Beautiful Thoughts | Page 5

in principle. There is but one principle of growth both for the
natural and spiritual, for animal and plant, for body and soul. For all
growth is an organic thing. And the principle of growing in grace is
once more this, "Consider the lilies how they grow." Natural Law,
Growth, p. 125.
March 5th. Earnest souls who are attempting sanctification by struggle,
instead of sanctification by faith, might be spared much humiliation by
learning the botany of the Sermon on the Mount. Natural Law, Growth,
p. 127.
March 6th. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world,
and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what God HAS put
in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely to be
secured by our being kind to them. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 7th. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion,

the hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness of eloquence
behind which lies no love. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 8th. Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy;
unselfishness; good-temper; guilelessness; sincerity--these make up the
supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. The Greatest Thing in the
World.
March 9th. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to
man. We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ spoke much of
peace on earth. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 10th. If God is spending work upon a Christian, let him be still
and know that it is God. And if he wants work, he will find it there--in
the being still. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137.
March 11th. If the amount of energy lost in trying to grow were spent
in fulfilling rather the conditions of growth, we should have many more
cubits to show for our stature. Natural Law, Growth, p. 137.
March 12th. The conditions of growth, then, and the inward principle
of growth being both supplied by Nature, the thing man has to do, the
little junction left for him to complete, is to apply the one to the other.
He manufactures nothing; he earns nothing; he need be anxious for
nothing; his one duty is to be IN these conditions, to abide in them, to
allow grace to play over him, to be still and know that this is God.
Natural Law, Growth, p. 138.
March 13th. A man will often have to wrestle with his God--but not for
growth. The Christian life is a composed life. The Gospel is Peace. Yet
the most anxious people in the world are Christians--Christians who
misunderstand the nature of growth. Life is a perpetual
self-condemning because they are not growing. Natural Law, Growth, p.
139.
March 14th. All the work of the world is merely a taking advantage of
energies already there. Natural Law, Growth, p. 140.
March 15th. Religion is not a strange or added thing; but the inspiration
of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this
temporal world. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 16th. The stature of the Lord Jesus was not itself reached by
work, and he who thinks to approach its mystical height by anxious
effort is really receding from it. Natural Law, Growth, p. 127.
March 17th. For the Life must develop out according to its type; and

being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold into a Christ. Natural
Law, Growth, p. 129.
March 18th. The sneer at the godly man for his imperfections is
ill-judged. A blade is a small thing. At first it grows very near the earth.
It is often soiled and crushed and downtrodden. But it is a living
thing,. . . and "it doth not yet appear what it shall be." Natural Law,
Growth, p. 129.
March 19th. Christ's protest is not against work, but against anxious
thought. Natural Law, Growth, p. 136.
March 20th. If God is adding to our spiritual stature, unfolding the new
nature within us, it is a mistake to keep twitching at the petals with our
coarse fingers. We must seek to let the Creative Hand alone. "It is God
which giveth the increase." Natural Law, Growth, p. 137.
March 21st. Love is PATIENCE. This is the normal attitude of Love;
Love passive, Love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do
its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 22d. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent
in doing kind things? The Greatest Thing in the World.
March 23d. I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are! How
much the world needs it. How easily it