Beautiful Thoughts | Page 4

the soul than make it miss
salvation. It despoils it of its capacity for salvation. Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 110.
February 17th. Give pleasure. Lose no chance in giving pleasure. For
that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit.
Greatest Thing in the World.
February 18th. If there were uneasiness there might be hope. If there
were, somewhere about our soul, a something which was not gone to
sleep like all the rest; if there were a contending force anywhere; if we
would let even that work instead of neglecting it, it would gain strength
from hour to hour, and waken up, one at a time, each torpid and
dishonoured faculty, till our whole nature became alive with strivings
against self, and every avenue was open wide for God. Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 112.
February 19th. Where is the capacity for heaven to come from if it be
not developed on earth? Where, indeed, is even the smallest

appreciation of God and heaven to come from when so little of
spirituality has ever been known or manifested here? Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 116.
February 20th. Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as an
atheist. There must be. There are some men to whom it is true that there
is no God. They cannot see God because they have no eye. They have
only an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect. Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 115.
February 21st. Escape means nothing more than the gradual emergence
of the higher being from the lower, and nothing less. It means the
gradual putting off of all that cannot enter the higher state, or heaven,
and simultaneously the putting on of Christ. It involves the slow
completing of the soul and the development of the capacity for God.
Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117.
February 22d. If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not to come to us
somehow, vaguely. We are not to hope for anything startling or
mysterious. It is a definite opening along certain lines which are
definitely marked by God, which begin at the Cross of Christ, and lead
direct to Him. Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117.
February 23d. Each man, in the silence of his own soul, must work out
this salvation for himself with fear and trembling--with fear, realizing
the momentous issues of his task; with trembling, lest, before the tardy
work be done, the voice of Death should summon him to stop. Natural
Law, Degeneration, p. 118.
February 24th. So cultivate the soul that all its powers will open out to
God, and in beholding God be drawn away from sin. Natural Law,
Degeneration, p. 118.
February 25th. There is a Sense of Sight in the religious nature. Neglect
this, leave it undeveloped, and you never miss it. You simply see
nothing. But develop it and you see God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p.
118.
February 26th. Become pure in heart. The pure in heart shall see God.
Here, then, is one opening for soul-culture--the avenue through purity
of heart to the spiritual seeing of God. Natural Law, Degeneration, p.
119.
February 27th. There is a Sense of Sound. Neglect this, leave it
undeveloped, and you never miss it. Develop it, and you hear God. And

the line along which to develop it is known to us. Obey Christ. Natural
Law, Degeneration, p. 119.
February 28th He who loves will rejoice in the Truth, rejoice not in
what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's doctrine or in
that; not in this issue, or in that issue; but "in the Truth." He will accept
only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth
with a humble and unbiassed mind, and cherish whatever he finds at
any sacrifice. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 1st. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow." Christ
made the lilies and He made me--both on the same broad principle.
Both together, man and flower . . .; but as men are dull at studying
themselves. He points to this companion-phenomenon to teach us how
to live a free and natural life, a life which God will unfold for us,
without our anxiety, as He unfolds the flower. Natural Law, Growth, p.
123.
March 2d. Our efforts after Christian growth seem only a succession of
failures, and, instead of rising into the beauty of holiness, our life is a
daily heart-break and humiliation. Natural Law, Growth, p. 125.
March 3d. The lilies grow, Christ says, of themselves; they toil not,
neither do they spin. They grow, that is, automatically, spontaneously,
without trying, without fretting, without thinking. Natural Law, Growth,
p. 126.
March 4th. Violent efforts to grow are right in earnestness, but wholly
wrong