,beautiful ,thoughts ,from ,henry ,drummond ,arranged by ,elizabeth ,cureton in the ,world did not provide a page number4 #ahib ,the invisible things of ,god from the creation of the world are clearly seen1 being understood by the things that are made4--,rom4 i4 #bj4 ,to ,my ,dear ,friend ,helen ,m4 ,archibald ,this ,book ,is ,affectionately ,inscribed4 ,preface4 ,my first thought of writing out this little book of brief selections sprang from the desire to assist a dear friend to enjoy the ,author's helpful books4 ,the epigrammatic style lends itself to quotation4 ,taste of the spring brings the traveller back to the same fountain on a day of greater leisure4 ,many times these ,beautiful ,thoughts have enlightened my darkness1 and ,i send them forth with a hope and prayer that they may find echo in other hearts4 ,e4 ,c4 ,january #ast4 ,christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people1 and the old are hungrier for love than for bread1 and the ,oil of ,joy is very cheap1 and if you can help the poor on with a ,garment of ,praise it will be better for them than blankets4 ,the ,programme of ,christianity1 p4 #cc4 ,january #b;d4 ,no one who knows the content of ,christianity1 or feels the universal need of a ,religion1 can stand idly by while the intellect of his age is slowly divorcing itself from it4 ,natural ,law1 ,preface1 p4 #bb ,january #c;d4 ,a ,science without mystery is unknown2 a ,religion without mystery is absurd4 ,however far the scientific method may penetrate the ,spiritual ,world1 there will always remain a region to be explored by a scientific faith4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #bh4 ,january #dth4 ,among the mysteries which compass the world beyond1 none is greater than how there can be in store for man a work more wonderful1 a life more ,god-like than this4 ,the ,programme of ,christianity1 p4 #fb4 ,january #eth4 ,the ,spiritual ,life is the gift of the ,living ,spirit4 ,the spiritual man is no mere development of the ,natural man4 ,he is a ,new ,creation born from ,above4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #fe4 ,january #fth4 ,love is success1 ,love is happiness1 ,love is life4 ,god is ,love4 ,therefore ,,love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #gth4 ,give me the ,charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others1 but covereth all things4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #hth4 ,there is a sense of solidity about a ,law of ,nature which belongs to nothing else in the world4 ,here1 at last1 amid all that is shifting1 is one thing sure2 one thing outside ourselves1 unbiassed1 unprejudiced1 uninfluenced by like or dislike1 by doubt or fear4 4 4 4 ,this more than anything else makes one eager to see the ,reign of ,law traced in the ,spiritual ,sphere4 ,natural ,law1 ,preface1 p4 #bc4 ,january #ith4 ,with ,nature as the symbol of all of harmony and beauty that is known to man1 must we still talk of the supernatural1 not as a convenient word1 but as a different order of world1 4 4 4 where the ,reign of ,mystery supersedes the ,reign of ,law8 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #f4 ,january #ajth4 ,the ,reign of ,law has gradually crept into every department of ,nature1 transforming knowledge everywhere into ,science4 ,the process goes on1 and ,nature slowly appears to us as one great unity1 until the borders of the ,spiritual ,world are reached4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #ac4 ,january #aath4 ,no single fact in ,science has ever discredited a fact in ,religion4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #cj4 ,january #abth4 ,i shall never rise to the point of view which wishes to raise faith to knowledge4 ,to me1 the way of truth is to come through the knowledge of my ignorance to the submissiveness of faith1 and then1 making that my starting-place1 to raise my knowledge into faith4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #bh4 ,quotation from ,beck3 ,bib4 ,psychol4 ,january #acth4 ,if the purification of ,religion comes from ,science1 the purification of ,science1 in a deeper sense1 shall come from ,religion4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #ca4 ,january #adth4 ,with the demonstration of the naturalness of the supernatural1 scepticism even may come to be regarded as unscientific4 ,and those who have wrestled long for a few bare truths to ennoble life and rest their souls in thinking of the future will not be left in doubt4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #cb4 ,january #aeth4 ,the religion of ,jesus has probably always suffered more from those who have misunderstood than from those who have opposed it4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #fg4 ,january #afth4 ,it is impossible to believe that the amazing successions of revelations in the domain of ,nature1 during the last few centuries1 at which the world has all but grown tired wondering1 are to yield nothing for the higher life4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #cb4 ,january #agth4 ,is life not full of opportunities for learning love8 ,every man and woman every day has a thousand of them4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #ahth4 ,what is ,science but what the ,natural ,world has said to natural men8 ,what is ,revelation but what the ,spiritual ,world has said to ,spiritual men8 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #gc4 ,january #aith4 ,life depends upon contact with ,life4 ,it cannot spring up out of itself4 ,it cannot develop out of anything that is not ,life4 ,there is no ,spontaneous ,generation in religion any more than in ,nature4 ,christ is the source of ,life in the ,spiritual ,world2 and he that hath the ,son hath ,life1 and he that hath not the ,son1 whatever else he may have1 hath not ,life4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #gd4 ,january #bjth4 ,it is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard1 uncharitable world1 there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #bast4 ,the physical ,laws may explain the inorganic world2 the biological ,laws may account for the development of the organic4 ,but of the point where they meet1 of that strange borderland between the dead and the living1 ,science is silent4 ,it is as if ,god had placed everything in earth and heaven in the hands of ,nature1 but reserved a point at the genesis of ,life for ,his direct appearing4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #fi4 ,january #bb;d4 ,except a mineral be born from above--from the ,kingdom just ,,above it--it cannot enter the ,kingdom just above it4 ,and except a man be born from above1 by the same law1 he cannot enter the ,kingdom just above him4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #gb4 ,january #bc;d4 ,if we try to influence or elevate others1 we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #bdth4 ,the world is not a play-ground2 it is a school-room4 ,life is not a holiday1 but an education4 ,and the one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #beth ,what a noble gift it is1 the power of playing upon the souls and wills of men1 and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #bfth4 ,the test of ,religion1 the final test of ,religion1 is not ,religiousness1 but ,love4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,january #bgth4 ,there are not two laws of ,bio-genesis1 one for the natural1 the other for the ,spiritual2 one law is for both4 ,where-ever there is ,life1 ,life of any kind1 this same law holds4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #ge4 ,january #bhth4 ,the first step in peopling these worlds with the appropriate living forms is virtually miracle4 ,nor in one case is there less of mystery in the act than in the other4 ,the second birth is scarcely less perplexing to the theologian than the first to the embryologist4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #gf4 ,january #bith4 ,there may be cases--they are probably in the majority-- where the moment of contact with the ,living ,spirit1 though sudden1 has been obscure4 ,but the real moment and the conscious moment are two different things4 ,science pronounces nothing as to the conscious moment4 ,if it did1 it would probably say that that was seldom the real moment-- ,the moment of birth in the natural world is not a conscious moment--we do not know we are born till long afterward4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #ic4 ,january #cjth4 ,the stumbling-block to most minds is perhaps less the mere existence of the unseen than the want of definition1 the apparently hopeless vagueness1 and not least1 the delight in this vagueness as mere vagueness by some who look upon this as the mark of quality in ,spiritual things4 ,it will be at least something to tell earnest seekers that the ,spiritual ,world is not a castle in the air1 of an architecture unknown to earth or heaven1 but a fair ordered realm furnished with many familiar things and ruled by well-remembered ,laws4 ,natural ,law1 ,introduction1 p4 #bf4 ,january #cast4 ,character grows in the stream of the world's life4 ,that chiefly is where men are to learn love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,february #ast4 ,if a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps muscle2 and if a man does not exercise his soul1 he acquires no muscle in his soul1 no strength of character1 no vigour of moral fibre1 nor beauty of ,spiritual growth4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,february #b;d4 ,a ,religion without mystery is an absurdity4 ,even ,science has its mysteries1 none more inscrutable than around this ,science of ,life4 ,it taught us sooner or later to expect mystery1 and now we enter its domain4 ,let it be carefully marked1 however1 that the cloud does not fall and cover us till we have ascertained the most momentous truth of ,religion-- that ,christ is in the ,christian4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #hh4 ,february #c;d4 ,religion in having mystery is in analogy with all around it4 ,where there is exceptional mystery in the ,spiritual ,world it will generally be found that there is a corresponding mystery in the natural world4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #ia4 ,february #dth4 ,even to earnest minds the difficulty of grasping the truth at all has always proved extreme4 ,philosophically1 one scarcely sees either the necessity or the possibility of being born again4 ,why a virtuous man should not simply grow better and better until in his own right he enter the ,kingdom of ,god is what thousands honestly and seriously fail to understand4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #hj4 ,february #eth4 ,lavish ,love upon our equals1 where it is very difficult1 and for whom perhaps we each do least of all4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,february #fth4 ,spiritual ,life is not something outside ourselves4 ,the idea is not that ,christ is in heaven and that we can stretch out some mysterious faculty and deal with ,him there4 ,this is the vague form in which many conceive the truth1 but it is contrary to ,christ's teaching and to the analogy of nature4 ,life is definite and resident2 and ,spiritual ,life is not a visit from a force1 but a resident tenant in the soul4 ,natural ,law1 ,bio-genesis1 p4 #hg4 ,february #gth4 ,if we neglect almost any of the domestic animals1 they will rapidly revert to wild and worthless forms4 ,now1 the same thing exactly would happen in the case of you or me4 ,why should man be an exception to any of the laws of nature8 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #ii4 ,february #hth4 ,the law of ,reversion to ,type runs through all creation4 ,if a man neglect himself for a few years he will change into a worse and a lower man4 ,if it is his body that he neglects1 he will deteriorate into a wild and bestial savage4 4 4 4 ,if it is his mind1 it will degenerate into imbecility and madness4 4 4 4 ,if he neglect his conscience1 it will run off into lawlessness and vice4 ,or1 lastly1 if it is his soul1 it must inevitably atrophy1 drop off in ruin and decay4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #ii4 ,february #ith4 ,three possibilities of life1 according to ,science1 are open to all living organisms--,balance1 ,evolution1 and ,degeneration4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #ajj4 ,february #ajth4 ,the life of ,balance is difficult4 ,it lies on the verge of continual temptation1 its perpetual adjustments become fatiguing1 its measured virtue is monotonous and uninspiring4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aja4 ,february #aath4 ,more difficult still1 apparently1 is the life of ever upward growth4 ,most men attempt it for a time1 but growth is slow2 and despair overtakes them while the goal is far away4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aja4 ,february #abth4 ,degeneration is easy4 ,why is it easy8 ,why but that already in each man's very nature this principle is supreme8 ,he feels within his soul a silent drifting motion impelling him downward with irresistible force4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aja4 ,february #acth4 ,this is ,degeneration--that principle by which the organism1 failing to develop itself1 failing even to keep what it has got1 deteriorates1 and becomes more and more adapted to a degraded form of life4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aja4 ,february #adth4 ,it is a distinct fact by itself1 which we can hold and examine separately1 that on purely natural principles the soul that is left to itself unwatched1 uncultivated1 unredeemed1 must fall away into death by its own nature4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #ajd4 ,february #aeth4 ,if a man find the power of sin furiously at work within him1 dragging his whole life downward to destruction1 there is only one way to escape his fate--to take resolute hold of the upward power1 and be borne by it to the opposite goal4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #ajh4 ,february #afth4 ,neglect does more for the soul than make it miss salvation4 ,it despoils it of its capacity for salvation4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aaj4 ,february #agth4 ,give pleasure4 ,lose no chance in giving pleasure4 ,for that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit4 ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,february #ahth4 ,if there were uneasiness there might be hope4 ,if there were1 somewhere about our soul1 a something which was not gone to sleep like all the rest2 if there were a contending force anywhere2 if we would let even that work instead of neglecting it1 it would gain strength from hour to hour1 and waken up1 one at a time1 each torpid and dishonoured faculty1 till our whole nature became alive with strivings against self1 and every avenue was open wide for ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aab4 ,february #aith4 ,where is the capacity for heaven to come from if it be not developed on earth8 ,where1 indeed1 is even the smallest appreciation of ,god and heaven to come from when so little of spirituality has ever been known or manifested here8 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aaf4 ,february #bjth4 ,men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as an atheist4 ,there must be4 ,there are some men to whom it is true that there is no ,god4 ,they cannot see ,god because they have no eye4 ,they have only an abortive organ1 atrophied by neglect4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aae4 ,february #bast4 ,escape means nothing more than the gradual emergence of the higher being from the lower1 and nothing less4 ,it means the gradual putting off of all that cannot enter the higher state1 or heaven1 and simultaneously the putting on of ,christ4 ,it involves the slow completing of the soul and the development of the capacity for ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aag4 ,february #bb;d4 ,if1 then1 escape is to be open to us1 it is not to come to us somehow1 vaguely4 ,we are not to hope for anything startling or mysterious4 ,it is a definite opening along certain lines which are definitely marked by ,god1 which begin at the ,cross of ,christ1 and lead direct to ,him4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aag4 ,february #bc;d4 ,each man1 in the silence of his own soul1 must work out this salvation for himself with fear and trembling--with fear1 realizing the momentous issues of his task2 with trembling1 lest1 before the tardy work be done1 the voice of ,death should summon him to stop4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aah4 ,february #bdth4 ,so cultivate the soul that all its powers will open out to ,god1 and in beholding ,god be drawn away from sin4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aah4 ,february #beth4 ,there is a ,sense of ,sight in the religious nature4 ,neglect this1 leave it undeveloped1 and you never miss it4 ,you simply see nothing4 ,but develop it and you see ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aah4 ,february #bfth4 ,become pure in heart4 ,the pure in heart shall see ,god4 ,here1 then1 is one opening for soul-culture--the avenue through purity of heart to the spiritual seeing of ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aai4 ,february #bgth4 ,there is a ,sense of ,sound4 ,neglect this1 leave it undeveloped1 and you never miss it4 ,develop it1 and you hear ,god4 ,and the line along which to develop it is known to us4 ,obey ,christ4 ,natural ,law1 ,degeneration1 p4 #aai4 ,february #bhth ,he who loves will rejoice in the ,truth1 rejoice not in what he has been taught to believe2 not in this ,church's doctrine or in that2 not in this issue1 or in that issue2 but in the ,truth4 ,he will accept only what is real2 he will strive to get at facts2 he will search for ,truth with a humble and unbiassed mind1 and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #ast4 ,consider the lilies of the field how they grow4 ,christ made the lilies and ,he made me--both on the same broad principle4 ,both together1 man and flower 4 4 42 but as men are dull at studying themselves4 ,he points to this companion-phenomenon to teach us how to live a free and natural life1 a life which ,god will unfold for us1 without our anxiety1 as ,he unfolds the flower4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abc4 ,march #b;d4 ,our efforts after ,christian growth seem only a succession of failures1 and1 instead of rising into the beauty of holiness1 our life is a daily heart-break and humiliation4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abe4 ,march #c;d4 ,the lilies grow1 ,christ says1 of themselves2 they toil not1 neither do they spin4 ,they grow1 that is1 automatically1 spontaneously1 without trying1 without fretting1 without thinking4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abf4 ,march #dth4 ,violent efforts to grow are right in earnestness1 but wholly wrong in principle4 ,there is but one principle of growth both for the natural and spiritual1 for animal and plant1 for body and soul4 ,for all growth is an organic thing4 ,and the principle of growing in grace is once more this1 ,consider the lilies how they grow4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abe4 ,march #eth4 ,earnest souls who are attempting sanctification by struggle1 instead of sanctification by faith1 might be spared much humiliation by learning the botany of the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abg4 ,march #fth4 ,there is only one thing greater than happiness in the world1 and that is holiness2 and it is not in our keeping2 but what ,god ,,has put in our power is the happiness of those about us1 and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #gth4 ,we have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion1 the hollowness1 the unaccountable unpersuasiveness of eloquence behind which lies no love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #hth4 ,patience2 kindness2 generosity2 humility2 courtesy2 unselfishness2 good-temper2 guilelessness2 sincerity--these make up the supreme gift1 the stature of the perfect man4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #ith4 ,we hear much of love to ,god2 ,christ spoke much of love to man4 ,we make a great deal of peace with heaven2 ,christ spoke much of peace on earth4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #ajth4 ,if ,god is spending work upon a ,christian1 let him be still and know that it is ,god4 ,and if he wants work1 he will find it there--in the being still4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #acg4 ,march #aath4 ,if the amount of energy lost in trying to grow were spent in fulfilling rather the conditions of growth1 we should have many more cubits to show for our stature4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #acg4 ,march #abth4 ,the conditions of growth1 then1 and the inward principle of growth being both supplied by ,nature1 the thing man has to do1 the little junction left for him to complete1 is to apply the one to the other4 ,he manufactures nothing2 he earns nothing2 he need be anxious for nothing2 his one duty is to be ,,in these conditions1 to abide in them1 to allow grace to play over him1 to be still and know that this is ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #ach4 ,march #acth4 ,a man will often have to wrestle with his ,god--but not for growth4 ,the ,christian life is a composed life4 ,the ,gospel is ,peace4 ,yet the most anxious people in the world are ,christians--,christians who misunderstand the nature of growth4 ,life is a perpetual self-condemning because they are not growing4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #aci4 ,march #adth4 ,all the work of the world is merely a taking advantage of energies already there4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #adj4 ,march #aeth4 ,religion is not a strange or added thing2 but the inspiration of the secular life1 the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #afth4 ,the stature of the ,lord ,jesus was not itself reached by work1 and he who thinks to approach its mystical height by anxious effort is really receding from it4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abg4 ,march #agth4 ,for the ,life must develop out according to its type2 and being a germ of the ,christ-life1 it must unfold into a ,christ4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abi4 ,march #ahth4 ,the sneer at the godly man for his imperfections is ill-judged4 ,a blade is a small thing4 ,at first it grows very near the earth4 ,it is often soiled and crushed and downtrodden4 ,but it is a living thing14 4 4 and it doth not yet appear what it shall be4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #abi4 ,march #aith4 ,christ's protest is not against work1 but against anxious thought4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #acf4 ,march #bjth4 ,if ,god is adding to our spiritual stature1 unfolding the new nature within us1 it is a mistake to keep twitching at the petals with our coarse fingers4 ,we must seek to let the ,creative ,hand alone4 ,it is ,god which giveth the increase4 ,natural ,law1 ,growth1 p4 #acg4 ,march #bast4 ,love is ,,patience4 ,this is the normal attitude of ,love2 ,love passive1 ,love waiting to begin2 not in a hurry2 calm2 ready to do its work when the summons comes1 but meantime wearing the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #bb;d4 ,have you ever noticed how much of ,christ's life was spent in doing kind things8 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #bc;d4 ,i wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are6 ,how much the world needs it4 ,how easily it is done4 ,how instantaneously it acts4 ,how infallibly it is remembered4 ,how superabundantly it pays itself back --for there is no debtor in the world so honourable1 so superbly honourable as ,love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #bdth4 ,to love abundantly is to live abundantly1 and to love forever is to live forever4 ,hence1 eternal life is inextricably bound up with love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,march #beth4 ,man is a mass of correspondences1 and because of these1 because he is alive to countless objects and influences to which lower organisms are dead1 he is the most living of all creatures4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aee4 ,march #bfth4 ,all organisms are living and dead--living to all within the circumference of their correspondences1 dead to all beyond4 4 4 4 ,until man appears there is no organism to correspond with the whole environment4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aee4 ,march #bgth4 ,is man in correspondence with the whole environment or is he not8 4 4 4 ,he is not4 ,of men generally it cannot be said that they are in living contact with that part of the environment which is called the spiritual world4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aef4 ,march #bhth4 ,the animal world and the plant world are the same world4 ,they are different parts of one environment4 ,and the natural and spiritual are likewise one4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aeg4 ,march #bith4 ,what we have correspondence with1 that we call natural2 what we have little or no correspondence with1 that we call ,spiritual4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aeg4 ,march #cjth4 ,those who are in communion with ,god live1 those who are not are dead4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aeh4 ,march #cast4 ,this earthly mind may be of noble calibre1 enriched by culture1 high-toned1 virtuous1 and pure4 ,but if it know not ,god8 ,what though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or grasp the magnitudes of ,time and ,space8 ,the stars of heaven are not heaven4 ,space is not ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aeh4 ,april #ast4 ,we do not picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any sense a monster4 ,we have said he may be high-toned1 virtuous1 and pure4 ,the plant is not a monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird2 nor is he a monster who is dead to the voice of ,god4 ,the contention at present simply is that he is ,,dead4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aei4 ,april #b;d4 ,what is the creed of the ,agnostic1 but the confession of the spiritual numbness of humanity8 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afj4 ,april #c;d4 ,the nescience of the ,agnostic philosophy is the proof from experience that to be carnally minded is ,death4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #afa4 ,april #dth4 ,the ,christian apologist never further misses the mark than when he refuses the testimony of the ,agnostic to himself4 ,when the ,agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf1 dumb1 torpid1 and dead to the spiritual world1 ,i must believe him4 ,jesus tells me that4 ,paul tells me that4 ,science tells me that4 ,he knows nothing of this outermost circle2 and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores it as if1 being a man without an ear1 he professed to know nothing of a musical world1 or being without taste1 of a world of art4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afj4 ,april #eth4 ,it brings no solace to the unspiritual man to be told he is mistaken4 ,to say he is self-deceived is neither to compliment him nor ,christianity4 ,he builds in all sincerity who raises his altar to the ,,unknown ,god4 ,he does not know ,god4 ,with all his marvellous and complex correspondences1 he is still one correspondence short4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afa4 ,april #fth4 ,only one thing truly need the ,christian envy1 the large1 rich1 generous soul which envieth not4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #gth4 ,whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work1 and probably doing it better4 ,envy them not4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #hth4 ,i say that man believes in a ,god1 who feels himself in the presence of a ,power which is not himself1 and is immeasurably above himself1 a ,power in the contemplation of which he is absorbed1 in the knowledge of which he finds safety and happiness4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afb4 ,april #ith4 ,what men deny is not a ,god4 ,it is the correspondence4 ,the very confession of the ,unknowable is itself the dull recognition of an ,environment beyond themselves1 and for which they feel they lack the correspondence4 ,it is this want that makes their ,god the ,unknown ,god4 ,and it is this that makes them ,,dead4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afc4 ,april #ajth4 ,god is not confined to the outermost circle of environment1 ,he lives and moves and has ,his being in the whole4 ,those who only seek ,him in the further zone can only find a part4 ,the ,christian who knows not ,god in ,nature1 who does not1 that is to say1 correspond with the whole environment1 most certainly is partially dead4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afc4 ,april #aath4 ,after you have been kind1 after ,love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work1 go back into the shade again and say nothing about it4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #abth4 ,the absence of the true ,light means moral ,death4 ,the darkness of the natural world to the intellect is not all4 ,what history testifies to is1 first the partial1 and then the total eclipse of virtue that always follows the abandonment of belief in a personal ,god4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afg4 ,april #acth4 ,the only greatness is unselfish love4 4 4 4 ,there is a great difference between ,,trying ,,to ,,please and ,,giving ,,pleasure4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #adth4 ,the conception of a ,god gives an altogether new colour to worldliness and vice4 ,worldliness it changes into heathenism1 vice into blasphemy4 ,the carnal mind1 the mind which is turned away from ,god1 which will not correspond with ,god--this is not moral only but spiritual ,death4 ,and ,sin1 that which separates from ,god1 which disobeys ,god1 which ,,can not in that state correspond with ,god--this is hell4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #afi4 ,april #aeth4 ,if sin is estrangement from ,god1 this very estrangement is ,death4 ,it is a want of correspondence4 ,if sin is selfishness1 it is conducted at the expense of life4 ,its wages are ,death--he that loveth his life1 said ,christ1 shall lose it4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #agj4 ,april #afth4 ,obviously if the mind turns away from one part of the environment it will only do so under some temptation to correspond with another4 ,this temptation1 at bottom1 can only come from one source--the love of self4 ,the irreligious man's correspondences are concentrated upon himself4 ,he worships himself4 ,self-gratification rather than self-denial2 independence rather than submission--these are the rules of life4 ,and this is at once the poorest and the commonest form of idolatry4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #agj4 ,april #agth4 ,you will find 4 4 4 that the people who influence you are people who believe in you4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #ahth4 ,the development of any organism in any direction is dependent on its environment4 ,a living cell cut off from air will die4 ,a seed-germ apart from moisture and an appropriate temperature will make the ground its grave for centuries4 ,human nature1 likewise1 is subject to similar conditions4 ,it can only develop in presence of its environment4 ,no matter what its possibilities may be1 no matter what seeds of thought or virtue1 what germs of genius or of art1 lie latent in its breast1 until the appropriate environment present itself the correspondence is denied1 the development discouraged1 the most splendid possibilities of life remain unrealized1 and thought and virtue1 genius and art1 are dead4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #aga4 ,april #aith4 ,the true environment of the moral life is ,god4 ,here conscience wakes4 ,here kindles love4 ,duty here becomes heroic2 and that righteousness begins to live which alone is to live forever4 ,but if this ,atmosphere is not1 the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its native air4 ,and its ,death is a strictly natural ,death4 ,it is not an exceptional judgment upon ,atheism4 ,in the same circumstances1 in the same averted relation to their environment1 the poet1 the musician1 the artist1 would alike perish to poetry1 to music1 and to art4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #aga4 ,april #bjth4 ,every environment is a cause4 ,its effect upon me is exactly proportionate to my correspondence with it4 ,if ,i correspond with part of it1 part of myself is influenced4 ,if ,i correspond with more1 more of myself is influenced2 if with all1 all is influenced4 ,if ,i correspond with the world1 ,i become worldly2 if with ,god1 ,i become ,divine4 ,natural ,law1 ,death1 p4 #aga4 ,april #bast4 ,you can dwarf a soul just as you can dwarf a plant1 by depriving it of a full environment4 ,such a soul for a time may have a name to live4 ,its character may betray no sign of atrophy4 ,but its very virtue somehow has the pallor of a flower that is grown in darkness1 or as the herb which has never seen the sun1 no fragrance breathes from its spirit4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #agc4 ,april #bb;d4 ,i shall pass through this world but once4 ,any good thing1 therefore1 that ,i can do1 or any kindness that ,i can show to any human being1 let me do it now4 ,let me not defer it or neglect it1 for ,i shall not pass this way again4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bc;d4 ,there is no happiness in having and getting1 but only in giving 4 4 4 half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bdth4 ,no form of vice1 not worldliness1 not greed of gold1 not drunkenness itself1 does more to un-,christianize society than evil temper4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #beth4 ,how many prodigals are kept out of the ,kingdom of ,god by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside6 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bfth4 ,a want of patience1 a want of kindness1 a want of generosity1 a want of courtesy1 a want of unselfishness1 are all instantaneously symbolized in one flash of ,temper4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bgth4 ,souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out1 but by putting something in--a great ,love1 a new ,spirit--the ,spirit of ,christ4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bhth4 ,christ1 the ,spirit of ,christ1 interpenetrating ours1 sweetens1 purifies1 transforms all4 ,this only can eradicate what is wrong1 work a chemical change1 renovate and regenerate1 and rehabilitate the inner man4 ,will-power does not change men4 ,time does not change men4 ,christ does4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #bith ,guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people4 ,and the possession of it is the great secret of personal influence4 ,you will find1 if you think for a moment1 that the people who influence you are people who believe in you4 ,in an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up2 but in that atmosphere they expand1 and find encouragement and educative fellowship4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,april #cjth4 ,do not quarrel 4 4 4 with your lot in life4 ,do not complain of its never-ceasing cares1 its petty environment1 the vexations you have to stand1 the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,may #ast4 ,the moment the new life is begun there comes a genuine anxiety to break with the old4 ,for the former environment has now become embarrassing4 ,it refuses its dismissal from consciousness4 ,it competes doggedly with the new ,environment for a share of the correspondences4 ,and in a hundred ways the former traditions1 the memories and passions of the past1 the fixed associations and habits of the earlier life1 now complicate the new relation4 ,the complex and bewildered soul1 in fact1 finds itself in correspondence with two environments1 each with urgent but yet incompatible claims4 ,it is a dual soul living in a double world1 a world whose inhabitants are deadly enemies1 and engaged in perpetual civil war4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #agi4 ,may #b;d4 ,how can the ,new ,life deliver itself from the still-persistent past8 ,a ready solution of the difficulty would be ,,to ,,die4 4 4 4 ,if we cannot die altogether1 4 4 4 the most we can do is to die as much as we can4 4 4 4 ,to die to any environment is to withdraw correspondence with it1 to cut ourselves off1 so far as possible1 from all communication with it4 ,so that the solution of the problem will simply be this1 for the spiritual life to reverse continuously the processes of the natural life4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #ahj4 ,may #c;d4 ,the spiritual man having passed from ,death unto ,life1 the natural man must next proceed to pass from ,life unto ,death4 ,having opened the new set of correspondences1 he must deliberately close up the old4 ,regeneration in short must be accompanied by ,degeneration4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aha4 ,may #dth4 ,the peculiar feature of ,death by ,suicide is that it is not only self-inflicted but sudden4 ,and there are many sins which must either be dealt with suddenly or not at all4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #ahc4 ,may #eth4 ,if the ,christian is to live unto ,god1 he must die unto sin4 ,if he does not kill sin1 sin will inevitably kill him4 ,recognizing this1 he must set himself to reduce the number of his correspondences-- retaining and developing those which lead to a fuller life1 unconditionally withdrawing those which in any way tend in an opposite direction4 ,this stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act1 a crucifixion of the flesh1 a suicide4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #ahb4 ,may #fth4 ,do not resent temptation2 do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more1 and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer4 ,that is your practice4 ,that is the practice which ,god appoints you2 and it is having its work in making you patient1 and humble1 and generous1 and unselfish1 and kind1 and courteous4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,may #gth4 ,it is a peculiarity of the sinful state1 that as a general rule men are linked to evil mainly by a single correspondence4 ,few men break the whole law4 ,our natures1 fortunately1 are not large enough to make us guilty of all1 and the restraints of circumstances are usually such as to leave a loophole in the life of each individual for only a single habitual sin4 ,but it is very easy to see how this reduction of our intercourse with evil to a single correspondence blinds us to our true position4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #ahf4 ,may #hth4 ,one little weakness1 we are apt to fancy1 all men must be allowed1 and we even claim a certain indulgence for that apparent necessity of nature which we call our besetting sin4 ,yet to break with the lower environment at all1 to many1 is to break at this single point4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ahf4 ,may #ith4 ,there may be only one avenue between the new life and the old1 it may be but a small and ,,subterranean ,,passage1 but this is sufficient to keep the old life in4 ,so long as that remains the victim is not dead unto sin1 and therefore he cannot live unto ,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ahg4 ,may #ajth4 ,do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you4 ,it is growing more beautiful1 though you see it not1 and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection4 ,therefore keep in the midst of life4 ,do not isolate yourself4 ,be among men1 and among things1 and among troubles1 and difficulties1 and obstacles4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,may #aath4 ,contemplate the love of ,christ1 and you will love4 ,stand before that mirror1 reflect ,christ's character1 and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness to tenderness4 ,there is no other way4 ,you cannot love to order4 ,you can only look at the lovely object1 and fall in love with it1 and grow into likeness to it4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,may #abth4 ,in the natural world it only requires a single vital correspondence of the body to be out of order to ensure ,death4 ,it is not necessary to have consumption1 diabetes1 and an aneurism to bring the body to the grave1 if it have heart disease4 ,he who is fatally diseased in one organ necessarily pays the penalty with his life1 though all the others be in perfect health4 ,and such1 likewise1 are the mysterious unity and correlation of functions in the spiritual organism that the disease of one member may involve the ruin of the whole4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #ahg4 ,may #acth4 ,to break altogether1 and at every point1 with the old environment1 is a simple impossibility4 ,so long as the regenerate man is kept in this world he must find the old environment at many points a severe temptation4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aij4 ,may #adth4 ,power over very many of the commonest temptations is only to be won by degrees1 and however anxious one might be to apply the summary method to every case1 he soon finds it impossible in practice4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aij4 ,may #aeth4 ,the ill-tempered person 4 4 4 can make very little of his environment4 ,however he may attempt to circumscribe it in certain directions1 there will always remain a wide and ever-changing area to stimulate his irascibility4 ,his environment1 in short1 is an inconstant quantity1 and his most elaborate calculations and precautions must often and suddenly fail him4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aia4 ,may #afth4 ,what the ill-tempered person has to deal with1 4 4 4 mainly1 is the correspondence1 the temper itself4 ,and that1 he well knows1 involves a long and humiliating discipline4 ,the case is not at all a surgical but a medical one1 and the knife is here of no more use than in a fever4 ,a specific irritant has poisoned his veins4 ,and the acrid humours that are breaking out all over the surface of his life are only to be subdued by a gradual sweetening of the inward spirit4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aia4 ,may #agth4 ,the man whose blood is pure has nothing to fear4 ,so he whose spirit is purified and sweetened becomes proof against these germs of sin4 ,anger1 wrath1 malice and railing in such a soil can find no root4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aib4 ,may #ahth4 ,the ,mortification of a member 4 4 4is based on the ,law of ,degeneration4 ,the useless member here is not cut off1 but simply relieved as much as possible of all exercise4 ,this encourages the gradual decay of the parts1 and as it is more and more neglected it ceases to be a channel for life at all4 ,so an organism mortifies its members4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aic4 ,may #aith4 ,man's spiritual life consists in the number and fulness of his correspondences with ,god4 ,in order to develop these he may be constrained to insulate them1 to enclose them from the other correspondences1 to shut himself in with them4 ,in many ways the limitation of the natural life is the necessary condition of the full enjoyment of the spiritual life4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aie4 ,may #bjth4 ,no man is called to a life of self-denial for its own sake4 ,it is in order to a compensation which1 though sometimes difficult to see1 is always real and always proportionate4 ,no truth1 perhaps1 in practical religion is more lost sight of4 ,we cherish somehow a lingering rebellion against the doctrine of self-denial--as if our nature1 or our circumstances1 or our conscience1 dealt with us severely in loading us with the daily cross4 ,but is it not plain after all that the life of self-denial is the more abundant life--more abundant just in proportion to the ampler crucifixion of the narrower life8 ,is it not a clear case of exchange--an exchange1 however1 where the advantage is entirely on our side8 ,we give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life4 ,what though we sacrifice a hundred such correspondences8 ,we make but the more room for the great one that is left4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aie4 ,may #bast4 ,do not spoil your life at the outset with unworthy and impoverishing correspondences2 and if it is growing truly rich and abundant1 be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal quality with anything of earth4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aif4 ,may #bb;d4 ,to concentrate upon a few great correspondences1 to oppose to the death the perpetual petty larceny of our life by trifles--these are the conditions for the highest and happiest life4 4 4 4 ,the penalty of evading self-denial also is just that we get the lesser instead of the larger good4 ,the punishment of sin is inseparably bound up with itself4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aif4 ,may #bc;d4 ,each man has only a certain amount of life1 of time1 of attention--a definite measurable quantity4 ,if he gives any of it to this life solely it is wasted4 ,therefore ,christ says1 ,hate life1 limit life1 lest you steal your love for it from something that deserves it more4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aig4 ,may #bdth4 ,to refuse to deny one's self is just to be left with the self undented4 ,when the balance of life is struck1 the self will be found still there4 ,the discipline of life was meant to destroy this self1 but that discipline having been evaded--and we all to some extent have opportunities1 and too often exercise them1 of taking the narrow path by the shortest cuts--its purpose is baulked4 ,but the soul is the loser4 ,in seeking to gain its life it has really lost it4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aif4 ,may #beth4 ,suppose we deliberately made up our minds as to what things we were henceforth to allow to become our life8 ,suppose we selected a given area of our environment and determined once for all that our correspondences should go to that alone1 fencing in this area all round with a morally impassable wall8 ,true1 to others1 we should seem to live a poorer life2 they would see that our environment was circumscribed1 and call us narrow because it was narrow4 ,but1 well-chosen1 this limited life would be really the fullest life2 it would be rich in the highest and worthiest1 and poor in the smallest and basest1 correspondences4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aii4 ,may #bfth4 ,the well-defined spiritual life is not only the highest life1 but it is also the most easily lived4 ,the whole cross is more easily carried than the half4 ,it is the man who tries to make the best of both worlds who makes nothing of either4 ,and he who seeks to serve two masters misses the benediction of both4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aii4 ,may #bgth4 ,you will find1 as you look back upon your life1 that the moments that stand out1 the moments when you have really lived1 are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love4 ,as memory scans the past1 above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life1 there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you1 things too trifling to speak about1 but which you feel have entered into your eternal life4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fj4 ,may #bhth4 ,no man can become a saint in his sleep2 and to fulfil the condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time1 just as improvement in any direction1 bodily or mental1 requires preparation and care4 ,address yourselves to that one thing2 at any cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fj4 ,may #bith4 ,he who has taken his stand1 who has drawn a boundary line1 sharp and deep1 about his religious life1 who has marked off all beyond as for ever forbidden ground to him1 finds the yoke easy and the burden light4 ,for this forbidden environment comes to be as if it were not4 ,his faculties falling out of correspondence1 slowly lose their sensibilities4 ,and the balm of ,death numbing his lower nature releases him for the scarce disturbed communion of a higher life4 ,so even here to die is gain4 ,natural ,law1 ,mortification1 p4 #aii4 ,may #cjth4 ,remain side by side with ,him who loved us1 and gave ,himself for us1 and you too will become a permanent magnet1 a permanently attractive force2 and like ,him you will draw all men unto you1 like ,him you will be drawn unto all men4 ,that is the inevitable effect of ,love4 ,any man who fulfils that cause must have that effect produced in him4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #de4 ,may #cast4 ,try to give up the idea that religion comes to us by chance1 or by mystery1 or by caprice4 ,it comes to us by natural law1 or by supernatural law1 for all law is ,divine4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #df4 ,june #ast4 ,we love others1 we love everybody1 we love our enemies1 because ,he first loved us4 4 4 4 ,and that is how the love of ,god melts down the unlovely heart in man1 and begets in him the new creature1 who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #df4 ,june #b;d4 ,the belief in ,science as an aid to faith is not yet ripe enough to warrant men in searching there for witnesses to the highest ,christian truths4 ,the inspiration of ,nature1 it is thought1 extends to the humbler doctrines alone4 ,and yet the reverent inquirer who guides his steps in the right direction may find even now1 in the still dim twilight of the scientific world1 much that will illuminate and intensify his sublimest faith4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bjd4 ,june #c;d4 ,life becomes fuller and fuller1 richer and richer1 more and more sensitive and responsive to an ever-widening ,environment as we rise in the chain of being4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bjg4 ,june #dth4 ,before we reach an ,eternal ,life we must pass beyond that point at which all ordinary correspondences inevitably cease4 ,we must find an organism so high and complex1 that at some point in its development it shall have added a correspondence which organic death is powerless to arrest4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bac4 ,june #eth4 ,uninterrupted correspondence with a perfect ,environment is ,eternal ,life1 according to ,science4 ,this is ,life ,eternal1 said ,christ1 that they may know ,thee1 the only true ,god1 and ,jesus ,christ whom ,thou hast sent4 ,life ,eternal is to know ,god4 ,to know ,god is to correspond with ,god4 ,to correspond with ,god is to correspond with a ,perfect ,environment4 ,and the organism which attains to this1 in the nature of things1 must live forever4 ,here is eternal existence and eternal knowledge4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bae4 ,june #fth4 ,to find a new ,environment again and cultivate relation with it is to find a new ,life4 ,to live is to correspond1 and to correspond is to live4 ,so much is true in ,science4 ,but it is also true in ,religion4 ,and it is of great importance to observe that to ,religion also the conception of ,life is a correspondence4 ,no truth of ,christianity has been more ignorantly or wilfully travestied than the doctrine of ,immortality4 ,the popular idea1 in spite of a hundred protests1 is that ,eternal ,life is to live forever4 4 4 4 ,we are told that ,life ,eternal is not to live4 ,this is ,life ,eternal--,,to ,,know4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #baf4 ,june #gth4 ,from time to time the taunt is thrown at ,religion1 not unseldom from lips which ,science ought to have taught more caution1 that the ,future ,life of ,christianity is simply a prolonged existence1 an eternal monotony1 a blind and indefinite continuance of being4 ,the ,bible never could commit itself to any such empty platitude2 nor could ,christianity ever offer to the world a hope so colourless4 ,not that ,eternal ,life has nothing to do with everlastingness4 ,that is part of the conception4 ,and it is this aspect of the question that first arrests us in the field of ,science4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #baf4 ,june #hth4 ,science speaks to us indeed of much more than numbers of years4 ,it defines degrees of ,life4 ,it explains a widening ,environment4 ,it unfolds the relation between a widening ,environment and increasing complexity in organisms4 ,and if it has no absolute contribution to the content of ,religion1 its analogies are not limited to a point4 ,it yields to ,immortality1 and this is the most that ,science can do in any case1 the broad framework for a doctrine4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bag4 ,june #ith4 ,to correspond with the ,god of ,science1 the ,eternal ,unknowable1 would be everlasting existence2 to correspond with the true ,god and ,jesus ,christ1 is ,eternal ,life4 ,the quality of the ,eternal ,life alone makes the heaven2 mere everlastingness might be no boon4 ,even the brief span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years in sorrow4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bbj4 ,june #ajth4 ,to ,christianity1 he that hath the ,son of ,god hath ,life1 and he that hath not the ,son hath not ,life4 ,this1 as we take it1 defines the correspondence which is to bridge the grave4 ,this is the clue to the nature of the ,life that lies at the back of the spiritual organism4 ,and this is the true solution of the mystery of ,eternal ,life4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bbg4 ,june #aath4 ,the relation between the spiritual man and his ,environment is1 in theological language1 a filial relation4 ,with the new ,spirit1 the filial correspondence1 he knows the ,father--and this is ,life ,eternal4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bbi4 ,june #abth4 ,it takes the ,divine to know the ,divine--but in no more mysterious sense than it takes the human to understand the human4 ,the analogy1 indeed1 for the whole field here has been finely expressed already by ,paul3 ,what man1 he asks1 knoweth the things of a man1 save the spirit of man which is in him8 ,even so the things of ,god knoweth no man1 but the ,spirit of ,god4 ,now we have received1 not the spirit of the world1 but the spirit which is of ,god2 that we might know the things that are freely given to us of ,god4--,i4 ,cor4 ii4 #aa1 #ab4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bbi4 ,june #acth4 ,to go outside what we call ,nature is not to go outside ,environment4 ,nature1 the natural ,environment1 is only a part of ,environment4 ,there is another large part1 which1 though some profess to have no correspondence with it1 is not on that account unreal1 or even unnatural4 ,the mental and moral world is unknown to the plant4 ,but it is real4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcb4 ,june #adth4 ,things are natural or supernatural simply according to where one stands4 ,man is supernatural to the mineral2 ,god is supernatural to the man4 ,when a mineral is seized upon by the living plant and elevated to the organic kingdom1 no trespass against ,nature is committed4 ,it merely enters a larger ,environment1 which before was supernatural to it1 but which now is entirely natural4 ,when the heart of a man1 again1 is seized upon by the quickening ,spirit of ,god1 no further violence is done to natural law4 ,it is another case of the inorganic1 so to speak1 passing into the organic4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcb4 ,june #aeth4 ,correspondence in any case is the gift of ,environment4 ,the natural ,environment gives men their natural faculties2 the spiritual affords them their spiritual faculties4 ,it is natural for the spiritual ,environment to supply the spiritual faculties2 it would be quite unnatural for the natural ,environment to do it4 ,the natural law of ,bio-genesis forbids it2 the moral fact that the finite cannot comprehend the ,infinite is against it2 the spiritual principle that flesh and blood1 cannot inherit the ,kingdom of ,god renders it absurd4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcc4 ,june #afth4 ,organisms are not added to by accretion1 as in the case of minerals1 but by growth4 ,and the spiritual faculties are organized in the spiritual protoplasm of the soul1 just as other faculties are organized in the protoplasm of the body4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcc4 ,june #agth4 ,it ought to be placed in the forefront of all ,christian teaching that ,christ's mission on earth was to give men ,life4 ,i am come1 ,he said1 that ye might have ,life1 and that ye might have it more abundantly4 ,and that ,he meant literal ,life1 literal spiritual and ,eternal ,life1 is clear from the whole course of ,his teaching and acting4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bce4 ,june #ahth4 ,the effort to detect the living ,spirit must be at least as idle as the attempt to subject protoplasm to microscopic examination in the hope of discovering ,life4 ,we are warned1 also1 not to expect too much4 ,thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcg4 ,june #aith4 ,many men would be religious if they knew where to begin2 many would be more religious if they were sure where it would end4 ,it is not indifference that keeps some men from ,god1 but ignorance4 ,good ,master1 what must ,i do to inherit ,eternal ,life8 is still the deepest question of the age4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bcg4 ,june #bjth4 ,the voice of ,god and the voice of ,nature4 ,i cannot be wrong if ,i listen to them4 ,sometimes1 when uncertain of a voice from its very loudness1 we catch the missing syllable in the echo4 ,in ,god and ,nature we have ,voice and ,echo4 ,when ,i hear both1 ,i am assured4 ,my sense of hearing does not betray me twice4 ,i recognize the ,voice in the ,echo1 the ,echo makes me certain of the ,voice2 ,i listen and ,i know4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bch4 ,june #bast4 ,the soul is a living organism4 ,and for any question as to the soul's ,life we must appeal to ,life-science4 ,and what does the ,life-science teach8 ,that if ,i am to inherit ,eternal ,life1 ,i must cultivate a correspondence with the ,eternal4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bci4 ,june #bb;d4 ,all knowledge lies in ,environment4 ,when ,i want to know about minerals ,i go to minerals4 ,when ,i want to know about flowers ,i go to flowers4 ,and they tell me4 ,in their own way they speak to me1 each in its own way1 and each for itself--not the mineral for the flower1 which is impossible1 nor the flower for the mineral1 which is also impossible4 ,so if ,i want to know about ,man1 ,i go to his part of the ,environment4 ,and he tells me about himself1 not as the plant or the mineral1 for he is neither1 but in his own way4 ,and if ,i want to know about ,god1 ,i go to ,his part of the ,environment4 ,and ,he tells me about ,himself1 not as a ,man1 for ,he is not ,man1 but in ,his own way4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bci4 ,june #bc;d4 ,just as naturally as the flower and the mineral and the ,man1 each in their own way1 tell me about themselves1 ,he tells me about ,himself4 ,he very strangely condescends indeed in making things plain to me1 actually assuming for a time the ,form of a ,man that ,i at my poor level may better see ,him4 ,this is my opportunity to know ,him4 ,this incarnation is ,god making ,himself accessible to human thought--,god opening to ,man the possibility of correspondence through ,jesus ,christ4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdj4 ,june #bdth4 ,having opened correspondence with the ,eternal ,environment1 the subsequent stages are in the line of all other normal development4 ,we have but to continue1 to deepen1 to extend1 and to enrich the correspondence that has been begun4 ,and we shall soon find to our surprise that this is accompanied by another and parallel process4 ,the action is not all upon our side4 ,the ,environment also will be found to correspond4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bda4 ,june #beth4 ,let us look for the influence of ,environment on the spiritual nature of him who has opened correspondence with ,god4 ,reaching out his eager and quickened faculties to the spiritual world around him1 shall he not become spiritual8 ,in vital contact with ,holiness1 shall he not become holy8 ,breathing now an atmosphere of ineffable ,purity1 shall he miss becoming pure8 ,walking with ,god from day to day1 shall he fail to be taught of ,god8 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdb4 ,june #bfth4 ,growth in grace is sometimes described as a strange1 mystical1 and unintelligible process4 ,it is mystical1 but neither strange nor unintelligible4 ,it proceeds according to ,natural ,law1 and the leading factor in sanctification is ,influence of ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdb4 ,june #bgth4 ,will the evolutionist who admits the regeneration of the frog under the modifying influence of a continued correspondence with a new environment1 care to question the possibility of the soul acquiring such a faculty as that of ,prayer1 the marvellous breathing-function of the new creature1 when in contact with the atmosphere of a besetting ,god8 ,is the change from the earthly to the heavenly more mysterious than the change from the aquatic to the terrestrial mode of life8 ,is ,evolution to stop with the organic8 ,if it be objected that it has taken ages to perfect the function in the batrachian1 the reply is1 that it will take ages to perfect the function in the ,christian4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdd4 ,june #bhth4 ,we have indeed spoken of the spiritual correspondence as already perfect--but it is perfect only as the bud is perfect4 ,it doth not yet appear what it shall be1 any more than it appeared a million years ago what the evolving batrachian would be4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdd4 ,june #bith4 ,in a sense1 all that belongs to ,time belongs also to ,eternity2 but these lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted for an ,eternal ,life4 ,even if they were perfect in their relation to their ,environment1 they would still not be ,eternal4 4 4 4 ,an ,eternal ,life demands an ,eternal ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bde4 ,june #cjth4 ,the final preparation 4 4 4 for the inheriting of ,eternal ,life must consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements4 ,these must be unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements1 ,and this is effected by a closing catastrophe--,death4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdh4 ,july #ast4 ,perfect correspondence1 according to ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer1 would be perfect ,life4 ,to abolish ,death1 therefore1 all that would be necessary would be to abolish ,imperfection4 ,but it is the claim of ,christianity that it can abolish ,death4 ,and it is significant to notice that it does so by meeting this very demand of ,science--it abolishes ,imperfection4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdi4 ,july #b;d4 ,the part of the organism which begins to get out of correspondence with the ,organic ,environment is the only part which is in vital correspondence with it4 ,though a fatal disadvantage to the natural man to be thrown out of correspondence with this ,environment1 it is of inestimable importance to the spiritual man4 ,for so long as it is maintained the way is barred for a further ,evolution4 ,and hence the condition necessary for the further ,evolution is that the spiritual be released from the natural4 ,that is to say1 the condition of the further ,evolution is ,death4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdi4 ,july #c;d4 ,the sifting of the correspondences is done by ,nature4 ,this is its last and greatest contribution to mankind4 ,over the mouth of the grave the perfect and the imperfect submit to their final separation4 ,each goes to its own--earth to earth1 ashes to ashes1 dust to dust1 ,spirit to ,spirit4 ,the dust shall return to the earth as it was2 and the ,spirit shall return unto ,god who gave it4 ,natural ,law1 ,eternal ,life1 p4 #bdi4 ,july #dth4 ,few things are less understood than the conditions of the spiritual life4 ,the distressing incompetence of which most of us are conscious in trying to work out our spiritual experience is due perhaps less to the diseased will which we commonly blame for it than to imperfect knowledge of the right conditions4 ,it does not occur to us how natural the spiritual is4 ,we still strive for some strange transcendent thing2 we seek to promote life by methods as unnatural as they prove unsuccessful2 and only the utter incomprehensibility of the whole region prevents us seeing fully--what we already half-suspect--how completely we are missing the road4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bef4 ,july #eth4 ,living in the spiritual world 4 4 4 is just as simple as living in the natural world2 and it is the same kind of simplicity4 ,it is the same kind of simplicity for it is the same kind of world--there are not two kinds of worlds4 ,the conditions of life in the one are the conditions of life in the other4 ,and till these conditions are sensibly grasped1 as the conditions of all life1 it is impossible that the personal effort after the highest life should be other than a blind struggle carried on in fruitless sorrow and humiliation4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #beg4 ,july #fth4 ,heredity and ,environment are the master-influences of the organic world4 ,these have made all of us what we are4 ,these forces are still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives4 ,and he who truly understands these influences2 he who has decided how much to allow to each2 he who can regulate new forces as they arise1 or adjust them to the old1 so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate1 at another to counteract one another1 understands the rationale of personal development4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bee4 ,july #gth4 ,to seize continuously the opportunity of more and more perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions1 to balance some inward evil with some purer influence acting from without1 in a word to make our ,environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the secrets of a well-ordered and successful life4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bef4 ,july #hth4 ,in the spiritual world 4 4 4 the subtle influences which form and transform the soul are ,heredity and ,environment4 ,and here especially1 where all is invisible1 where much that we feel to be real is yet so ill defined1 it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural life4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bef4 ,july #ith4 ,what ,heredity has to do for us is determined outside ourselves4 ,no man can select his own parents4 ,but every man to some extent can choose his own ,environment4 ,his relation to it1 however largely determined by ,heredity in the first instance1 is always open to alteration4 ,and so great is his control over ,environment and so radical its influence over him1 that he can so direct it as either to undo1 modify1 perpetuate1 or intensify the earlier hereditary influences within certain limits4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #beg4 ,july #ajth4 ,one might show how the moral man is acted upon and changed continuously by the influences1 secret and open1 of his surroundings1 by the tone of society1 by the company he keeps1 by his occupation1 by the books he reads1 by ,nature1 by all1 in short1 that constitutes the habitual atmosphere of his thoughts and the little world of his daily choice4 ,or one might go deeper still and prove how the spiritual life also is modified from outside sources--its health or disease1 its growth or decay1 all its changes for better or for worse being determined by the varying and successive circumstances in which the religious habits are cultivated4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfj4 ,july #aath4 ,in the spiritual world 4 4 4 he will be wise who courts acquaintance with the most ordinary and transparent facts of ,nature2 and in laying the foundations for a religious life he will make no unworthy beginning who carries with him an impressive sense of so obvious a truth as that without ,environment there can be no life4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfd4 ,july #abth4 ,there is in the spiritual organism a principle of life2 but that is not self-existent4 ,it requires a second factor1 a something in which to live and move and have its being1 an ,environment4 ,without this it cannot live or move or have any being4 ,without ,environment the soul is as the carbon without the oxygen1 as the fish without the water1 as the animal frame without the extrinsic conditions of vitality4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfd4 ,july #acth4 ,what is the ,spiritual ,environment8 ,it is ,god4 ,without this1 therefore1 there is no life1 no thought1 no energy1 nothing---without ,me ye can do nothing4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfe4 ,july #adth4 ,the cardinal error in the religious life is to attempt to live without an ,environment4 ,spiritual experience occupies itself1 not too much1 but too exclusively1 with one factor--the soul4 ,we delight in dissecting this much-tortured faculty1 from time to time1 in search of a certain something which we call our faith--forgetting that faith is but an attitude1 an empty hand for grasping an environing ,presence4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p #bfe4 ,july #aeth4 ,when we feel the need of a power by which to overcome the world1 how often do we not seek to generate it within ourselves by some forced process1 some fresh girding of the will1 some strained activity which only leaves the soul in further exhaustion8 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfe4 ,july #afth4 ,to examine ourselves is good2 but useless unless we also examine ,environment4 ,to bewail our weakness is right1 but not remedial4 ,the cause must be investigated as well as the result4 ,and yet1 because we never see the other half of the problem1 our failures even fail to instruct us4 ,after each new collapse we begin our life anew1 but on the old conditions2 and the attempt ends as usual in the repetition--in the circumstances the inevitable repetition--of the old disaster4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfe4 ,july #agth4 ,after seasons of much discouragement1 with the sore sense upon us of our abject feebleness1 we do confer with ourselves1 insisting for the thousandth time1 ,my soul1 wait thou only upon ,god4 ,but1 the lesson is soon forgotten4 ,the strength supplied we speedily credit to our own achievement2 and even the temporary success is mistaken for a symptom of improved inward vitality4 ,once more we become self-existent4 ,once more we go on living without an ,environment4 ,and once more1 after days of wasting without repairing1 of spending without replenishing1 we begin to perish with hunger1 only returning to ,god again1 as a last resort1 when we have reached starvation point4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bff4 ,july #ahth4 ,why this unscientific attempt to sustain life for weeks at a time without an ,environment8 ,it is because we have never truly seen the necessity for an ,environment4 ,we have not been working with a principle4 ,we are told to wait only upon ,god1 but we do not know why4 ,it has never been as clear to us that without ,god the soul will die as that without food the body will perish4 ,in short1 we have never comprehended the doctrine of the ,persistence of ,force4 ,instead of being content to transform energy we have tried to create it4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bff4 ,july #aith4 ,whatever energy the soul expends must first be taken into it from without4 ,we are not ,creators1 but creatures2 ,god is our refuge ,,and ,,strength4 ,communion with ,god1 therefore1 is a scientific necessity2 and nothing will more help the defeated spirit which is struggling in the wreck of its religious life than a common-sense hold of this biological principle that without ,environment he can do nothing4 ,natural ,law1 ,environment1 p4 #bfg4 ,july #bjth4 ,who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part1 a fraction of some larger whole8 ,who does not miss1 at every turn of his life1 an absent ,god8 ,that man is but a part1 he knows1 for there is room in him for more4 ,that ,god is the other part1 he feels1 because at times ,he satisfies his need4 ,who does not tremble often under that sicklier symptom of his incompleteness1 his want of spiritual energy1 his helplessness with sin8 ,but now he understands both--the void in his life1 the powerlessness of his will4 ,he understands that1 like all other energy1 ,spiritual power is contained in ,environment4 ,he finds here at last the true root of all human frailty1 emptiness1 nothingness1 sin4 ,this is why without ,me ye can do nothing4 ,powerlessness is the normal state1 not only of this1 but of every organism--of every organism apart from its ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfh4 ,july #bast4 ,friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is4 ,god is love4 ,and to make religion akin to ,friendship is simply to give it the highest expression conceivable by man4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #di4 ,july #bb;d4 ,the entire dependence of the soul upon ,god is not an exceptional mystery1 nor is man's helplessness an arbitrary and unprecedented phenomenon4 ,it is the law of all ,nature4 ,the spiritual man is not taxed beyond the natural4 ,he is not purposely handicapped by singular limitations or unusual incapacities4 ,god has not designedly made the religious life as hard as possible4 ,the arrangements for the spiritual life are the same as for the natural life4 ,when1 in their hours of unbelief1 men challenge their ,creator for placing the obstacle of human frailty in the way of their highest development1 their protest is against the order of ,nature4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfi4 ,july #bc;d4 ,the organism must either depend on his environment1 or be self-sufficient4 ,but who will not rather approve the arrangement by which man in his creatural life may have unbroken access to an ,infinite ,power8 ,what soul will seek to remain self-luminous when it knows that ,the ,lord ,god is a ,sun8 ,who will not willingly exchange his shallow vessel for ,christ's well of living water4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgj4 ,july #bdth4 ,the ,new ,testament is nowhere more impressive than where it insists on the fact of man's dependence4 ,in its view the first step in religion is for man to feel his helplessness4 ,christ's first beatitude is to the poor in spirit4 ,the condition of entrance into the spiritual kingdom is to possess the child-spirit--that state of mind combining at once the profoundest helplessness with the most artless feeling of dependence4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bga4 ,july #beth4 ,fruit-bearing without ,christ is not an improbability1 but an impossibility4 ,as well expect the natural fruit to flourish without air and heat1 without soil and sunshine4 ,how thoroughly also ,paul grasped this truth is apparent from a hundred pregnant passages in which he echoes his ,master's teaching4 ,to him life was hid with ,christ in ,god4 ,and that he embraced this1 not as a theory but as an experimental truth1 we gather from his constant confession1 ,when ,i am weak1 then am ,i strong4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bga4 ,july #bfth4 ,one result of the due apprehension of our personal helplessness will be that we shall no longer waste our time over the impossible task of manufacturing energy for ourselves4 ,our science will bring to an abrupt end the long series of severe experiments in which we have indulged in the hope of finding a perpetual motion4 ,and having decided upon this once for all1 our first step in seeking a more satisfactory state of things must be to find a new source of energy4 ,following ,nature1 only one course is open to us4 ,we must refer to ,environment4 ,the natural life owes all to ,environment1 so must the spiritual4 ,now the ,environment of the spiritual life is ,god4 ,as ,nature1 therefore1 forms the complement of the natural life4 ,god is the complement of the spiritual4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgb4 ,july #bgth4 ,do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself grow1 or hear the whirr of the machinery4 ,all great things grow noiselessly4 ,you can see a mushroom grow1 but never a child4 ,mr4 ,darwin tells us that ,evolution proceeds by numerous1 successive1 and slight modifications4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ed4 ,july #bhth4 ,we fail to praise the ceaseless ministry of the great inanimate world around us only because its kindness is unobtrusive4 ,nature is always noiseless4 ,all her greatest gifts are given in secret4 ,and we forget how truly every good and perfect gift comes from without1 and from above1 because no pause in her changeless beneficence teaches us the sad lessons of deprivation4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgd4 ,july #bith4 ,it is not a strange thing for the soul to find its life in ,god4 ,this is its native air4 ,god as the ,environment of the soul has been from the remotest age the doctrine of all the deepest thinkers in religion4 ,how profoundly ,hebrew poetry is saturated with this high thought will appear when we try to conceive of it with this left out4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cgd4 ,july #cjth4 ,the alternatives of the intellectual life are ,christianity or ,agnosticism4 ,the ,agnostic is right when he trumpets his incompleteness4 ,he who is not complete in ,him must be for ever incomplete4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgh4 ,july #cast4 ,the problems of the heart and conscience are infinitely more perplexing than those of the intellect4 ,has love no future8 ,has right no triumph8 ,is the unfinished self to remain unfinished8 ,the alternatives are two1 ,christianity or ,pessimism4 ,but when we ascend the further height of the religious nature1 the crisis comes4 ,there1 without ,environment1 the darkness is unutterable4 ,so maddening now becomes the mystery that men are compelled to construct an ,environment for themselves4 ,no ,environment here is unthinkable4 ,an altar of some sort men must have-- ,god1 or ,nature1 or ,law4 ,but the anguish of ,atheism is only a negative proof of man's incompleteness4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgi4 ,august #ast4 ,a photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun4 ,while the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply stops the getting on4 ,whatever of wise supervision the soul may need1 it is certain it can never be over-exposed1 or that1 being exposed1 anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it4 ,the ,changed ,life1 pp4 #ef1 #eg4 ,august #b;d4 ,what a very strange thing1 is it not1 for man to pray8 ,it is the symbol at once of his littleness and of his greatness4 ,here the sense of imperfection1 controlled and silenced in the narrower reaches of his being1 becomes audible4 ,now he must utter himself4 ,the sense of need is so real1 and the sense of ,environment1 that he calls out to it1 addressing it articulately1 and imploring it to satisfy his need4 ,surely there is nothing more touching in ,nature than this8 ,man could never so expose himself1 so break through all constraint1 except from a dire necessity4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bgi4 ,august #c;d4 ,what is ,truth8 ,the natural ,environment answers1 ,increase of ,knowledge increaseth ,sorrow1 and much study is a ,weariness4 ,christ replies1 ,learn of ,me1 and ye shall find ,rest4 ,contrast the world's word ,weariness with ,christ's word ,rest4 ,no other teacher since the world began has ever associated learn with ,rest4 ,learn of me1 says the philosopher1 and you shall find ,restlessness4 ,learn of ,me1 says ,christ1 and ye shall find ,rest4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bhj4 ,august #dth4 ,men will have to give up the experiment of attempting to live in half an ,environment4 ,half an ,environment will give but half a ,life4 4 4 4 ,he whose correspondences are with this world alone has only a thousandth part1 a fraction1 the mere rim and shade of an ,environment1 and only the fraction of a ,life4 ,how long will it take ,science to believe its own creed1 that the material universe we see around us is only a fragment of the universe we do not see8 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bhb4 ,august #eth4 ,the ,life of the senses1 high and low1 may perfect itself in ,nature4 ,even the ,life of thought may find a large complement in surrounding things4 ,but the higher thought1 and the conscience1 and the religious ,life1 can only perfect themselves in ,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bhc4 ,august #fth4 ,to make the influence of ,environment stop with the natural world is to doom the spiritual nature to death4 ,for the soul1 like the body1 can never perfect itself in isolation4 ,the law for both is to be complete in the appropriate ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bhc4 ,august #gth4 ,take into your new sphere of labour1 where you also mean to lay down your life1 that simple charm1 ,love1 and your life-work must succeed4 ,you can take nothing greater1 you need take nothing less4 ,it is not worth while going if you take anything less4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #ag4 ,august #hth4 ,politeness has been defined as love in trifles4 ,courtesy is said to be love in little things4 ,and the one secret of politeness is to love4 ,love ,,cannot behave itself unseemly4 ,you can put the most untutored persons into the highest society1 and if they have a reservoir of ,love in their heart1 they will not behave themselves unseemly4 ,they simply cannot do it4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #bf4 ,august #ith4 ,i believe that ,christ's yoke is easy4 ,christ's yoke is just ,his way of taking life4 ,and ,i believe it is an easier way than any other4 ,i believe it is a happier way than any other4 ,the most obvious lesson in ,christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting anything1 but only in giving4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #bi4 ,august #ajth4 ,half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness4 ,they think it consists in having and getting1 and in being served by others4 ,it consists in giving1 and in serving others4 ,he that would be great among you1 said ,christ1 let him serve4 ,he that would be happy1 let him remember that there is but one way--it is more blessed1 it is more happy1 to give than to receive4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #cj4 ,august #aath4 ,love is not easily provoked4 4 4 4 ,we are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless weakness4 ,we speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature1 a family failing1 a matter of temperament1 not a thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man's character4 ,and yet here1 right in the heart of this analysis of love1 it finds a place2 and the ,bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive elements in human nature4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #cj4 ,august #abth4 ,the peculiarity of ill-temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous4 ,it is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character4 ,you know men who are all but perfect1 and women who would be entirely perfect1 but for an easily ruffled1 quick-tempered1 or touchy disposition4 ,this compatibility of ill-temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #ca4 ,august #acth4 ,what makes a man a good artist1 a good sculptor1 a good musician8 ,practice4 4 4 4 ,what makes a man a good man8 ,practice4 ,nothing else4 ,there is nothing capricious about religion4 ,we do not get the soul in different ways1 under different laws1 from those in which we get the body and the mind4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #dj4 ,august #adth4 ,love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion4 ,it is a rich1 strong1 manly1 vigorous expression of the whole round ,christian character--the ,christ-like nature in its fullest development4 ,and the constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless practice4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #da4 ,august #aeth4 ,we know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come4 ,but what is certain is that ,love must last4 ,god1 the ,eternal ,god1 is ,love4 ,covet1 therefore1 that everlasting gift4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #ed4 ,august #afth4 ,to love abundantly is to live abundantly1 and to love forever is to live forever4 ,hence1 eternal life is inextricably bound up with love4 4 4 4 ,love must be eternal4 ,it is what ,god is4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 pp4 #eg1 #eh4 ,august #agth4 ,when a man becomes a ,christian the natural process is this3 ,the ,living ,christ enters into his soul4 ,development begins4 ,the quickening ,life seizes upon the soul1 assimilates surrounding elements1 and begins to fashion it4 ,according to the great ,law of ,conformity to ,type this fashioning takes a specific form4 ,it is that of the ,artist who fashions4 ,and all through ,life this wonderful1 mystical1 glorious1 yet perfectly definite1 process1 goes on until ,christ be formed in it4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bid4 ,august #ahth4 ,the ,christian ,life is not a vague effort after righteousness--an ill-defined1 pointless struggle for an ill-defined1 pointless end4 ,religion is no dishevelled mass of aspiration1 prayer1 and faith4 ,there is no more mystery in ,religion as to its processes than in ,biology4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bid4 ,august #aith4 ,there is much mystery in ,biology4 ,we know all but nothing of ,life yet1 nothing of development4 ,there is the same mystery in the spiritual ,life4 ,but the great lines are the same1 as decided1 as luminous2 and the laws of natural and spiritual are the same1 as unerring1 as simple4 ,will everything else in the natural world unfold its order1 and yield to ,science more and more a vision of harmony1 and ,religion1 which should complement and perfect all1 remain a chaos8 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bid4 ,august #bjth4 ,when one attempts to sanctify himself by effort1 he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast4 ,he is like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head4 ,christ held up this method almost to ridicule when ,he said3 ,which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature8 ,the one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #aa4 ,august #bast4 ,the ,image of ,christ that is forming within us--that is life's one charge4 ,let every project stand aside for that4 ,till ,christ be formed1 no man's work is finished1 no religion crowned1 no life has fulfilled its end4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #fb4 ,august #bb;d4 ,our companionship with ,him1 like all true companionship1 is a spiritual communion4 ,all friendship1 all love1 human and ,divine1 is purely spiritual4 ,it was after ,he was risen that ,he influenced even the disciples most4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ch4 ,august #bc;d4 ,make ,christ your most constant companion4 ,be more under ,his influence than under any other influence4 ,ten minutes spent in ,his society every day1 ay1 two minutes if it be face to face1 and heart to heart1 will make the whole day different4 ,every character has an inward spring1 let ,christ be it4 ,every action has a key-note1 let ,christ set it4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #dj4 ,august #bdth4 ,under the right conditions it is as natural for character to become beautiful as for a flower2 and if on ,god's earth there is not some machinery for effecting it1 the supreme gift to the world has been forgotten4 ,this is simply what man was made for4 ,with ,browning3 ,i say that ,man was made to grow1 not stop4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #aj4 ,august #beth4 ,how can modern men today make ,christ1 the absent ,christ1 their most constant companion still8 ,the answer is that ,friendship is a spiritual thing4 ,it is independent of ,matter1 or ,space1 or ,time4 ,that which ,i love in my friend is not that which ,i see4 ,what influences me in my friend is not his body but his spirit4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #cg4 ,august #bfth4 ,love should be the supreme thing--because it is going to last2 because in the nature of things it is an ,eternal ,life4 ,it is a thing that we are living now1 not that we get when we die2 that we shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living now4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #eh4 ,august #bgth4 ,when will it be seen that the characteristic of the ,christian ,religion is its ,life1 that a true theology must begin with a ,biology8 ,theology is the ,science of ,god4 ,why will men treat ,god as inorganic8 ,natural ,law1 p4 #big4 ,august #bhth4 ,we should be forsaking the lines of nature were we to imagine for a moment that the new creature was to be formed out of nothing4 ,nothing can be made out of nothing4 ,matter is uncreatable and indestructible2 ,nature and man can only form and transform4 ,hence when a new animal is made1 no new clay is made4 ,life merely enters into already existing matter1 assimilates more of the same sort and rebuilds it4 ,the spiritual ,artist works in the same way4 ,he must have a peculiar kind of protoplasm1 a basis of life1 and that must be already existing4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #big4 ,august #bith4 ,however active the intellectual or moral life may be1 from the point of view of this other ,life it is dead4 ,that which is flesh is flesh4 ,it wants1 that is to say1 the kind of ,life which constitutes the difference between the ,christian and the not-a-,christian1 ,it has not yet been born of the ,spirit4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bii4 ,august #cjth4 ,the protoplasm in man has a something in addition to its instincts or its habits4 ,it has a capacity for ,god4 ,in this capacity for ,god lies its receptivity2 it is the very protoplasm that was necessary4 ,the chamber is not only ready to receive the new ,life1 but the ,guest is expected1 and1 till ,he comes1 is missed4 ,till then the soul longs and yearns1 wastes and pines1 waving its tentacles piteously in the empty air1 feeling after ,god if so be that it may find ,him4 ,this is not peculiar to the protoplasm of the ,christian's soul4 ,in every land and in every age there have been altars to the ,known or ,unknown ,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjj4 ,august #cast4 ,it is now agreed as a mere question of anthropology that the universal language of the human soul has always been ,i perish with hunger4 ,this is what fits it for ,christ4 ,there is a grandeur in this cry from the depths which makes its very unhappiness sublime4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjj4 ,september #ast4 ,in reflecting the character of ,christ1 it is no real obstacle that we may never have been in visible contact with ,himself4 ,many men know ,dante better than their own fathers4 ,he influences them more4 ,as a spiritual presence he is more near to them1 as a spiritual force more real4 ,is there any reason why a greater than 4 4 4 ,dante should not also instruct1 inspire1 and mould the characters of men8 ,the ,changed ,life1 pp4 #ch1 #eb4 ,september #b;d4 ,mark this distinction4 4 4 4 ,imitation is mechanical1 reflection organic4 ,the one is occasional1 the other habitual4 ,in the one case1 man comes to ,god and imitates ,him2 in the other1 ,god comes to man and imprints ,himself upon him4 ,it is quite true that there is an imitation of ,christ which amounts to reflection4 ,but ,paul's term includes all that the other holds1 and is open to no mistake4 ,whom having not seen1 ,i love4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ci4 ,september #c;d4 ,in paraphrase3 ,we all reflecting as a mirror the character of ,christ are transformed into the same ,image from character to character--from a poor character to a better one1 from a better one to one a little better still1 from that to one still more complete1 until by slow degrees the ,perfect ,image is attained4 ,here the solution of the problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence3 ,reflect the character of ,christ and you will become like ,christ4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #bd4 ,september #dth4 ,not more certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer that produces a change in the thermometer1 than it is something outside the soul of man that produces a moral change upon him4 ,that he must be susceptible to that change1 that he must be a party to it1 goes without saying2 but that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it is equally certain4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #bj4 ,september #eth4 ,just as in an organism we have these three things-- formative matter1 formed matter1 and the forming principle or life2 so in the soul we have the old nature1 the renewed nature1 and4 the transforming ,life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjb4 ,september #fth4 ,is it hopeless to point out that one of the most recognizable characteristics of life is its unrecognizableness1 and that the very token of its spiritual nature lies in its being beyond the grossness of our eyes8 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjb4 ,september #gth4 ,according to the doctrine of ,bio-genesis1 life can only come from life4 ,it was ,christ's additional claim that ,his function in the world1 was to give men ,life4 ,i am come that ye might have ,life1 and that ye might have it more abundantly4 ,this could1 not refer to the natural life1 for men had that already4 ,he that hath the ,son hath another ,life4 ,know ye not your own selves how that ,jesus ,christ is in you4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjc4 ,september #hth4 ,the recognition of the ,ideal is the first step in the direction of ,conformity4 ,but let it be clearly observed that it is but a step4 ,there is no vital connection between merely seeing the ,ideal and being conformed to it4 ,thousands admire ,christ who never become ,christians4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjf4 ,september #ith4 ,for centuries men have striven to find out ways and means to conform themselves to the ,christ ,life4 ,impressive motives have been pictured1 the proper circumstances arranged1 the direction of effort defined1 and men have toiled1 struggled1 and agonized to conform themselves to the ,image of the ,son4 ,can the protoplasm ,,conform ,,itself to its type8 ,can the embryo ,,fashion ,,itself8 ,is ,conformity to ,type produced by the matter ,,or ,,by ,,the ,,life1 by the protoplasm or by the ,type8 ,is organization the cause of life or the effect of it8 ,it is the effect of it4 ,conformity to ,type1 therefore1 is secured by the type4 ,christ makes the ,christian4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjg4 ,september #ajth4 ,o preposterous and vain man1 thou who couldest not make a fingernail of thy body1 thinkest thou to fashion this wonderful1 mysterious1 subtle soul of thine after the ineffable ,image8 ,wilt thou ever permit thyself ,,to ,,be conformed to the ,image of the ,son8 ,wilt thou1 who canst not add a cubit to thy stature1 submit ,,to ,,be raised by the ,type-,life within thee to the perfect stature of ,christ ,natural ,law1 p4 #cjh4 ,september #aath4 ,men will still experiment by works of righteousness which they have done to earn the ,ideal life4 ,the doctrine of ,human ,inability1 as the ,church calls it1 has always been objectionable to men who do not know themselves4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cji4 ,september #abth4 ,let man choose ,life2 let him daily nourish his soul2 let him forever starve the old life2 let him abide continuously as a living branch in the ,vine1 and the ,true-,vine ,life will flow into his soul1 assimilating1 renewing1 conforming to ,type1 till ,christ1 pledged by ,his own law1 be formed in him4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cab4 ,september #acth4 ,the work begun by ,nature is finished by the ,supernatural --as we are wont to call the higher natural4 ,and as the veil is lifted by ,christianity it strikes men dumb with wonder4 ,for the goal of ,evolution is ,jesus ,christ4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cad4 ,september #adth4 ,the ,christian life is the only life that will ever be completed4 ,apart from ,christ the life of man is a broken pillar1 the race of men an unfinished pyramid4 ,one by one in sight of ,eternity all human ,ideals fall short1 one by one before the open grave all human hopes dissolve4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cad4 ,september #aeth4 ,i do not think we ourselves are aware how much our religious life is made up of phrases2 how much of what we call ,christian experience is only a dialect of the ,churches1 a mere religious phraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and know4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ab4 ,september #afth4 ,the ceaseless chagrin of a self-centred life can be removed at once by learning ,meekness and ,lowliness of heart4 ,he who learns them is forever proof against it4 ,he lives henceforth a charmed life4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #bi4 ,september #agth4 ,great trials come at lengthened intervals1 and we rise to breast them2 but it is the petty friction of our everyday life with one another1 the jar of business or of work1 the discord of the domestic circle1 the collapse of our ambition1 the crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit1 which makes inward peace impossible4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #bh4 ,september #ahth4 ,there are people who go about the world looking out for slights1 and they are necessarily miserable1 for they find them at every turn--especially the imaginary ones4 ,one has the same pity for such men as for the very poor4 ,they are the morally illiterate4 ,they have had no real education1 for they have never learned how to live4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ca4 ,september #aith4 ,christ never said much in mere words about the ,christian graces4 ,he lived them1 ,he was them4 ,yet we do not merely copy ,him4 ,we learn ,his art by living with ,him4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #cb4 ,september #bjth4 ,christ's invitation to the weary and heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new principle--upon ,his own principle4 ,watch ,my way of doing things1 ,he says4 ,follow ,me4 ,take life as ,i take it4 ,be meek and lowly1 and you will find ,rest4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #cb4 ,september #bast4 ,if a man could make himself humble to order1 it might simplify matters1 but we do not find that this happens4 ,hence we must all go through the mill4 ,hence death1 death to the lower self1 is the nearest gate and the quickest road to life4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ce4 ,september #bb;d4 ,whatever rest is provided by ,christianity for the children of ,god1 it is certainly never contemplated that it should supersede personal effort4 ,and any rest which ministers to indifference is immoral and unreal--it makes parasites and not men4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cce4 ,september #bc;d4 ,just because ,god worketh in him1 as the evidence and triumph of it1 the true child of ,god works out his own salvation--works it out having really received it--not as a light thing1 a superfluous labour1 but with fear and trembling as a reasonable and indispensable service4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cce4 ,september #bdth4 ,christianity1 as ,christ taught1 is the truest philosophy of life ever spoken4 ,but let us be quite sure when we speak of ,christianity1 that we mean ,christ's ,christianity4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #dg4 ,september #beth4 ,so far from ministering to growth1 parasitism ministers to decay4 ,so far from ministering to holiness1 that is to wholeness1 parasitism ministers to exactly the opposite4 ,one by one the spiritual faculties droop and die1 one by one from lack of exercise the muscles of the soul grow weak and flaccid1 one by one the moral activities cease4 ,so from him that hath not1 is taken away that which he hath1 and after a few years of parasitism there is nothing left to save4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ccf4 ,september #bfth4 ,the natural life1 not less than the eternal1 is the gift of ,god4 ,but life in either case is the beginning of growth and not the end of grace4 ,to pause where we should begin1 to retrograde where we should advance1 to seek a mechanical security that we may cover inertia and find a wholesale salvation in which there is no personal sanctification--this is ,parasitism4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ccf4 ,september #bgth4 ,could we investigate the spirit as a living organism1 or study the soul of the backslider on principles of comparative anatomy1 we should have a revelation of the organic effects of sin1 even of the mere sin of carelessness as to growth and work1 which must revolutionize our ideas of practical religion4 ,there is no room for the doubt even that what goes on in the body does not with equal certainty take place in the spirit under the corresponding conditions4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cde4 ,september #bhth4 ,it is the beautiful work of ,christianity everywhere to adjust the burden of life to those who bear it1 and them to it4 ,it has a perfectly miraculous gift of healing4 ,without doing any violence to human nature it sets it right with life1 harmonizing it with all surrounding things1 and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue and dust of the world to a new grace of living4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #df4 ,september #bith4 ,the penalty of backsliding is not something unreal and vague1 some unknown quantity which may be measured out to us disproportionately1 or which1 perchance1 since ,god is good1 we may altogether evade4 ,the consequences are already marked within the structure of the soul4 ,so to speak1 they are physiological4 ,the thing effected by our in difference or by our indulgence is not the book of final judgment1 but the present fabric of the soul4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cdf4 ,september #cjth4 ,the punishment of degeneration is simply degeneration-- the loss of functions1 the decay of organs1 the atrophy of the spiritual nature4 ,it is well known that the recovery of the backslider is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work4 ,to reinvigorate an old organ seems more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new one2 and the backslider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled feet each step of the way along which he strayed2 to make up inch by inch the leeway he has lost1 carrying with him a dead-weight of acquired reluctance1 and scarce knowing whether to be stimulated or discouraged by the oppressive memory of the previous fall4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cdf4 ,october #ast4 ,he who abandons the personal search for truth1 under whatever pretext1 abandons truth4 ,the very word truth1 by becoming the limited possession of a guild1 ceases to have any meaning2 and faith1 which can only be founded on truth1 gives way to credulity1 resting on mere opinion4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ceb4 ,october #b;d4 ,it is more necessary for us to be active than to be orthodox4 ,to be orthodox is what we wish to be1 but we can only truly reach it by being honest1 by being original1 by seeing with our own eyes1 by believing with our own heart4 ,natural ,law4 p4 #cfd4 ,october #c;d4 ,better a little faith dearly won1 better launched alone on the infinite bewilderment of ,truth1 than perish on the splendid plenty of the richest creeds4 ,such ,doubt is no self-willed presumption4 ,nor1 truly exercised1 will it prove itself1 as much doubt does1 the synonym for sorrow4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cfe4 ,october #dth4 ,christianity removes the attraction of the earth2 and this is one way in which it diminishes men's burden4 ,it makes them citizens of another world4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #dg4 ,october #eth4 ,then the ,christian experiences are our own making8 ,in the same sense in which grapes are our own making1 and no more4 ,all fruits ,,grow--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul2 whether they are the fruits of the wild grape or of the ,true ,vine4 ,no man can ,,make things grow4 ,he can ,,get ,,them ,,to ,,grow by arranging all the circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions4 ,but the growing is done by ,god4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ef4 ,october #fth4 ,men may not know how fruits grow1 but they do know that they cannot grow in five minutes4 ,some lives have not even a stalk on which fruits could hang1 even if they did grow in five minutes4 ,some have never planted one sound seed of ,joy in all their lives2 and others who may have planted a germ or two have lived so little in sunshine that they never could come to maturity4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ea4 ,october #gth4 ,there is no mystery about ,happiness whatever4 ,put in the right ingredients and it must come out4 ,he that abideth in ,him will bring forth much fruit2 and bringing forth much fruit is ,happiness4 ,the infallible receipt for ,happiness1 then1 is to do good2 and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in ,christ4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ef4 ,october #hth4 ,spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in fulfilling the conditions of their growth4 ,the fruits will come1 must come4 4 4 4 ,about every other method of living the ,christian life there is an uncertainty4 ,about every other method of acquiring the ,christian experiences there is a perhaps4 ,but in so far as this method is the way of nature1 it cannot fail4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #eh4 ,october #ith4 ,the distinctions drawn between men are commonly based on the outward appearance of goodness or badness1 on the ground of moral beauty or moral deformity--is this classification scientific8 ,or is there a deeper distinction between the ,christian and the not-a-,christian as fundamental as that between the organic and the inorganic8 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cgd4 ,october #ajth ,what is the essential difference between the ,christian and the not-a-,christian1 between the spiritual beauty and the moral beauty8 ,it is the distinction between the ,organic and the ,inorganic4 ,moral beauty is the product of the natural man1 spiritual beauty of the spiritual man4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #chj4 ,october #aath4 ,the first ,law of biology is3 ,that which is ,mineral is ,mineral2 that which is ,flesh is ,flesh2 that which is ,spirit is ,spirit4 ,the mineral remains in the inorganic world until it is seized upon by a something called ,life outside the inorganic world2 the natural man remains the natural man1 until a ,spiritual ,life from without the natural life seizes upon him1 regenerates him1 changes him into a spiritual man4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cha4 ,october #abth ,suppose now it be granted for a moment that the character of the not-a-,christian is as beautiful as that of the ,christian4 ,this is simply to say that the crystal is as beautiful as the organism4 ,one is quite entitled to hold this2 but what he is not entitled to hold is that both in the same sense are living4 ,he that hath the ,son hath ,life1 and he that hath not the ,son of ,god hath not ,life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #chb4 ,october #acth4 ,man is a moral animal1 and can1 and ought to1 arrive at great natural beauty of character4 ,but this is simply to obey the law of his nature--the law of his flesh2 and no progress along that line can project him into the spiritual sphere4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #chb4 ,october #adth4 ,if any one choose to claim that the mineral beauty1 the fleshly beauty1 the natural moral beauty1 is all he covets1 he is entitled to his claim4 ,to be good and true1 pure and benevolent in the moral sphere1 are high and1 so far1 legitimate objects in life4 ,if he deliberately stop here1 he is at liberty to do so4 ,but what he is not entitled to do is to call himself a ,christian1 or to claim to discharge the functions peculiar to the ,christian life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #chb4 ,october #aeth4 ,in dealing with a man of fine moral character1 we are dealing with the highest achievement of the organic kingdom4 ,but in dealing with a spiritual man we are dealing with ,,the ,,lowest ,,form ,,of ,,life ,,in ,,the ,,spiritual ,,world4 ,to contrast the two1 therefore1 and marvel that the one is apparently so little better than the other1 is unscientific and unjust4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #che4 ,october #afth4 ,the spiritual man is a mere unformed embryo1 hidden as yet in his earthly chrysalis-case1 while the natural man has the breeding and evolution of ages represented in his character4 ,but what are the possibilities of this spiritual organism8 ,what is yet to emerge from this chrysalis-case8 ,the natural character finds its limits within the organic sphere4 ,but who is to define the limits of the spiritual8 ,even now it is very beautiful4 ,even as an embryo it contains some prophecy of its future glory4 ,but the point to mark is1 that it doth not yet appear what it shall be4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #chf4 ,october #agth4 ,the best test for ,life is just ,,living4 ,and living consists1 as we have formerly seen1 in corresponding with ,environment4 ,those therefore who find within themselves1 and regularly exercise1 the faculties for corresponding with the ,divine ,environment1 may be said to live the ,spiritual ,life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cij4 ,october #ahth4 ,that the ,spiritual ,life1 even in the embryonic organism1 ought already to betray itself to others1 is certainly what one would expect4 ,every organism has its own reaction upon ,nature1 and the reaction of the spiritual organism upon the community must be looked for4 ,in the absence of any such reaction1 in the absence of any token that it lived for a higher purpose1 or that its real interests were those of the ,kingdom to which it professed to belong1 we should be entitled to question its being in that ,kingdom4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cij4 ,october #aith4 ,man's place in ,nature1 or his position among the ,kingdoms1 is to be decided by the characteristic functions habitually discharged by him4 ,now1 when the habits of certain individuals are closely observed1 when the total effect of their life and work1 with regard to the community1 is gauged1 4 4 4 there ought to be no difficulty in deciding whether they are living for the ,organic or for the ,spiritual2 in plainer language1 for the world or for ,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cia4 ,october #bjth4 ,no matter what may be the moral uprightness of man's life1 the honourableness of his career1 or the orthodoxy of his creed1 if he exercises the function of loving the world1 that defines his world--he belongs to the ,organic ,kingdom4 ,he cannot in that case belong to the higher ,kingdom4 ,if any man love the world1 the love of the ,father is not in him4 ,after all1 it is by the general bent of a man's life1 by his heart-impulses and secret desires1 his spontaneous actions and abiding motives1 that his generation is declared4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cic4 ,october #bast4 ,the imperious claim of a ,kingdom upon its members is not peculiar to ,christianity4 ,it is the law in all departments of ,nature that every organism must live for its ,kingdom4 ,and in defining living ,,for the higher ,kingdom as the condition of living in it1 ,christ enunciates a principle which all ,nature has prepared us to expect4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cie4 ,october #bb;d4 ,christianity marks the advent of what is simply a new ,kingdom4 ,its distinctions from the ,kingdom below it are fundamental4 ,it demands from its members activities and responses of an altogether novel order4 ,it is1 in the conception of its ,founder1 a ,kingdom for which all its adherents must henceforth exclusively live and work1 and which opens its gates alone upon those who1 having counted the cost1 are prepared to follow it if need be to the death4 ,the surrender ,christ demanded was absolute4 ,every aspirant for membership must seek ,,first the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cid4 ,october #bc;d4 ,until even religious men see the uniqueness of ,christ's society1 until they acknowledge to the full extent its claim to be nothing less than a new ,kingdom1 they will continue the hopeless attempt to live for two ,kingdoms at once4 ,and hence the value of a more explicit ,classification4 ,for probably the most of the difficulties of trying to live the ,christian life arise from attempting to half-live it4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cif4 ,october #bdth4 ,two ,kingdoms1 at the present time1 are known to ,science-- the ,inorganic and the ,organic4 ,the spiritual life does not belong to the ,inorganic ,kingdom1 because it lives4 ,it does not belong to the ,organic ,kingdom1 because it is endowed with a kind of ,life infinitely removed from either the vegetable or animal4 ,where1 then1 shall it be classed8 ,we are left without an alternative4 ,there being no ,kingdom known to ,science which can contain it1 we must construct one4 ,or1 rather1 we must include in the programme of ,science a ,kingdom already constructed1 but the place of which in ,science has not yet been recognized4 ,that ,kingdom is the ,,kingdom ,,of ,,god4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #cig4 ,october #beth4 ,the goal of the organisms of the ,spiritual ,world is nothing less than this--to be holy as ,he is holy1 and pure as ,he is pure4 ,and by the ,law of ,conformity to ,type1 their final perfection is secured4 ,the inward nature must develop out according to its ,type1 until the consummation of oneness with ,god is reached4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #djc4 ,october #bfth4 ,christianity defines the highest conceivable future for mankind4 ,it satisfies the ,law of ,continuity4 ,it guarantees the necessary conditions for carrying on the organism successfully1 from stage to stage4 ,it provides against the tendency to ,degeneration4 ,and finally1 instead of limiting the yearning hope of final perfection to the organisms of a future age--an age so remote that the hope for thousands of years must still be hopeless--instead of inflicting this cruelty on intelligences mature enough to know perfection and earnest enough to wish it1 ,christianity puts the prize within immediate reach of man4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #djd4 ,october #bgth4 ,no worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and grow old alone1 unloving and unloved4 ,to be lost is to live in an unregenerate condition1 loveless and unloved2 and to be saved is to love2 he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in ,god4 ,for ,god is ,love4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #ei4 ,october #bhth4 ,love suffereth long1 and is kind2 love envieth not2 love vaunteth not itself4 ,get these ingredients into your life4 ,then everything that you do is eternal4 ,it is worth doing4 ,it is worth giving time to4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fj4 ,october #bith4 ,the final test of religion at that great ,day is not religiousness1 but ,love2 not what ,i have done1 not what ,i have believed1 not what ,i have achieved1 but how ,i have discharged the common charities of life4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fb4 ,october #cjth4 ,the words which all of us shall one ,day hear sound not of theology but of life1 not of churches and saints1 but of the hungry and the poor1 not of creeds and doctrines1 but of shelter and clothing1 not of ,bibles and prayer-books1 but of cups of cold water in the name of ,christ4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fc4 ,october #cast4 ,the world moves4 ,and each day1 each hour1 demands a further motion and re-adjustment for the soul4 ,a telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork1 but the clockwork of the soul is called the ,will4 ,hence1 while the soul in passivity reflects the ,image of the ,lord1 the ,will in intense activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the world bear it beyond the line of vision4 ,to follow ,christ is largely to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the earth4 ,and this calculated counteracting of the movements of a world1 this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the ,mirrored1 this steadying of the faculties unerringly1 through cloud and earthquake2 fire and sword1 is the stupendous cooperating labour of the ,will4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #fj4 ,november #ast4 ,all around us ,christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better4 ,the amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered thousands of men and women in whom we should never suspect it2 among the wise and thoughtful2 among the young and gay1 who seldom assuage and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and touching facts of life4 ,it is not more heat that is needed1 but more light2 not more force1 but a wiser direction to be given to very real energies already there4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ad4 ,november #b;d4 ,men sigh for the wings of a dove1 that they may fly away and be at ,rest4 ,but flying away will not help us4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is ,,within ,,you4 ,we aspire to the top to look for ,rest2 it lies at the bottom4 ,water rests only when it gets to the lowest place4 ,so do men4 ,hence1 be lowly4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #cj4 ,november #c;d4 ,the kingdom of ,god is righteousness1 peace1 joy4 ,righteousness1 of course1 is just doing what is right4 ,any boy who does what is right has the kingdom of ,god within him4 ,any boy who1 instead of being quarrelsome1 lives at peace with the other boys1 has the kingdom of ,god within him4 ,any boy whose heart is filled with joy because he does what is right1 has the kingdom of ,god within him4 ,the kingdom of ,god is not going to religious meetings1 and hearing strange religious experiences3 the kingdom of ,god is doing what is right--living at peace with all men1 being filled with joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,first1 p4 #aa4 ,november #dth4 ,the man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him4 ,hence1 be meek4 ,he who is without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him4 ,it is self-evident that these things are so4 ,the lowly man and the meek man are really above all other men1 above all other things4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #cj4 ,november #eth4 ,keep religion in its place1 and it will take you straight through life1 and straight to your ,father in heaven when life is over4 ,but if you do not put it in its place1 you may just as well have nothing to do with it4 ,religion out of its place in a human life is the most miserable thing in the world4 ,there is nothing that requires so much to be kept in its place as religion1 and its place is what8 second8 third8 ,first4 ,boys1 carry that home with you today--,,first the kingdom of ,god4 ,make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that the very first thing4 ,first1 pp4 #ae1 #af4 ,november #fth4 ,the change we have been striving after is not to be produced by any more striving after4 ,it is to be wrought upon us by the moulding of hands beyond our own4 ,as the branch ascends1 and the bud bursts1 and the fruit reddens under the cooperation of influences from the outside air1 so man rises to the higher stature under invisible pressures from without4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ba4 ,november #gth4 ,every man's character remains as it is1 or continues in the direction in which it is going1 until it is compelled by ,,impressed ,,forces to change that state4 ,our failure has been the failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces4 ,there is a clay1 and there is a ,potter2 we have tried to get the clay to mould the clay4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ba4 ,november #hth4 ,character is a unity1 and all the virtues must advance together to make the perfect man4 ,this method of sanctification1 nevertheless1 is in the true direction4 ,it is only in the details of execution that it fails4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ad4 ,november #ith4 ,we all reflecting as a mirror the character of ,christ are transformed into the same ,image from character to character--from a poor character to a better one1 from a better one to one a little better still1 from that to one still more complete1 until by slow degrees the ,perfect ,image is attained4 ,here the solution of the problem of sanctification is compressed into a sentence3 ,reflect the character of ,christ1 and you will become like ,christ4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #bd4 ,november #ajth4 ,there are some men and some women in whose company we are always at our best4 ,while with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous words4 ,their mere presence is elevation1 purification1 sanctity4 ,all the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse1 and we find a music in our souls that was never there before4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #cc4 ,november #aath4 ,take such a sentence as this3 ,african explorers are subject to fevers which cause restlessness and delirium4 ,note the expression1 cause restlessness4 ,,restlessness ,,has ,a ,,cause4 ,clearly1 then1 any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once to deal with the cause4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #bj4 ,november #abth4 ,what ,christian experience wants is ,,thread1 a vertebral column1 method4 ,it is impossible to believe that there is no remedy for its unevenness and dishevelment1 or that the remedy is a secret4 ,the idea1 also1 that some few men1 by happy chance or happier temperament1 have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick of it--is wholly incredible4 ,religion must ripen fruit for every temperament2 and the way even into its highest heights must be by a gateway through which the peoples of the world may pass4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ae4 ,november #acth4 ,nothing that happens in the world happens by chance4 ,god is a ,god of order4 ,everything is arranged upon definite principles1 and never at random4 ,the world1 even the religious world1 is governed by law4 ,character is governed by law4 ,happiness is governed by law4 ,the ,christian experiences are governed by law4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ag4 ,november #adth4 ,we ,,are ,,changed1 as the ,old ,version has it--we do not change ourselves4 ,no man can change himself4 ,throughout the ,new ,testament you will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are described the verbs are in the passive4 ,presently it will be pointed out that there is a rationale in this2 but meantime do not toss these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or ignored intelligible law4 ,what is implied for the soul here is no more than is everywhere claimed for the body4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ai4 ,november #aeth4 ,rain and snow do drop from the air1 but not without a long previous history4 ,they are the mature effects of former causes4 ,equally so are ,rest1 and ,peace1 and ,joy4 ,they1 too1 have each a previous history4 ,storms and winds and calms are not accidents1 but are brought about by antecedent circumstances4 ,rest and ,peace are but calms in man's inward nature1 and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ah4 ,november #afth4 ,few men know how to live4 ,we grow up at random1 carrying into mature life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little children4 ,and it does not occur to us that all this must be changed2 that much of it must be reversed2 that life is the finest of the ,fine ,arts2 that it has to be learned with life-long patience1 and that the years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ca4 ,november #agth4 ,christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that was ever lived3 ,tempest and tumult1 tumult and tempest1 the waves breaking over it all the time till the worn body was laid in the grave4 ,but the inner life was a sea of glass4 ,the great calm was always there4 ,at any moment you might have gone to ,him and found ,rest4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ce4 ,november #ahth4 ,the creation of a new heart1 the renewing of a right spirit is an omnipotent work of ,god4 ,leave it to the ,creator4 ,he which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto that day4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #eg4 ,november #aith4 ,to become like ,christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for1 the thing before which every ambition of man is folly1 and all lower achievement vain4 ,those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their lives can even begin to hope to reach it4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #eg4 ,november #bjth4 ,a religion of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel but never for a man4 ,not in the contemplative1 but in the active1 lies true hope2 not in rapture1 but in reality1 lies true life2 not in the realm of ideals1 but among tangible things1 is man's sanctification wrought4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #eh4 ,november #bast4 ,nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of ,christ's life on earth4 ,misfortune could not reach ,him2 ,he had no fortune4 ,food1 raiment1 money--fountain-heads of half the world's weariness--,he simply did not care for2 they played no part in ,his life2 ,he took no thought for them4 ,it was impossible to affect ,him by lowering ,his reputation2 ,he had already made ,himself of no reputation4 ,he was dumb before insult4 ,when ,he was reviled1 ,he reviled not again4 ,in fact1 there was nothing that the world could do to ,him that could ruffle the surface of ,his spirit4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #cf4 ,november #bb;d4 ,life is the cradle of eternity4 ,as the man is to the animal in the slowness of his evolution1 so is the spiritual man to the natural man4 ,foundations which have to bear the weight of an eternal life must be surely laid4 ,character is to wear forever2 who will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day8 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ee4 ,november #bc;d4 ,to await the growing of a soul is an almost ,divine act of faith4 ,how pardonable1 surely1 the impatience of deformity with itself1 of a consciously despicable character standing before ,christ1 wondering1 yearning1 hungering to be like that8 ,yet must one trust the process fearlessly1 and without misgiving4 ,the ,lord the ,spirit will do ,his part4 ,the tempting expedient is1 in haste for abrupt or visible progress1 to try some method less spiritual1 or to defeat the end by watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the ,cause4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ef4 ,november #bdth4 ,the ,image of ,christ that is forming within us--that is life's one charge4 ,let every project stand aside for that4 ,till ,christ be formed1 no man's work is finished1 no religion crowned1 no life has fulfilled its end4 ,is the infinite task begun8 ,when1 how1 are we to be different8 ,time cannot change men4 ,death cannot change men4 ,christ can4 ,wherefore ,,put ,,on ,,christ4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #fb4 ,november #beth4 ,christ saw that men took life painfully4 ,to some it was a weariness1 to others a failure1 to many a tragedy1 to all a struggle and a pain4 ,how to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's problem4 ,it is still the whole world's problem4 ,and here is ,christ's solution4 ,carry it as ,i do4 ,take life as ,i take it4 ,look at it from ,my point of view4 ,interpret it upon ,my principles4 ,take ,my yoke and learn of ,me1 and you will find it easy4 ,for ,my yoke is easy1 works easily1 sits right upon the shoulders1 and ,,therefore ,my burden is light4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #dd4 ,november #bfth4 ,there is a disease called touchiness--a disease which1 in spite of its innocent name1 is one of the gravest sources of restlessness in the world4 ,touchiness1 when it becomes chronic1 is a morbid condition of the inward disposition4 ,it is self-love inflamed to the acute point4 4 4 ,the cure is to shift the yoke to some other place2 to let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused part of our nature2 to become meek and lowly in heart while the old nature is becoming numb from want of use4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 pp4 #de1 #df4 ,november #bgth4 ,christ's yoke is simply ,his secret for the alleviation of human life1 ,his prescription for the best and happiest method of living4 ,men harness themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural ways4 ,the harness they put on is antiquated4 ,a rough1 ill-fitted collar at the best1 they make its strain and friction past enduring1 by placing it where the neck is most sensitive2 and by mere continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is quick and sore4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #de4 ,november #bhth4 ,no one can get ,joy by merely asking for it4 ,it is one of the ripest fruits of the ,christian life1 and1 like all fruits1 must be grown4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ej4 ,november #bith ,christ is the source of ,joy to men in the sense in which ,he is the source of ,rest4 ,his people share ,his life1 and therefore share its consequences1 and one of these is ,joy4 ,his method of living is one that in the nature of things produces ,joy4 ,when ,he spoke of ,his ,joy remaining with us ,he meant in part that the causes which produced it should continue to act4 ,his followers1 that is to say1 by repeating ,his life would experience its accompaniments4 ,his ,joy1 ,his kind of ,joy1 would remain with them4 ,pax ,vobiscum1 p4 #ed4 ,november #cjth4 ,think of it1 the past is not only focussed there1 in a man's soul1 it ,,is there4 ,how could it be reflected from there if it were not there8 ,all things that he has ever seen1 known1 felt1 believed of the surrounding world are now within him1 have become part of him1 in part are him--he has been changed into their image4 ,he may deny it1 he may resent it1 but they are there4 ,they do not adhere to him1 they are transfused through him4 ,he cannot alter or rub them out4 ,they are not in his memory1 they are in ,,him4 ,his soul is as they have filled it1 made it1 left it4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #bg4 ,december #ast4 ,temper is significant1 not in what it is alone but in what it reveals4 4 4 4 ,it is a test for love1 a symptom1 a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom4 ,it is the intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within2 the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some rottenness underneath2 a sample of the most hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard2 ,,in ,a ,,word1 the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-,christian sins4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #cd4 ,december #b;d4 ,you will find1 as you look back upon your life1 that the moments that stand out1 the moments when you have really lived1 are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love4 ,as memory scans the past1 above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you1 things too trifling to speak about1 but which you feel have entered into your eternal life4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 p4 #fj4 ,december #c;d4 ,if events change men1 much more persons4 ,no man can meet another on the street without making some mark upon him4 ,we say we exchange words when we meet2 what we exchange is souls4 ,and when intercourse is very close and very frequent1 so complete is this exchange that recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's nature1 and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to the first4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #cj4 ,december #dth4 ,in the natural world we absorb heat1 breathe air1 draw on ,environment all but automatically for meat and drink1 for the nourishment of the senses1 for mental stimulus1 for all that1 penetrating us from without1 can prolong1 enrich1 and elevate life4 ,but in the spiritual world we have all this to learn4 ,we are new creatures1 and even the bare living has to be acquired4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfg4 ,december #eth4 ,the great point in learning to live the spiritual life is to live naturally4 ,as closely as possible we must follow the broad1 clear lines of the natural life4 ,and there are three things especially which it is necessary for us to keep continually in view4 ,the first is that the organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to life2 the second is that the other half is contained in the ,environment2 the third1 that the condition of receptivity is simple union between the organism and the ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfh4 ,december #fth4 ,to say that the organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to life1 is to repeat the evangelical confession1 so worn and yet so true to universal experience1 of the utter helplessness of man4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfh4 ,december #gth4 ,who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part1 a fraction of some larger whole8 ,who does not miss at every turn of his life an absent ,god8 ,that man is but a part1 he knows1 for there is room in him for more4 ,that ,god is the other part1 he feels1 because at times ,he satisfies his need4 ,who does not tremble often under that sicklier symptom of his incompleteness1 his want of spiritual energy1 his helplessness with sin8 ,but now he understands both--the void in his life1 the powerlessness of his will4 ,he understands that1 like all other energy1 spiritual power is contained in ,environment4 ,he finds here at last the true root of all human frailty1 emptiness1 nothingness1 sin4 ,this is why without ,me ye can do nothing4 ,powerless is the normal state not only of this but of every organism--of every organism apart from its ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bfh4 ,december #hth4 ,to seize continuously the opportunity of more and more perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions1 to balance some inward evil with some purer influence acting from without1 in a word to make our ,environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the secrets of a well-ordered and successful life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bef4 ,december #ith4 ,in the spiritual world the subtle influences which form and transform the soul are ,heredity and ,environment4 ,and here especially1 where all is invisible1 where much that we feel to be real is yet so ill-defined1 it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural life4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bef4 ,december #ajth4 ,these lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted for an ,eternal ,life4 ,even if they were perfect in their relation to their ,environment1 they would still not be ,eternal4 ,however opposed1 apparently1 to the scientific definition of ,eternal ,life1 it is yet true that perfect correspondence with ,environment is not ,eternal ,life4 4 4 4 ,an ,eternal ,life demands an ,eternal ,environment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bde4 ,december #aath4 ,on what does the ,christian argument for ,immortality really rest8 ,it stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole of historical ,christianity--the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bcd4 ,december #abth4 ,the soul which has no correspondence with the spiritual environment is spiritually dead4 ,it may be that it never possessed 4 4 4 the spiritual ear1 or a heart which throbbed in response to the love of ,god4 ,if so1 having never lived1 it cannot be said to have died4 ,but not to have these correspondences is to be in the state of ,death4 ,to the spiritual world1 to the ,divine ,environment1 it is dead--as a stone which has never lived is dead to the environment of the organic world4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #agg4 ,december #acth4 ,the humanity of what is called sudden conversion has never been insisted on as it deserves4 4 4 4 ,while growth is a slow and gradual process1 the change from ,death to ,life1 alike in the natural and spiritual spheres1 is the work of the moment4 ,whatever the conscious hour of the second birth may be--in the case of an adult it is probably defined by the first real victory over sin--it is certain that on biological principles the real turning-point is literally a moment4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ahd4 ,december #adth4 ,christ says we must hate life4 ,now1 this does not apply to all life4 ,it is life in this world that is to be hated4 ,for life in this world implies conformity to this world4 ,it may not mean pursuing worldly pleasures1 or mixing with worldly sets2 but a subtler thing than that--a silent deference to worldly opinion2 an almost unconscious lowering of religious tone to the level of the worldly-religious world around2 a subdued resistance to the soul's delicate promptings to greater consecration1 out of deference to breadth or fear of ridicule4 ,these1 and such things1 are what ,christ tells us we must hate4 ,for these things are of the very essence of worldliness4 ,if any man love the world1 even in this sense1 the love of the ,father is not in him4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #aig4 ,december #aeth4 ,to correspond with the ,god of ,science1 the ,eternal ,unknowable1 would be everlasting existence2 to correspond with the true ,god and ,jesus ,christ1 is ,eternal ,life4 ,the quality of the ,eternal ,life alone makes the heaven2 mere everlastingness might be no boon4 ,even the brief span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years in sorrow4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bbj4 ,december #afth4 ,the relation between the spiritual man and his ,environment is1 in theological language1 a filial relation4 ,with the new ,spirit1 the filial correspondence1 he knows the ,father--and this is ,life ,eternal4 ,this is not only the real relation1 but the only possible relation3 ,neither knoweth any man the ,father save the ,son1 and he to whomsoever the ,son will reveal ,him4 ,and this on purely natural grounds4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bbi4 ,december #agth4 ,communion with ,god--can it be demonstrated in terms of ,science that this is a correspondence which will never break8 ,we do not appeal to ,science for such a testimony4 ,we have asked for its conception of an ,eternal ,life2 and we have received for answer that ,eternal ,life would consist in a correspondence which should never cease1 with an ,environment which should never pass away4 ,and yet what would ,science demand of a perfect correspondence that is not met by this1 ,,the ,,knowing ,,of ,,god8 ,there is no other correspondence which could satisfy one at least of the conditions4 ,not one could be named which would not bear on the face of it the mark and pledge of its mortality4 ,but this1 to know ,god1 stands alone4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bbj4 ,december #ahth4 ,the misgiving which will creep sometimes over the brightest faith has already received its expression and its rebuke3 ,who shall separate us from the love of ,christ8 ,shall tribulation1 or distress1 or persecution1 or famine1 or nakedness1 or peril1 or sword8 ,shall these changes in the physical state of the environment which threaten death to the natural man1 destroy the spiritual8 ,shall death1 or life1 or angels1 or principalities1 or powers1 arrest or tamper with his eternal correspondences8 ,nay1 in all these things we are more than conquerors through ,him that loved us4 ,for ,i am persuaded that neither death1 nor life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god1 which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4 ,rom4 viii1 #ce-ci4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bcj4 ,december #aith4 ,we find that man1 or the spiritual man1 is equipped with two sets of correspondences4 ,one set possesses the quality of everlastingness1 the other is temporal4 ,but unless these are separated by some means the temporal will continue to impair and hinder the eternal4 ,the final preparation1 therefore1 for the inheriting of ,eternal ,life must consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements4 ,these must be unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements4 ,and this is effected by a closing catastrophe--,death4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bdh4 ,december #bjth4 ,heredity and ,environment are the master-influences of the organic world4 ,these have made all of us what we are4 ,these forces are still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives4 ,and he who truly understands these influences2 he who has decided how much to allow to each2 he who can regulate new forces as they arise1 or adjust them to the old1 so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate1 at another to counter act one another1 understands the rationale of personal development4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #bee4 ,december #bast4 ,it is the ,law of ,influence that ,,we ,,become ,,like ,,those ,,whom ,,we ,,habitually ,,admire4 ,through all the range of literature1 of history1 and biography this law presides4 ,men are all mosaics of other men4 ,there was a savour of ,david about ,jonathan and a savour of ,jonathan about ,david4 ,jean ,valjean1 in the masterpiece of ,victor ,hugo1 is ,bishop ,bienvenu risen from the dead4 ,metempsychosis is a fact4 ,the ,changed ,life1 p4 #ca4 ,december #bb;d4 ,can we shut our eyes to the fact that the religious opinions of mankind are in a state of flux8 ,and when we regard the uncertainty of current beliefs1 the war of creeds1 the havoc of inevitable as well as of idle doubt1 the reluctant abandonment of early faith by those who would cherish it longer if they could1 is it not plain that the one thing thinking men are waiting for is the introduction of ,law among the ,phenomena of the ,spiritual ,world8 ,when that comes we shall offer to such men a truly scientific theology4 ,and the ,reign of ,law will transform the whole ,spiritual ,world as it has already transformed the ,natural ,world4 ,natural ,law1 ,preface1 p4 ix4 ,december #bc;d4 ,we have ,truth in ,nature as it came from ,god4 ,and it has to be read with the same unbiassed mind1 the same open eye1 the same faith1 and the same reverence as all other ,revelation4 ,all that is found there1 whatever its place in ,theology1 whatever its orthodoxy or heterodoxy1 whatever its narrowness or its breadth1 we are bound to accept as ,doctrine from which on the lines of ,science there is no escape4 ,natural ,law1 ,preface1 p4 xi4 ,december #bdth4 ,in ,nature generally1 we come upon new ,laws as we pass from lower to higher kingdoms1 the old still remaining in force1 the newer ,laws which one would expect to meet in the ,spiritual ,world would so transcend and overwhelm the older as to make the analogy or identity1 even if traced1 of no practical use4 ,the new ,laws would represent operations and energies so different1 and so much more elevated1 that they would afford the true keys to the ,spiritual ,world4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #dg4 ,december #beth4 ,the visible is the ladder up to the invisible2 the temporal is but the scaffolding of the eternal4 ,and when the last immaterial souls have climbed through this material to ,god1 the scaffolding shall be taken down1 and the earth dissolved with fervent heat--not because it was base1 but because its work is done4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #eg4 ,december #bfth4 ,the natural man belongs essentially to this present order of things4 ,he is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal ,life4 ,but it is ,life of so poor a quality that it is not ,life at all4 ,he that hath not the ,son hath not ,life2 but he that hath the ,son hath ,life-- a new and distinct and supernatural endowment4 ,he is not of this world4 ,he is of the timeless state1 of ,eternity4 ,,it ,,doth ,,not ,,yet ,,appear ,,what ,,he ,,shall ,,be4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #hb4 ,december #bgth4 ,the gradualness of growth is a characteristic which strikes the simplest observer4 ,long before the word ,evolution was coined ,christ applied it in this very connection--,first the blade1 then the ear1 then the full corn in the ear4 ,it is well known also to those who study the parables of ,nature that there is an ascending scale of slowness as we rise in the scale of ,life4 ,growth is most gradual in the highest forms4 ,man attains his maturity after a score of years2 the monad completes its humble cycle in a day4 ,what wonder if development be tardy in the ,creature of ,eternity8 ,a ,christian's sun has sometimes set1 and a critical world has seen as yet no corn in the ear4 ,as yet8 ,as yet1 in this long ,life1 has not begun4 ,grant him the years proportionate to his place in the scale of ,life4 ,the time of harvest is ,,not ,,yet4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ib4 ,december #bhth4 ,salvation is a definite process4 ,if a man refuse to submit himself to that process1 clearly he cannot have the benefits of it4 ,as many as received ,him to them gave ,he power to become the sons of ,god4 ,he does not avail himself of this power4 ,it may be mere carelessness or apathy4 ,nevertheless the neglect is fatal4 ,he cannot escape because he will not4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #aji4 ,december #bith4 ,the end of ,salvation is perfection1 the ,christ-like mind1 character1 and life4 ,morality is on the way to this perfection2 it may go a considerable distance toward it1 but it can never reach it4 ,only ,life can do that4 4 4 4 ,morality can never reach perfection2 ,life ,,must4 ,for the ,life must develop out according to its type2 and being a germ of the ,christ-life1 it must unfold into ,a ,,christ4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #ach4 ,december #cjth4 ,perfect life is not merely the possessing of perfect functions1 but of perfect functions perfectly adjusted to each other1 and all conspiring to a single result1 the perfect working of the whole organism4 ,it is not said that the character will develop in all its fulness in this life4 ,that were a time too short for an ,evolution so magnificent4 ,in this world only the cornless ear is seen3 sometimes only the small yet still prophetic blade4 ,natural ,law1 p4 #abi4 ,december #cast4 ,the immortal soul must give itself to something that is immortal4 ,and the only immortal things are these3 ,now abideth faith1 hope1 love1 but the greatest of these is love4 ,some think the time may come when two of these three things will also pass away--faith into sight1 hope into fruition4 ,paul does not say so4 ,we know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come4 ,but what is certain is that ,love must last4 ,god1 the ,eternal ,god1 is ,love4 ,covet therefore that everlasting gift4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world1 pp4 #ed1 #ee4 ,henry ,drummond's ,works4 ,the ,programme of ,christianity4 ,a ,new ,address by ,henry ,drummond1 to be issued uniform with the previous booklets4 ,price1 #ce cents4 ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world4 ,leatherette1 gilt top4 ,price1 #ce cents4 ,illustrated ,edition1 cloth1 price1 #a4jj4 ,pax ,vobiscum4 ,the ,second of the ,series of which ,the ,greatest ,thing in the ,world is the ,first4 ,leatherette1 gilt top4 ,price1 #ce cents2 ,illustrated ,edition1 cloth1 #a4jj4 ,the ,changed ,life4 ,an ,address by ,henry ,drummond4 ,the ,third of the ,series4 ,gilt top1 leatherette4 ,price1 #ce cents4 ,natural ,law in the ,spiritual ,world1 ,by ,henry ,drummond1 ,f4,r4,s4,e41 ,f4,g4,s4 ,cloth1 red top1 title in gold1 #deh pp4 ,price1 #ge cents4 ,first3 ,a ,talk with ,boys4 ,an ,address delivered at ,glasgow to the ,boys' ,brigade4 ,paper cover1 #aj cents2 #a4jj per dozen2 leatherette1 silver edges1 #ce cents4 ,baxter's ,second ,innings4 ,a ,book for ,boys4 ,ready1 #fj cents4 ,author's ,only ,editions4 ,for sale by all booksellers1 or sent by mail on receipt of price4