Begin with small things—you cannot enter into the presence of another human being without finding there more to do than you or I or any soul will ever learn to do perfectly before we die. Let us be content to do little if God sets us little tasks. It is but pride and self-will which says, “Give me something huge to fight and I shall enjoy that—but why make me sweep the dust?”
Letters and Memories. 1854.
We must remember that dissatisfaction at existing evil (the feeling of all young and ardent minds), the struggle to escape from the “circumstance” of the evil world, has a carnal counterfeit—the love of novelty, and self-will, and self-conceit, which may thrust us down into the abysses of misrule and uncertainty; as it has done such men as Shelley and Byron; trying vainly every loophole, beating against the prison bars of an imperfect system; neither degraded enough to make themselves a fool’s paradise within it, nor wise enough to escape from it through Christ, “the door into the sheepfold,” to return when they will, and bring others with them into the serene empyrean of spiritual truth—truth which explains, and arranges, and hallows, and subdues everything.
Letters and Memories. 1842.
How can we attain to the blessed and noble state of mind—the mind of Christ, who must needs be about His Father’s business, which is doing good? Only by prayer and practice. There is no more use in praying without practising than there is in practising without praying. You cannot learn to walk without walking; no more can you learn to do good without trying to do good.
Sermons for the Times. 1855.
“If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour,” said the Blessed One. And if God honours His servants, shall not we honour them likewise? We may not, as our forefathers did blindly, though lovingly, worship them as mediators and lesser gods, and pray to them instead of to their Father in heaven to whose throne of grace we may all come boldly through Christ Jesus, or believe that their relics will work miracles in our behalf, thus honouring the creature instead of the Creator. This we may not do, but we may honour the Creator in His creature, and honour God in those who have lived godly and God-like lives; and when they have passed away from among us—souls endued by God with manifold virtues and precious gifts of grace—we may give thanks and say, These, O God, are the fruits of Thy Spirit. Thou honourest them in heaven with Thy approving smile. We will honour them on earth, not merely with our lips, but in our lives. What they were we too might be, if we were as true as they to the inspiration of Thy Spirit. Help us to honour their memories, as Thou and they would have us do, by following their example; by setting them before us, and not only them, but every holy and noble personage of whom we have ever heard, as dim likenesses of Christ—even as Christ is the likeness of Thee. Amen.
MS. Sermon.
Form your own notions about angels and saints in heaven—as you will, . . . but bear this in mind: that if the saints in heaven live the everlasting life, they must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and of good works. The everlasting life cannot be a selfish, idle life, spent only in individual happiness.
Good News of God Sermons.
It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve,I went sighing past the Church across the moorland dreary:“Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave,And the bells but mock the wailing sound, they sing so cheery.How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again?Still in cellar and in garret, and on moorland dreary,The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain:Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be cheery.”
Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild-fowl on the mere,Beneath the stars across the snow, like clear bells ringing,And a voice within cried, “Listen! Christmas carols even here!Though thou be dumb, yet o’er their work the stars and snows are singing.Blind! I live, I love, I reign, and all the nations throughWith the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing;Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild-fowl do,Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it the angels’ singing.”
A Christmas Carol.
I believe that the ancient creed, the eternal gospel, will stand and conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every other for eighteen hundred years, by claiming and subduing and organising those young anarchic forces which now, unconscious of their parentage, rebel against Him to whom they owe their being.
Yeast, Preface. 1851.
They drift away—Ah, God! they drift for ever.. . . . . .I watch them drift—the old familiar faces,Till ghosts, not men, fill old beloved places.. . . . . .Shores, landmarks, beacons drift alike.Yet overhead the boundless arch of heavenStill fades to night, still blazes into day.Ah, God! My God!Thouwilt not drift away!
A Fragment. 1867.
Take your sorrows not to man, but to your Father in heaven. If that name, Father, mean anything, it must mean that He will not turn away from His wandering child in a way in which you would be ashamed to turn away from yours. If there be pity, lasting affection, patience inman, they must have come from Him. They, above all things, must be His likeness. Believe that God possesses them a million times more fully than any human being.
Letters and Memories.
Our wanton accidents take root, and growTo vaunt themselves God’s laws, until our clothes,Our gems, and gaudy books, and cushioned littersBecome ourselves, and we would fain forgetThere live who need them not.
Saint’s Tragedy, Act ii. Scene v.1847.
When a man has once saidhonestlyto himself, “It is my duty;” when that glorious heavenly thought has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon the earth, warming his heart and enlightening it, and making it bring forth all good and noble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come to him and a courage come from God which will conquer all his fears, his selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear pain and poverty and death itself, provided he can do what is right, and be found by God working His will where He has put him.
Sermons.
He who has an intense perception of humanity must know that Christianity is divine, because it is the only religion which has a perfect perception of human relations, wants, and feelings. None but He who made the heart could have written the Bible.
MS. Note-book. 1843.
There is music in heaven, because in music there is no self-will. Music goes on certain laws and rules. Man did not make those laws of music, he has only found them out, and if he be self-willed and break them, there is an end of his music instantly; all he brings out is discord and ugly sounds.
Music is fit for heaven. Music is a pattern and type of heaven, and of the everlasting life of God which perfect spirits live in heaven; a life of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with each other and with God.
Good News of God Sermons. 1859.
Ay—stay awhile in peace. The storms are still.Beneath her eider robe the patient earthWatches in silence for the sun: we’ll sitAnd gaze up with her at the changeless heaven,Until this tyranny be overpast.
Saint’s Tragedy, Act iii. Scene iii.1847.
“One thing at least I have learnt,” he said, “in all my experiments on poor humanity—never to see a man do a wrong thing without feeling I could do the same in his place. I used to pride myself on that once, fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness. I used to make it an excuse for sitting by and seeing the devil have it all his own way, and call that toleration. I will see now whether I cannot turn the said knowledge to a better account, as common sense, patience, and charity, and yet do work of which neither I nor my country need be ashamed.”
Two Years Ago, chap. xxiii. 1856.
In many things success at first is dangerous, anddefeatan excellent medicine for testing people’s honesty—for setting them honestly to work to see what they want, and what are the best modes of attaining it. Our sound thrashing, as a nation, in the first French war was the making of our armies; and it is good for an idea, as well as for a man, to bear the yoke in his youth.
Lectures on Ancien Régime. 1867.
Beware of depending on your ownemotions, which are often but the fallings and risings of the frail flesh, and mistaking them for spiritual feelings and affections!
* * * * *
Think less of what youfeel—even of tryingto beanything. Look out of yourself at God. Pray and praise, and God will give you His Spirit often when you feel most dull.
MS. Letter. 1842.
. . . What a thought it is that there is a God! a Father, a King! a Husband not of individuals, that is a Popish fancy, which the Puritans have adopted—but of the Church—of collective humanity. Let us be content to be members; let us be, if we may, the feet, lowest, hardest worked, trodden on, bleeding, brought into harshest contact with the evil world! Still we are members of Christ’s Church! . . .
Letters and Memories. 1843.
Have charity, have patience, have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak, above all, any little child, to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste, never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer, crush what is finest, and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature.
Westminster Sermons. 1872.
God grant us to be among “those who really hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and who therefore long to know what righteousness is, that they may copy it—those who long to be freed not merely from the punishment of sin after they die, but from sin itself while they live on earth, and who therefore wish to know what sin is that they may avoid it.
Preface to Tauler’s Sermons. 1854.
This is the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean, as it used, the service of God—the being like God and showing forth God’s glory. No, religion means nowadays the art of getting to heaven when we die, and saving our own miserable souls, and getting God’s wages without doing God’s work—as if that was godliness, as if that was anything but selfishness, as if selfishness was any the better for being everlasting selfishness!
Village Sermons. 1849.
Christ may come to us when we are fierce and prejudiced, with that still small voice—so sweet and yet so keen, “Understand those who misunderstand thee. Be fair to those who are unfair to thee. Be just and merciful to those whom thou wouldst like to hate. Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven.” He comes to us surely, when we are selfish and luxurious, in every sufferer who needs our help, and says, “If you do good to one of these, my brethren, you do it unto Me.”
Last Sermon.MS.1874.
When will men open their eyes to the plain axiom that nothing is impossible with God, save that He should transgress His own nature by being unjust and unloving?
Preface to Tauler. 1854.
There are those who consider—and I agree with them—that the education of boys under the age of twelve years ought to be entrusted, as much as possible, to women. Let me ask—of what period of youth and manhood does it not hold true? I pity the ignorance and conceit of the man who fancies that he has nothing left to learn from cultivated women. I should have thought that the very mission of woman was to be, in the highest sense, the educator of man, from infancy to old age; that that was the work towards which all the God-given capacities of women pointed.
Lecture on Thrift. 1869.
Let us remember that if the body does feel a burden now (as it must at moments), what a happiness it is to have a body at all: how lonely, cold, barren, would it be to be a “disembodied spirit.” As St. Paul says, “Not that we desire to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon”—to have a spiritual, deathless, griefless life instilled into the body.
MS. Letter. 1842.
When all the world is old, lad,And all the trees are brown,And all the sport is stale, lad,And all the wheels run down;Creep home and take your place there,The spent and maimed among:God grant you find one face thereYou loved when all was young.
The Water Babies. 1862.
The hearts and minds of the sick, the poor, the sorrowing, the truly human, all demand a living God who has revealed Himself in living acts; a God who has taught mankind by facts, not left them to discover Him by theories and sentiments; a Judge, a Father, a Saviour, an Inspirer; in a word, their hearts demand the historic truth of the Bible—of the Old Testament no less than the New.
Sermons on Pentateuch. 1863.
“Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven” (Hebrews xii. 26-29). This is one of the royal texts of Scripture. It declares one of those great laws of the kingdom of God which may fulfil itself once and again at many eras and by many methods; which fulfilled itself most gloriously in the first century after Christ; again in the fifth century; again at the time of the Crusades; and again at the great Reformation in the sixteenth century,—and is fulfilling itself again at this very day.
Westminster Sermons. 1872.
Never hurt any one’s self-respect. Never trample on any soul, though it may be lying in the veriest mire; for that last spark of self-respect is as its only hope, its only chance; the last seed of a new and better life; the voice of God which still whispers to it, “You are not what you ought to be, and you are not what you can be. You are still God’s child, still an immortal soul. You may rise yet, and fight a good fight yet, and conquer yet, and be a man yet, after the likeness of God who made you, and Christ who died for you.” Oh! why crush that voice in any heart? If you do the poor creature is lost, and lies where he or she falls, and never tries to rise again.
Good News of God Sermons. 1859.
We will have no sad forebodings on the eve of the blessed Christmas-tide. He lives, He loves, He reigns; and all is well; for we are His and He is ours.
Two Years Ago, Introduction. 1856.
After the crowning miracle of this most blessed night all miracles are possible. The miracle of Christmas night was possible because God’s love was absolute, infinite, unconquerable, able to condescend to anything that good might be done. . . . This Christmas night is the one of all the year which sets a physicist on facing the fact of miracle, and which delivers him from the bonds of sense and custom by reminding him of God made Man.
Letters and Memories. 1858.
All things are blessed now, but sin; for all things, excepting sin, are redeemed by the life and death of the Son of God. Blessed are wisdom and courage, joy and health and beauty, love and marriage, childhood and manhood, corn and wine, fruit and flowers, for Christ redeemed them by His life. . . . Blessed is death, and blest the unknown realms where souls await the Resurrection Day, for Christ redeemed them by His death. Blessed are all days, dark as well as bright, for all are His, and He is ours; and all are ours, and we are His for ever.
National Sermons. 1848.
To abolish the superstition, the misrule, the vice, the misery of this world. That is what Christ will do in the day when He has put all enemies under His feet. That is what Christ has been doing, step by step, ever since that day when first He came to do His Father’s will on earth in great humility. Therefore, that is what we must do, each in our place and station, if we be indeed His subjects, fellow-workers with Him in the improvement of the human race, fellow-soldiers with Him in the battle against evil.
All Saints’ Day Sermons. 1867.
There is a healthy ferment of mind in which one struggles through chaos and darkness, by means of a few clues and threads of light—and—of one great bright pathway, which I find more and more to betheonly escape from infinite confusion and aberration,theonly explanation of a thousand human mysteries—I mean the Incarnation of our Lord—the fact that there really is—a God-Man!
MS. Letter. 1844.
Blessed, thrice blessed, is it to find that hero-worship is not yet passed away! that the heart of man still beats young and fresh; that the old tales of David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Socrates and Alcibiades, Shakespeare and his nameless friend, of love “passing the love of woman,” ennobled by its own humility, deeper than death and mightier than the grave, can still blossom out, if it be but in one heart here and there, to show man still how, sooner or later, “he that loveth knoweth God, for God is love.”
Miscellanies. 1850.
The heart will cry out at times, Oh! blissful future! Oh, dreary present! But let us not repine. What is dreary need not be barren. Nothing need be barren to those who view all things in their real light, as links in the great chain of progression both for themselves and for the Universe. To us all Time should seem so full of life: every moment the grave and the father of unnumbered events and designs in heaven and earth, and the mind of our God Himself—all things moving smoothly and surely in spite of apparent checks and disappointments towards the appointed end.
Letters and Memories. 1844.
Surely as the years pass on they ought to have made us better, more useful, more worthy. We may have been disappointed in our lofty ideas of what ought to be done, but we may have gained more clear and practical notions of what can be done. We may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet gained in earnestness. We may have lost in sensibility, yet gained in charity, activity, and power. We may be able to do far less, and yet what we do may be far better done. And our very griefs and disappointments—have they been useless to us? Surely not. We shall have gained instead of lost by them if the Spirit of God has been working in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us patience, our patience experience, and that experience hope—hope that He who has led us thus far will lead us farther still, that He who has taught us in former days precious lessons—not only by sore temptations but most sacred joys—will teach us in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations, which we shall be more able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old times, are no less sacred, but sent as lessons to our souls by Him from whom all good gifts come.
Water of Life Sermons.
Out of God’s boundless bosom, the fount of life, we came; through selfish, stormy youth, and contrite tears—just not too late; through manhood, not altogether useless; through slow and chill old age, we return whence we came, to the bosom of God once more—to go forth again, it may be, with fresh knowledge and fresh powers, to nobler work. Amen.
The Air Mothers. 1869.
The spirits of just men made perfect, freed from the fetters of the gross animal body, and now somewhere in that boundless universe in which this earth is but a tiny speck, doing God’s will as they longed to do it on earth, with clearer light, fuller faith, deeper love, mightier powers of usefulness! Ah, that we were like unto them!
All Saints’ Day and other Sermons.
Thank God, that One was born, at this same time,Who did our work for us: we’ll talk of Him:We shall go mad with thinking of ourselves—We’ll talk of Him, and of that new-made star,Which, as He stooped into the Virgin’s side,From off His finger, like a signet-gem,He dropped in the empyrean for a sign.But the first tear He shed at this His birth-hour,When He crept weeping forth to see our woe,Fled up to Heaven in mist, and hid for everOur sins, our works, and that same new-made star.
Saint’s Tragedy, Act iv. Scene iv.
These are the holy ones—the heroes of mankind, the elect, the aristocracy of grace. They are those who carry the palm branch of triumph, who have come out of great tribulation, who have dared and fought and suffered for God and truth and right; who have resisted unto blood, striving against sin. What should easy-going folk like you and me do but place ourselves with all humility, if but for an hour, where we can look afar off upon our betters, and see what they are like and what they do.
All Saints’ Day and other Sermons.
And what do they do, these blessed beings? They longed for, toiled for, it may be died for, the true, the beautiful, and the good; they entered while on earth into the mystery and glory of self-sacrifice, and now they find their bliss in gazing on the one perfect and eternal sacrifice, and rejoicing in the thought that it is the cause and ground of the whole universe, even the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
All Saints’ Day and other Sermons.
Christ comes to us in many ways. But most surely does Christ come to us, and often most happily, and most clearly does He speak to us—in the face of a little child, fresh out of heaven. Ah, let us take heed that we despise not one of these little ones, lest we despise our Lord Himself. For as often as we enter into communion with little children, so often does Christ come to us. So often, as in Judæa of old, does He take a little child and set him in the midst of us, that from its simplicity, docility, and trust—the restless, the mutinous, and the ambitious may learn the things which belong to their peace—so often does He say to us, “Except ye be changed and become as this little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
MS. Last Sermon,Westminster Abbey,Nov.30, 1874.
Absence, 209
Acorn, 223
Action, 146, 167
Affections, 79, 179, 217, 279
Age, old, 63, 285
—reverence for, 81
Anarchy, 165
Angels, 175, 217, 218, 219, 269
Anger, God’s loving, 195
Animals, dumb, 81, 181
Antinomies, 159
Anxiety, 211
Aristocracy, ideal, 167
Art, 31, 71, 119, 141, 151
Ascension, 93, 123, 211
Asceticism, 185, 189, 233, 263
Ascetic painters, 39
Atonement, the, 83
Attitude, language of, 155
Augustine, St., 155
Autumn, 51, 221
Barbarism, 109
Beatific Vision, 73, 196, 295
Beauty, 15, 39, 73, 101, 175, 196, 213
—moral, 196, 213
—spiritual, 159
Bible, the, 103, 141, 167, 249, 259, 275, 285
Birds, 53, 77, 99, 101, 103, 125, 127, 137, 271
Blessedness, 218, 245
Body, sacredness of, 63, 67, 185, 229, 244, 285
—the spiritual, 159
Books, 57, 85, 169, 259
Book-learning, 151
Butler’s Analogy, 237
Calmness, 55, 263
Character, 98, 175, 191
Charity, 37, 281
Cheerfulness, 149, 223, 227
Childhood and wonder, 179
Childlikeness, 31, 183, 187, 235
Children, 48, 109, 295
Chivalry, 139, 153, 179, 181
Christ-child, the, 48
Christ’s life, 45, 97, 267
—Church, 121
—compassion, 251
—descent into hell, 98
—resurrection, 95, 98, 211
—the Word, 37, 127
Christianity, Divine, 273
Christmas, 271, 287, 289, 294
Chrysalis state, 171
Church, the, 75, 77, 121, 157
—Catechism, 47, 255
Civilisation, 105, 155, 261
Clergy, the, 215
Coming of Christ, 21, 23, 183, 283, 295
Communion of saints, 141, 193
—Holy, 193
Contemplation, 87, 146
Content, 59
Courage, 275
Cowardice, 207, 265
Creeds, the, 141, 151, 215, 273
Critical spirit, 165, 203
Cross, the, 83, 96, 97, 122, 185, 189, 237, 245
Crucifix, the, 123, 189
Custom, 31
Cynicism, 191
Darkdays, 19, 201, 211, 233, 249, 289
Day of the Lord, 3, 195
Dead, the blessed, 21, 49, 95, 139, 193, 249, 253, 289
—prayers for, 24, 81
—work of, 95, 139, 249
Death, 17, 113, 135, 253
—sudden, 89
—and hell, 7, 195
Defeat, 279
Dignity, 137
Discontent, Divine, 165
Disease, 233, 244
Distrust, 165
Doctrines, 157
Doubt, poetry of, 233
Drifting away, 273
Duty, 5, 13, 65, 105, 129, 147, 165, 181, 201, 275
Dying, to live, 13, 55, 93, 97, 117, 217, 295
Earnestness, 35, 139, 293
Earth, God’s, 101, 149, 153, 247
Earthly and heavenly, 179
Easter, 93, 98
Eclecticism, 65
Education, 67
—of character, 85
—Divine, 91, 133, 135, 149, 209
—self, 215
—of boys, 283
—after death, 171, 249
Emotions, 5, 49, 79, 85, 179, 189, 203, 259, 279
Enthusiasm, 35
Epiphany, 24
Eternal life, 11, 43
Eternity, 43, 69, 167
Eucharist, the, 21, 65, 185
Excitement, 79, 163
Factsof life, 103, 113, 207, 285
Failure, 143
Faith, 11, 59, 85, 127, 163, 191, 199, 227, 229
Fasting, 49
Fatherhood of God, 103, 107, 115, 133, 135, 149, 181, 223, 265, 273
Fear, 137, 265, 275
Fellowship of sorrow, 109, 111, 279
Fire of God, 195
—cleansing, 195, 225, 237
Flesh and spirit, 189
Flowers, 15, 99, 101, 105, 127, 151, 221
Fool’s paradise, 111, 267
Forgiveness, 169
Forward, 3
Francis, St., 103
Friendship, 19, 61, 291
Future, the, 129, 195
—identity, 19, 253
—life, 57, 65, 71, 81, 113, 171, 237, 253, 293
Genius, 105, 175, 215
Gifts, 83, 111, 129
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 203
God, the Living, 7, 101, 103, 111, 133, 193, 243, 285
—the Ideal, 73
—an indulgent, 15
—of Nature, 103, 131, 151, 183
God’s character, 33, 87, 111, 181, 195, 253, 273, 283
—countenance, 131
Godliness, 91, 281
Good, the eternal, 35, 171, 253
Good in all, 9, 287
Good deeds, 187, 263
Good Friday, 93, 97
Goodness, 5, 105, 113, 199, 245
Gratitude, 89
Greeks, the old, 67, 107, 133, 155, 229
Happiness, 29, 59, 245, 265
Harmony, 5, 67, 83, 127, 161, 277
Hearts and streams, 119, 197
Heaven, 109, 167
Hell, 96, 98, 109, 195, 265
—keys of, 7
—a present, 43
Hero worship, 291
Heroism, 41, 61, 71, 207, 239, 294
History, philosophy of, 63
Hope, 39, 111, 145, 149, 237, 247
Hospitals, 263
Humanity, 275
Humility, 13, 41, 169, 193
IamI, 55, 89, 185, 199
Ideal, the, 63, 73, 117
Ideals, high, 77
Idleness, 91, 157, 207
Impunity, 217
Incarnation, the, 146, 253, 291
Influence, silent, 139, 259
Intermediate state, 98, 245, 289
Johnthe Baptist, 147
John, St., 45, 53, 63, 113
Justification, 43
Kindness, 181, 205
Kingdom, coming, 21, 179; of God, 45, 185
Knowledge, 53, 79, 131, 135, 163, 177, 183
Lamprace, 133
Laws of God, 98, 117, 163, 169, 229, 277, 287
Lesson of life, 61, 293
Liberty, 215
Life everlasting, 11, 113, 219, 277
—long, 133
—value of, 61
Light, 33, 177, 249, 291
Liturgies, 249
Love, 9, 37, 41, 53, 55, 79, 117, 201, 209, 235, 251, 289, 219
—Divine, 117
—and beauty, 201
Manin God’s image, 89, 127, 199, 229
March, 51, 53
Martyrs, 17, 98, 172, 218, 294, 295
Masses, the, 177
May, 99
Melancholy, 137, 183, 233, 253
Melody, 5, 127, 277
Men and women, 39, 91, 93, 153, 259, 283
Metre, 119
Midsummer, 125
Miracles, 31, 99, 289
Moderation, 69
Monotony, 163
Morality, 29, 147, 255
Morbid mind, 233
Morning, 19, 125, 201, 249
Mother earth, 247
Mothers, 61, 74, 213
Music, 23, 107, 127, 161, 277
Mystery of life, 117, 155, 185, 291
Mystics, 55, 185, 251
Naturalist, 175
Nature, 141, 183, 187, 221, 241, 247, 253
—study of, 7, 105, 131, 141, 175, 183, 187
Nature’s worship, 131
Night, 201, 211
Nineteenth century, 3, 151, 257
Noble life, 5, 9
Noble studies, 63
North-east wind, 1
Novel reading, 85, 169, 259
October, 221
Old truths, 151
Opinions, 215
Originality, 239
Orthodox, 141
Painters, 39, 71, 141, 159
Parables, Nature’s, 5, 99, 101, 127, 173, 175, 196, 197, 249
Passion, 35, 197, 213
—Week, 95
Patience, 59, 143, 237, 277, 281
Paul, St., 25, 53, 207
Peace, 23, 59, 193
Penitence, 191
Penuriousness, 67
Peter, St., 45, 148
Philamon, 9, 45
Physician, 233, 244
Pictures, 39, 71, 141
Plato, 171
Poetry, 23, 41, 69, 215
Political economy, 115, 261
Practice, 143, 267
Prayer, 89, 119, 163, 167, 227, 229, 241, 267
—the Lord’s, 31
—unselfish, 31
Prayers for dead, 81
Present time, 3, 5
Presentiments, 143
Pride and humility, 193, 215, 235, 267
Problem of life, 135, 291
Profession, empty, 157, 213
Progress, 101, 163, 257, 291
Proverbs, 235
Providence, 115, 169, 243
—special, 55, 159, 209, 251
Psalms, 17, 191
Public opinion, 77
Punishment, 41, 135, 159, 191, 261, 281
Purgatory, 171
Railroads, 257
Rank, 15, 161
Reason, 35, 111, 143, 237
Redemption of earth and man, 153
Refinement, false, 161
Reformers, 77
Religion, 103, 265, 281
Renewal, the, 71, 81, 127, 185
Repentance, 41, 49, 157
Resignation, 117, 211, 217
Rest, 21, 49, 229, 253, 263
Resurrection, 63, 81, 93, 95, 98, 141, 145, 171, 185, 207
Retribution, 47, 81, 113, 135, 177
Reverence, 81, 175, 243
Reveries, 39
Righteousness, 117, 255, 281
Rights and duties, 39
Rock of Ages, 169, 235
Romance, 127
Rules of life, 83, 107, 163
Ruth, 79
Sacramentalism, 15, 39, 101, 119, 213
Sacraments, 21, 146
Safety, 17, 57
Saints’ Days, 24
Saints, the, 24, 98, 122, 141, 193, 268, 269, 294, 295
Salvation, 135
Sanitary science, 29, 261
Science, 33, 59, 115, 151, 227, 233, 261
Secular, 59
Self, 31, 233
Selfishness, 159, 219, 231, 281
Self-conceit, 205
Self-control, 165, 223, 241, 259, 263
Self-improvement, 215
Self-indulgence, 91, 275
Self-respect, 287
Self-sacrifice, 13, 21, 55, 71, 79, 95, 117, 146, 148, 189, 213, 231, 295
Security, false, 115
Sensuality, 133
Sentiment, 5
Shakespeare, 179
Shame, 199
Shelley, 267
Silence, 41, 139, 257, 259
Sin, 41, 135, 159, 169, 213, 233, 281
Sisters of Mercy, 237
Sneering, 281
Sorrow, 145, 183, 185, 227, 273
Spirit, the Holy, 146
Spiritual world, 179
Spring, 27, 51, 99, 101
Starlings, 51
Stream and shower, 119, 197
Strength, 263
Substitutes, 225
Success, 139, 227, 279
Summer days, 125, 129, 131, 137, 149
Superstition, 3, 137, 169, 175
Suspicion, 281
Symbols, 99, 101, 105, 127, 131, 151, 173, 196
Sympathy, 103, 151, 153
Tact, 35, 53, 113
Temperament, 231
Temperance, true, 223, 263
Temptation, 57
Theology, 87
Thrift, 131, 183, 259
Toleration, 63, 141, 277
Training, God’s, 115, 129, 215
Transfiguration, the, 205
Trinity, the, 146
Trust, 239, 265
Unity, 185
Usefulness, 225
Utopia, 167
Vagueness, 11, 161
Vineyards, 121
Violence, 139
Virgin, Blessed, 74
Virtue, 29, 41, 225
Visitation of God, 61
Voyagers, early, 243
Waiting, 135, 277
—of God, 181
War tragedies, 107
Water, 29, 119, 197
Welfare, 145, 255
Winter, 1, 27, 99
Wisdom, 37, 83, 105, 107, 163
Woman, 45, 153, 87
Woman’s work, 39, 45, 79, 93, 231, 259
Women, educated, 85, 169
Word Christ, the, 7, 37
—the indwelling, 259
Words, 37, 113
—hard, 53
—of God, 141
Work, 71, 83, 133, 143, 157, 165, 175, 203, 209, 223, 263
World, the, 167
Worm, the undying, 195
Worship, 131
Youth, 13, 129
[3]The paper edition of this book has blank pages where the owner can write diary notes, etc. This is why the page numbers in the eText often miss out numbers.—DP.
[97]Lines written under a pen and ink drawing of a stormy shoreless sea, with two human beings lashed to a cross floating on the crest of the waves.