Daily Thoughts | Page 6

come when in front of the dwellings of the
poor we may see real fountains--not like the drinking-fountains, useful
as they are, which you see here and there about the streets, with a tiny
dribble of water to a great deal of expensive stone, but real fountains,
which shall leap, and sparkle, and plash, and gurgle, and fill the place
with life and light and coolness; and sing in the people's ears the
sweetest of all earthly songs--save the song of a mother over her
child--the song of "The Laughing Water."
The Air Mothers. 1872.

Bondage of Custom. February 4.

Strive all your life to free men from the bondage of custom and self, the
two great elements of the world that lieth in wickedness.
MS. Letter. l842.
Henceforth let no man peering down Through the dim glittering mine
of future years Say to himself, "Too much! this cannot be!" To-day and
custom wall up our horizon: Before the hourly miracle of life Blindfold
we stand, and sigh, as though God were not.
Saint's Tragedy, Act i. Scene ii. 1847.

The Childlike Mind. February 5.
There comes a time when we must narrow our sphere of thought much,
that we may truly enlarge it! we must, artificialised as we have been,
return to the rudiments of life, to children's pleasures, that we may find
easily, through their transparent simplicity, spiritual laws which we
may apply to the more intricate spheres of art and science.
MS. Letter. 1842.

Unselfish Prayer. February 6.
The Lord's Prayer teaches that we are members of a family, when He
tells us to pray not "My Father" but "Our Father;" not "my soul be
saved," but "Thy kingdom come;" not "give me" but "give us our daily
bread;" not "forgive me," but "forgive us our trespasses," and that only
as we forgive others; not "lead me not," but "lead us not into
temptation;" not "deliver me," but "deliver us from evil." After that
manner our Lord tells us to pray, and in proportion as we pray in that
manner, just so far, and no farther, will God hear our prayers.
National Sermons. 1850.

God is Light. February 7.
All the deep things of God are bright, for God is Light. God's arbitrary
will and almighty power may seem dark by themselves though deep,
but that is because they do not involve His moral character. Join them
with the fact that He is a God of mercy as well as justice; remember
that His essence is love, and the thunder-cloud will blaze with dewy
gold, full of soft rain and pure light.
MS. Letter. 1844.

The Veil Lifted. February 8.
Science is, I verily believe, like virtue, its own exceeding great reward.
I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of the man to
whom--panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his life in the
tropic forest--Isis shall for a moment lift her sacred veil and show him,
once and for ever, the thing he dreamed not of, some law, or even mere
hint of a law, explaining one fact: but explaining with it a thousand
more, connecting them all with each other and with the mighty whole,
till order and meaning shoots through some old chaos of scattered
observations. Is not that a joy, a prize, which wealth cannot give nor
poverty take away? What it may lead to he knows not. Of what use it
may be he knows not. But this he knows, that somewhere it must lead,
of some use it will be. For it is a truth.
Lectures on Science and Superstition. 1866.

All Science One. February 9.
Physical and spiritual science seem to the world to be distinct. One
sight of God as we shall some day see Him will show us that they are
indissolubly and eternally the same.
MS.

Passion and Reason. February 10.
Passion and reason in a healthy mind ought to be inseparable. We need
not be passionless because we reason correctly. Strange to say, one's
feelings will often sharpen one's knowledge of the truth, as they do
one's powers of action.
MS. 1843.

Enthusiasm and Tact. February 11.
. . . People smile at the "enthusiasm of youth"--that enthusiasm which
they themselves secretly look back at with a sigh, perhaps unconscious
that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it. . . . Do not fear
being considered an enthusiast. What matter? But pray for tact, the true
tact which love alone can give, to prevent scandalising a weak brother.
Letters and Memories. 1842.
Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad, if thou wilt: Do what thou dost as if
the stake were heaven, And that thy last deed ere the judgment-day.
When all's done, nothing's done. There's rest