Beautiful Thoughts | Page 3

grows in the stream of the world's life. That
chiefly is where men are to learn love. The Greatest Thing in the
World.
February 1st. If a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps
muscle; and if a man does not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle
in his soul, no strength of character, no vigour of moral fibre, nor
beauty of Spiritual growth. The Greatest Thing in the World.
February 2d. A Religion without mystery is an absurdity. Even Science
has its mysteries, none more inscrutable than around this Science of
Life. It taught us sooner or later to expect mystery, and now we enter
its domain. Let it be carefully marked, however, that the cloud does not
fall and cover us till we have ascertained the most momentous truth of
Religion-- that Christ is in the Christian. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p.
88.
February 3d. Religion in having mystery is in analogy with all around it.
Where there is exceptional mystery in the Spiritual World it will

generally be found that there is a corresponding mystery in the natural
world. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 91.
February 4th. Even to earnest minds the difficulty of grasping the truth
at all has always proved extreme. Philosophically, one scarcely sees
either the necessity or the possibility of being born again. Why a
virtuous man should not simply grow better and better until in his own
right he enter the Kingdom of God is what thousands honestly and
seriously fail to understand. Natural Law, Bio-genesis, p. 80.
February 5th. Lavish Love upon our equals, where it is very difficult,
and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. The Greatest Thing in
the World.
February 6th. Spiritual Life is not something outside ourselves. The
idea is not that Christ is in heaven and that we can stretch out some
mysterious faculty and deal with Him there. This is the vague form in
which many conceive the truth, but it is contrary to Christ's teaching
and to the analogy of nature. Life is definite and resident; and Spiritual
Life is not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant in the soul. Natural
Law, Bio-genesis, p. 87.
February 7th. If we neglect almost any of the domestic animals, they
will rapidly revert to wild and worthless forms. Now, the same thing
exactly would happen in the case of you or me. Why should man be an
exception to any of the laws of nature? Natural Law, Degeneration, p.
99.
February 8th. The law of Reversion to Type runs through all creation.
If a man neglect himself for a few years he will change into a worse
and a lower man. If it is his body that he neglects, he will deteriorate
into a wild and bestial savage. . . . If it is his mind, it will degenerate
into imbecility and madness. . . . If he neglect his conscience, it will run
off into lawlessness and vice. Or, lastly, if it is his soul, it must
inevitably atrophy, drop off in ruin and decay. Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 99.
February 9th. Three possibilities of life, according to Science, are open
to all living organisms--Balance, Evolution, and Degeneration. Natural
Law, Degeneration, p. 100.
February 10th. The life of Balance is difficult. It lies on the verge of
continual temptation, its perpetual adjustments become fatiguing, its
measured virtue is monotonous and uninspiring. Natural Law,

Degeneration, p. 101.
February 11th. More difficult still, apparently, is the life of ever upward
growth. Most men attempt it for a time, but growth is slow; and despair
overtakes them while the goal is far away. Natural Law, Degeneration,
p. 101.
February 12th. Degeneration is easy. Why is it easy? Why but that
already in each man's very nature this principle is supreme? He feels
within his soul a silent drifting motion impelling him downward with
irresistible force. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101.
February 13th. This is Degeneration--that principle by which the
organism, failing to develop itself, failing even to keep what it has got,
deteriorates, and becomes more and more adapted to a degraded form
of life. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101.
February 14th. It is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold and
examine separately, that on purely natural principles the soul that is left
to itself unwatched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall away into
death by its own nature. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 104.
February 15th. If a man find the power of sin furiously at work within
him, dragging his whole life downward to destruction, there is only one
way to escape his fate--to take resolute hold of the upward power, and
be borne by it to the opposite goal. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 108.
February 16th. Neglect does more for