and hail, snow and vapour, wind and storm,
fulfil God's word, who hath made them sure for ever and ever, and given
them a law which shall not be broken. But above them; above the divine
and wonderful order of the material universe, and the winds which are
God's angels, and the flames of fire which are His messengers; above all,
the prophets and apostles have caught sight of another divine and
wonderful order of _rational_ beings, of races loftier and purer than
man--angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and
powers, fulfilling God's will in heaven as it is not, alas! fulfilled on
earth.

_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1867.

True Resignation. September 30.

. . . Christianity heightens as well as deepens the human as well as the
divine affections. I am happy, for the less hope, the more faith. . . .
God knows what is best for us; we do not. Continual resignation, at last
I begin to find, is the secret of continual strength. "Daily _dying_,"
as Boehmen interprets it, is the path of daily _living_. . . .

_Letters and Memories_. 1843.

SAINTS' DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS.

SEPTEMBER 21.
St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist, and Martyr.

There is something higher than happiness. There is blessedness; the
blessedness of being good and doing good, of being right and doing right.
That blessedness we may have at all times; we may be blest even in
anxiety and in sadness; we may be blest, even as the martyrs of old were
blest, in agony and death.

_Water of Life Sermons_.

SEPTEMBER 29.
Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.

The eternal moral law which held good for the sinless Christ, who, though
He were a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered,
must hold good of you and me, and all moral and rational beings--yea, for
the very angels in heaven. They have not sinned. That we know; and we
do not know that they have ever suffered. But this at least we know,
that they have submitted. They have obeyed, and have given up their own
wills to be ministers of God's will. In them is neither self-will nor
selfishness; and, therefore, by faith, that is, by trust and loyalty,
they stand. And so, by consenting to lose their individual life of
selfishness, they have saved their eternal life in God, the life of
blessedness and holiness, just as all evil spirits have lost their
eternal life by trying to save their selfish life and be something in
themselves and of themse