Daily Thoughts.

by Charles Kingsley.

January.

Welcome, wild North-easter!

Shame it is to see Odes to every zephyr: Ne'er a verse to thee.

Tired we are of summer, Tired of gaudy glare, Showers soft and steaming, Hot and breathless air.

Tired of listless dreaming Through the lazy day: Jovial wind of winter Turn us out to play!

Sweep the golden reed-beds; Crisp the lazy d.y.k.e; Hunger into madness Every plunging pike.

Fill the lake with wild-fowl; Fill the marsh with snipe; While on dreary moorlands Lonely curlew pipe.

Through the black fir forest Thunder harsh and dry, Shattering down the snow-flakes Off the curdled sky.

Come; and strong within us Stir the Viking's blood; Bracing brain and sinew: Blow, thou wind of G.o.d!

_Ode to North-east Wind_.

New Year's Day. January 1. {3}

Gather you, gather you, angels of G.o.d-- Freedom and Mercy and Truth; Come! for the earth is grown coward and old; Come down and renew us her youth.

Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring, and Love, Haste to the battlefield, stoop from above, To the day of the Lord at hand!

_The Day of the Lord_. 1847.

The Nineteenth Century. January 2.

Now, and at no other time: in this same nineteenth century lies our work.

Let us thank G.o.d that we are here now, and joyfully try to understand _where_ we are, and what our work is _here_. As for all superst.i.tions about "the good old times," and fancies that _they_ belonged to G.o.d, while this age belongs only to man, blind chance, and the evil one, let us cast them from us as the suggestions of an evil lying spirit, as the natural parents of laziness, pedantry, fanaticism, and unbelief. And therefore let us not fear to ask the meaning of this present day, and of all its different voices--the pressing, noisy, complex present, where our workfield lies, the most intricate of all states of society, and of all schools of literature yet known.

_Introductory Lecture_, _Queen's College_.

1848.

Forward. January 3.

Let us forward. G.o.d leads us. Though blind, shall we be afraid to follow? I do not see my way: I do not care to: but I know that He sees His way, and that I see Him.

_Letters and Memories_. 1848.

The n.o.ble Life. January 4.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do n.o.ble things, not dream them all day long; And so make life, and death, and that For Ever One grand sweet song.

_A Farewell_. 1856.

Live in the present that you may be ready for the future.

_MS._

Duty and Sentiment. January 5.

G.o.d demands not _sentiment_ but _justice_. The Bible knows nothing of "the religious sentiments and emotions" whereof we hear so much talk nowadays. It speaks of _Duty_. "Beloved, if G.o.d so loved us, we _ought_ to love one another."

_National Sermons_. 1851.

The Everlasting Harmony. January 6.

If thou art living a righteous and useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where G.o.d has put thee, then thou in thy humble place art humbly copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven; the everlasting harmony and melody by which G.o.d made the world and all that therein is--and behold it was very good--in the day when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy over the new- created earth, which G.o.d had made to be a pattern of His own perfection.

_Good News of G.o.d Sermons_. 1859.

The Keys of Death and h.e.l.l. January 7.

Fear not. Christ has the keys of death and h.e.l.l. He has been through them and is alive for evermore. Christ is the _first_, and was loving and just and glorious and almighty before there was any death or h.e.l.l.

And Christ is the _last_, and will be loving and just and glorious and almighty as ever, in that great day when all enemies shall be under His feet, and death shall be destroyed, and death and h.e.l.l shall be cast into the lake of fire.

_MS. Sermon_. 1857.

A Living G.o.d. January 8.

Here and there, among rich and poor, there are those whose heart and flesh, whose conscience and whose intellect, cry out for the _Living_ G.o.d, and will know no peace till they have found Him. For till then they can find no explanation of the three great human questions--Where am I?

Whither am I going? What must I do?