s.

_Sermons_.

May.

Is it merely a fancy that we are losing that love for Spring which among
our old forefathers rose almost to worship? That the perpetual miracle
of the budding leaves and the returning song-birds awakes no longer in us
the astonishment which it awoke yearly among the dwellers in the old
world, when the sun was a god who was sick to death each winter, and
returned in spring to life, and health, and glory; when Freya, the
goddess of youth and love, went forth over the earth while the flowers
broke forth under her tread over the brown moors, and the birds welcomed
her with song? To those simpler children of a simpler age winter and
spring were the two great facts of existence; the symbols, the one of
death, the other of life; and the battle between the two--the battle of
the sun with darkness, of winter with spring, of death with life, of
bereavement with love--lay at the root of all their myths and all their
creeds. Surely a change has come over our fancies! The seasons are
little to us now!

_Prose Idylls_.

Past and Present. May 1.

Now see the young spring leaves burst out a-maying,
Fill with their ripening hues orchard and glen;
So though old forms pass by, ne'er shall their spirit die,
Look! England's bare boughs show green leaf again.

_Poems_. 1849.

The Earth is the Lord's. May 2.

The earth is holy! Can there be a more glorious truth to carry out--one
which will lead us more into all love and beauty and purity in heaven and
earth? One which must have God's light of love shining on it at every
step. God gives us souls and bodies exquisitely attuned for this very
purpose--the aesthetic faculty, our sensibilities to the beautiful. All
events of life, all the workings of our hearts, should point to this one
idea. As I walk the fields, the trees and flowers and birds, and the
motes of rack floating in the sky, seem to cry to me: "Thou knowest us!
Thou knowest we have a meaning, and sing a heaven's harmony by night and
day! Do us justice! Spell our enigma, and go forth and tell thy fellows
that we are their brethren, that their spirit is our spirit, their
Saviour our Saviour, their God our God!"

_Letters and Memories_. 1842.

The Great Question. May 3.

Is there a living God in the universe, or is there not? That is the
greatest of all questions. Has our Lord Jesus Christ answered it, or has
He not?

_Water of Life Sermons_. 1866.