as his own 
 words attest : — 
 
 " Though I be free from all men, yet have I made 
 myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 
 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might 
 gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law, as 
 under the law, that I might gain them that are under 
 the law ; to them that are without law, as without 
 law (being not without law to God, but under the 
 law to Christ), that I might gain them that are with- 
 out law. To the weak became I as weak, that I 
 might gain the weak : I am made all tilings to all 
 men, that I might by all means save some."
 
 158 TIME FLIES: 
 
 August 16. 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE as in reality it is to avoid exercising 
 personal influence, there is yet a restricted sense in 
 which it may be withheld to the grievous hurt of those 
 whose due it is : just as a lantern may be placed so as 
 to hide its light. 
 
 But alas! such withholding amounts not to neu- 
 trality but to evil influence : the lantern which does 
 not cast light casts shadow. " He that gathereth not 
 with Me," saith the Truth, " scattereth." 
 
 On the other hand and for our encouragement, good 
 influence may be at work where no immediate visible 
 result ensues ; where the result may not by us be 
 traceable on earth or in time, but only in heaven and 
 throughout eternity. 
 
 I have read a story of a date palm which lived a 
 long while green and barren. One year without 
 apparent cause it bore fruit. Wherefore ? Because 
 out of sight a remote kindred palm shed its fructifying 
 pollen, and this the wind bore to impregnate the 
 barren tree. 
 
 August 17. 
 
 When all the overwork of life 
 
 Is finished once, and fallen asleep 
 We shrink no more beneath the knife, 
 
 But having sown prepare to reap, 
 Delivered from the crossway rough, 
 
 Delivered from the thorny scourge, 
 
 Delivered from the tossing surge, 
 Then shall we find— (please God!)— it is enough?
 
 A READING DIARY. 159 
 
 Not in this world of hope deferred, 
 
 This world of perishable stuff; 
 Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, 
 
 Nor heart conceived that full "enough:" 
 Here moans the separating sea, 
 
 Here harvests fail, here breaks the heart ; 
 
 There God shall join and no man part, 
 All one in Christ, so one — (please God !)— with me. 
 
 August 18. 
 
 NOAH being commanded to build an Ark, built it 
 then and there upon (as it seems) the dry ground. 
 
 A huge immoveable unprecedented Ark, high and 
 dry on land, when its only conceivable use was for the 
 water ! 
 
 Presumably the Antediluvians noticed the incon- 
 gruity : perhaps they enjoyed it : possibly it con- 
 firmed them in a theory that no sane man would 
 listen to Noah. 
 
 Up to a certain moment that old-world controversy 
 seemed carried on between common sense and shiftless 
 fanaticism, " for the children of this world are in their 
 generation wiser than the children of light." 
 
 Only,— there was to be an end of that generation. 
 
 The certain moment came, " the flood came, and 
 took them all away," and after all the last word of the 
 controversy fell to Noah. 
 
 Thus it was, and thus it is, and thus it ever will be 
 between the world and the Church : " Because the 
 foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weak- 
 ness of God is stronger than men."
 
 160 TIME FLIES: 
 
 August 19. 
 
 2. 
 
 How did Noah build his Ark ? 
 
 We may fairly assume that he built it openly, 
 avowedly, without any subterfuges or pretences what- 
 soever. 
 
 For instance. We do not suppose that he kept the 
 Ark looking like a house, or like a land carriage, as 
 long as possible ; ingeniously erecting and maintaining 
 scaffolding around the navigable base, but leaving 
 door and windows full in view. Or that when the 
 substructure could no longer be hidden, he opened an 
 artificial creek to suggest that he had ways and means 
 of utilising his ark. 
 
 No. We may well believe that as he had faith 
 enough to build his ark, so also he had faith enough 
 not to tone it down, or colour it, or gloss it over by 
 any tinge of imposture. 
 
 Now we Christians all of us are (or ought to be) 
 building arks "to the saving of" our souls. 
 
 How many of us are building them in unabashed 
 openness and honesty? neither parading our religion, 
 nor keeping it under lock and key : neither falling on 
 our knees to seem devout (as Bishop Jeremy Taylor 
 puts it), nor starting off them to seem indevout (often 
 the keener temptation), if we hear some one coming. 
 
 August 20. 
 i. 
 
 Interruptions are vexatious. 
 Granted. But what is an interruption ? 
 An interruption is something, is anything, which 
 breaks in upon our occupation of the moment. For
 
 A READING DIARY. l6l 
 
 instance : a frivolous remark when we are absorbed, a 
 selfish call when we are busy, an idle noise out of 
 time, an intrusive sight out of place. 
 
 Now our occupations spring? . . . from within : for 
 they are the outcome of our own will. 
 
 And interruptions arrive ? . . . from without. Obvi- 
 ously from without, or otherwise we could and would 
 ward them off. 
 
 Our occupation, then, is that which we select. Our 
 interruption is that which is sent us. 
 
 But hence it would appear that the occupation may 
 be wilful, while the interruption must be Providential. 
 
 A startling view of occupations and interruptions ! 
 
 August 21. 
 
 Ah but, that which is frivolous, selfish, idle, intru- 
 sive, is clearly not Providential. 
 
 As regards the doer, no : as regards the sufferer, 
 yes. 
 
 I think we often quite misconceive the genuine ap- 
 pointed occupation of a given moment, perhaps even 
 of our whole lives. We take for granted that we ought 
 to enjoy a pleasure, or complete a task, or execute a 
 work, or serve some one we love : while what we are 
 really then and there called to is to forego a pleasure, 
 or break off a task, or leave a cherished work incom- 
 plete, or serve some one we find it difficult to love. 
 
 Interruptions seem well nigh to form the occupation 
 of some lives. 
 
 Not an occupation one would choose ; yet none the 
 less profitable on that account. 
 
 How would saints speak of interruptions ? One 
 M
 
 1 62 TIME FLIES: 
 
 might remark, " To me they are not grievous :" and 
 another, " For me they are safe." But would any saint 
 observe, " Interruptions are vexatious," and there 
 
 stop 
 
 August 22. 
 
 In north Italy I observed that whilst the cattle are 
 grand and beautiful beyond our English wont, the 
 pigs are exceptionally mean and repulsive. 
 
 Thus in one characteristically lovely land what is 
 fair shows at its fairest, what is ugly shows at its 
 ugliest. 
 
 And if thus in the natural sphere, thus likewise in 
 the spiritual sphere. 
 
 Christendom exhibits extremes not attainable in the 
 outer world. Its " cattle " excel all cattle : its " swine" 
 wallow beneath all swine. 
 
 Foulest of the foul is an unchristian Christian : no 
 better, far worse, than any sow that returns " to her 
 wallowing in the mire." 
 
 August 23. 
 
 Vigil of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 This Saint is concealed from us by, as it were, a 
 double veil. Beyond his name and certain statements 
 in which other persons are associated with him, no 
 unquestionable mention is made of him either in the 
 Gospels or in the Book of Acts : while his name itself, 
 signifying " Son of Tolmai " may in a sense be regarded 
 as no name at all. 
 
 Thus then it has pleased God to hide him from us, 
 even in the process of showing him to us. And thus 
 it is that he sets us an example, by becoming the 
 blessed opposite of those who, doing good works to be 
 seen of men, receive then and there their reward.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 63 
 
 The Father Who seeth in secret will reward him 
 openly. 
 
 " O how plentiful is Thy goodness, which Thou hast 
 laid up for them that fear Thee : and that Thou hast 
 prepared for them that put their trust in Thee, even 
 before the sons of men ! Thou shalt hide them privily 
 by Thine own Presence from the provoking of all men : 
 Thou shalt keep them secretly in Thy tabernacle from 
 the strife of tongues." 
 
 August 24. 
 
 Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle. Tradition assigns to this 
 Saint, martyrdom in one of its most appalling forms 
 
 He bore an agony whereof the name 
 
 Hath turned his fellows pale: — 
 But what if God should call us to the same, 
 
 Should call, and we should fail? 
 
 Nor earth nor sea could swallow up our shame, 
 
 Nor darkness draw a veil : 
 For he endured that agony whose name 
 
 Hath made his fellows quail. 
 
 August 25. 
 1. 
 
 "Rooms shalt thou make in the ark" — (Gen. vi. 14): but the literal 
 Hebrew {see margin of Authorised Version) says not "rooms" but 
 "nests." 
 
 Now without for one moment calling in question 
 that these particular " nests " were rooms, the special 
 word employed does yet suggest a special train of 
 thought. 
 
 The Ark : the Church. Destruction without, safely 
 within. "A dispensation of the Gospel " is vouchsafed 
 
 M 2
 
 164 TIME FLIES 
 
 to man, and woe is us if we accept not the offered 
 salvation. 
 
 We do (please God) accept it. However unworthily, 
 we occupy rooms in the spiritual Ark : there we live, 
 and there we hope to die. 
 
 The rooms being commodiously and thoroughly 
 furnished unto good works, the tenants are thereby 
 invited to perform such good works as belong to their 
 several vocations. 
 
 So to do becomes our duty. And it is constituted 
 no less our privilege, seeing that to crown all it has 
 promise of a reward. 
 
 Christian duties, Christian privileges : some honest 
 Christians do much, and upbraid themselves for not 
 doing more. They labour and are heavy laden, they 
 are careful and cumbered ; making a task of duty, a 
 task of privilege, a task of life, and a most formidable 
 task of death. 
 
 The vastness and still more the loftiness of their 
 " room " overwhelms them : " Who is sufficient for 
 these things ? " is their prevalent forlorn feeling. At 
 times they would almost be ready (if they dared) to 
 say : " It were better to dwell in a corner of the house- 
 top." 
 
 They comport themselves as if too little for their 
 own greatness. They appear like savage man con- 
 sumed and dwindling away in the face of a civilisation 
 too high for him. 
 
 But wherefore contemplate their allotted room as a 
 lofty and vast palace of well-nigh uninhabitable 
 grandeur : as this, and as nothing more ? 
 
 Our room, as God builds and makes it for us, is 
 likewise our nest : and a nest is surely the very home- 
 liest idea of a home.
 
 A READING DIARY. 165 
 
 August 26. 
 
 A NEST implies, suggests, so much. 
 
 A circumference in comfortable proportion to its 
 inhabitants' size. 
 
 Warmth and softness : " For so He giveth His be- 
 loved sleep." 
 
 Pure air, bright sunshine ; leafy shade sufficient to 
 satisfy a very Jonah. 
 
 A windy branch whereon to rock safely. Wind and 
 rain heard yet little felt. A storm, indeed, sometimes, 
 but as the exception not as the rule. 
 
 Most of all by way of comfort a nest suggests an 
 overhanging presence of love. A brooding breast 
 sheltering its cherished nestlings. A love ready to 
 confront death in their defence. 
 
 " While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
 
 When " room " and way are too great for us, let us 
 think of Him Who prepared our present "nest "and 
 carries His little ones, and Who desires to see in each 
 of us of the travail of His Soul and to be satisfied. 
 And Who eighteen hundred years ago comforted His 
 disciples, saying, " In My Father's house are many 
 mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I 
 go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre- 
 pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive 
 you unto Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be 
 also." 
 
 August 27. 
 
 One step more, and the race is ended, 
 One word more, and the lesson 's done, 
 
 One toil more, and a long rest follows 
 At set of sun.
 
 166 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Who would fail, for one step withholden? 
 
 Who would fail, for one word unsaid? 
 Who would fail, for a pause too early ? 
 
 Sound sleep the dead. 
 
 One step more, and the goal receives us, 
 One word more, and life's task is done, 
 
 One toil more, and the Cross is carried 
 And sets the sun. 
 
 August 28. 
 
 Feast of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church 
 Born at Tagaste, in Africa, in the year 354 ; died at Hippo, 430. 
 
 Aurelius Augustine was son of Patricius, a 
 pagan of some virtue and afterwards converted, and of 
 Monica, a Christian saint. In early life an unbaptised 
 Manichaean heretic of strong passions and unbridled 
 conduct, Augustine left his mother to watch, pray, 
 agonise for him, while he rejoiced in his youth, walk- 
 ing in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his 
 eyes, and not laying to heart that God for all these 
 things would bring him into judgment. 
 
 Divine grace, however, responding doubtless to his 
 mother's prayers for his soul, proved at length stronger 
 than his evil will and ways : he cast off his vices as the 
 serpent casts its skin, professed the Catholic Faith, and 
 was baptised on Easter Eve in the year 387 by St. 
 Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. 
 
 Thenceforward, allowing for human frailty, he re- 
 tained of the serpent only its wisdom, and put on harm- 
 lessness as a dove : yet not, alas ! without putting it 
 off under provocation. 
 
 In 391 he was ordained priest; and he submitted
 
 A READING DIARY. 167 
 
 to episcopal consecration at an uncertain date, perhaps 
 in the year 395. 
 
 In controversy he opposed both Manichaeans, Do- 
 natists, and Pelagians ; yet incurred suspicion of 
 himself holding unsound views as to the doctrine of 
 predestination : nevertheless he is looked up to as a 
 Doctor of the Church. Despite the Spirit of Love 
 which ordinarily ruled him, he seems to have indulged 
 a cruelly harsh temper against the Donatists. 
 
 Yet need we not cavil at the blemishes of a saint 
 who of his own free choice died the death of a 
 penitent : — 
 
 " He ceased not to preach and work, till in August 
 he was prostrated by fever ; and as he used to say 
 that even approved Christians and priests ought to 
 die as penitents, he excluded his friends from his room, 
 except at certain hours, caused the penitential psalms 
 to be written out and fixed on the wall opposite his 
 bed, and repeated them with many tears ; thus by his 
 last acts throwing over the consequences, and with 
 them the principles, advanced in his later dangerous 
 treatises." 
 
 August 29. 
 
 Feast of the Beheading of St. John Baptist. 
 
 King Herod and his company did after a fashion 
 anticipate the Church in making of this day a festival. 
 Moreover it was Herod's birthday in one sense, before 
 it became St. John Baptist's in another. 
 
 Thus emphatically are there feasts and feasts, birth- 
 days and birthdays. 
 
 After that carnal birthday ensued the remainder of 
 mortal life: and after the remainder of mortal life 
 ensued what next to Herod and his crew, to the dancing 
 daughter and the venomous mother?
 
 l68 TIME FLIES 
 
 " The secret things belong unto the Lord our God." 
 
 Meanwhile St. John Baptist ended his Vigil and 
 began his Feast, ended his death and began his life. 
 
 Now there is no " after " to such a Feast, and no 
 "next" to such a life. 
 
 " See, I have set before thee this day life and good, 
 and death and evil." 
 
 August 30. 
 
 Tact resembles a lubricating oil, by virtue of which 
 needful contact is guarded against degenerating into 
 sore rubs and grazes. 
 
 According to the ancient Oriental practice of leech- 
 craft, oil was called in to heal physical wounds. 
 
 Hear a story in point : — 
 
 The pleasure-grounds of a certain Bishop contained 
 an apparatus for turning on and off artificial waters. 
 One day in honour of guests, the Bishop issued orders 
 to his servants to work the fountains : but finding that 
 this had caused offence, on the next similar occasion 
 he gave leave to his servants to play the fountains. 
 Whereupon all went smoothly. 
 
 August 31. 
 
 It was once pointed out to me that in countenance 
 a grey parrot and an elephant resemble each other. 
 
 But presumably the creatures themselves remain to 
 this day unconscious of their common type, and inhabit 
 pastures or trees or caravans or cages without a notion 
 that each is (with limitations) the other's looking- 
 glass ; thus living and thus dying as utter aliens even 
 when brought face to face. 
 
 "Know thyself" is an old-established injunction,
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 69 
 
 and conveys a hint that probably we do not know 
 ourselves. 
 
 It is startling to reflect that you and I may be 
 walking about unabashed and jaunty, whilst our fellows 
 observe very queer likenesses amongst us. 
 
 Any one may be the observer : and equally any one 
 may be the observed. 
 
 Liable to such casualties, I advise myself to assume 
 a modest and unobtrusive demeanour. 
 
 I do not venture to advise you. 
 
 September 1. 
 
 Feast of St. /Egidius or Giles, Abbot. According to various 
 discrepant dates, he appears to have been bora in the seventh, ami to 
 have died in the eighth century. 
 
 Two pretty legends are told regarding him. 
 
 In his youth, going to Church, he bestowed his coat 
 on a diseased mendicant. The poor man was cured, 
 and our Saint is accounted Patron of Beggars. 
 
 Later in life he dwelt as a hermit in a forest cave 
 beside the Rhone, nourished there by milk from a doe. 
 This friendly creature, flying one day for her life, took 
 refuge in his cave, where the hunters overtaking her, 
 found that an arrow shot after the doe had wounded 
 not herself but her associate the venerable hermit. 
 Whereupon the king (for it was a royal hunt) cared 
 for the saint's wound, cultivated his friendship, and 
 caused a monastery to be reared on the site of the 
 woodland cell : of which monastery, famous in after- 
 times, St. Giles was chosen Abbot. 
 
 Finally :— " Many witness that they heard the com- 
 pany of angels bearing the soul of him into heaven." 
 [I quote at second hand from " The Golden Legend."]
 
 170 TIME FLTES 
 
 September 2. 
 i. 
 
 I AM told of certain birds which for protection take 
 up their abode beneath wasps' nests. How it happens 
 that they (as I assume) escape being stung, I do not 
 know; but one sees at once that outside enemies might 
 thus be kept at bay. 
 
 A wasps' nest for a canopy ; wasps for neighbours : 
 clearly in itself no attractive neighbourhood. Yet 
 better than the alternative, death, or deadly bereave- 
 ment. So those birds are wise which, preferring of 
 two evils the less, contrive of stings a shelter. 
 
 Similarly those persons are wise who amongst evils 
 choose the less rather than the greater. 
 
 Why not accept all our trials as beneficial wasps 
 and wasps' nests ? 
 
 What is most irritating teaches patience, if we will 
 be taught : what is most overbearing teaches humility, 
 if we will learn. 
 
 Patience and humility predispose to faith, hope, 
 charity : and where these are, there is safety. 
 
 September 3. 
 
 2. 
 
 I SAID "I do not know" how birds dwelling near 
 wasps' nests escape stinging. Second thoughts show 
 me that I do know. 
 
 God's Providence keeps them safe. 
 
 In the same sense as young ravens cry to God. we 
 may think of all other feeble instinctive creatures as 
 trusting in Him: — "Thou wilt keep him in perfect 
 peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee : because he 
 trusteth in Thee."
 
 A READING DIARY. Ijl 
 
 Even so the rose dwells amidst a guard of thorns, 
 and stands alone in her loveliness. 
 
 Surely the rose, our own cherished rose, would lose 
 a fine finishing touch of grace and beauty if divorced 
 from her thorns. 
 
 And cannot we, who are so much better than bird 
 or flower, take courage to trust our Heavenly Father 
 implicitly ? saying and feeling that if only we are such 
 as love Him, our " wasps " and " thorns " alike are 
 ordained for good; inasmuch as "all things work 
 together for good to them that love God." 
 
 September 4. 
 
 Indeed, I think we may proceed a step further, 
 and reflect that any who like us like us as we are and 
 not as we are not. 
 
 The person with the blemishes which are ours, and 
 the weak points which are ours, is the person that 
 those who love us love. 
 
 And conversely we may surely admit that (sin ex- 
 cluded) we also love our own beloved without on the 
 whole wanting them to be different. 
 
 They are themselves, and this suffices. 
 
 We are quite ready to like something superior, but 
 it contents our hearts to love them. 
 
 And when once death has stepped in, dividing as it 
 were soul from spirit, the friend that is as one's own 
 soul from oneself, then half those vanished peculiar- 
 ities put on pathos. We remain actually fond of the 
 blameless oddities, the plain face abides as the one 
 face we prefer. 
 
 Now if persons as imperfect as ourselves can secure
 
 172 TIME FLIES: 
 
 a permanent place in the affection of their fellows (of 
 which everywhere and always we behold proofs), our 
 "vale of misery" turns to a perennial well of very 
 sweet and refreshing water, and it becomes us to be 
 thankful. 
 
 September 5. 
 
 Not that human affection, excellent as it is, 
 suffices : only it illustrates and certifies to us beyond 
 a doubt the corresponding Divine Affection. 
 
 This it does, even if we receive not its testimony. 
 It is like the celestial luminaries which discourse with- 
 out speech : its sound is gone out into all lands, and 
 its words unto the ends of the world, declaring the 
 Glory of God. 
 
 Nevertheless, as sun, moon and stars have had their 
 worshippers, so human love has engrossed its idola- 
 trous votaries. 
 
 It, indeed, is ready to " bless with the spirit," but 
 those others are not edified. 
 
 Christ keep us or deliver us from worshipping and 
 serving the creature more than the Creator, Who is 
 Blessed for ever. Amen. 
 
 September 6. 
 
 If I should say " my heart is in my home," 
 I turn away from that high halidom 
 
 Where Jesu sits : for no where else 
 
 But with its treasure, dwells 
 
 The heart : this Truth and this experience tells.
 
 A READING DIARY. 173 
 
 If I should say " my heart is in a grave," 
 I turn away from Jesu risen to save, 
 
 I slight that death He died for me; 
 
 I, too, deny to see 
 
 His beauty and desirability. 
 
 O Lord, Whose Heart is deeper than my heart, 
 Draw mine to Thine to worship where Thou art : 
 
 For Thine own glory join the twain 
 
 Never to part again, 
 
 Nor to have lived nor to have died in vain. 
 
 September 7. 
 
 Feast of St. Enurchus or Evurtius, Bishop. Died about the 
 year 340. 
 
 St. Enurchus, a Subdeacon in Roman Orders, 
 went into Gaul as a missionary and was consecrated 
 Bishop of Orleans, or (as I read elsewhere) of Aries : 
 perhaps he was translated from one See to the other. 
 He laboured amongst his pagan flock for more than 
 twenty years, converting "nearly the whole city" to 
 the Christian Faith : and having borne the burden 
 and heat of his day, entered into his rest. 
 
 " Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
 from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may 
 rest from their labours ; and their works do follow 
 them." 
 
 September 8. 
 
 Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 "Without controversy, great is the mystery of 
 godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." 
 
 Since it pleased God to regard " the lowliness of
 
 174 TIME FLIES: 
 
 His handmaiden," well may we regard her with loving 
 reverence. 
 
 Whereto shall we liken this Blessed Mary Virgin, 
 Fruitful shoot from Jesse's root graciously emerging? 
 Lily we might call her, but Christ alone is white ; 
 Rose delicious, but that Jesus is the one delight ; 
 Flower of women, but her Firstborn is mankind's one 
 
 flower ; 
 He the Sun lights up all moons through their radiant 
 
 hour. 
 ' : Blessed among women, highly favoured," thus 
 Glorious Gabriel hailed her, teaching words to us : 
 Whom devoutly copying we too cry " All hail ! " 
 Echoing on the music of glorious Gabriel. 
 
 September 9. 
 
 "An alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious." — (St. 
 Mark xiv. 3.) 
 
 I have read that both the precious spikenard and 
 an inferior quality of peifume are yielded by the same 
 plant. 
 
 The commoner sort is extracted by art. The choicer 
 kind consists of such balsam as exudes from the un- 
 touched plant. 
 
 One resembles a tax, the other a gift. 
 
 Thus, by a figure, even a vegetable demonstrates 
 how much nobler is voluntary than compelled service. 
 For love alone genuinely gives : love turns a levied 
 tax into a free gift, whereas a servile gift dwindles in 
 essence to a mere tax. 
 
 Nor least so, in things spiritual. Love transmutes 
 bounden duty into freewill oblation : constraint other 
 than love transmutes even unprescribed offerings into 
 taxes.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 75 
 
 September 10. 
 
 I UA\E read of an elephant who was set to move 
 an enormous weight, which it behoved him to do by 
 sheer force of his mighty head. 
 
 But not even his mighty head could stir it. 
 
 This his overseer perceived, whereupon other ele- 
 phants were summoned to assist. 
 
 Then the first elephant seeing them approach, and 
 being bent on carrying his point by himself, put forth 
 so desperate an exertion of strength as fractured his 
 skull. 
 
 As an elephant I greatly admire him. 
 
 Yet a man moulded on his model would, I fear, 
 turn out a failure. He would be too independent to 
 accept help, or to be set right, and he would sacrifice 
 his cause rather than his pride. 
 
 September 11. 
 
 2. 
 
 MEANWHILE there appears a heroic and exemplary 
 side, as well as a warning side to our elephant. 
 
 He stands as a figure of one who prefers his work 
 to himself, his duty to his life. 
 
 A somewhat comical figure of a hero, yet none the 
 less pathetic. 
 
 Not to be laughed at, but looked up to by such 
 persons as have ever postponed work to self, duty to 
 life. 
 
 I, for one, must not laugh at him.
 
 176 TIME FLIES: 
 
 September 12. 
 
 Treasure plies a feather, 
 
 Pleasure spreadeth wings, 
 Taking flight together, — 
 
 Ah ! my cherished things. 
 
 Fly away, poor pleasure 
 That art so brief a thing : 
 
 Fly away, poor treasure 
 That hast so swift a wing. 
 
 Pleasure, to be pleasure, 
 
 Must come without a wing : 
 
 Treasure, to be treasure, 
 Must be a stable thing. 
 
 Treasure without feather, 
 
 Pleasure without wings, 
 Elsewhere dwell together 
 
 And are heavenly things. 
 
 September 13. 
 
 Exhaust this world and its resources : this done, 
 if spiritual life survives the soul will learn patience. 
 
 Sit aloof and look down on the world ; viewed 
 from aloof and aloft the world's hollowness becomes 
 apparent : this realised, the living soul strikes root in 
 patience. 
 
 The Book of Ecclesiastes discloses to us the mind 
 of one who learned patience by the first method. 
 
 The Epistle of St. James manifests the spirit of one 
 who learned it by the second method. 
 
 In a certain sense, the result is the same from either
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 77 
 
 process : patience cannot but be patience. Neverthe- 
 less, the patience of a worn out penitent is far different 
 from that of a lifelong saint. 
 
 " Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity," reiterates the 
 Preacher. 
 
 " Behold, we count them happy which endure," 
 writes the Apostle. 
 
 For most of us it is too late to aim at that patience 
 which crowns lifelong holiness. For none of us 
 (thank God !) is it too late to acquire that patience 
 which dignifies penitence. Whatsoever we be, the 
 precept is for us : " Let patience have her perfect 
 work." Amen. 
 
 September 14. 
 Holy Cross Day. 
 
 I FIND the name of this Festival given in full as the 
 Exaltation of The Holy Cross, and to it is dedicated 
 one of the passion flowers. 
 
 The Cross was in truth exalted fully and finally 
 when our Lord Jesus Christ hung thereupon on Mount 
 Calvary. But this Feast Day has a later origin, some 
 persons tracing it to a commemoration of that celestial 
 cross which (as is related) led the Emperor Con- 
 stantine to victory; others, to a recovery of the captive 
 material cross from Chosroes the Persian by the 
 Emperor Haraclius. 
 
 Not one exceptional day, however, but every day, 
 from Baptism onwards is the good Christian's " Holy 
 Cross Day." Even as our Lord proclaims to us all : 
 " If any man will come after Me, let him deny him- 
 self, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." 
 
 In the Eastern Church there exists an austere 
 Religious Rule, according to which, "When the last 
 
 N
 
 178 TIME FLIES: 
 
 offices are closed, a representation of Christ on His 
 Cross is attached to the foot of the bed, so that the 
 eyes of the dying person may rest upon it, and then 
 all go out, and leave the soul to make its departure in 
 complete solitude, in the presence of none save the 
 symbol of the Redeemer." 
 
 " Hold Thou Thy Cross before my dying eyes." 
 
 September 15. 
 
 IN weariness and painfulness St. Paul 
 
 Served God and pleased Him : after-saints no less 
 Can wait on and can please Him, one and all 
 
 In weariness and painfulness, 
 
 By faith and hope triumphant through distress : 
 Not with the rankling service of a thrall ; 
 But even as loving children trust and bless, 
 
 Weep and rejoice, answering their Father's call, 
 Work with tired hands, and forward upward press 
 
 On sore tired feet, still rising when they fall, 
 In weariness and painfulness. 
 
 September 16. 
 
 ONCE as we descended a mountain side by side 
 with the mountain torrent, my companion saw, while 
 I missed seeing, a foambow. 
 
 In all my life I do not recollect to have seen 
 one, except perhaps in artificial fountains ; but such 
 general omission seems a matter of course, and there- 
 fore simply a matter of indifference. That single 
 natural foambow which I might have beheld and 
 espied not, is the one to which may attach a tinge of
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 79 
 
 regret ; because, in a certain sense, it depended upon 
 myself to look at it, yet I did not look. 
 
 I might have done so, and I did not : such is the 
 sting to-day in petty matters. 
 
 And what else will be the sting in matters all im- 
 portant at the last day ? 
 
 September 17. 
 
 Feast of St. Lambert, Bishop of Maestricht. Bom about 
 the year 637 ; was murdered early in the eighth century. 
 
 He is described as "a wise youth, of amiable aspect, 
 affable speech, and right conversation ; of stately 
 form, strong and swift, agile and stout in war, clear 
 headed, handsome, loving, pure and humble, and fond 
 of reading." Thus he had in him the making either 
 of a soldier or of an ecclesiastic. He chose the higher 
 vocation, obeyed sedulously while under rule, and 
 when himself in authority laboured as sedulously. 
 
 He has been styled a martyr ; yet I question 
 whether accurately, at least in the fullest sense of the 
 word. Two men, trespassing on the temporalities of 
 Maestricht, were slain by members of the Bishop's 
 family : this occasioned a blood feud in which St. 
 Lambert, amongst others, lost his life. He died with 
 exemplary resignation and piety. 
 
 Being told of the approaching foe, " Lambert rose, 
 and grasping his sword, his martial fire suddenly 
 blazing up in him, he stood forth without even slipping 
 on his shoes. But almost immediately he remem- 
 bered himself, laid aside his sword, and prepared for 
 the worst." To one of his nephews he said : " Re- 
 member you are guilty of the murder . . . and God 
 will judge sinners. What you did unjustly, now in 
 justice you must expiate . . ." He retired into his 
 
 n a
 
 180 TIME FLIES: 
 
 chamber, and having put all forth, he cast himself on 
 the ground, with his arms extended, and wept abun- 
 dantly. Directly after armed men burst in, killing 
 every one in the house. Lambert's door was fastened 
 from within, wherefore one man mounted the roof and 
 ran him through with a spear, which he flung at him 
 from above. 
 
 " But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of 
 God, and there shall no torment touch them . . . For 
 though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is 
 their hope full of immortality." 
 
 September 18. 
 
 i. 
 
 Heaven and earth alike are chronometers. 
 
 Heaven marks time in light, by the motion of 
 luminaries. 
 
 Earth marks time in darkness, by the variation of 
 shadows. 
 
 To these chronometers of nature art adds clocks 
 with faces easily decipherable and voices insistently 
 audible. 
 
 Nature and art combine to keep time for us : and 
 yet we wander out of time ! 
 
 We misappropriate time, we lose time, w r e waste 
 time, we kill time. 
 
 We do anything and everything with time, except 
 redeem the time. 
 
 Yet time is short and swift and never returns. Time 
 flies.
 
 A READING DIARY. l8l 
 
 September 19. 
 
 We read in the Apocalypse : — 
 
 " And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea 
 and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and 
 sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, Who 
 created heaven, and the things that therein are, and 
 the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea. 
 and the things which are therein, that there should be 
 time no longer." 
 
 Thus St. John describes what he saw and heard. 
 
 Whence it seems that time is not lightly thought of 
 by a holy angel whose eternity nevertheless depends 
 not on time. With a great oath and an awful solem- 
 nity he announces the ending of that time which is 
 man's period of probation. 
 
 And man thinks lightly of time ! 
 
 September 20. 
 
 Vigil of St. Matthew. 
 
 If giants, dwarfs, and persons of standard height 
 make up mankind, surely to the mental eye human 
 vocations exhibit as wide a scale of extremes. And 
 this, whether we measure vocations by dignity and 
 lowliness, or by arduousness and ease. 
 
 To one man is allotted a domestic life of satisfied 
 affection and multiplied blessings, unaccompanied by 
 crushing trials or difficulties. " God answereth him 
 in the joy of his heart : " moderation and thankfulness 
 rank among his chief duties, and "a joyful and 
 pleasant thing it is to be thankful." 
 
 Another man is called to hardship, disappointment,
 
 I 82 TIME FLIES 
 
 a life and death struggle with the world, the flesh and 
 the devil. 
 
 Or if we glance back to the primitive Church for 
 our specimens. Then all Christians had distinctly and 
 decisively to choose their side in the battle of life, 
 Confessors were common, Martyrs not rare. 
 
 Yet among this elect congregation a few were set 
 foremost as Apostles ; and out of these, two were 
 inspired to become Evangelists. 
 
 Of these two, St. Matthew is one. 
 
 It is vain to meditate ambitiously on his glory : it 
 is unworthy to meditate thereon in a craven spirit of 
 sloth. 
 
 Yet inasmuch as his Vigil and Festival bid us have 
 him in remembrance, let us at least in one point 
 emulate his luminous example, for in one point we 
 can. 
 
 Christ called him : he forthwith obeyed the call, 
 followed Him, clave to Him, lived for Him, died for 
 Him. 
 
 And every one of us by asking aright can obtain 
 grace to do the same. 
 
 September 21. 
 
 Feast of St. Matthew, otherwise named Levi, Apostle and 
 Evangelist. 
 
 In St. Luke's Gospel we read how our Lord " went 
 forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the 
 receipt of custom : and He said unto him, Follow Me. 
 And he left all, rose up, and followed Him." 
 
 Spirit outspeeds matter ; will, action ; love, every- 
 thing. 
 
 St. Matthew, intent on following, first arose : in like 
 manner his heart's desire and choice outstripped
 
 A READING DIARY. 183 
 
 physical possibility, so that he had already " left all " 
 when he " rose up." 
 
 Having arisen, he forthwith followed ; being called, 
 he forthwith arose ; yet arising forthwith, had in will 
 already relinquished all. Few are they on whom his 
 mantle has descended. 
 
 Reluctantly we hear a conscience-call : we mean to 
 rise, but later on ; to start, but at a future moment. 
 Perhaps, when grudgingly and of necessity we have at 
 last accomplished both acts, our heart may slowly and 
 drearily (for habit is second nature) get weaned from 
 its first love — say, a money bag — and mount resignedly 
 to higher interests. 
 
 But if this result impend only " after a long time,'" 
 God in mercy grant that the Lord (though also " after 
 a long time") arrive not first to reckon with His sordid 
 servants. 
 
 " From sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 September 22. 
 
 Lord, what have I that I may offer Thee? 
 Look, Lord, I pray Thee, and see. 
 
 What is it thou hast got? 
 
 Nay, child, what is it thou hast not ? 
 
 Thou hast all gifts that I have given to thee 
 
 Offer them all to Me, 
 
 The great ones and the small, 
 
 I will accept them one and all. 
 
 I have a will, good Lord, but it is marred ; 
 A heart both crushed and hard : 
 Not such as these the gift 
 Clean-handed, lovely saints uplift.
 
 184 TIME FLIES 
 
 Nay, child, but wilt thou judge for Me? 
 I crave not thine, but thee. 
 
 Ah, Lord, Who lovest me ! 
 Such as I have now give I Thee. 
 
 September 23. 
 
 1. 
 
 I have read that such plants as produce a cruci- 
 form flower are all alike free from poison. 
 
 Life has its blossoming season preparatory to its 
 season of fruit. 
 
 And many lives by bereavement, disappointment, 
 pain, hope deferred, blossom, so to say, with crosses. 
 
 A choice and blessed blossom, if it correspond with 
 nature's emblem and harbour no venom. For one 
 day the cross petals will drop off, and only the good 
 fruit remain. 
 
 September 24. 
 
 1. 
 
 CiiRTST, " for the joy that was set before Him, en- 
 dured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down 
 at the right hand of the Throne of God." 
 
 For our sakes the cruciform blossom of His mortal 
 life was agony and shame : for our sakes the salutary 
 fruit of His life immortal is glory and grace. 
 
 And now He looks down from heaven, from the 
 habitation of His holiness and of His glory, if so be 
 He may in us see of the travail of His Soul and be 
 satisfied. 
 
 Once He looked, and there was no man. Once He 
 looked, and one penitent went out and wept bitterly. 
 
 Now He looks on you, on me.
 
 A READING DIARY. 185 
 
 September 25. 
 
 SORROW hath a double voice, 
 
 Sharp to-day but sweet to-morrow : 
 
 Wait in patience, hope, rejoice. 
 Tried friends of sorrow. 
 
 Pleasure hath a double taste, 
 
 Sweet to-day but sharp to-morrow : 
 
 Friends of pleasure, rise in haste, 
 Make friends with sorrow. 
 
 Pleasure set aside to-day 
 
 Comes again to rule to-morrow : 
 
 Welcomed sorrow will not stay, 
 Farewell to sorrow! 
 
 September 26. 
 
 Feast of St. Cyprian, Archbishop of Carthage. The date of 
 his birth is unknown ; he died a Martyr, being beheaded about the 
 year 258. 
 
 St. Cyprian began life as a lawyer, nor was he 
 baptized till of ripe age. He was chosen Bishop of 
 Carthage by the general voice in the year 248 ; and 
 though he shrank out of sight to evade the dignity, 
 was finally constrained to obey that call of God con- 
 veyed by the mouth of the people. 
 
 Even before his consecration he had embarked on 
 the sea of controversy ; and amid those stormy waters 
 he toiled year after year, opposing diverse errors, pro- 
 nouncing judgment on points of faith or of discipline. 
 
 From the persecution under Decius he sought 
 shelter by flight, deeming it his duty so to do, yet 
 from afar shepherding his forlorn flock. A second
 
 I 86 TIME FLIES 
 
 persecution found him immovable in his See, exhorting, 
 sustaining, comforting the souls committed to his 
 charge. 
 
 It was not till for the third time he was summoned to 
 face persecution that he joined the noble army of 
 martyrs ; nor even then, before he had endured an 
 eleven months' exile from Carthage. GaleriusMaximus, 
 Proconsul under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus, 
 recalled him from banishment, and on his steadfastness 
 in the faith, pronounced his death doom. " Thanks be 
 to God," then said holy Cyprian. 
 
 He was led to a field, where he prayed and made 
 ready. The bandage he bound over his own eyes, and 
 two of his friends bound his hands. Whereupon the 
 stroke of the headsman set him free, and sent him 
 home at once and for ever. 
 
 He has bequeathed many holy writings to the 
 Church Universal : let us treasure two sentences : — 
 
 " He flies not alone who hath Christ the companion 
 of his flight. He is not alone who beareth about with 
 him everywhere the temple of God, and hath God ever 
 within him." 
 
 September 27. 
 
 "DUST shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;" 
 thus saith the Truth at the beginning : and thus again 
 towards the end ; " Dust shall be the serpent's meat." 
 
 Dust the symbol of death : the residuum of death : 
 as it were, the essence of death. 
 
 The serpent brought death into the human family, 
 turning life into death : and dust of death is his dole. 
 
 Nought besides dust, nought besides death, as it 
 seems : " His delight was in cursing, and it shall happen 
 unto him." 
 
 Nothing, then, that retains true vitality shall be his
 
 A READING DTARY. 187 
 
 final prey : nothing but what is dead, utterly, irrever- 
 sibly lifeless. 
 
 O God, Who wouldest not the death of a sinner, but 
 rather that he should be converted and live, convert 
 us, give us life, revive our life, keep us alive, for Christ's 
 sake, Who broke not the bruised reed nor quenched 
 the smoking flax. Amen. 
 
 September 28. 
 
 Our life is long — Not so wise Angels say, 
 
 Who watch us waste it, trembling while they weigh 
 
 Against eternity one squandered day. 
 
 Our life is long — Not so the Saints protest, 
 
 Filled full of consolation and of rest : 
 
 " Short ill, long good, one long unending best." 
 
 Our life is long — Christ's word sounds different : 
 ' ; Night cometh : no more work when day is spent." 
 Repent and work to-day, work and repent. 
 
 Lord, make us like Thy Host, who day nor night 
 Rest not from adoration, their delight, 
 Crying " Holy, Holy, Holy," in the height. 
 
 Lord, make us like Thy Saints who wait and long 
 Contented : bound in hope and freed from wrong 
 They speed (may be) their vigil with a song. 
 
 Lord, make us like Thyself, for thirty-three 
 Slow years of toil seemed not too long to Thee 
 That where Thou art there Thy Beloved might be.
 
 TIME FLIES 
 
 September 29. 
 
 Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. 
 
 All Angels, like All Saints, occupy a Festival Day ; 
 unlike men, they give no cause for an introductory 
 Vigil. For sin it is which necessitates vigils, death, all 
 else that is sorrowful. 
 
 Their perfection hinders not their sympathy with 
 us : the lack of sympathy is on our side, because so 
 also is the imperfection. 
 
 For sin is the only essentially grievous thing in the 
 universe. God, Ever Blessed, had never (that we can 
 conceive) known suffering, if He had not borne " our 
 sins in His own Body on the tree." 
 
 Wherefore holy Angels, who neither sin nor bear 
 sins, know not sorrow. Even sympathy, one of our 
 noblest sources of sorrow, is not (so far as we can tell) 
 any source of sadness to them. 
 
 They love us, yet cease not to rejoice ; care for us, 
 yet observe one unbroken jubilee. How unlike must 
 heaven be to earth, and how unlike the sinless to the 
 sinful. 
 
 Yet if they be indeed exempt from sorrow, then 
 Christ is so far like us rather than like them, inasmuch 
 as His experience of sorrow surpasses even our own. He 
 Himself seems to challenge heaven and earth in the 
 words of Jeremiah : " Is it nothing to you, all ye that 
 pass by ? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like 
 unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith 
 the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce 
 anger." 
 
 Good is angelic bliss, for it makes celestial spirits so 
 far like God, All-Good in His perpetual bliss. 
 
 Good is human sorrow, for it makes mortal men so 
 far like Christ, Who learnt sorrow for their sakes.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 89 
 
 All is good which bears the stamp of a Divine like- 
 ness. 
 
 Wherefore, while life and joy cease not to be good, 
 grief, vigils, death, have become likewise good ; be- 
 cause Christ in His own Person has known them all. 
 
 September 30. 
 
 Feast of St. Jerome, Priest, Doctor, and Ascetic. Born on 
 the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia at an uncertain date, perhaps in 
 the year 331 ; died about 420. 
 
 THE Church owes and pays a debt of lasting grati- 
 tude to St. Jerome: whose studies in the Hebrew 
 Bible, revision of the Vulgate translation, scriptural 
 comments and polemical writings, establish him as on 
 the whole a vigorous and effective champion of truth. 
 
 Yet not altogether without flaw. Of strong natural 
 passions, and still stronger will, he strained that strong 
 will to the uttermost to overcome the natural man ; 
 and the desert cell he sometime inhabited witnessed 
 his life and death struggle with evil, his occasional 
 ecstasy, his hard-won triumph. 
 
 No marvel that a strength which sufficed to trample 
 down self occasionally ran, as it did, into ruggedness, 
 asperity, unseemliness, in the field of controversy. 
 
 Yet had this formidable athlete a tender, accessible 
 heart, affectionate towards the saints he trained 
 amongst Rome's noblest matrons and maids ; warm 
 and wide to receive and entertain in his monasteries, 
 in his very cell, fugitives from the once Imperial City 
 when overthrown by an inundation of barbarians. 
 
 So this great man wrestled and laboured : on the 
 whole, emitting a trumpet voice of no uncertain sound, 
 and a light to lighten all who would come into that 
 holy house which is the Church of God.
 
 190 TIME FLIES: 
 
 As his life, so his death had both a stormy side and 
 a side of enduring peace. Factious Christians burnt 
 the two monasteries he had partly founded, and chased 
 him thence : yet were his emaciated remains buried in 
 his monastic grotto, and that monastery was at Beth- 
 lehem. 
 
 Long ago the verdict, whether of friends or of foes, 
 has ceased to affect him. As he himself foresaw when 
 he wrote to the beloved lady Asella : " I know we 
 may arrive at heaven equally with a bad, as a good 
 name." 
 
 October 1. 
 
 Feast of St. Remigius, Archbishop of Rheims. Born about 
 the year 435 ; died about 532. 
 
 Seven feet high and of handsome countenance, as 
 transpires in his after-life, St. Remigius, being then a 
 young man, was sitting in the Church of Rheims, where 
 clergy and people were convened to choose a Bishop, 
 when a ray of light penetrating through the clerestory, 
 illumined his face amid the surrounding comparative 
 darkness, and he was elected by acclamation to the 
 vacant See. Whereupon, he being at the time no more 
 than twenty-two years old, the canonical impediment 
 of youth was waived ; he received Holy Orders, and 
 assumed his allotted dignity. 
 
 To him appertains the glory of having instructed 
 and baptized Clovis, King of the Franks, whom at the 
 Font he exhorted in the noble words : " Adore what 
 thou hast burned : burn what thou hast adored." 
 
 Various miraculous incidents are narrated in con- 
 nexion with him. The following forms so striking a 
 parable of the hazard in matters spiritual of ever, 
 under any pretext, reopening a channel once closed
 
 A READING DIARY. 191 
 
 against temptation, that either as history or as allegory 
 I transcribe it : — 
 
 " A tremendous conflagration broke out at Rheims. 
 St. Remigius came to the rescue when more than half 
 the city was in flames. He went before the raging 
 fire and made the sign of the cross ; the flames re- 
 treated ; he advanced, and continued making the sign, 
 and the fire backed before him step by step, till he 
 drove it through a gate. Then he ordered the gate to 
 be walled up, and forbade any one ever opening it 
 again. Many years after the owner of the adjoining 
 house, wanting an ash-pit, knocked a hole in the wall 
 that he might shoot his rubbish through it. Instantly 
 out burst the demon of the conflagration and killed 
 the man, his wife, children, and servants." 
 
 October 2. 
 
 DARKNESS and light are both alike to Thee : 
 
 Therefore to Thee I lift my darkened face ; 
 Upward I look with eyes that fail to see, 
 
 Athirst for future light and present grace. 
 
 I trust the Hand of Love I scarcely trace. 
 With breath that fails I cry, Remember me : 
 
 Add breath to breath, so I may run my race 
 That where Thou art there may Thy servant be. 
 For Thou art gulf and fountain of my love, 
 
 I unreturning torrent to Thy sea, 
 
 Yea, Thou the measureless ocean for my rill 
 Seeking I find, and finding, seek Thee still : 
 And oh ! that I had wings as hath a dove, 
 Then would I flee away to rest with Thee.
 
 192 TIME FLIES: 
 
 October 3. 
 
 I HAVE noticed in cold weather how many days a 
 rose will linger in the bud, quarter blown, half blown. 
 When at length, if 'ever, it expands fully, it will pro- 
 bably not be the most beautiful of roses : still, if far 
 below the finest blossoms at their best moment, it has, 
 on the other hand, lasted longer than they. 
 
 Superiority in one point may fairly be set against 
 inferiority in another : duration against quality. 
 
 And if this is equitable in estimating flowers, it is no 
 less equitable in estimating people. 
 
 Many lives pass in chills and in shadows which 
 preclude certain fine finishing touches of loveliness : 
 their resource will be to excel in endurance. 
 
 And in the long run surely the livers of such lives 
 will be ready to sing with David : " The lot is fallen 
 unto me in a fair ground : " for " he that shall endure 
 unto the end, the same shall be saved." 
 
 October 4. 
 i. 
 
 No thing is great on this side of the grave, 
 Nor any thing of any stable worth : 
 Whatso is born from earth returns to earth : 
 
 No thing we grasp proves half the thing we crave : 
 
 The tidal wave becomes the ebbing wave : 
 Laughter is folly, madness lurks in mirth : 
 Mankind sets off a-dying from the birth : 
 
 Life is a losing game, — with what to save? 
 
 Thus I sat mourning like a mournful owl, 
 And like a doleful dragon made ado, 
 Companion of all monsters of the dark : 
 
 When lo ! the light shook off its nightly cowl, 
 And up to heaven flashed carolling a lark, 
 And all creation sang its hymn anew.
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 93 
 
 October 5. 
 
 While all creation sang its hymn anew, 
 
 What could I do but sing a stave in tune ? 
 
 Spectral on high hung pale the vanishing moon, 
 Where a last hint of stars hung paling too. 
 Lark's lay — a cockcrow— with a scattered few 
 
 Soft early chirpings, — with a tender croon 
 
 Of doves, — a hundred thousand calls, and soon 
 A hundred thousand answers, sweet and true. 
 These set me singing too at unawares : 
 
 One note for all delights and charities, 
 One note for hope reviving with the light, 
 
 One note for every lovely thing that is, 
 Till while I sang my heart cast off its cares, 
 
 And revelled in the land of no more night. 
 
 October 6. 
 
 1. 
 
 Feast of St. Faith, Virgin Martyr. Third century. 
 
 While Dacian governed Spain on behalf of the 
 Emperor of this visible world, and persecuted the 
 Church on behalf of the arch-emperor of the fallen 
 invisible world, Faith, a noble maiden of Aquitain, 
 " fought a good fight, kept the faith," and from a bed 
 of fire went home to that rest, which the wicked can- 
 not trouble. 
 
 Yet some have surmised that this " St. Faith " is no 
 real flesh and blood person, but an embodiment of that 
 indomitable Virtue of the same name which in a host 
 of martyrs has laughed to scorn the impotent power 
 of the enemy. 
 
 O
 
 194 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Whichever she was, let us profit by her. 
 
 If she was a weak maid, which of us cannot by 
 Divine Grace become as strong as a weak maid ? 
 
 If she was a Christian Virtue, which of us is not 
 vowed to have and to hold fast in life and in death 
 that same Christian virtue ? 
 
 October 7. 
 
 Lying a-dying, — 
 
 Have done with vain sighing : 
 
 Life not lost but treasured, 
 
 God Almighty pleasured, 
 
 God's daughter fetched and carried, 
 
 Christ's bride betrothed and married. 
 
 Our tender little dove, 
 
 Meek-eyed and simple, 
 
 Our love goes home to Love : 
 
 There shall she walk in white, 
 
 Where God shall be the Light, 
 
 And God the Temple. 
 
 October 8. 
 
 3- 
 
 Let us seek to extract one more lesson from St. 
 Faith. 
 
 As I was yesterday, so I remain to-day, in doubt 
 as to the existence of this Saint. Wherefore, so far 
 as my exposition of her claims is concerned, we cannot 
 but admit that our ignorance outstrips our knowledge. 
 
 Ignorance, then, rather than knowledge, must (it
 
 A READING DIARY. 1 95 
 
 would seem) feed our souls on certain occasions. 
 What nourishment can we derive from ignorance ? 
 
 Thus much, at least : — 
 
 We find that for practical purposes we do after all 
 know enough of St. Faith : inasmuch as we know 
 enough to enable us to follow the suggestion of our 
 Mother Church, by honouring her (contingent) memory. 
 
 And if in the same spirit of faith and obedience 
 we betake ourselves devoutly to search the Scriptures, 
 we shall surely find that, despite our manifold ignor- 
 ances, we yet do know enough of the Divine Revela- 
 tion to understand and keep God's commandments. 
 
 And "blessed are they that hear the word of God. 
 and keep it." 
 
 October 9. 
 
 Feast of St. Denys, Bishop, accounted Patron Saint of France. 
 Assigned to the third century. 
 
 So much has to be set aside as incredible, or at the 
 least as untrustworthy in the history (?) of this per- 
 sonage, that we shall not, I think, memorialise him 
 amiss by reflecting thankfully that one who presum- 
 ably bore his name was undoubtedly constituted God's 
 instrument in converting to Christianity certain first- 
 fruits of the great and noble French nation. 
 
 St. Denys of Paris — for Paris is assigned as the 
 field of his labours, and Montmartre as the" scene of 
 his martyrdom — has, erroneously as it appears, been 
 identified with St. Paul's adherent, " Dionysius the 
 Areopagite : " while both together have become con- 
 fused with the author of certain works belonging to a 
 later century, and popularly and perhaps correctly as- 
 cribed to (a third) Dionysius. 
 
 Tradition represents St. Denys as beheaded : and 
 O %
 
 .1C,6 TIME FLIES 
 
 then as arising and carrying his head a considerable 
 distance. 
 
 Now, without pretending to pronounce on this par- 
 ticular legend, let us lay to heart St. Paul's injunc- 
 tion : " Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and 
 exercise thyself rather unto godliness." 
 
 October 10. 
 
 All heaven is blazing yet 
 
 With the meridian sun : 
 Make haste, O sun, make haste to set ; 
 
 O lifeless life, have done. 
 
 I choose what once I chose ; 
 
 What once I willed, I will : 
 Only the heart its own bereavement knows, 
 
 O clamorous heart, lie still. 
 
 October 11. 
 
 2. 
 
 THAT which I chose, I choose; 
 
 That which I willed, I will ; 
 That which I once refused, I still refuse: 
 
 O hope deferred, be still. 
 
 That which I chose and choose 
 
 And will is Jesu's Will : 
 He hath not lost his life who seems to lose 
 
 O hope deferred, hope still.
 
 A READING DIARY. 197 
 
 October 12. 
 
 A GOOD unobtrusive Christian of my own intimate 
 circle told me that in her worried life — and a worried 
 life it has been — she has derived comfort from the re- 
 flection that no day lasts longer than twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 To a good worried Christian this certainty affords 
 legitimate comfort. 
 
 But, as it cannot certify comfort to all classes of 
 worried persons, it seems safe for most of us not to 
 wish time shortened. 
 
 If time is short, many tempers are yet shorter. 
 
 Even a Psalmist prays : " O spare me a little, that 
 I may recover my strength : before I go hence, and 
 be no more seen." 
 
 And most of us have very much besides strength to 
 recover. 
 
 October 13. 
 
 __ Feast of the Translation of St. Edward the Confessor, 
 King of England. Born about ihe year 1002 ; anointed and crowned 
 on Easter Day 1042 ; died on the Eve of the Epiphany 1066. 
 
 " HE was a mild, pious, but feeble prince : his 
 heart, weaned from the world, sought comfort in 
 religion, and the cares of government were a painful 
 distraction to a mind musing on heavenly things. 
 From his infancy he had been addicted to prayer . . . 
 He was modest in his comportment and sparing in his 
 words." 
 
 Such is the character I read of him. 
 
 His reign was chequered by troubles, yet these not 
 of such magnitude as to undermine his throne. His 
 family affections seem to have been thwarted if not 
 naturally tepid. His gratitude to the Normans, who
 
 198 TIME FLIES 
 
 entertained him at a period of his depressed fortune, 
 worked prosperously for them, but at the cost ap- 
 parently of his own native subjects. He gave away 
 his crown by promise, contrary, as is alleged, to an 
 established law of the realm : and, although his own 
 career closed in peace, days of bloodshed and years of 
 civil heartburning and animosity overtook England 
 after him. 
 
 I accept him on trust as Saint and Confessor: for, 
 by studying the brief summary I write from, I discern 
 him not as such by aid of my own faculties. Indeed, 
 I do not perceive that " confessorship " was at all in 
 question : for who challenged his faith ? 
 
 Nevertheless, charity and obedience alike bid me 
 question my own questionings and mistrust my doubts: 
 and so I do. 
 
 "We know in part . . . But when that which is per- 
 fect is come, then that which is in part shall be done 
 away." 
 
 October 14. 
 
 A SENSUAL Christian resembles a sea anemone. 
 
 In the nobler element, air, it exists as a sluggish 
 unbeautiful excrescence. 
 
 In the lower element, water, it grows, blows and 
 thrives. 
 
 The food it assimilates is derived not from the 
 height, but from the depth. 
 
 It possesses neither eyes nor ears, but a multitude 
 of feelers. 
 
 It squats on a tenacious base, gulps all acquisitions 
 into a capacious chasm, and harmonises with the 
 weeds it dwells amongst. 
 
 But what will become of it in a world where there 
 shall be no more sea ?
 
 A READING DIARY. 199 
 
 October 15. 
 
 1. 
 
 TOGETHER once, but never more 
 
 While Time and Death run out their runs : 
 Though sundered now as shore from shore, 
 
 Together once. 
 
 Nor rising suns, nor setting suns, 
 Nor life renewed which Springtide bore, 
 Make one again Death's sundered ones. 
 
 Eternity holds rest in store, 
 
 Holds hope of long reunions : 
 But holds it what they hungered for 
 
 Together once? 
 
 October 16. 
 
 2. 
 
 WHATSO it be, howso it be, Amen. 
 
 Blessed it is, believing, not to see. 
 Now God knows all that is ; and we shall, then, 
 
 Whatso it be. 
 
 God's Will is best for man whose will is free. 
 God's Will is better to us, yea, than ten 
 
 Desires whereof He holds and weighs the key. 
 
 Amid her household cares He guides the wren, 
 He guards the shifty mouse from poverty, 
 
 He knows all wants, allots each where and when, 
 Whatso it be.
 
 200 TIME FLIES 
 
 October 17. 
 
 Feast of St. Etheldreda, Virgin Queen and Abbess. Her 
 death took place in the year 679, on the 23rd of June; the day ap- 
 pointed as her Festival in the Anglican Calendar being the anniversary 
 of the (first) translation of her remains in 695. 
 
 This Princess, daughter of Anna King of East 
 Anglia, was twice given in marriage. Her first hus- 
 band, Prince Tombert, appears either to have shared her 
 spirit of self-devotion or to have loved her better than 
 himself, for, in compliance with her will, he forbore to 
 enforce his marital rights during their three years' 
 union. Left a widow she hoped for freedom : yet was 
 constrained by family influence to marry Prince Eg- 
 frid, heir of the kingdom of Northumbria. Still, how- 
 ever, she adhered to her former resolution ; and, after 
 twelve years of successful contest, ended strife by 
 separating from her enamoured husband; yet not 
 without first obtaining his reluctant consent. 
 
 Thus she fought the battle of life : thus she tri- 
 umphed. Egfrid, indeed, not enduring her absence 
 pursued her ere long to the monastery of Coldingham: 
 whence however she fled and escaped him. 
 
 Finally, she built a monastery for men and women 
 in the Island of Ely, which island she inherited from 
 her first husband. She ruled her Community piously, 
 performed many good deeds, and died (we are in- 
 formed) still young : — 
 
 " At the last moment, surrounded by the brothers 
 and sisters of the numerous community in tears, she 
 spoke to them at length, imploring them never to let 
 their hearts rest on the earth, but to taste beforehand, 
 by their earnest desires, that joy in the love of Christ 
 which it would not be given to them to know per- 
 fectly here below."
 
 A READING DIARY. 201 
 
 October 18. 
 
 Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist. 
 
 It is not certain that St. Luke died a martyr ; but 
 we cannot doubt that he lived a saint. 
 
 Setting aside a question easily raised and not easily 
 answered, whether the " Luke " or " Lucas " named 
 three times by St. Paul is or is not this Evangelist, 
 and assuming such identity, we notice how very ten- 
 derly he is mentioned as " Luke, the beloved phy- 
 sician : " and again, with a brevity more expressive 
 than a multitude of words, "Only Luke is with me." 
 
 But in St. Luke's Gospel, and in his Book of Acts, 
 his own name occurs not so much as once. In the 
 Gospel it seems impossible to trace him, except per- 
 haps by help of tradition : in the Acts we infer his 
 presence on certain occasions only from his use of the 
 word " we " and its derivatives. 
 
 Thus St. Luke illustrates for our edification one of 
 King Solomon's noble Proverbs : " Let another man 
 praise thee, and not thine own mouth ; a stranger, and 
 not thine own lips." 
 
 October 19. 
 
 How can one man, how can all men, 
 How can we be like St. Paul, 
 
 Like St. John, or like St. Peter, 
 Like the least of all 
 Blessed Saints? for we are small. 
 
 Love can make us like St. Peter, 
 Love can make us like St. Paul, 
 
 Love can make us like the blessed 
 Bosom friend of all 
 Great St. John,— though we are small.
 
 202 TIME FLIES 
 
 Love which clings and trusts and worships, 
 
 Love which rises from a fall, 
 Love which teaching glad obedience 
 
 Labours most of all, 
 
 Love makes great the great and small. 
 
 October 20. 
 
 i. 
 
 As I am nothing of an ornithologist, any small out- 
 door bird with forked tail and black and white plum- 
 age may pass with me as a swallow or as a martin. 
 When mud nests are not in sight, then it becomes a 
 swallow. 
 
 Once at the seaside I recollect noticing for some 
 time a row of swallows perched side by side along a 
 telegraph wire. There they sat steadily. After a 
 while, when some one looked again, they were gone. 
 
 This happened so late in the year as to suggest that 
 the birds had mustered for migration and then had 
 started. 
 
 The sight was quaint, comfortable looking, pretty. 
 The small creatures seemed so fit and so ready to 
 launch out on their pathless journey : contented to 
 wait, contented to start, at peace and fearless. 
 
 Altogether they formed an apt emblem of souls 
 willing to stay, willing to depart. 
 
 Only I fear there are not so many " willing " souls 
 as " willing " swallows. 
 
 October 21. 
 
 2. 
 
 That combination of swallows with telegraph wire 
 sets in vivid contrast before our mental eye the sort
 
 A READING DIARY. 203 
 
 of evidence we put confidence in and the sort of evi- 
 dence we mistrust. 
 
 The telegraph conveys messages from man to man. 
 
 The swallows by dint of analogy, of suggestion, of 
 parallel experience, if I may call it so, convey mes- 
 sages from the Creator to the human creature. 
 
 We act eagerly, instantly, on telegrams. Who 
 would dream of stopping to question their genuine- 
 ness ? 
 
 Whilst often we act reluctantly, often we act not 
 at all, on the other sort of messages. We dwell 
 anxiously on the thousand contingencies of life, trem- 
 blingly on the inevitable contingency of death. We 
 call everything in question, except the bitter certainty 
 of suffering, the most bitter certainty of death. 
 
 Who, watching us, could suppose that the senders 
 of telegrams are fallible ; and that the Only Sender 
 of Providential messages is infallible? 
 
 October 22. 
 
 One of the prettiest Japanese carvings I ever saw 
 represented an elephant. 
 
 Quite a little elephant done in ivory, yet as elephan- 
 tine as Jumbo himself. Altogether an exquisite work 
 of art. 
 
 Still; its finishing touch of excellence resided (to 
 my thinking) neither in trunk nor in knowing eye ; but 
 rather in the subtle artistic instinct which had placed 
 that elephant well back on his ivory stand, so as to 
 leave him room to walk on. 
 
 The position spoke for itself. There stood the ele- 
 phant able and willing to take his walk, and to all 
 intents and purposes about to start.
 
 204 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Thus the unique charm of that immovable elephant 
 lay in his expression of progress. 
 
 I fear many of our moveable selves so reverse the 
 marvel that the last idea conveyed by our expression 
 is any promise of progress. 
 
 But if so, why so ? 
 
 October 23. 
 
 2. 
 
 PERHAPS we may gather a hint of the " why " from 
 that same elephant's platform : smooth, and of ivory. 
 
 He rose superior to the snare. But we, I think, 
 are often hampered by what may be termed the 
 ivory smoothness of our surroundings and circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Beautiful things and comfortable things tempt one 
 to loiter, if not absolutely to stand stock still. 
 
 Meanwhile the Bible bids us go on unto perfection, 
 and press toward the mark. 
 
 To loiter cannot be to press forward : to stand still 
 cannot be to go on. 
 
 Which will we forego : smoothness without, or per- 
 fection within ? a house of ivory here, or the City of 
 Gold hereafter ? 
 
 October 24. 
 
 A WORLDLY Christian resembles a chameleon which 
 possesses two independent eyes addicted to looking in 
 opposite directions. 
 
 One eye, let us say, peers frankly downwards fly 
 seeking. 
 
 The twin eye peers skywards. 
 
 A chameleon used to enjoy the credit of living on 
 air : surely an all but angelic reptile !
 
 A READING DIARY. 205 
 
 Such was the verdict of ignorance. The verdict of 
 knowledge, nowadays, is that the chameleon simply 
 lives on insects. 
 
 His downward eye contemplating earth hunts a 
 walking fly. His upward eye scouring heaven pre- 
 sumably hunts a floating fly, but still a fly. 
 
 There remains no difference worth speaking of be- 
 tween his upward eye and his downward eye. 
 
 October 25. 
 
 Feast of St. Crispin, Martyr ; accounted Patron of shoemakers. 
 The year 285 is perhaps the date of this saint's martyrdom. His bro- 
 ther St. Crispinian suffered and triumphed with him. But so much of 
 their legendary history fails to carry conviction with it, that every 
 alleged particular may prudently be held under correction. 
 
 THESE pious brothers, then, were Roman shoe- 
 makers working at Soissons. An alternative account 
 makes them Roman nobles. Whatever they were in 
 this world's social scale, they are pourtrayed to us as 
 such men as " the King delighteth to honour ; " and 
 where they now dwell, earth and earthly rank alike 
 have dwindled to nothing. 
 
 And if " to nothing " there, can they be any great 
 thins here ? 
 
 October 26. 
 
 Of all the downfalls in the world, 
 The flutter of an Autumn leaf 
 Grows grievous by suggesting grief: 
 
 Who thought, when Spring was first unfurled, 
 
 Of this? The wide world lay empearled ; 
 
 Who thought of frost that nips the world? 
 
 Sigh on, my ditty
 
 206 TIME FLIES : 
 
 There lurk a hundred subtle stings 
 
 To prick us in our daily walk : 
 
 An apple cankered on its stalk, 
 A robin snared for all his wings, 
 A voice that sang but never sings ; 
 Yea, sight or sound or silence stings. 
 
 Kind Lord, show pity. 
 
 October 27. 
 
 Vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles. 
 
 " The harvest is past, the summer is ended," writes 
 the Prophet Jeremiah. 
 
 Even so this vigil overtakes us in the waning natural 
 year, with harvest past and summer ended. 
 
 What has been sown has also been reaped. After 
 the reapers the gleaners have followed : the last ears 
 have been gathered in. It is too late now to sow, 
 whether or not we have sown long ago ; or to reap, 
 whether or not we have already reaped. 
 
 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended,-and we 
 are not saved," writes the Prophet Jeremiah. 
 
 And wiser than he, and more full of tenderness, 
 Christ wept over Jerusalem, saying, " If thou hadst 
 known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things 
 which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid 
 from thine eyes." 
 
 Nevertheless, to-day, while it is called to-day, He 
 still calls us, saying, " The time is fulfilled, and the 
 kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe 
 the Gospel.' 1
 
 A READING DIARY. 207 
 
 October 28. 
 
 Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles. 
 
 TRADITION, but not with unanimous voice, pro- 
 claims that St. Simon was martyred in Persia, being 
 sawn asunder: that St. Jude similarly "fell asleep," 
 hanging pierced upon a cross at Edessa. 
 
 St. Jude has enriched the Church with the General 
 Epistle which bears his name : of St. Simon no writings 
 remain to us. 
 
 The inspired Gospel narrative records little of either 
 Saint beyond his name, except that of course both are 
 included in statements which speak of "the Twelve." 
 
 Thus we behold two illustrious Apostles contented 
 scarcely to be mentioned in Holy Scripture : which 
 celestial partial eclipse is followed up by their sharing 
 one Festival between them. 
 
 Truly they learnt of Him Who is f! meek and lowly 
 in heart ; " and now they know by blessed experience 
 that it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master, 
 and the servant as his Lord. 
 
 October 29. 
 
 Who has not rejoiced at the ever familiar, ever 
 marvellous aspect of the stars? Those resplendent 
 orbs remote, abiding. 
 
 But now science, endeavouring to account for certain 
 recurrent obscurations of one or more such luminaries, 
 suggests that among them and with them may be 
 revolving other non-luminous bodies ; which inter- 
 posing periodically between individuals of the bright 
 host and our planet, diminish from time to time the 
 light proceeding from one or other ; and again, by 
 advancing along an assigned orbit, reveal their original 
 brightness.
 
 208 TIME FLIES : 
 
 " Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent 
 for me : I cannot attain unto it." 
 
 Yet none the less does the physical hypothesis 
 suggest a spiritual analogy. 
 
 If certain stars which present mere dimness and 
 obstruction to our eyes are notwithstanding genuine 
 celestial bodies fulfilling their proper revolution in 
 their legitimate orbit, may not some human fellow 
 creatures who to us exhibit no sign of grace, yet be 
 numbered among the children of God, and have their 
 lot among the saints ? 
 
 God grant that so it may be, and grant me fellow- 
 ship with them. 
 
 October 30. 
 
 Who is this that cometh up not alone 
 From the fiery-flying serpent wilderness, 
 
 Leaning upon her own Beloved One, 
 Who is this? 
 
 Lo, the King of King's daughter, a high princess, 
 Going home as bride to her Husband's Throne, 
 Virgin queen in perfected loveliness. 
 
 Her eyes a dove's eyes and her voice a dove's moan, 
 She shows like a full moon for heavenliness, 
 
 Eager saints and angels ask in heaven's zone : 
 Who is this? 
 
 October 31. 
 
 Vigil of All Saints. 
 
 This Vigil is commensurate with the duration of 
 Christendom, for the life of every Christian is this 
 vigil : so ought yours to be, so ought mine.
 
 A READING DIARY. 209 
 
 A vigil is a period wherein to fast, pray, watch ; 
 repent of the past, amend the present, prepare and 
 long for the future. 
 
 Such is a vigil. Is my life such ? 
 
 " The night is far spent, the day is at hand." 
 
 November 1. 
 
 Feast of All Saints. 
 
 As grains of sand, as stars, as drops of dew, 
 
 Numbered and treasured by the Almighty Hand, 
 The Saints triumphant throng that holy land 
 
 Where all things and Jerusalem are new. 
 
 We know not half they sing or half they do, 
 But this we know, they rest and understand ; 
 While like a conflagration freshly fanned, 
 
 Their love glows upward, outward, through and through. 
 
 Lo ! like a stream of incense launched on flame 
 Fresh Saints stream up from death to life above, 
 To shine among those others and rejoice. 
 
 What matters tribulation whence they came? 
 All love, and only love, can find a voice 
 
 Where God makes glad His Saints, for God is Love. 
 
 November 2. 
 1. 
 
 "Unstable as water," — (or according to an alternative rendering) — 
 "Bubbling up as water, thou shalt not excel." — (Gen. xlix. 4.) 
 
 THESE prophetic words of doom spoken against one 
 such individual seem to apply to all persons of the 
 " watery " type : to such persons, that is, as are born 
 unstable and excitable. 
 
 P
 
 210 TIME FLTES: 
 
 So far, of course, as the mere natural disposition 
 goes, no fault attaches to them. Only they will have 
 to work under the condition of (at the least) a predis- 
 position towards inferiority. 
 
 Which predisposition invites the virtue of humility. 
 
 Now where humility lays deep the low-lying foun- 
 dation, the superincumbent structure can safely and 
 permanently tower aloft unto heaven. 
 
 Whence we perceive how by God's grace a predis- 
 position towards inferiority may be reclaimed as a 
 vantage ground for the achievement of excellence. 
 
 November 3. 
 
 ONE only process there is which renders water 
 stable in itself : the process of freezing. 
 
 A second resource exists whereby for practical pur- 
 poses it can be coerced into acting as if stable : dams, 
 dykes, an impervious channel, restrain its laxity, hus- 
 band its volume, accumulate and direct its strength. 
 
 To freeze suggests discipline rather than indul- 
 gence : to be straitened seems less enjoyable than 
 to wander at large. 
 
 If we be " watery" characters we may not impro- 
 bably need chills and shadows of life to harden us : 
 full, unbroken, cloudless sunshine might evaporate us 
 altogether, so that even if sought, our place should 
 nowhere be found. 
 
 Or perhaps our lot will be cast in a narrow galling 
 groove. Yet better this, surely, than that we should 
 dribble in all directions into mere slush and mire, 
 come to worse than nothing ourselves, and swamp our 
 neighbourhood.
 
 A READING DIARY. 211 
 
 November 4. 
 
 3- 
 
 The instability of liquids can on occasion be 
 counteracted by promptitude at full speed : thus an 
 expert knows how to turn topsy-turvy and up again 
 an open vessel of water without spilling one drop. 
 
 Whence it appears probable that unhesitating 
 promptitude will prove a corrective virtue for the 
 limp cold-watery character. " Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with thy might," urges the ex- 
 perienced Preacher. " While I am coming, another 
 steppeth down before me," declares the hope-sick 
 paralytic. 
 
 But while promptitude appears remedial for the 
 cold-watery character, it threatens to heap fuel on the 
 flame of the bubbling-up type. 
 
 Touching this latter, I venture not to offer any hint 
 here, beyond quoting a suggestion I have met with 
 elsewhere. When a pailful of water is being carried, 
 wood floating on the surface steadies it : and in this 
 wood that devout author saw the Cross. 
 
 Let us excitable people try the efficacy of the Cross 
 applied to our hearts by love. I will not despair of 
 its steadying and calming the unquietest heart amongst 
 us, — yours, or mine. 
 
 November 5. 
 
 4- 
 
 " And now, Lord, what is my hope ? truly my 
 hope is even in Thee." 
 
 One unfailing comfort of all who start in life " as 
 water " consists in this : that water is constituted an 
 eminent type of God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 P 2,
 
 2 12 TIME FLIES 
 
 The mist which refreshed Eden, the spring of Hagar 
 (Gen. xxi. 19), the water which in twelve wells awaited 
 wayfaring Israel, the desert fountain which called forth 
 a song, set Him before us " merciful and gracious : " 
 the water which streamed by the way of Edom to 
 preserve perishing life, the " pure River of Water of 
 Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of 
 God and of the Lamb," set Him before us " plenteous 
 in goodness." 
 
 And they who by His indwelling become moulded 
 to His likeness, show forth His gracious loveliness, and 
 are " in the midst of many people as a dew from the 
 Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not 
 for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men : " and their 
 recompense is themselves also to " be like a watered 
 garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail 
 not." 
 
 " Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, 
 and the feeble knees ; and make straight paths for 
 your feet." 
 
 November 6. 
 
 Feast of St. Leonard, Hermit and Confessor. Died 
 about the year 559. 
 
 St. Leonard was son to a Frankish nobleman and 
 Godson to King Clovis. Preferring a life of devotion 
 to the career of a courtier he, after some experience in 
 a monastery, retired to a forest not far from Limoges, 
 and there subsisted on herbs and fruits. 
 
 In this forest a king, perhaps Theodebert of Aus- 
 trasia, whose territory included the Limousin, some- 
 times foil owed the chase. On one such occasion he was 
 accompanied by his queen, who then and there gave 
 birth to a healthy baby, but not before the royal hus- 
 band's anxiety had been awakened : St. Leonard, how-
 
 A READING DIARY. 213 
 
 ever, arriving opportunely, all went well with mother 
 and child. In gratitude to St. Leonard the king 
 made him a grant of land, whereon our saint raised 
 a monastery, naming it Noblac, in honour of so noble 
 a gift, and ruling its inmates until he died. 
 
 St. Leonard is accounted the Patron of Prisoners, 
 Clovis (it is said) having empowered him to release 
 every prisoner he visited. If so, we may associate with 
 his memory the Divine words spoken through Isaiah : — 
 " Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? ... to let 
 the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? " 
 
 November 7. 
 
 ONE of the dearest and most saintly persons I ever 
 knew, in foresight of her own approaching funeral, saw 
 nothing attractive in the " hood and hatband " style 
 towards which I evinced some old-fashioned leaning. 
 " Why make everything as hopeless looking as pos- 
 sible? " she argued. 
 
 And at a moment which was sad only for us who 
 lost her, all turned out in harmony with her holy hope 
 and joy. 
 
 Flowers covered her, loving mourners followed her, 
 hymns were sung at her grave, the November day 
 brightened, and the sun (I vividly remember) made a 
 miniature rainbow in my eyelashes. 
 
 I have often thought of that rainbow since. 
 
 May all who love enjoy cheerful little rainbows at 
 the funerals of their beloved ones. 
 
 November 8. 
 
 OUR heaven must be within ourselves, 
 Our home and heaven the work of faith 
 
 All through this race of life which shelves 
 Downward to death.
 
 214 TIME FLIES: 
 
 So faith shall build the boundary wall, 
 And hope shall plant the secret bower, 
 
 That both may show magnifical 
 With gem and flower. 
 
 While over all a dome must ipread, 
 And love shall be that dome above ; 
 
 And deep foundations must be laid, 
 And these are love. 
 
 November 9. 
 
 A COVETOUS, grasping Christian is like a quick- 
 sand : the surface smooth, the depth unceasingly on 
 the suck and gulp. 
 
 Everything goes down, nothing comes up again : 
 yet is the quicksand apparently none the fuller, neither 
 does it cease from engulphing. 
 
 In fact — whether or not one may attribute ideas to 
 a quicksand — it seems at any rate to entertain no idea 
 of ever becoming satisfied. Its aim appears to be not 
 to attain repletion, but to exercise an unbounded 
 swallow. 
 
 In this world, crews, cargoes, ships, waifs and strays, 
 respond to the " Give, give " of the quicksand ; while 
 objects of proportionate bulk and quality often respond 
 to the unuttered "Give, give" of the covetous man. 
 
 Thus in this present world, both ; but how in the 
 next world, either? 
 
 November 10. 
 
 Scarce-tolerable life which all life long 
 Is dominated by one dread of death, — 
 Is such life, life ? If so, who pondereth 
 
 May call salt sweetness or call discord song.
 
 A READING DIARY 
 
 Ah me, this solitude where swarms a throng! 
 Life slowly grows and dwindles breath by breath 
 Death slowly grows on us ; no word it saith, 
 
 Its cords all lengthened and its pillars strong. 
 
 Life dies apace, a life that but deceives : 
 
 Death reigns as though it lived, and yet is dead 
 
 Where is the life that dies not, but that lives ? 
 The sweet long life immortal, ever young, 
 True life that wooes us with a silver tongue 
 
 Of hope, much said and much more left unsaid. 
 
 November 11. 
 
 Feast of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. Bom probably at 
 Sabaria in Pannonia about the year 320; died, about 400. 
 
 At the age of fifteen St. Martin started in life as a 
 heathen soldier in the Roman army, though already 
 he had felt the attractive influence of Christianity. 
 
 One winter's day, noticing a poor tattered beggar 
 he divided with him his cloak. And the next night, 
 in a dream, he saw our Lord enthroned in glory, 
 arrayed in the half cloak and saying, " Behold the 
 mantle given Me by Martin." After this dream, at 
 the age of eighteen, Martin was baptised. Some two 
 years later, he seems to have demanded his discharge 
 from military service at a moment of impending 
 battle : his commander, Julian, the future apostate 
 Emperor, denied his request with contempt, only to 
 be answered, " Post me in the forefront of the army, 
 without weapons or armour ; but I will not draw 
 sword again. I am become the soldier of Christ." 
 
 It may have been some years later that he resorted 
 to St. Hilary of Poitiers by whom he was ordained 
 exorcist. Ere long filial affection carried him back 
 to Pannonia, where his piety was rewarded by the
 
 2l6 TIME FLIES 
 
 conversion from paganism of his mother, though not, 
 alas ! of his father : where, moreover, protesting 
 against the heresy of certain Arian bishops, he was 
 publicly beaten and expelled from his (assumed) 
 birthplace Sabaria. 
 
 We next behold him as a hermit in a Milanese 
 solitude, exchanged later for a little solitary island. 
 Still later he founded a monastery in the vicinity of 
 Poitiers. 
 
 At length, about the year 371, the See of Tours 
 falling vacant, the people of Tours by stratagem and 
 force conducted him to his consecration as their 
 Bishop. But he who had been monk and hermit 
 before such elevation, monk and hermit remained in 
 spite of it. First he occupied a cell near the Church ; 
 but afterwards he removed to a mere lonely hut of 
 branches on the bank of the Loire, where with eighty 
 disciples he led an ascetic life. 
 
 He waxed great as promulgator of the Faith among 
 his heathen neighbours, great as champion of the 
 Truth against internal errors, great as contender that 
 the weapons of Church warfare must be spiritual, not 
 carnal. In this last particular he showed himself a 
 faithful disciple of his teacher St. Hilary, whose noble 
 words on the same point I quote (at second hand) : — 
 " God will not have a forced homage. What need 
 has He of a profession of faith produced by violence? 
 We must not attempt to deceive Him ; He must be 
 sought with simplicity, served by charity, honoured 
 and gained by the honest exercise of our free will." 
 
 Even at the end of his long life St. Martin ex- 
 pressed willingness to live on, if for the good of others ; 
 but this final sacrifice was not required of him, "for 
 God took him."
 
 A READING DTARY. 21J 
 
 November 12. 
 
 "Lift up your hearts" — "We lift them up" — Ah 
 
 me ! 
 I cannot, Lord, lift up my heart to Thee : 
 Stoop, lift it up, that where Thou art I too may be. 
 
 ' : Give Me thy heart " — I would not say Thee nay, 
 
 But have no power to keep or give away 
 
 My heart : stoop, Lord, and take it to Thyself to-day. 
 
 Stoop, Lord, as once before now once anew 
 Stoop, Lord, and hearken, hearken, Lord, and do, 
 And take my will and take my heart and take me too. 
 
 November 13. 
 
 Feast of St. Britius, Brictius or Brice, Bishop of Tours. 
 Born in the fourth century ; died about the year 443. 
 
 Britius was brought up by St. Martin of Tours 
 and succeeded him in that See. 
 
 In youth he appears to have been headstrong and 
 worldly, and accusations beset him in after-life. Ac- 
 cording to one version of his story these accusations 
 were refuted ; yet his flock appears to have lost, if it 
 ever had entertained, confidence in him : another 
 Bishop superseded him in his diocese, and was fol- 
 lowed by yet another, while Britius spent seven peni- 
 tential years in Rome. Thence he travelled home- 
 wards with letters recommendatory from Pope Sixtus 
 III ; the See once more fell vacant, and he resumed 
 his former charge and dignity, holding them for an- 
 other seven years until death removed him. Mean- 
 while he had acquired a saintly reputation.
 
 21 8 TIME FLIES: 
 
 I have seen a different colouring given to his story 
 but I follow the more favourable account. 
 " Charity . . . rejoiceth not in iniquity." 
 
 November 14. 
 
 It seems an easy thing 
 Mayhap one day to sing, 
 Yet the next day 
 We cannot sing or say. 
 
 Keep silence with good heart, 
 While silence fits our part : 
 Another day 
 We shall both sing and say. 
 
 Keep silence, counting time 
 To strike in at the chime ; 
 Prepare to sound : — 
 Our part is coming round. 
 
 Cannot we sing or say? 
 In silence let us pray, 
 And meditate 
 Our love-song while we wait. 
 
 November 15. 
 
 Feast of St. Machutus, Bishop of Aleth. I notice his date 
 as assigned to either of two centuries, involving a difference of about 
 sixty years. The earlier date proposed fixes his death in the year 564 
 or 565. 
 
 This Machutus, Maclovius, Maclou, or Malo, seems 
 most familiar under the name of St. Malo ; which last 
 form connects him with the locality where he lived ;
 
 A READING DIARY. 219 
 
 though not with his native land which, it appears, was 
 Wales. 
 
 Various legends embalm his memory. In boyhood 
 he fell asleep on the seashore, and would have been 
 drowned by the rising tide had not the sand and 
 weed on which he lay floated upward with him. 
 
 Later on, when he had assumed the monastic habit, 
 it was his office to light the candles for matins. No 
 fire was within reach : he placed extinct cinders in 
 his bosom, and drew them out aglow. 
 
 He died, apparently, while acting, not as Bishop of 
 Aleth, but as Monastic Superior at Archambray. 
 
 His life was passed not without vicissitudes, but 
 seems to have closed in peace. 
 
 November 16. 
 
 The goal in sight ! Look up and sing, 
 Set faces full against the light, 
 
 Welcome with rapturous welcoming 
 The goal in sight. 
 
 Let be the left, let be the right : 
 Straight forward make your footsteps ring 
 A loud alarum through the night. 
 
 Death hunts you, yea, but reft of sting; 
 
 Your bed is green, your shroud is white 
 Hail ! Life and Death and all that bring 
 
 The goal in sight.
 
 220 TIME FLIES 
 
 November 17. 
 
 Feast of St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. Born in Burgundy 
 in the year 1140; died in London, 1200. 
 
 HAVING passed through a grave and pious child- 
 hood, Hugh, at the age of nineteen, visited the Grande 
 Chartreuse, near Grenoble, and became enamoured of 
 its spiritual beauty enshrined amid marvellous natural 
 beauties of the Alps. Assuming there the Carthusian 
 habit, he spent ten years under that austere but con- 
 genial rule. Then Henry II of England summoned 
 him to govern a Carthusian Priory at Witham : he 
 obeyed, and by kindly virtues won the love of his 
 new neighbours. 
 
 In 1186 he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln : in 
 which character he withstood or rebuked first Henry 
 II, afterwards Richard Cceur de Lion, earning the 
 nickname of Hammer-King by his intrepidity. 
 
 He died during the reign of King John, having 
 returned from an embassy of peace with which that 
 monarch had charged him to Philip Augustus of 
 France. 
 
 Humility, sweetness, courage, — virtues not always 
 combined — were united in St. Hugh. 
 
 At Witham he was pleased himself to carry stones 
 and knead mortar for building work. 
 
 At Lincoln he made friends with a swan which 
 frequented his Palace moat ; he fed it, and was habi- 
 tually greeted by it. 
 
 Concerning him, Richard Cceur de Lion is reported 
 to have said : " If all the Bishops in my realm were 
 like that man, kings and princes would be powerless 
 against them." 
 
 By our saint's own command his deathbed was
 
 A READING DIARY. 221 
 
 made on the floor, being composed of ashes strewn in 
 the form of a cross. 
 
 But after his death, we read how " his body was 
 embalmed, and conveyed with great pomp to Lincoln, 
 where it was met by king John of England and king 
 William of Scotland . . . The two kings put their 
 shoulders under the bier as it was carried into the 
 church." 
 
 November 18. 
 
 We know not when, we know not where, 
 We know not what that world will be, 
 
 But this we know : it will be fair 
 To see. 
 
 With heart athirst and thirsty face 
 
 We know and know not what shall be : — 
 
 Christ Jesus bring us of His grace 
 To see. 
 
 Christ Jesus bring us of His grace, 
 
 Beyond all prayers our hope can pray, 
 
 One day to see Him face to face, — 
 One day. 
 
 November 19. 
 
 "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; . . . thorns also and thistles 
 shall it bring forth to thee." — (Gen. iii. 17, 18.) 
 
 SHORT of reprobation, there is no Divine curse upon 
 sin within which does not lurk a blessing ready for 
 penitents. And this, although "God is not a man, 
 that He should lie ; neither the son of man, that He 
 should repent:" yea, rather, even because He is
 
 222 TIME FLIES 
 
 that Lord Who changeth not, therefore we are not 
 consumed. 
 
 Which truth the penal thorn illustrates : for a veri- 
 table thorn it is which bears the rose. 
 
 November 20. 
 
 Feast of St. Edmund, styled Martyr, King of East Anglia. 
 Born in the year 841; died in battle with the Danes, or was slain after 
 the same battle, 870. 
 
 ACCORDING to one account King Edmund, finding 
 himself unequal to resisting the Danish invaders, 
 offered his own person as their prisoner if so his 
 people might be spared. The Danes, however, after 
 tempting him in vain to apostatise from the Chris- 
 tian Faith, treated him barbarously, and ended by- 
 shooting him to death with arrows. The town of 
 Bury St. Edmund's is the place of his sepulture. 
 
 Another account simply states that he fell in 
 battle against the same invaders. 
 
 " The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to 
 heart : and merciful men are taken away, none con- 
 sidering that the righteous is taken away from the 
 evil to come. He shall enter into peace : they shall 
 rest in their beds, each one walking in his up- 
 rightness." 
 
 November 21. 
 
 EVERYTHING that is born must die : 
 Everything that can sigh may sing: 
 
 Rocks in equal balance low or high 
 Everything. 
 
 Honeycomb is weighed against a sting, 
 Hope and fear take turns to touch the sky, 
 Height and depth respond alternating.
 
 A READING DIARY. 223 
 
 O my soul spread wings of love to fly, 
 
 Wings of dove that soars on homebound wing : 
 
 Love trusts Love, till Love shall justify 
 Everything. 
 
 November 22. 
 
 Feast of St. Cecilia or Cicely, Roman Virgin and Martyr. 
 Third century. 
 
 Legend, if not history, represents St. Cecilia as 
 given in marriage to a young man named Valerian ; 
 whom she converted to Christianity by holding out 
 to him, on that condition, a hope of beholding an 
 Angel who protected her. Valerian, returning from 
 Baptism, beheld Cecilia at her prayers ; and with her, 
 an Angel who crowned the pair with roses and lilies 
 before vanishing. Another version of the story shows 
 us the Angel seated at an organ when the young 
 husband lighted upon him. Tiburtius, brother of 
 Valerian, noticing the flowers and understanding 
 their source, was converted likewise. After which 
 all three laid down life for the faith. 
 
 St. Cecilia ranks as patroness of music. Her name, 
 too, whether we say Cecilia or Cicely, is musical. Her 
 story exhibits that good and pleasant thing, a family 
 dwelling in harmonious unity and angelic fellowship. 
 
 Music may surpass our powers : harmony and the 
 communion of saints even we ourselves also can com- 
 pass. 
 
 November 23. 
 
 Feast of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome. Died, perhaps by 
 martyrdom, about the year 100. 
 
 ST. PAUL writes to the Philippians (iv. 3) : — 
 " Clement also, and . . . other my fellowlabourers, 
 whose names are in the Book of Life."
 
 224 TIME FLIES 
 
 Notwithstanding some alleged difficulty in the way 
 of identification, this saint, certified as such by the 
 voice of inspiration, is considered to be the same as 
 the St. Clement we memorialise to-day, and who is 
 counted either as the immediate or as the third suc- 
 cessor of St. Peter. 
 
 His own writings survive as his worthy monument. 
 Otherwise, despite its remaining historically uncertain 
 whether or not he attained the martyr's palm branch, 
 a legend assigns to him as monument a beautiful 
 chapel raised by angels beneath the sea and enshrin- 
 ing his body. For, according to this tradition, he had 
 been exiled from Rome to the marble quarries of 
 Pontus ; where he found and encouraged fellow Chris- 
 tians, and converted pagans : for which latter good 
 work he was condemned to be drowned with an 
 anchor fastened to his neck. Afterwards, in answer 
 to prayer, the sea receded and disclosed the angelic 
 erection. 
 
 Another pretty legend relates how in his place of 
 banishment water could only be procured from a 
 spring six miles distant, adding to the weary toil of 
 the quarries. " One day Clement saw a lamb scraping 
 at the soil with one of its forefeet. He took it as a 
 sign that water was there ; dug, and found a spring." 
 
 Yet what matter mistakes or silence of earthly 
 records concerning any " whose names are in the Book 
 of Life ? " Of all such we know assuredly that they 
 shall thirst no more, but the Lamb which is in the 
 midst of the Throne shall lead them unto living 
 fountains of waters, where there shall be no more 
 sea.
 
 A READING DIARY. 225 
 
 November 24. 
 
 IN that world we weary to attain, 
 
 Love's furled banner floats at large unfurled : 
 There is no more doubt and no more pain, 
 
 In that world. 
 
 There are gems and gold and inlets pearled ; 
 There the greenness fadeth not again ; 
 
 There no clinging tendrils droop uncurled. 
 
 Here incessant tides stir up the main, 
 Stormy miry depths aloft are hurled : — 
 
 There is no more sea, or storm, or stain, 
 In that world. 
 
 November 25. 
 
 Feast of St. Catharine of Alexandria, Virgin Martyr. 
 
 This blessed maiden seems to have been born late 
 in the third century, as her death is assigned to the 
 year 307. 
 
 The Emperor Maxentius, conceiving for her an 
 unworthy passion and remaining baffled by her in- 
 flexible virtue, confiscated her wealth and banished 
 her. Thus far history. 
 
 Legend adds that her wisdom proved victorious in 
 an argumentative contest which she held with fifty 
 philosophers, all of whom she converted to Chris- 
 tianity. She converted, moreover, the Empress Faus- 
 tina, and a certain Porphyrius, who in his turn won to 
 the Faith two hundred soldiers. All these personages 
 alike were graced by martyrdom, though not all after 
 one manner of death. 
 
 For St. Catherine herself a fourfold wheel of horrid 
 Q
 
 226 TIME FLIES 
 
 structure was prepared, but it proved inoperative 
 against her. She died by decapitation ; after having 
 prayed that her body might be kept intact from pro- 
 fane hands, and that the world might be converted. 
 In reference to the first petition, angels are said to 
 have carried her corpse to Mount Sinai : whilst the 
 second was followed by that victory of Constantine 
 over Maxentius, whereby Christianity became estab- 
 lished as the dominant religion of the world. 
 
 St. Catherine is honoured as Patroness of Learning: 
 doubtless of sound learning. As such, one cannot 
 help surmising that sundry legends may lie outside 
 her patronage. 
 
 November 26. 
 
 "A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again." — (Prov. 
 xxiv. 1 6.) 
 
 Full of comfort as is this text, of encouragement, of 
 Divine good will and Fatherly lovingkindness, its 
 comfort yet hath a limit. 
 
 We must not rearrange the proverb and say : He 
 that falleth seven times is a just man. He may or 
 may not be so : but the proverb speaks to a different 
 point. 
 
 All this is obvious, and would not be worth noting 
 down but for our tendency to appropriate promises 
 and revelations of mercy without adequately scrutiniz- 
 ing the conditions on which they depend. " Peace, 
 peace ; when there is no peace," is a fallacy as old as 
 the Prophets. 
 
 The just man at his sixth fall is perhaps less likely 
 to quote the proverb in question, than is the unjust 
 man at his eighth.
 
 A READING DIARY. 227 
 
 November 27. 
 
 2. 
 
 One thing is certain : the hero of this proverb is 
 one who having fallen any number of times, riseth 
 up again. 
 
 Not the fall but the arising forms our clue to his 
 identity. Not any number of falls, few or many, but 
 that selfsame number of arisings proves him just. 
 
 Saul the persecutor was not reconciled to God until 
 he had obeyed the word of Ananias : "And now why 
 tarriest thou ? arise . . ." Thenceforward we revere him 
 as St. Paul. 
 
 Following whom at an unmeasured distance, even 
 as he at an immeasurable distance followed Christ, 
 " I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto 
 Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before 
 Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son." 
 
 November 28. 
 
 "A MERRY heart is a continual feast." 
 
 Then take we life and all things in good part : 
 
 To fast grows festive while we keep at least 
 A merry heart 
 
 Well pleased with nature and well pleased with 
 art ; 
 A merry heart makes cheer for man and beast, 
 And fancies music in a creaking cart. 
 
 Some day, a restful heart whose toils have ceased, 
 A heavenly heart gone home from earthly mart : — 
 
 To-day, blow wind from west or wind from east, 
 A merry heart. 
 
 Q2
 
 228 TIME FLIES: 
 
 November 29. 
 
 Vigil of St. Andrew. 
 
 " In honour preferring one another." 
 
 Thus did St. Andrew when he brought to the 
 Messias his own brother Simon, when he mentioned 
 to our gracious Master that lad whose were the five 
 loaves and the two small fishes, when in concert with 
 St. Philip he approached our Lord Jesus with the 
 request of certain Greeks. 
 
 Presumably in his mortal day, and evidently down 
 to this our own day, St. Andrew appears eclipsed by 
 the lustre of St. Peter. But how the two will stand 
 in comparison with one another at the last great Day, 
 only that day will declare. 
 
 Nevertheless, this we know already and assuredly : 
 that saint who on earth grudged not a brother's 
 superiority, will never grudge it in heaven if in heaven 
 so it be. 
 
 " Love as brethren," writes St. Peter : and he who 
 had St. Andrew for a brother might well write the 
 precept. 
 
 November 30. 
 
 Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle ; accounted Patron Saint of 
 Scotland. 
 
 ACCORDING to tradition St. Andrew preached the 
 Faith in Achaia, and there laid down his life for it. 
 
 A special X-shaped cross is assigned to him as the 
 instrument of his martyrdom. This cross, we read, 
 he saluted in a rapture of devout love to Jesus : on 
 it he hung two days testifying to the assembled 
 people, and then having prayed he died. 
 
 To read of saint after saint and triumph after
 
 A READING DIARY. 220 
 
 triumph might drive us to despair, if we looked to the 
 saints only and not in them and through them to the 
 King of Saints. But thus looking, any such temptation 
 vanishes, giving place to indomitable hope. For 
 these were men of like passions with ourselves : and 
 if they now seem too far in advance for us ever to over- 
 take them, what must their own case have appeared 
 who were called not to follow one another, but im- 
 mediately to follow Christ Himself? and who being 
 called at sundry times and in divers manners, all 
 alike left all and followed Him. 
 
 "They climbed the steep ascent of heaven 
 
 Through peril, toil, and pain : 
 O God, to us may grace be given 
 
 To follow in their train." 
 
 December 1. 
 
 1. 
 
 Dr. Neale, in the Introduction to his " Mediaeval 
 Preachers and Mediaeval Preaching," quotes from one 
 of St. Augustine's Paschal Homilies the following 
 curious mystical interpretation of the hundred and fifty- 
 three Fishes of the Second Miraculous Draught : — 
 
 " This number signifies the thousand thousands of 
 the Saints and of the faithful. But why did the Lord 
 vouchsafe to signify by these figures the many thousands 
 who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven? Hear 
 why. Ye know that the Law was given by Moses to 
 the people of God ; and that in that Law the Deca- 
 logue forms the chief part. . . These ten precepts no 
 man accomplishes by his own strength, unless he is 
 helped by the grace of God. If, therefore, none can 
 fulfil the Law unless God assist with His Spirit, ye
 
 230 TIME FLIES: 
 
 must remember that the Holy Ghost is set forth to 
 us by the number seven. . . . Since, then, we need the 
 Spirit to fulfil the Law, add seven to ten, and you 
 have seventeen. Now, if you count from one to 
 seventeen, you obtain one hundred and fifty-three. 
 I need not count this up for you ; count it for your- 
 selves, and reckon thus : one and two and three and 
 four make ten. In like manner add up the other 
 numbers to seventeen, and you will have the holy 
 number of the faithful and of the saints that shall be 
 in heavenly places with the Lord." 
 
 This same calculation St. Augustine, we are in- 
 formed, repeated substantially in a second and again in 
 a third sermon : whence we may infer that however 
 quaint such comments may appear to some hearers or 
 readers, in others they arouse interest and promote 
 edification. 
 
 December 2. 
 
 2. 
 
 BY a different process of arithmetic and of argu- 
 ment (if argument it can be termed) the same result 
 may be reached : — 
 
 Once more in our search for the " hundred and fifty- 
 three" brought safe ashore, if so be they indeed pre- 
 figure the completed number of the elect, we start 
 from the Decalogue. 
 
 To fulfil each of the ten commandments man needs 
 the full grace of God's Most Holy Spirit ; which ful- 
 ness of grace let us represent by the sacred number 
 seven. 
 
 Multiply each commandment by the grace needed 
 for its observance, one by seven ; and this seven again 
 by ten, the number of the commandments : and seventy 
 appears.
 
 A READING DIARY. 23 1 
 
 Now as Joseph said unto Pharaoh, " For that the 
 dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice ; it is because 
 the thing is established : " therefore we will express 
 final perseverance by doubling seventy, and obtain 
 one hundred and forty. 
 
 But he who is wholly sanctified by God the Holy 
 Ghost is truly owned and saved by the Most Holy 
 Trinity in Unity : wherefore we place the Decalogue 
 under favour of the Divine number Three ; making up 
 an additional thirteen. 
 
 Which thirteen and hundred and forty added to- 
 gether amount to the required hundred and fifty- 
 three. 
 
 December 3. 
 
 3- 
 
 There remains on the foregoing subject one anxious 
 question for us to ask and for our consciences to 
 answer : are such speculations profitable, or are they 
 trivial ? 
 
 Profitable they are, if and so far as they encourage 
 any poor soul to tread the path of obedience. 
 
 And perhaps they may effect this, because either 
 line of thought (such as it is) tends to testify : that 
 election is certified, and final perseverance is achieved, 
 by one and the same process open to us all alike, — 
 by simple obedience. 
 
 The mystery of predestination or of election may 
 baffle our intellects : obedience will assuredly not 
 transcend our powers. 
 
 And there is a second way in which our problem 
 may, I hope, prove helpful : this shall we do, and 
 leave weightier matters undone? We should have 
 been — or at least, I should have been disappointed
 
 :$2 TIME FLIES 
 
 not to reach an accurate intelligible result by the 
 foregoing calculation. A degree of shame often adds 
 a sting to disappointment ; for often we have our- 
 selves, our own rashness or negligence to thank for 
 our failures. 
 
 What will it be to have misstated or misworked the 
 whole problem of life ; to behold at length the perfect 
 number of the elect made up to the last man, woman, 
 child ; and ourselves (God forbid !) to be left out in 
 shame and everlasting contempt? 
 
 December 4. 
 
 I ONCE heard an exemplary Christian remark that 
 she had never been accused of a fault without after- 
 wards recognising truth in the accusation. 
 
 And if she, how not I ? 
 
 At the least her words should make me cautious 
 not to rebut any charge in anger or in haste. 
 
 And if me, why not you ? 
 
 December 5. 
 
 Bury Hope out of sight, 
 No book for it and no bell ; 
 
 It never could bear the light 
 Even while growing and well ; 
 
 Think if now it could bear 
 
 The light on its face of care 
 
 And grey scattered hair. 
 
 No grave for Hope in the earth, 
 But deep in that silent soul 
 
 Which rang no bell for its birth 
 And rings no funeral toll.
 
 A READING DIARY. 233 
 
 Cover its once bright head ; 
 Nor odours nor tears be shed : 
 It lived once, it is dead. 
 
 Brief was the day of its power, 
 The day of its grace how brief: 
 
 As the fading of a flower, 
 As the falling of a leaf, 
 
 So brief its day and its hour : 
 
 No bud more and no bower 
 
 Or hint of a flower. 
 
 Shall many wail it? not so: 
 Shall one bewail it? not one: 
 
 Thus it hath been from long ago, 
 Thus it shall be beneath the sun. 
 
 O fleet sun, make haste to flee ; 
 
 O rivers, fill up the sea ; 
 
 O Death, set the dying free. 
 
 The sun nor loiters nor speeds, 
 
 The rivers run as they ran, 
 Through clouds or through windy reeds 
 
 All run as when all began. 
 Only Death turns at our cries : — 
 Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs 
 Alive in Death's eyes! 
 
 December 6. 
 
 Feast of St. Nicolas, Bishop of Myra. Fourth century. 
 
 Thus much and no more I find vouched for by my 
 usual chief authority. 
 
 Legends, however, augment our scanty store of 
 knowledge, and furnish St. Nicolas with a miraculous
 
 234 TIME FLIES : 
 
 babyhood, pretty if uncertain. An ecstasy seized him 
 in his first bath : and while still a suckling he volun- 
 tarily fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. 
 
 At a more mature period of his life he saved three 
 sister maidens from temptation and peril by casting 
 three bags of gold, one at a time, through the window 
 of their home, thereby providing their father with 
 dowries for them. 
 
 Popularly he is supposed to have concurred in the 
 Council of Nicaea, where amongst all the assembled 
 Bishops " he shone . . . with so great clarity and 
 opinion of sanctity, that he appeared like a sun 
 amongst so many stars." Nevertheless carried away 
 by zeal he smote Arius, and thereby incurred a heavy 
 ecclesiastical penalty. 
 
 Each legend may teach us something, at any rate by 
 suggestion. 
 
 Not to marvel at miraculous babies, but to nurse 
 natural ones for God, is our at least as blessed privi- 
 lege. And though grace " cometh not with observa- 
 tion " we may feel as certain that Divine Grace takes 
 possession of them in the Baptismal Font, as we could 
 possibly feel if we beheld them rapt in visible 
 ecstasy. 
 
 We may study both matter and manner in the 
 incident of the triple dower : the matter, liberality ; 
 the manner, delicacy. 
 
 While the Council sets before us how much may be 
 lost in one hasty moment. 
 
 " Be not highminded, but fear."
 
 A READING DIAIU . 235 
 
 December 7. 
 
 " And the twelve gates were twelve pearls ; every several gate was 
 of one pearl."— (Rev. xxi. 21.) 
 
 A NATURAL pearl is produced by the disease of an 
 oyster. 
 
 Being such, who would have looked to find pearls 
 in the holy and eternal New Jerusalem ? 
 
 Whatever the " pearls " of heaven may stand for — 
 for Bible language doubtless condescends to our pre- 
 sent ignorance — one thing seems clear : since we read 
 of pearls, pearls have a lesson for us. 
 
 These pearls form the gates of the celestial city. 
 Gold and gems compose its foundations, its walls, its 
 streets : but all its gates are pearls. 
 
 And because pearls stand connected with disease, 
 that is, with one form of suffering, therefore (I think) 
 we may view them as representative of the precious 
 fruits of all worthily borne human suffering: and 
 because they form gates of entrance — exit, thanks be 
 to God, is not in question — they connect themselves 
 vividly with that "great tribulation" out of which came 
 the general assembly of the saints as St. John beheld 
 them in vision : — 
 
 " Lo, a great multitude, which no man could num- 
 ber, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
 tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the 
 Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their 
 hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation 
 to our God which sitteth upon the Throne, and unto 
 the Lamb. . . . And one of the elders answered, saying 
 unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white 
 robes? and whence came they? And I said unto 
 him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These
 
 236 TIME FLIES : 
 
 are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes, and made them white in the 
 Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the 
 Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His 
 Temple." (Rev. vii. 9-15.) 
 
 December 8. 
 
 Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 St. Mary whom all generations call blessed, we so 
 call. 
 
 Who bore the Saviour of all mankind, we cherish 
 in grateful memory. 
 
 Whom God the Son deigned to honour, we aspire 
 to honour. 
 
 She whom God sanctified is holy : she who re- 
 sponded to God's call is "called and chosen and 
 faithful." 
 
 Her gifts are His gifts to her, her graces His graces 
 in her. 
 
 " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 eood will toward men." 
 
 December 9. 
 
 Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by God's Will: 
 Surely God's Will alone is good and best: 
 O weary man, in weariness take rest, 
 
 O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill. 
 
 Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill, 
 Or build of loneliness thy secret nest ; 
 At noon take heart being mindful of the west, 
 
 At night wake hope for dawn advances still.
 
 A READING DIARY. 237 
 
 At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need 
 
 Of wakening and of girding up anew, 
 
 Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue? 
 
 No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint : 
 
 Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed 
 
 Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint. 
 
 December 10. 
 
 " If any man will do His Will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine, whether it be of God,"' said Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 Blessed on all sides is this infallible promise. 
 
 It assures us that, at least in the long run, we shall 
 by working faithfully get clear of doubt and darkness. 
 
 Obedience, then, is the key of knowledge. 
 
 That was a masterstroke of guile by which the 
 serpent cajoled Eve into believing disobedience to be 
 the key of knowledge. 
 
 Disobedience may (indeed and alas !) be the key to 
 many of our own beliefs and opinions. Yet even thus, 
 if we will, we can turn it into a genuine though base- 
 metal key of knowledge. 
 
 For that which disobedience teaches us is false, 
 either in its essence or in its aspect as regards our- 
 selves. 
 
 Wherefore since disobedience unlocks not truth, 
 whatsoever it unlocks is thereby certified as falsity. 
 
 For each key fits its own lock and no other.
 
 238 TIME FLIES 
 
 December 11. 
 
 2. 
 
 A FURTHER beatitude comforts us in those Divine 
 words of promise : " If any man will do His Will, he 
 shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." 
 
 For by implication they take account of doubt and 
 ignorance as being no bar to obedience ; and therefore 
 as being no irremovable bar to knowledge. 
 
 Obedience they enjoin upon us at once : all else 
 may stand over. 
 
 Now many have said, and for the time being have 
 said honestly, " I do not know ; " or even, " I cannot 
 believe." 
 
 But who ever said honestly, " I cannot obey"? 
 
 Not that obedience any more than disobedience 
 can of its own proper virtue instruct us : only it has 
 attached to it this promise of God's enlightening grace. 
 And if we desire a second "immutable thing" for our 
 encouragement, Christ hath said, " My grace is suffi- 
 cient for thee : for My strength is made perfect in 
 weakness." 
 
 December 12. 
 
 Have dead men long to wait? — 
 There is a certain term 
 For their bodies to the worm 
 And their souls at Heaven gate. 
 Dust to dust, clod to clod, 
 These precious things of God, 
 Trampled underfoot by man 
 And beast the appointed years. —
 
 A READING DIARY. 239 
 
 Their longest life was but a span 
 For change and smiles and tears : 
 Is it worth while to live, 
 Rejoice and grieve, 
 Hope, fear, and die? 
 Man with man, truth with lie, 
 The slow show dwindles by : 
 At last what shall we have 
 Besides a grave? 
 
 Lies and shows no more, 
 
 No fear, no pain, 
 
 But after hope and sleep 
 
 Dear joys again. 
 
 Those who sowed shall reap : 
 
 Those who bore 
 
 The Cross shall wear the Crown : 
 
 Those who clomb the steep 
 
 There shall sit down. 
 
 The Shepherd of the sheep 
 
 Feeds His flock there, 
 
 In watered pastures fair 
 
 They rest and leap. 
 
 "Is it worth while to live?" 
 
 Be of good cheer : 
 
 Love casts out fear: 
 
 Rise up, achieve. 
 
 December 13. 
 
 Feast of St. Lucy, Virgin Martyr of Syracuse. Slain by 
 the sword in the year 303 or 304. 
 
 Her legend further describes her as by birth noble 
 and wealthy. Her widowed mother educated her in 
 the Christian Faith, and very early the maiden vowed
 
 24° TIME FLIES: 
 
 herself to Christ. Sought in marriage by a heathen 
 suitor, she rejected him ; and afterwards dispensed her 
 dowry among the poor. Then the man's love turned 
 to anger, and through his denunciation she was put to 
 death. 
 
 If " the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel," 
 what oftentimes is their love ? 
 
 Jesus said : " By this shall all men know that ye are 
 My disciples, if ye have love one to another." 
 
 December 14. 
 
 The blood of the Paschal Lamb was to be struck 
 " on the two side posts and on the upper door post of 
 the houses" it guarded: not on the threshold. Thus 
 setting forth by a material figure the awful spiritual 
 warning long afterwards delivered unto us " upon whom 
 the ends of the world are come : " 
 
 " He that despised Moses' law died without mercy 
 .... of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
 shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden 
 under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
 Blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
 an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the 
 Spirit of grace ? ... It is a fearful thing to fall into 
 the hands of the Living God." 
 
 " From all blindness of heart, from hardness of 
 neart, and contempt of Thy Word, Good Lord, deliver 
 
 55 
 
 us. 
 
 December 15. 
 
 2. 
 
 The blood of the Paschal Lamb struck on the lintel 
 and on the two side posts, guarded Israel against the
 
 A READING DIARY. 24 1 
 
 stroke of destruction from above or from either 
 hand. 
 
 Even so Christ our Passover guards us Christians 
 against overwhelming evil and irresistible temptation. 
 The enemy shall not be able to do us violence, 
 whether that enemy be " the prince of the power of 
 the air" defiling high places by spiritual wickedness, or 
 our fellow man stationed on our own level. The 
 "lintel" and the "side posts" form our impregnable 
 bulwark so long as we hold fast our profession. " I 
 am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
 nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of 
 God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 A single point remained unguarded : the threshold. 
 Whence we learn that the one foe whom we ourselves 
 alone can grapple with ; whom even Christ our Head, 
 although He deigns to work in us and with us, will 
 not in our stead put down with a high hand ; is the 
 one who crosses the threshold of our house, that is, 
 our own self. 
 
 Words of Divine tender lamentation certify to us 
 this distinction : — " Oh that My people had hearkened 
 unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways ! I should 
 soon have subdued their enemies, and turned My hand 
 against their adversaries." 
 
 December 16. 
 
 " O Sapientia." 
 
 These words form the opening of a Latin Anthem 
 which runs as follows : — 
 
 " O Wisdom, Who comest out of the mouth of 
 the Most High, reaching from one end to another 
 
 R
 
 243 TIME FLIES 
 
 mightily, and sweetly ordering all things, come and 
 teach us the way of understanding." 
 
 This anthem is the first of a series continued daily 
 till Christmas Eve, according to an old use common 
 (with some variation) to Rome, Paris, and England, 
 though now by us discontinued. 
 
 Thus, then, did our forefathers celebrate our Lord 
 and His Advent. 
 
 " O Sapientia "— " O Wisdom : " that is, " Christ 
 . . . the Wisdom of God." Whom we adore not only 
 as the Wisdom of God, but also as " Christ Jesus, 
 Who of God is made unto us Wisdom." 
 
 Nor can we by guidance of any other wisdom use 
 profitably our Advent Seasons on earth. And least 
 of all can we, except in the might and light of that 
 only true Wisdom, make ready for the Lord's second 
 Advent from heaven, as we read : — 
 
 " Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened 
 unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went 
 forth to meet the Bridegroom. And five of them 
 were wise, and five were foolish. They that were 
 foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them : 
 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
 lamps. While the Bridegroom tarried, they all 
 slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was 
 a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh ; go ye 
 out to meet Him. Then all those virgins arose, and 
 trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the 
 wise, Give us of your oil ; for our lamps are gone 
 out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest 
 there be not enough for us and you : but go ye 
 rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And 
 while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came ; and 
 they that were ready went in with Him to the mar- 
 riage : and the door was shut. Afterward came also
 
 A READING DIARY. 243 
 
 the other virgins, saying-, Lord, Lord, open to us. 
 But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, 
 I know you not. Watch, therefore, for ye know 
 neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of 
 Man cometh." 
 
 December 17. 
 
 Earth grown old yet still so green, 
 
 Deep beneath her crust of cold 
 Nurses fire unfelt, unseen, — 
 
 Earth grown old. 
 
 We who live are quickly told : 
 Millions more lie hid between 
 Inner swathings of her fold. 
 
 When will fire break up her screen ? 
 
 When will life burst through her mould ? 
 Earth, earth, earth, thy cold is keen, 
 
 Earth grown old. 
 
 December 18. 
 
 "And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the 
 writing of God, graven upon the tables. . . . And the Lord said unto 
 Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first : and I will 
 write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which 
 thou brakest." — (Ex. xxxii. 16; xxxiv. 1.) 
 
 Those first tables correspond with Adam, being 
 like himself wholly and exclusively the handiwork 
 of God. The unbroken commandment graven mate- 
 rially on the one, spiritually on the other, added 
 glory to both. 
 
 Adam by one sin broke the whole law : offending 
 in one point he became guilty of all. 
 R2
 
 244 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Then did the Divine sentence as it were take him 
 up and cast him down, breaking him in pieces when 
 it decreed, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
 return." 
 
 The second tables, partly of Divine workmanship 
 while partly also of human, correspond with our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary. These 
 second tables (so far, I think, as Holy Scripture 
 records) never were broken ; but abode intact and 
 sacred, like unto His perfect nature and exhaustive 
 obedience. 
 
 Yet as Moses in an access of holy indignation cast 
 the former tables out of his hands and brake them 
 beneath the Mount, so on Mount Calvary " it pleased 
 the Lord to bruise " His sinless Son, not for His own 
 sake, but for the sake of us sinners. 
 
 That as in Adam all die, even so in Christ may all 
 be made alive. 
 
 December 19. 
 
 Again. Those second tables prepared by Moses, 
 written upon, and so completed by God Himself, appear 
 further as a figure of regenerate humanity, recreated 
 by God and Man in unison, even by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He puts His Spirit within us, reviving, 
 moulding, beautifying us : He renews in our hearts 
 His perfect law: He feeds us with His own Body 
 and Blood : He guides us with His counsel, and after 
 that (if so be we persevere) He will receive us with 
 glory. 
 
 He on the Cross is our Beginning, He at the Right 
 Hand of the Majesty on High is our End. 
 
 " If I climb up into heaven Thou art there."
 
 A READING DIARY. 245 
 
 Amen : for " Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? 
 and there is none upon earth that I desire in com- 
 parison of Thee." 
 
 December 20. 
 
 Vigil of St. Thomas. 
 
 St. Thomas doubted. 
 
 Scepticism is a degree of unbelief : equally there- 
 fore it is a degree of belief. It may be a degree of 
 faith. 
 
 St. Thomas doubted, but simultaneously he loved. 
 Whence it follows that his case was all along hopeful. 
 
 If we are spirit-broken by doubts of our own, if we 
 are half heart-broken by a friend's doubts, let us beg 
 faith for our friend and for ourself ; only still more 
 urgently let us beg love. 
 
 For love is more potent to breed faith than faith to 
 breed love. Because there is no comparison between 
 the two: "God is Love;" and that which God is 
 must rank higher, and show itself mightier than aught 
 which God is not. 
 
 Nevertheless, faith also is required of us, and faith 
 overflows with blessings. 
 
 " If thou canst believe, all things are possible to 
 him that believeth . . . Lord, I believe ; help Thou 
 mine unbelief." 
 
 " Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open 
 his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened 
 the eyes of the young man ; and he saw." 
 
 December 21. 
 
 Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle. 
 This Feast occurs on the shortest day of the year. 
 The day which having least light has yet light suffi-
 
 !46 TIME FLIES : 
 
 cient, harmonizes with the Apostle whose faith indeed 
 ran short, yet by Christ's help lasted out. 
 
 Light at its lowest ebb can increase, so long as its 
 source is the sun : for the sun faileth not. 
 
 Faith at its dimmest spark can rekindle, so long as 
 it keeps Christ in view : for much more than the 
 natural sun, that Sun of Righteousness faileth not. 
 
 " Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast 
 seen Me, thou hast believed : blessed are they that 
 have not seen, and yet have believed." 
 
 "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that 
 obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in 
 darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the 
 name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 
 " I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and 
 hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know 
 that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am 
 the God of Israel." 
 
 December 22. 
 
 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 
 
 Yea, Lord, although Thou say me nay. 
 Shall not His Will be to me life and light? 
 Yea, Lord, although Thou slay. 
 
 Yet, Lord, remembering turn and sift and see, 
 
 Remember though Thou sift me through, 
 Remember my desire, remember me, 
 Remember, Lord, and do. 
 
 December 23. 
 
 ONE day I caught myself wishing what I felt con- 
 vinced would not be the case, — that a certain occu-
 
 A READING DIARY. 247 
 
 pation at once sad and pleasant and dear to me, and 
 at that very moment inevitably drawing towards a 
 close, could have lasted out through the remainder 
 of my lifetime. 
 
 Perhaps no harm in the instinctive wish, — none, 
 I hope : yet what fallacies lay at its root ! 
 
 At least two. One, that something different would 
 be better than what Providence ordained : the other, 
 that my life was sure to outlast the dwindling occu- 
 pation. 
 
 Surely I did not mean that my own choice was 
 wiser than the Divine choice, or that my life was 
 death-proof up to a particular date ? 
 
 Yet what else does such a wish really imply? 
 
 " O Almighty God, Who alone canst order the 
 unruly wills and affections of sinful men ; grant unto 
 Thy people that they may love the thing which 
 Thou commandest, and desire that which Thou dost 
 promise ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen/' 
 
 December 24. 
 
 Christmas Eve. 
 
 Christmas hath a darkness 
 
 Brighter than the blazing noon, 
 Christmas hath a dullness 
 
 Warmer than the heat of June, 
 Christmas hath a beauty 
 
 Lovelier than the world can show, 
 For Christmas bringeth Jesus 
 
 Brought for us so low. 
 
 Earth, strike up your music, 
 
 Birds that sing and bells that ring; 
 
 Heaven hath answering music, 
 For all Angels soon to sing ;
 
 248 TIME FLIES 
 
 Earth, put on your whitest 
 Bridal robe of spotless snow, 
 
 For Christmas bringeth Jesus 
 Brought for us so low. 
 
 December 25. 
 
 Christmas Day. 
 
 A BABY is a harmless thing, 
 
 And wins our hearts with one accord, 
 And Flower of babies was their King 
 
 Jesus Christ our Lord : 
 Lily of lilies He 
 Upon His Mother's knee ; 
 Rose of roses, soon to be 
 Crowned with thorns on leafless tree. 
 
 A lamb is innocent and mild 
 
 And merry on the soft green sod, 
 
 And Jesus Christ the Undenled, 
 Is the Lamb of God : 
 
 Only spotless He 
 
 Upon His Mother's knee ; 
 
 White and ruddy, soon to be, 
 
 Sacrificed for you and me. 
 
 Nay, lamb is not so sweet a word, 
 Nor lily half so pure a name; 
 
 Another name our hearts hath stirred 
 Kindling them to flame: 
 
 "Jesus" certainly 
 
 Is music and melody, — 
 
 Heart with heart in harmony 
 
 Carol we and worship we.
 
 A READING DIARY. 249 
 
 December 26. 
 
 Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. 
 
 St. Stephen as Protomartyr for Christ takes, in a 
 certain sense, precedence of all other saints whatsoever, 
 be they even Apostles. 
 
 He served tables : thus indirectly recalling our 
 Lord's parable of the Guest bidden to a Feast. As 
 Deacon he stood (rather than sat down) in the lowest 
 room ; and to him in his lowliness came betimes the 
 gracious word, " Friend, go up higher." 
 
 Now and for evermore hath he worship in the 
 presence of them that sit at meat with him ; whether 
 this be in communion with just men made perfect, or 
 with members of the Church still militant here in 
 earth. 
 
 To St. Stephen, then, w T e see granted one exclusive 
 dignity withheld from St. John the beloved, from 
 St. Peter the chief, from St. Paul the superabundant 
 labourer. Yet is not his or any other man's gain his 
 fellow's lack : every one hath his proper gift of God, 
 Whose ancient promise stands sure to each faith- 
 ful soul : " Prove Me now ... if I will not open you 
 the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 
 that there shall not be room enough to receive it." 
 
 Christians whose hands are characteristically never 
 closed, open them wide at Christmas, and Christmas 
 Boxes fall due on St. Stephen's Day. First let us 
 connect our doles with the unapproachable Divine 
 Saviour Who, being rich, for our sakes became poor : 
 and this done, there will be no harm in connecting 
 them further with that exalted St. Stephen who for 
 love of Christ and of souls, was content to minister to 
 the necessities of saints in things temporal.
 
 2^0 TIME FLTES 
 
 December 27. 
 
 Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. 
 The " Disciple whom Jesus loved," the survivor of 
 all the Apostles, an inspired Historian and Epistolizer, 
 the Seer of the Apocalyptic Vision : well might this 
 saint whose lifetime approached, if it did not exceed, 
 a century, answer and say, " Even so, come, Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 " Beloved, let us love one another," says St. John, 
 
 Eagle of eagles calling from above : 
 Words of strong nourishment for life to feed upon, 
 
 " Beloved, let us love/' 
 
 Voice of an eagle, yea, Voice of the Dove : 
 If we may love, winter is past and gone ; 
 Publish we, praise we, for lo ! it is enough. 
 
 More sunny than sunshine that ever yet shone, 
 Sweetener of the bitter, smoother of the rough, 
 
 Highest lesson of all lessons for all to con, 
 " Beloved, let us love." 
 
 December 28. 
 
 Feast of the Holy Innocents. 
 
 "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a 
 man hath, and not according to that he hath not." — (2 Cor. viii. 12.) 
 
 BUT these blessed babies seem clearly incapable of 
 the " willing mind : " what, then, did they offer ? 
 
 They offered what they could. Nevertheless they 
 offered by proxy, being themselves (as we assume) 
 incapable of will and deed alike. 
 
 A dazzling halo of paradoxes surrounds their offering. 
 
 They worshipped God, to outward appearance with- 
 out knowing what they did. They died in Christ's 
 stead, Who afterwards died in theirs. Christians they
 
 A READTNG DIARY. 25 1 
 
 were not, except as the firstfruits of Christ's martyrs. 
 The proxy by whose hand they offered an acceptable 
 sacrifice, was a man wicked and sacrilegious. 
 
 And even as their brief life on earth is involved in 
 marvels, so surely to our apprehension is their eternal 
 life in the better country. 
 
 For if we are at a loss to conceive the blessedness 
 of ripe saints in heaven, what conception can we form 
 of the blessedness of these whose sanctity was latent, 
 and even whose natural faculties were undeveloped ? 
 
 They set off speechless, ignorant, with do-nothing 
 hands, helpless feet, vacant minds : for who would lay 
 stress on the speech, or knowledge, work, or walk, or 
 intelligence of infants "from two years old and under"? 
 
 And now they have more understanding than many 
 teachers, and are wiser than many aged. 
 
 "Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, 
 O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast 
 hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 hast revealed them unto babes : even so, Father ; for 
 so it seemed good in Thy sight." 
 
 December 29. 
 
 Love came down at Christmas, 
 
 Love all lovely, Love Divine, 
 Love was born at Christmas, 
 
 Star and Angels gave the sign. 
 Worship we the Godhead, 
 
 Love Incarnate, Love Divine, 
 Worship we our Jesus, — 
 
 But wherewith for sacred sign? 
 Love shall be our token, 
 
 Love be yours and love be mine, 
 Love to God and all men, 
 
 Love the universal sig-n.
 
 252 TIME FLIES 
 
 December 30. 
 
 " It was told the king of Egypt that the people fled."— (Ex. xiv. 5.) 
 
 Nay, but on the contrary the Truth certifies us 
 that " the children of Israel went out with an high 
 hand" (ver. 8). 
 
 On the supposition (apparently) that they fled, 
 Pharaoh summoned his army and pursued after them. 
 
 Who told him that they fled ? We know not, nor 
 from what motive. To inform him of the unvarnished 
 truth on such a subject would have been a formidable 
 undertaking : possibly some one on whom the duty 
 devolved softened his version of the transaction for 
 royal ears. The people were clean gone: what 
 mattered it whether their exodus was described as a 
 triumph or as a flight ? 
 
 Yet in the long run it did clearly matter, when 
 Pharaoh and his host ended their chase in the Red 
 Sea. 
 
 An awful lesson against time-serving untruths, and 
 all verbal inaccuracy. In this life we cannot always 
 — can we ever ? — track a lie to its ultimate issue. 
 
 " Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and 
 from a deceitful tongue." 
 
 December 31. 
 
 Feast of St. Silvester. Elected Bishop of Rome in the year 
 314, died 335. 
 
 St. Silvester became Pope about two years after 
 the decisive battle of Saxa Rubra had secured Con- 
 stantine on the Imperial Throne. To this Pontiff, 
 therefore, "the Donation of Constantine " (now chal- 
 lenged as a forgery) purports to have been made, 
 conferring upon "the Chair of Peter . . . imperial 
 power and honour "
 
 A READING DIARY. 253 
 
 St. Silvester is held to have originated various rites 
 and ceremonies of the Roman use ; and during his 
 pontificate the Lateran Church, magnificent with gold 
 and silver, was erected by Constantine. This Em- 
 peror is reported to have offered our saint a golden 
 and jewelled diadem, which, however, was refused. 
 
 St. Silvester attained a good old age. He lived to 
 send legates to the Council of Nicaea, being himself 
 incapacitated from attending it. 
 
 The story of his baptising the Emperor Constantine 
 is, at the least, disputed. Some allege that that 
 monarch received Baptism on his deathbed from 
 Eusebius, Arian Bishop of Nicomedia. 
 
 Looking back along life's trodden way, 
 
 Gleams and greenness linger on the track : 
 
 Distance melts and mellows all to-day, 
 Looking back. 
 
 Rose and purple and a silvery grey, 
 
 Is that cloud the cloud we called so black? 
 
 Evening harmonises all to-day, 
 Looking back. 
 
 Foolish feet so prone to halt or stray, 
 Foolish heart so restive on the rack ! 
 
 Yesterday we sighed, but not to-day, 
 Looking back.
 
 254 TIME FLIES 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 geabinigs for mhux mobablc f)oh gaga. 
 
 Advent Sunday. 
 
 BEHOLD, the Bridegroom cometh : — go ye out 
 With lighted lamps and garlands round about 
 To meet Him in a rapture with a shout. 
 
 It may be at the midnight black as pitch 
 Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich. 
 
 It may be at the crowing of the cock 
 
 Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock. 
 
 For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride: 
 His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His 
 Side. 
 
 Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place, 
 Veiled she unveils her face to meet His Face. 
 
 Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing, 
 She triumphs in the presence of her King. 
 
 His Eyes are as a Dove's, and she's Dove-eyed; 
 He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride. 
 
 He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love, 
 And she with love-voice of an answering Dove. 
 
 Behold, the Bridegroom cometh :— go we out 
 With lamps ablaze and garlands round about 
 To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.
 
 A READING DIARY. 255 
 
 Advent: Ember Wednesday. 
 
 A HOLY man once suggested as a motive for joining 
 in the service for the Churching of Women, that that 
 single occasion might be our only opportunity for 
 praying on behalf of the particular person in question. 
 
 Could we but summon up such a spirit of charitable 
 good will to set us praying on Ember Days ! And 
 surely if on no other Ember Days, yet at least on 
 these three in Advent, when ringing in our ears are 
 the solemn words " The day is at hand." 
 
 Our own souls stand in jeopardy every hour. This 
 we know, this we acknowledge, this at times becomes 
 a burdensome knowledge well-nigh greater than we 
 can bear. But if our own, how pre-eminently theirs 
 who march as champions before our army, as leaders 
 of our forlorn hopes. 
 
 It is folly indeed to keep looking for discourage- 
 ments away from our own misdeeds and shortcomings. 
 Yet if we do look round and do feel discouraged be- 
 cause neither Clergy nor candidates for Holy Orders 
 are all unselfish saints and undaunted heroes, can we 
 hold ourselves altogether guiltless of their defects? 
 May not they in turn look round and wonder that 
 there are so few intercessors, so few to uphold the 
 men "subject to like passions as we are," of whom 
 we complain fluently and for whom we pray in 
 stammers? 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 Advent: Ember Friday. 
 
 If we prayed for the Clergy last Wednesday, we 
 then gained a step towards praying more efficaciously 
 for them to-day : prayer being indeed an inspiration, 
 but also an art.
 
 256 TIME FLIES 
 
 Bishops, Priests, Deacons, all need and all invite 
 our prayers. Bishops whose charge is the widest and 
 most responsible under the sun : for they oversee not 
 the flock of God merely, but specially the overseers of 
 that flock. Priests whose dignity is the highest con- 
 ferred on mortal man : for they consecrate the Sacra- 
 ment of the Body and Blood of Christ ; and to whom 
 much is given, of him shall be much required. Deacons 
 who are mounting the first step of the loftiest ladder : 
 and which of us knows not the momentous character 
 of a first step ? 
 
 But some one may retort upon me that Bishops are 
 not in question to-day. Be it so. We shall find a 
 vast field of prayer left, even when we restrict our in- 
 tention to Priests and Deacons. These things done, 
 the field narrowed and the concentrated prayers 
 offered up, we shall in fact have interceded for the 
 Bishops of the future : nor do I think we shall then be 
 of all persons the least likely to add a petition for the 
 much-tried Bishops of the present. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 Advent: Ember Saturday. 
 
 REVERED or not revered, loved or not loved, our 
 Pastors will have to stand together with us before the 
 Judgment Seat of Christ, — venerable or contemp- 
 tible, lovely or unlovely. 
 
 Now there can be no doubt that on the whole the 
 Clergy pray for their people. Many lavish their 
 warmest, deepest human affections in intercessory 
 prayer, travail in birth for souls, fill up that which is 
 behind of the afflictions of Christ for His Body's sake 
 the Church. This by the grace of God they do 
 for us.
 
 A READING DIARY. 257 
 
 And we in our degree can do the same for them. 
 Let us pray for all. To-day for those especially whose 
 life or death race is yet to run. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 Ash Wednesday. 
 
 My God, my God, have mercy on my sin 
 For it is great ; and if I should begin 
 
 To tell it all, the day would be too small 
 To tell it in. 
 
 My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin 
 For Thy Love's sake ; yea, if I should begin 
 To tell this all, the day would be too small 
 To tell it in. 
 
 Lent: Ember Wednesday. 
 
 ALL time is entrusted to us for the performance of 
 duty. With this aim in view, Lent stands foremost 
 in the ranks of time. 
 
 Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, being incumbent upon 
 all Christians, prayer on Ember Days naturally be- 
 takes itself to the channel of intercessory prayer on 
 behalf of candidates for Holy Orders. 
 
 Nor can we thus help them much more appropriately 
 than by praying that they also and in far fuller 
 measure may receive the spirit of prayer, and espe- 
 cially of intercessory prayer. Christ prays for us in 
 heaven : the Holy Ghost prays for us and in us on 
 earth. Christ, Who is God Almighty made Man, 
 dispenseth not Himself from prayer : the Holy Ghost, 
 Who is God Almighty tabernacling in man, dispenseth 
 not Himself from prayer : wherefore those who " pray 
 without ceasing" may above their fellows affirm, 
 
 S
 
 25^ TIME FLIES: 
 
 "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with 
 His Son Jesus Christ." 
 
 By imploring so great a boon for others, we secure 
 a portion of it to ourselves. 
 
 Lent: Ember Friday. 
 
 (St. Mark ix. 28, 29). "This kind can come forth 
 by nothing, but by prayer and fasting," spake our 
 Lord to His disciples after they had failed to cast out 
 a devil. 
 
 Hence we are certified by implication that Christ 
 our pattern fasted as well as prayed. 
 
 While by direct statement we are certified that 
 neither fasting nor prayer can be dispensed with in 
 the work of expulsion. 
 
 Fasting is under one aspect an easy duty : we know 
 distinctly in what it consists, and we know positively 
 whether we are or are not performing it. Under 
 another aspect it is a difficult duty ; because it goes 
 counter flesh and blood, counter much that is inno- 
 cent, and still more that is natural. Fasting is pecu- 
 liarly painful, and therefore peculiarly repugnant, to 
 young persons ; so full as they are of spirit, so rich in 
 the faculty of enjoyment. 
 
 Now, while, as a rule, the candidates for Holy 
 Orders are young, yet fast they must on pain of 
 remaining incompetent for full spiritual ministrations; 
 whereas the Man of God is called to " be perfect, 
 throughly furnished unto all good works." 
 
 They will need their own earnest prayers for grace 
 to fast, and in many other ways to mortify self. They 
 will need both prayers and example of their fathers 
 and brethren, mothers and sisters in the Church. To 
 pray and fast with one heart and mind binds us into
 
 A READING DIARY. 259 
 
 communion with one another, into the Communion of 
 Saints : and the Communion of Saints is fellowship 
 with Christ. 
 
 Lent: Ember Saturday. 
 
 LIKE Prayer and Fasting, Almsgiving is a duty of 
 general obligation. To each of the three words 
 attaches a narrower and also a wider signification. 
 
 Prayer, strictly petition, is used as a compendious 
 term for all devotion. 
 
 Fasting, strictly abstinence from food, stands for all 
 self-mortification. 
 
 Almsgiving, strictly a dispensing of charitable doles, 
 embraces, according to its more extensive meaning, 
 all practical lovingkindness between men : a wide 
 field this, even if we consider it covered by the Seven 
 Temporal and Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy, so 
 concisely summed up by Bishop Andrewes : — 
 "Visit : give drink : give meat : redeem the slave : 
 Clothe : tend the sick : and lay the dead in grave. — 
 Counsel : rebuke : instruct in wisdom's way : 
 Console : forgive : endure unmov'd : and pray." 
 The Christian Ministry is the Grand Almoner of 
 the Christian community. To bring this about, the 
 candidates for Holy Orders have first to offer up 
 themselves for the glory of God and the good of 
 souls. Thus, and not otherwise, our " lack of service ; ' 
 is supplied. Shall they do this for us, and shall we 
 grudge our substance, our co-operation, our sympathy, 
 our prayers, to them ? 
 
 Palm Sunday. 
 
 On the Jewish Day of Atonement, that great day 
 of foreshadowings and gracious mysteries, the goat of 
 
 S 2,
 
 260 TIME FLIES: 
 
 the sin offering and the scapegoat alike typified our 
 Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the true and only " Lamb of 
 God, Which taketh away the sin of the world." 
 
 Alike, yet with a difference. 
 
 The goat of the sin offering, slain and consumed, 
 aptly prefigured the sacred Body sacrificed and slain 
 for us: He " bare our sins in His own Body on the 
 tree." 
 
 The scapegoat seems no less apt a figure of our 
 Lord's immortal Soul made " an offering for sin." 
 For this goat was by no means to be slain, but laden 
 with the iniquities of all Israel was to be sent away 
 into the wilderness, into a land not inhabited. 
 
 Thus, the Soul of Christ having with His precious 
 Body and Blood united to His Divinity made atone- 
 ment for all mankind, was pleased to depart into 
 Hades, a land uninhabited save by disembodied souls, 
 and it may be bodiless spirits, and whereof holy Job 
 of old said : " The land of darkness and the shadow 
 of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and 
 of the shadow of death, without any order, and where 
 the light is as darkness." 
 
 Monday in Holy Week. 
 
 " The Voice of my Beloved." 
 
 ONCE I ached for thy dear sake : 
 Wilt thou cause Me now to ache ? 
 Once I bled for thee in pain : 
 Wilt thou rend My Heart again? 
 Crown of thorns and shameful tree, 
 Bitter death I bore for thee, 
 Bore My cross to carry thee, 
 And wilt thou have nought of Me?
 
 A READING DIARY. 26 1 
 
 Tuesday in Holy Week. 
 
 By Thy long drawn anguish to atone, 
 Jesus Christ, show mercy on Thine own : 
 Jesus Christ, show mercy and atone, 
 Not for other sake except Thine own. 
 
 Thou Who thirsting on the cross didst see 
 All mankind and all I love and me, 
 Still from Heaven look down in love and see 
 All mankind and all I love and me. 
 
 Wednesday in Holy Week. 
 
 " Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the right 
 way.'' — (Ps. ii. 12.) 
 
 The "kiss" enjoined being a spiritual kiss of loving 
 fealty, we of this nineteenth century, while still on 
 earth, can as readily and as truly offer it to Christ in 
 heaven, as could St. Peter or St. John to that same 
 Divine Master when on blessed Feet He trod the 
 weary ways of Palestine. 
 
 For the literal kiss is the symbol, the spiritual kiss 
 the reality. 
 
 This last cannot but be precious. The other 
 depends for value on the temper from which it 
 springs : for a gulph divides the sinful woman who 
 because " she loved much " ceased not to kiss our 
 Lord's Feet, from Judas Iscariot who betrayed the 
 Son of Man with a kiss. 
 
 In like manner the spiritual embrace excels the 
 literal embrace ; this being but the symbol, that the 
 reality.
 
 262 TIME FLIES: 
 
 As we learn from our Saviour's words to St. Mary- 
 Magdalene in the Garden of the Sepulchre. " Touch 
 Me not ; for I am not yet ascended to My Father," 
 said He to His beloved and loving worshipper : deny- 
 ing her — who can doubt it? — the lower blessing, that 
 He might bestow upon her the higher. 
 
 Those who crucified Him handled Him, yet spirit- 
 ually they touched Him not. Even as aforetime the 
 multitude who "thronged and pressed" Him, touched 
 Him not. 
 
 Thursday in Holy Week. 
 
 "And the Vine said, . . . Should I leave my wine, which cheereth 
 God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" — (Judges ix. 13.) 
 
 The great Vine left its glory to reign as Forest 
 King :— 
 
 " Nay," quoth the lofty forest trees, " We will not 
 have this thing ; 
 
 We will not have this supple one enring us with its 
 ring; 
 
 Lo, from immemorial time our might towers shadow- 
 in cc • 
 
 Not we were born to curve and droop, not we to 
 
 climb and cling ; 
 We buffet back the buffeting wind, tough to its 
 
 buffeting. 
 We screen great beasts, the wild-fowl build in our 
 
 heads and sing, 
 Every bird of every feather from off our tops takes 
 
 wing : 
 I a king, and thou a king, and what king shall be 
 
 our kincr?"
 
 A READING DIARY. 263 
 
 Nevertheless the great Vine stooped to be the Forest 
 
 King, 
 While the forest swayed and murmured like seas that 
 
 are tempesting : 
 Stooped and drooped with thousand tendrils in 
 
 thirsty languishing ; 
 Bowed to earth and lay on earth, for earth's re- 
 plenishing ; 
 Put off sweetness, tasted bitterness, endured time's 
 
 fashioning ; 
 Put off life and put on death : and lo ! it was all 
 
 to bring 
 All its fellows down to a death which hath lost the 
 
 sting, 
 All its fellows up to a life in endless triumphing, — 
 I a king, and thou a king, and this King to be our 
 
 king. 
 
 Good Friday. 
 
 LORD Jesus Christ grown faint upon the Cross, 
 A sorrow beyond sorrow in Thy look, 
 The unutterable craving for my soul, 
 Thy love of me sufficed 
 To load upon Thee and make good my loss 
 
 In face of darkened heaven and earth that shook : — 
 In face of earth and heaven, take Thou my whole 
 Heart, O Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Easter Even. 
 
 The tempest over and gone, the calm begun. 
 
 Lo, "it is finished," and the Strong Man sleeps: 
 All stars keep vigil watching for the sun, 
 The moon her vigil keeps.
 
 264 TIME FLIES 
 
 A garden full of silence and of dew, 
 
 Beside a virgin cave and entrance stone: 
 Surely a garden full of Angels too, 
 Wondering, on watch, alone. 
 
 They who cry " Holy, Holy, Holy," still 
 
 Veiling their faces round God's Throne above. 
 May well keep vigil on this heavenly hill 
 And cry their cry of love, 
 
 Adoring God in His new mystery 
 
 Of Love more deep than hell, more strong than 
 death ; 
 Until the day break and the shadows flee. 
 The Shaking and the Breath. 
 
 Easter Day. 
 
 WORDS cannot utter 
 Christ His returning : — 
 
 Mankind, keep jubilee, 
 Strip off your mourning, 
 
 Crown you with garlands, 
 Set your lamps burning. 
 
 Speech is left speechless; — 
 
 Set you to singing, 
 Fling your hearts open wide, 
 
 Set your bells ringing : 
 Christ the Chief Reaper 
 
 Comes, His sheaf bringing.
 
 A READING DIARY. 265 
 
 Earth wakes her song birds, 
 Puts on her flowers, 
 
 Leads out her lambkins, 
 Builds up her bowers : 
 
 This is man's spousal day, 
 Christ's day and ours. 
 
 Easter Monday. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL type of the Resurrection is furnished 
 by a water lily. 
 
 In the evening the white blossom folds up to sink 
 beneath the water. 
 
 In the morning it returns above the surface, expands 
 in the air, basks in the sunshine. 
 
 Its brief night passes in secrecy and purity : its 
 renewed day is full of light. 
 
 Easter Tuesday. 
 
 OUT in the rain a world is growing green, 
 
 On half the trees quick buds are seen 
 
 Where glued-up buds have been. 
 
 Out in the rain God's Acre stretches green, 
 
 Its harvest quick though still unseen: 
 
 For there the Life hath been. 
 
 If Christ hath died His brethren well may die, 
 Sing in the gate of death, lay by 
 This life without a sigh : 
 For Christ hath died and good it is to die; 
 To sleep whenso He lays us by, 
 Then wake without a sigh.
 
 266 TIME FLIES 
 
 Yea, Christ hath died, yea, Christ is risen again 
 Wherefore both life and death grow plain 
 To us who wax and wane, 
 For Christ Who rose shall die no more again : 
 Amen : till He makes all things plain 
 Let us wax on and wane. 
 
 Rogation Monday. 
 
 OUR Saviour's three Temptations in the Wilderness 
 suggest thoughts for the three Rogation Days in har- 
 mony with the way in which these are often observed 
 in Anglican Churches. 
 
 On Rogation Monday we pray for temporal bless- 
 ings, particularly for " the kindly fruits of the earth, 
 that in due time we may enjoy them:" our prayers 
 thus enlarging and prolonging the perfect petition, 
 " Give us this day our daily bread." 
 
 What we pray for and receive we are virtually 
 pledged to give thanks for : grace before meals be- 
 speaks grace after them. 
 
 When God blesses our earthly substance it is of His 
 loving kindness and pity. When He blesses it not, 
 it is because He is ready to bless us in some higher 
 way. 
 
 If He gives us bread and not stones, it becomes us 
 to be thankful and to impart to them that have not. 
 
 If He gives us stones instead of bread, we may then 
 go on to learn by experience what already "our fathers 
 have told us" and our Lord by quoting has doubly 
 certified, that " Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
 by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
 God." 
 
 In which words faith and love discern a promise of
 
 A READING DIARY. 267 
 
 that " Bread and Wine " whereby the faithful receive 
 verily and indeed " the Body and Blood of Christ." 
 
 It is good, with Asher, to inherit bread and royal 
 dainties : it is better, with Naphtali, to be satisfied 
 with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord. 
 
 " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness : for they shall be filled." 
 
 " My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living 
 God." 
 
 Rogation Tuesday. 
 
 On this day we are urged to intercede for foreign 
 missions. 
 
 Following the sequence of St. Luke's narrative, 
 the second phase of our Divine Master's threefold 
 temptation sets before us (I humbly think) one snare 
 which in the very nature of such work must more or 
 less beset missionary enterprises, and which if yielded 
 to may render them even worse than useless. 
 
 For if, as the proverb asserts, we cannot touch 
 pitch and be clean, it must be perilously difficult to 
 set up one's tent amid Satan's own surroundings and 
 continue in no way the worse for that neighbourhood. 
 
 The world and the flesh flaunt themselves in very 
 uncompromising forms in the devil's own territory. 
 And all the power and the glory of them set in array 
 before a man whose work forces him to face and sift 
 them day and night, may well make such an one 
 tremble for himself and betake himself to his knees. 
 
 And if he for himself, so we for him : not merely of 
 charity, but strictly also of justice. 
 
 For he is our proxy, fulfilling that function which 
 being incumbent upon the Church as a body, many of 
 us cannot, and most of us do not even attempt. It
 
 268 TIME FLIES 
 
 was no hardship, but a privilege, for Aaron and Hur 
 to uphold the champion hands of Moses. 
 
 And if he and we with one voice beseech for him 
 and his mission God's grace and benediction, then 
 doubtless we may look for such an answer to prayer, 
 as will enable him in peace and safety to go upon 
 the lion and adder, treading the young lion and the 
 dragon under foot. 
 
 He will stand steadfast upon his watchtower hearken- 
 ing for God's word to him. 
 
 He will be raised up to sit even in heavenly places 
 in Christ Jesus, and from that " exceeding high moun- 
 tain" will estimate and despise the world, and the 
 things of the world. 
 
 Vigil of the Ascension : Rogation 
 Wednesday. 
 
 OUR Lord's third temptation (still following St. 
 Luke's order) met Him not in the world at large but 
 upon a pinnacle of the Temple : and being thus 
 localized, concerned (apparently) in the first instance, 
 not the entire human race, but the Jewish nation 
 represented by such individuals as then and there 
 were assembled within the sacred precincts ; if, that 
 is, we may assume that the proposed descent was 
 intended to take place into and not out of the Temple. 
 
 The sign challenged and refused would, then, have 
 addressed itself to that chosen people. And thus 
 Christ's example on this occasion throws (I venture 
 to think) a bright, beam of light on our subject for 
 to-day ; on intercession for home missions, with an 
 eye to the practical carrying on of such missions. 
 
 Our great High Priest, His own all-wise all-gracious 
 Self, was about to enter on His Personal Home
 
 A READING DTARY. 269 
 
 Mission. And at that very moment He quotes 
 Scripture instead of working a miracle, and lays stress 
 not on any personal greatness, but on simple strict 
 obedience. 
 
 Whence we cheerfully infer that no personal great- 
 ness above our level, or personal power denied us, 
 will be needed for such mission-work as whether we 
 be of the Clergy or of the laity it may please God 
 to call us to. 
 
 The Bible will be needed, and that we possess, and 
 can quote ; or if not, the fault is our own. 
 
 Personal lowliness will be needed, and wherein- 
 soever we are called we can therein abide content, 
 and work conscientiously. We can work helpfully 
 with inferiors, teachably with superiors, charitably 
 with all. 
 
 And while we thus refrain our souls and keep them 
 low, well may we look up and lift up our heads, for 
 our redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 This same Jesus Who is gone into heaven, will so 
 come in like manner as the Apostles saw Him go 
 into heaven. 
 
 Not casting Himself down from the pinnacle of a 
 Temple made with hands, but coming with clouds, 
 descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
 of the Archangel and with the trump of God. 
 
 Then when those who sleep in Jesus return with 
 Him, when those who are alive in Jesus are caught up 
 to meet Him in the air, then, and now, and ever, 
 Good Lord, deliver us.
 
 270 TIME FLIES : 
 
 Ascension Day. 
 
 "A Cloud received Him out of their sight." 
 
 When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed 
 
 Gazing at Heaven with souis and wills on fire, 
 Their hearts on flight along the track He made, 
 Winged by desire. 
 
 Their silence spake : " Lord, why not follow Thee ? 
 
 Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face, 
 Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see, 
 Look back, embrace. 
 
 Earth is one desert waste of banishment, 
 
 Life is one long drawn anguish of decay. 
 Where Thou wert wont to go we also went : 
 Why not to-day?" 
 
 Nevertheless, a cloud cut off their gaze : 
 
 They tarry to build up Jerusalem, 
 Watching for Him, while through the appointed days 
 He watches them. 
 
 They do His Will, and doing it rejoice, 
 
 Patiently glad to spend and to be spent : 
 Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice 
 And are content. 
 
 For as a cloud received Him from their sight 
 
 So with a cloud He will return ere long : 
 Therefore they stand on guard by day, by night, 
 Strenuous and strong. 
 
 They do, they dare, they beyond seven times seven 
 
 Forgive, they cry God's mighty word aloud : 
 Yet sometimes haply lift tired eyes to Heaven, — 
 "Is that His cloud?"
 
 A READING DIARY. 27 1 
 
 Whitsun Eve. 
 
 " We wait for Thy lovingkindness, God : in the 
 midst of Thy temple." 
 
 Who cometh ? Whom words cannot utter : the 
 All-holy Almighty Spirit, co-equal with the Father 
 and the Son, God Blessed for ever. Amen. 
 
 He cometh in Fulness as of wind and Might as of 
 fire. Nevertheless, as a Dove, He cometh to dove- 
 like souls. 
 
 Wherewith shall we come before the Lord, and 
 bow ourselves before the High God ? Thou, O Lord, 
 fill us and kindle us, that so we ourselves may be 
 made our acceptable offering. 
 
 Give us doves to meet Thy Dove : tenderness, 
 sweetness, graciousness, a lowly walk, a heavenward 
 flight. 
 
 By Thine Indwelling make us doves : wise as ser- 
 pents, if it please Thee ; harmless as doves, that we 
 may please Thee. Until that day when Christ Him- 
 self shall fetch home His love, His dove, His sister, 
 His spouse. 
 
 "Whitsun Day. 
 
 " When the Day of Pentecost was fully come." 
 
 AT sound as of rushing wind and sight as of fire, 
 Lo ! flesh and blood made spirit and fiery flame, 
 Ambassadors in Christ's and the Father's Name, 
 To woo back a world's desire. 
 
 These men chose death for their life, and shame for 
 
 their boast, 
 For fear courage, for doubt intuition of faith, 
 Chose love that is strong as death and stronger than 
 
 death 
 In the power of the Holy Ghost.
 
 272 TIME FLIES: 
 
 Whitsnn Monday. 
 
 " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
 perance." (Galatians v. 22, 23.) 
 
 Blessed be God that these lovely graces are "fruits" 
 not flowers. Flowers might be demanded of us at 
 the dawn of our day of probation, so soon as ever 
 "the Dayspring from on high" had visited us. But 
 for fruits time is allowed ; they form gradually, sweeten 
 gradually, ripen gradually. Even " the husbandman 
 waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath 
 long patience for it." 
 
 Holy Church is that garden of God wherein, ac- 
 cording to His many types, God the Holy Ghost 
 deigns to dwell and work. A dove's bower is very 
 peaceful. A watered garden brings forth abundantly. 
 Fruits ripen, sweeten, and are perfected by the sun's 
 blazing fire. The wind blowing " where it listeth " 
 brings out and sheds abroad fragrance, and makes 
 music among bowing branches. 
 
 "Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire." 
 
 Wlntsuu Tuesday. 
 
 LORD Jesus Christ our Wisdom and our Rest 
 Who wisely dost reveal and wisely hide, 
 Grant us such grace in wisdom to abide 
 
 According to Thy Will Whose Will is best. 
 
 Contented with Thine uttermost behest, 
 Too sweet for envy and too high for pride, 
 All simple-souled, dove-hearted, and dove-eyed, 
 
 Soft-voiced, and satisfied in humble nest. 
 
 Wondering at the bounty of Thy Love
 
 A READING DIARY. 273 
 
 Which gives us wings of silver and of gold ; 
 Wings folded close, yet ready to unfold 
 When Thou shalt say, — " Winter is past and gone : " 
 When Thou shalt say, — "Spouse, sister, love, and dove, 
 Come hither, sit with Me upon My Throne." 
 
 "Whitsuntide: Ember Wednesday. 
 
 " ASK, and ye shall receive " is the very text for 
 Whitsuntide : and if for the entire season, eminently 
 for these three Ember Days. 
 
 Whitsuntide is exceedingly brief: it is come and 
 gone in eight days. We seem to hear once more 
 proclaimed " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by :"" will we 
 not raise a clamour of entreaty with the blind men of 
 Jericho ? We have no time to lose : this blessed 
 moment, this moment of blessing " passeth by." Let 
 us by strength of faith and prayer seize, arrest, per- 
 petuate it. 
 
 Until God the Holy Ghost came down at Pentecost, 
 the Apostles were in a certain sense themselves but 
 as candidates for Holy Orders. Spiritual giants, 
 "men of renown" they were: yet without Him they 
 could do nothing. Let us with one accord, if not all 
 in one place, pray for the spiritual ordinary men of 
 our own day, that according to the blessing on one 
 Patriarch of Israel, as their days so may their 
 strength be. 
 
 Three things we observe on that unparalleled Feast 
 of Pentecost : a herald sound, " suddenly there came 
 a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, 
 and it filled all the house where they were sitting," — 
 an accompanying sight, " there appeared unto them 
 cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of 
 them," — and an actual Divine Indwelling, "they were 
 
 T
 
 274 TIME FLIES: 
 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost/' And since we have 
 as it were a three-storied "house" (to wit, three 
 Ember Days) to " fill " with this Mystery of con- 
 solation, let us apportion the three points one by one 
 to the three days. 
 
 As the Ineffable Gift was originally bestowed with 
 sound, so must it be given forth again and again with 
 sound. To Christ's ministers first of all were the 
 words spoken : " Freely ye have received, freely give : " 
 and from age to age the Christian ministry is called 
 to teach, preach, rebuke, exhort, lift up a voice like a 
 trumpet. But " if the trumpet give an uncertain 
 sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" 
 
 Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to all who shall 
 now be ordained to any holy function, that by the 
 Holy Ghost dwelling in them they may v know Thy 
 Son Jesus Christ to be the Truth, and that the words 
 spoken by their mouths may never be spoken in vain. 
 For the sake of the same Thy Son, the Word, our 
 Master, Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 Whitsuntide: Ember Friday. 
 
 " Cloven tongues, like as of fire." 
 
 Words are spoken : deeds and lives speak. The 
 cloven tongues suggest a double lesson. As tongues 
 they call for speech from those on whom spiritually 
 they are conferred : as an appearance of fire they 
 invite " a burning and a shining " life as their cor- 
 respondent. 
 
 " By the grace of God I am what I am : and His 
 grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; 
 but I laboured more abundantly than they all : yet 
 not I, but the grace of God which was with me,"
 
 A READING DIARY. 275 
 
 writes St. Paul, comparing himself with the other 
 Apostles. 
 
 Now if it was not " Paul" but "grace" which led 
 that life, performed those deeds, achieved that glory ; 
 what valid reason can any man allege, least of all any 
 ordained man, for not living in some sort as St. Paul 
 lived, working as he worked, dying as he died ? True, 
 such an one may be incompetent to preach as he 
 preached, or write as he wrote. But surely not even 
 inspired sermons or epistles were foremost in that 
 chosen vessel's mind when he averred : " To me to 
 live is Christ, and to die is gain : " or elsewhere : " I 
 therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not 
 as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my 
 body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any 
 means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
 should be a castaway." 
 
 A spiritual race, an unearthly fight, self-subdual, 
 Christ-likeness and oneness with Christ, all these 
 went towards making up that blessed life wherein 
 St. Paul made himself all things to all men that he 
 might by all means save some. Amongst these we 
 recognise no miraculous gifts, but legitimate fruits of 
 a grace within the reach of all Christians : and we 
 behold this grace needed and spent by one devoted 
 minister to edify the Church of God. 
 
 Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to all who shall 
 now be ordained to any holy function, that following 
 in the luminous track of Thine Apostles they may by 
 the might of the Holy Ghost so live and walk that 
 all men may take knowledge of them that they abide 
 with Jesus. For His sake Who is our Way and our 
 Life, the same Thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 T 2
 
 2J6 TIME FLIES 
 
 Whitsuntide: Ember Saturday. 
 
 Wind, earthquake, fire, tremendous but empty, 
 ushered in the "still small Voice" which spake to 
 Elijah : "the Lord," we read, "was not" in that wind, 
 that earthquake, that fire. 
 
 So when the supreme " Day of Pentecost was fully 
 come," the sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty 
 wind, and the filled house, and the appearance of 
 cloven tongues like as of fire, were all alike awful, but 
 extraneous ; appreciable by the senses ; outward and 
 visible or audible signs of inward and spiritual grace. 
 
 The animated creature is visible, the life abides 
 invisible. 
 
 In like manner that which was seen and heard indi- 
 cated to all men the Advent and Presence of God the 
 Holy Ghost : " but Him they saw not." 
 
 This Divine Presence, not those awe-inspiring phe- 
 nomena, was the essence of all. Had the Almighty 
 Spirit deigned to descend in silence and darkness, the 
 Church would equally have been born, sanctified, 
 glorified. 
 
 Manifest signs and wonders addressed, startled, in 
 some happy instances convinced the multitude. The 
 hidden indwelling of God's Most Holy Spirit by itself 
 and alone sanctified the Apostles. Those outward 
 signs forwarded their work : but without the inward 
 reality both work and workers would have been 
 nothing. 
 
 Wherefore if hitherto we have prayed that those 
 who aspire to Holy Orders may be endowed with 
 irresistible mouth and wisdom, and with behaviour 
 gracious and acceptable amongst men, much more on 
 this last Ember Day let us pray that their own wills 
 and hearts may be sanctified, and they themselves 
 saved in the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
 
 A READING DIARY. 277 
 
 Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to all who shall 
 now be ordained to any holy function, that Thy Holy 
 Spirit may dwell in them in all fulness, stablishing. 
 strengthening, settling them : making them fair with- 
 out and fairer within, until having wholly put on Christ 
 they shall rest from their labours, their works following 
 them. For His only sake Who is fairer than the 
 children of men, to Whom Thou gavest not the Spirit 
 by measure, Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Amen. 
 
 Trinity Sunday. 
 
 God the Father loved us when He created us, God 
 the Son when He redeemed us, God the Holy Ghost 
 when He took possession of us as His temple. 
 
 Three Persons, One God, One Will. 
 
 God forbid that we who remain without should cut 
 off our charity from any who have passed before us 
 within the veil. Even if a case appear to us desperate, 
 " who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? to 
 his own master he standeth or falleth." Hope against 
 hope is worthy of a Christian. Love strong as death 
 can grapple with despair. 
 
 " There is mercy with Thee ; therefore shalt Thou 
 be feared." 
 
 Trinitytide: Ember Wednesday. 
 
 ADVENT bids us look forward and upward, for 
 " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." Lent turns our 
 eyes backward and inward, for except we repent we 
 shall all likewise perish. Whitsuntide calls on us to 
 seize the actual moment ; open our hearts wide and be 
 filled. With Whitsun Day and its "equal" octave 
 Trinity Sunday, our series of exceptional calls and
 
 278 TIME FLIES: 
 
 celebrations of particular Divine Mysteries ends or is 
 suspended : is suspended for any who survive till 
 another Advent, is ended for all who survive not. 
 
 Trinitytide is a prolonged period wherein to bring 
 forth fruit with patience. All the great things done 
 for us, and revealed to us, ought to have led us up to 
 a simple, earnest, unflagging fulfilment of everyday 
 duties. 
 
 And one obvious duty of this Ember season — the 
 last of the ecclesiastical year (in September) — being to 
 pray once again on behalf of the candidates for Holy 
 Orders, let us pray that they may run with patience the 
 race set before them, looking unto Jesus the Author 
 and Finisher of their faith. 
 
 For if ordinary lives at ordinary times are liable to 
 become monotonous, tedious, lax, not least so are their 
 lives. It is hard to run on energetically through the 
 burden and heat of the day, and hard to gaze upward 
 steadfastly through the blinding dust and exhaustion 
 of a prolonged race. God grant to them and to our- 
 selves that loving faith which can do all things in 
 Christ's strength. 
 
 Trinitytide: Ember Friday. 
 
 " Hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." — 
 (Rom. v. 5.) 
 
 Nothing but the love of God can account for or can 
 justify an indomitable hope. Hope seems the more 
 intimately allied to love, inasmuch as fear, its opposite, 
 will be cast out by perfect love : wherefore ? " because 
 fear hath torment." 
 
 Hope contrariwise is a pleasure. Hope, like the 
 rainbow, can be evoked out of clouds and gloom to
 
 A READING DIARY. 279 
 
 supply a bridge between earth and heaven : but can 
 only be evoked by the sun-like love of God. 
 
 The rainbow appears to plant two feet on remote 
 spots of earth, as if for holy souls " from the east and 
 from the west " to mount along its pathway and meet 
 in heavenly places. 
 
 Now no class of men can stand in more urgent need 
 of this happy grace of hope than do the members of a 
 ministry who, like Baruch, must not in worldly matters 
 ask "great things " for themselves. They have given 
 their whole substance for love, and henceforward hope 
 as an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast, and which 
 entereth into that within the veil must be their stay. 
 Hope moreover is characteristically natural and very 
 needful to the young, and candidates for Holy Orders 
 (let us not forget it) are for the most part more or less 
 young. St. Paul's blessing on his beloved Roman 
 converts suggests the very prayer we need on behalf 
 of our youthful pastors : — 
 
 " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and 
 peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, 
 through the power of the Holy Ghost/' 
 
 Trinitytide : Ember Saturday. 
 
 "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of 
 these is charity." — (1 Cor. xiii. 13.) 
 
 If three days ago we prayed in faith for faith, if 
 yesterday in hope for hope, let us to-day in charity 
 pray on behalf of the candidates for Holy Orders that 
 they may be made perfect in love. 
 
 Charity or love includes all graces, all perfections. 
 " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Besides a host of 
 additional excellences, charity "believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, endureth all things:" so that in
 
 280 TIME FLIES: A READING DIARY. 
 
 charity and not elsewhere faith and hope strike living 
 root, blossom, bear fruit unto life eternal. 
 
 " O Lord, Who hast taught us that all our doings 
 without charity are nothing worth ; send Thy Holy 
 Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent 
 gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all vir- 
 tues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead 
 before Thee : grant this for Thine only Son Jesus 
 Christ's sake. Amen." 
 
 OXFORb: HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
 
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