perhaps unconscious
that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it. . . . Do not
fear being considered an enthusiast. What matter? But pray for _tact_,
the true tact which love alone can give, to prevent scandalising a weak
brother.

_Letters and Memories_. 1842.

Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad, if thou wilt:
Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven, And that thy last deed ere
the judgment-day.
When all's done, nothing's done. There's rest above--
Below let work be death, if work be love!

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act ii. Scene viii. 1847.

The Eternal Good. February 12.

"God hath showed thee what is good," . . . what is good in itself, and of
itself--the one very eternal and absolute good, which was with God and in
God and from God, before all worlds, and will be for ever, without
changing, or growing less or greater, eternally the same good--the good
which would be just as good and just and right and lovely and glorious if
there were no world, no men, no angels, no heaven, no hell, and God were
alone in His own abyss.

_Sermons for the Times_. 1855.

Awfulness of Words. February 13.

A difference in words is a very awful and important difference; a
difference in words is a difference in things. Words are very awful and
wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and wonderful of all
beings, Jesus Christ, THE WORD. He puts words into men's minds. He made
all things, and He made words to express those things. And woe to those
who use the wrong words about anything.

_Village Sermons_. 1848.

A Wise Woman. February 14.

What wisdom she had she did not pick off the hedge, like blackberries.
God is too kind to give away wisdom after that useless fashion. So she
had to earn her wisdom, and to work hard, and suffer much ere she
attained it. And in attaining she endured strange adventures and great
sorrows; and yet they would not have given her the wisdom had she not had
something in herself which gave her wit to understand her lessons, and
skill and courage to do what they taught her. There had been many names
for that something before she was born, there have been many names for it
since, but her father and mother called it the Grace of God.

_Unfinished Novel_. 1869.

Charity the one Influence. February 15.

The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and histories,
the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the spirit