Resting on the Great Providence
The lesson is for all of
us: the lesson of resting in the Lord, even while busily working on: the brain
thinking out, the hand reaching out, doing the most and best we can in all the
useful business of the world or the great tasks of happiness and love,—but, at
the centre of our busy living, the heart resting on the great Providence of
life, owning how little we ourselves can do—owning it not in fretful
helplessness, but in happy trust; and so, doing that little promptly,
faithfully, and gladly: sure that it must tell somehow and somewhere; and, for
the final outcome, resting in the large, slow, silent working of the Infinite
Life.
—
Brooke
Herford (born February 21, 1830)
The Many-Rayed Crown of Life
Dear Friends, this is a
word of encouragement for us, in the hardness which there is in all duty. Keep
on in it, endure,—and out of every cross of duty will come its special crown of
blessing. Hard dogged industry will brighten into happy activity. Stern truth
will strengthen life into fearless simplicity. Firm patience will beget a
quiet, immovable steadfastness. Cheerfulness—enforced at first—by and by
inspires a gracious contentment; and self-sacrifice—at first a conscious
struggle—loses itself in the self-forgetfulness of Love. In such ways as these
the daily crosses of duty change into the many-rayed crown of life.
—
Brooke
Herford (born February 21, 1830)
Beyond Fields and Globes
It is related by a peasant that he had persuaded himself
that beyond his fields there were no others, and when he happened to lose a cow
and was compelled to go in search of her, he was astonished at the great number
of fields beyond his own few acres. This must also be the case of many
theorists who have persuaded themselves that beyond this field or little globe
of earth there lie no other worlds — simply because they have not seen them.
—
Baruch
Spinoza (died February 21, 1677)
Schisms
Schisms do not originate in a love of
truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an
inordinate desire for supremacy. From all these considerations it is clearer
than the sun at noonday, that the true schismatics are those who condemn other
men's writings, and seditiously stir up the quarrelsome masses against their
authors, rather than those authors themselves, who generally write only for the
learned, and appeal solely to reason. In
fact, the real disturbers of the peace are those who, in a free state, seek to
curtail the liberty of judgment which they are unable to tyrannize over.
—
Baruch
Spinoza (died February 21, 1677)
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| Brooke Herford (1830-1903) Minister in England, 1851-1874 Minister, First Unitarian Society of Chicago, 1874-1881 Minister, Arlington Street Church, Boston, 1882-1892 Minister, Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead, 1893-1901 |
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