Beautiful Thoughts | Page 8

show to any human
being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not
pass this way again. The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 23d. There is no happiness in having and getting, but only in
giving . . . half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of
happiness. The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 24th. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not
drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianize society than evil
temper. The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 25th. How many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God
by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside! The
Greatest Thing in the World.
April 26th. A want of patience, a want of kindness, a want of
generosity, a want of courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all
instantaneously symbolized in one flash of Temper. The Greatest Thing
in the World.
April 27th. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but
by putting something in--a great Love, a new Spirit--the Spirit of Christ.
The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 28th. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, sweetens,
purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what is wrong, work a
chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate the inner

man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men.
Christ does. The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 29th Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the
possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find,
if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people
who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but
in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative
fellowship. The Greatest Thing in the World.
April 30th. Do not quarrel . . . with your lot in life. Do not complain of
its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have to
stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. The
Greatest Thing in the World.
May 1st. The moment the new life is begun there comes a genuine
anxiety to break with the old. For the former environment has now
become embarrassing. It refuses its dismissal from consciousness. It
competes doggedly with the new Environment for a share of the
correspondences. And in a hundred ways the former traditions, the
memories and passions of the past, the fixed associations and habits of
the earlier life, now complicate the new relation. The complex and
bewildered soul, in fact, finds itself in correspondence with two
environments, each with urgent but yet incompatible claims. It is a dual
soul living in a double world, a world whose inhabitants are deadly
enemies, and engaged in perpetual civil war. Natural Law,
Mortification, p. 179.
May 2d. How can the New Life deliver itself from the still-persistent
past? A ready solution of the difficulty would be TO DIE. . . . If we
cannot die altogether, . . . the most we can do is to die as much as we
can. . . . To die to any environment is to withdraw correspondence with
it, to cut ourselves off, so far as possible, from all communication with
it. So that the solution of the problem will simply be this, for the
spiritual life to reverse continuously the processes of the natural life.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 180.
May 3d. The spiritual man having passed from Death unto Life, the
natural man must next proceed to pass from Life unto Death. Having
opened the new set of correspondences, he must deliberately close up
the old. Regeneration in short must be accompanied by Degeneration.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 181.

May 4th. The peculiar feature of Death by Suicide is that it is not only
self-inflicted but sudden. And there are many sins which must either be
dealt with suddenly or not at all. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 183.
May 5th. If the Christian is to "live unto God," he must "die unto sin."
If he does not kill sin, sin will inevitably kill him. Recognizing this, he
must set himself to reduce the number of his correspondences--
retaining and developing those which lead to a fuller life,
unconditionally withdrawing those which in any way tend in an
opposite direction. This stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act,
a crucifixion of the flesh, a suicide. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 182.
May 6th. Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it
seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for
effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the
practice which God appoints you; and it