ible done with the least expenditure of power, the least jar and
obstruction, the least wear and tear. And the secret of thrift is
knowledge. In proportion as you know the laws and nature of a subject,
you will be able to work at it easily, surely, rapidly, successfully,
instead of wasting your money or your energies in mistaken schemes,
irregular efforts, which end in disappointment and exhaustion.

_Lecture on Thrift_. 1869.

Revelations. August 14.

Only second-rate hearts and minds are melancholy. When we become like
little children, our very playfulness tells that we are _seeing deep_,
when we see that God is love in His _works_ as well as in Himself, and we
look at Nature as a baby does, as a beautiful mystery which we scarcely
wish to solve. And therefore deep things, which the intellect in vain
struggles after, will reveal themselves to us.

_MS._ 1842.

Christ comes in many ways. August 15.

Often Christ comes to us in ways in which the world would never recognise
Him--in which perhaps neither you nor I shall recognise _Him_; but it
will be enough, I hope, if we but hear His message, and obey His gracious
inspiration, let Him speak through whatever means He will. He may come
to us by some crisis in our life, either for sorrow or for bliss. He may
come to us by a great failure; by a great disappointment--to teach the
wilful and ambitious soul that not in _that_ direction lies the path of
peace; or He may come in some unexpected happiness to teach that same
soul that He is able and willing to give abundantly beyond all that we
can ask or think.

_MS. Sermon_. 1874.

Lesson of the Cross. August 16.

On the Cross God has sanctified suffering, pain, and sorrow, and made
them holy; as holy as health and strength and happiness are.

_National Sermons_. 1851.

The Ideal Unity. August 17.

"Oh, make us one." All the world-generations have but one voice! "How
can we become One? at harmony with God and God's universe! Tell us this,
and the dreary, dark mystery of life, the bright, sparkling mystery of
life, the cloud-chequered, sun-and-shower mystery of life, is solved! for
we shall have found one home and one brotherhood, and happy faces will
greet us wherever we move, and we shall see God! see Him everywhere, and
be ready to wait for the Renewal, for the Kingdom of Christ perfected! We
came from Eden, all of us: show us how we may return, hand in hand,
husband and