Drifting away. December 2.

They drift away--Ah, G.o.d! they drift for ever.

I watch them drift--the old familiar faces, Till ghosts, not men, fill old beloved places.

Sh.o.r.es, landmarks, beacons drift alike.

Yet overhead the boundless arch of heaven Still fades to night, still blazes into day.

Ah, G.o.d! My G.o.d! _Thou_ wilt not drift away!

_A Fragment_. 1867.

Our Father. December 3.

Take your sorrows not to man, but to your Father in heaven. If that name, Father, mean anything, it must mean that He will not turn away from His wandering child in a way in which you would be ashamed to turn away from yours. If there be pity, lasting affection, patience in _man_, they must have come from Him. They, above all things, must be His likeness.

Believe that G.o.d possesses them a million times more fully than any human being.

_Letters and Memories_.

Circ.u.mstance. December 4.

Our wanton accidents take root, and grow To vaunt themselves G.o.d's laws, until our clothes, Our gems, and gaudy books, and cushioned litters Become ourselves, and we would fain forget There live who need them not.

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene v.

1847.

Duty. December 5.

When a man has once said _honestly_ to himself, "It is my duty;" when that glorious heavenly thought has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon the earth, warming his heart and enlightening it, and making it bring forth all good and n.o.ble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come to him and a courage come from G.o.d which will conquer all his fears, his selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear pain and poverty and death itself, provided he can do what is right, and be found by G.o.d working His will where He has put him.

_Sermons_.

Humanity and the Bible. December 6.

He who has an intense perception of humanity must know that Christianity is divine, because it is the only religion which has a perfect perception of human relations, wants, and feelings. None but He who made the heart could have written the Bible.

_MS. Note-book_. 1843.

Music. December 7.

There is music in heaven, because in music there is no self-will. Music goes on certain laws and rules. Man did not make those laws of music, he has only found them out, and if he be self-willed and break them, there is an end of his music instantly; all he brings out is discord and ugly sounds.

Music is fit for heaven. Music is a pattern and type of heaven, and of the everlasting life of G.o.d which perfect spirits live in heaven; a life of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with each other and with G.o.d.

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

Waiting. December 8.

Ay--stay awhile in peace. The storms are still.

Beneath her eider robe the patient earth Watches in silence for the sun: we'll sit And gaze up with her at the changeless heaven, Until this tyranny be overpast.

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene iii.

1847.

True or False Toleration? December 9.

"One thing at least I have learnt," he said, "in all my experiments on poor humanity--never to see a man do a wrong thing without feeling I could do the same in his place. I used to pride myself on that once, fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness. I used to make it an excuse for sitting by and seeing the devil have it all his own way, and call that toleration. I will see now whether I cannot turn the said knowledge to a better account, as common sense, patience, and charity, and yet do work of which neither I nor my country need be ashamed."

_Two Years Ago_, chap. xxiii. 1856.

Success and Defeat. December 10.

In many things success at first is dangerous, and _defeat_ an excellent medicine for testing people's honesty--for setting them honestly to work to see what they want, and what are the best modes of attaining it. Our sound thrashing, as a nation, in the first French war was the making of our armies; and it is good for an idea, as well as for a man, to bear the yoke in his youth.

_Lectures on Ancien Regime_. 1867.

Pa.s.sing Emotions. December 11.

Beware of depending on your own _emotions_, which are often but the fallings and risings of the frail flesh, and mistaking them for spiritual feelings and affections!