Sunday, September 29, 2013

Family Likenesses

Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. Nature, that great tragic dramatist, knits us together by bone and muscle, and divides us by the subtler web of our brains; blends yearning and repulsion; and ties us by our heartstrings to the beings that jar us at every movement. We hear a voice with the very cadence of our own uttering the thoughts we despise; we see eyes — ah! so like our mother's — averted from us in cold alienation; and our last darling child startles us with the airs and gestures of the sister we parted from in bitterness long years ago. The father to who we owe our best heritage — the mechanical instinct, the keen sensibility to harmony, the unconscious skill of the modelling hand — galls us, and puts us to shame by his daily errors; the long-lost mother, whose face we begin to see in the glass as our own wrinkles come, once fretted our young souls with her anxious humors and irrational persistence."

— George Eliot, a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880)

Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Avenue of Sympathy

Here stands one of the noblest outlooks and entrances to your house. It is that avenue of sympathy by which you not only reach the common interests of mankind, but through some touch of fellow-feeling in yourself, enter into the faith of the faithful, the courage of the brave, the tenderness of the lover, the strength of the conqueror. Many a blessed revelation is given to the willing and waiting soul, but scarcely any that surpasses this, — the disclosures that sometimes come to us of the exquisite goodness in human hearts. Well for us, if we find out that goodness, because we have that in ourselves which is akin to it and calls it out. Well for us, even if it comes in response not to our sympathy, but to our defect and need, — the forgiveness of a pure heart that we have wronged falling upon us with its blessing, the help that answers our cry, the heart that takes upon itself our burden. Human help in our need, human forgiveness of our wrong-doing, human love in our loneliness : these are the sacraments through which, at their sweetest and purest, we feel a Divine help and forgiveness and love flowing into our souls.

— George S. Merriam (1843-1914)

The Harvest of Life

The harvest is life eternal. But eternal life does not simply mean a life that lasts forever. That is the destiny of the soul — all souls, bad as well as good. But the bad do not enter into this 'eternal life.' It is not simply the duration, but the quality of the life which constitutes its character of eternal. A spirit may live forever, yet not enter into this. And a man may live but five minutes the life of divine benevolence, or desire for perfectness; in those five minutes he has entered into the life which is eternal.

— Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853)

Friday, September 27, 2013

Acknowledging Envy

We, who are ordinary people, are apt to develop a discontent that runs into envy and jealousy, until it becomes bitter and hard, and that destroys not only our own happiness, but is exceedingly unjust towards those in the presence of whom we are thus discontented and envious. Suppose a person is handsomer than I am, has more brain power, more money, occupies a more distinguished position in society. For what is such a person responsible ? He did not make himself handsome. He did not earn the money which he inherited. He did not manufacture the brain power which has come from his ancestors. These things are conferred upon him. It is not out of spite to us, that he is handsomer or richer or better endowed in any way. It is no personal injury to us, on his part, that he possesses these things. He is only responsible for the use that he makes of these endowments ; and, therefore, his responsibility may be larger and more critical than ours. But there is something unspeakably mean and little-souled in being bitter, envious, spiteful toward a person, because he is better off in any way than we are.

— Minot J. Savage (1841-1918)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Sympathy In Little Things

We might see so much more beauty if we willed it. We might cause many unknown feelings to flower if we were not in such a hurry to feel strong ones. We miss in the swing of excitement many opportunities of giving sympathy in little things to those we love, which, if they had been used, would have added finer fancies, subtler and sweeter shades to our power of feeling. So many thoughts are just touched and laid aside, half thought and then forgotten, that it is pitiable how much is wasted in ourselves. We go through the meadows of our own hearts crushing with a careless step the flowers. There is no need to walk so fast.

— Stopford A. Brooke (1832-1916)

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Facing the Future

Faith in the future means that one believes in the possibilities of the future, that one believes these possibilities can be made real, and that one believes that the future is consistently related to the past and the present, so that intelligent and loyal endeavor now will bear fruit in a future that shall be better than what has gone before.  Faith in the future means that it is possible to make long-range plans and work happily for their fulfillment even though one may not live to see it.  Faith in the future means confidence in the long-term stability of the universe, so that what one generation dreams of another generation may work for and still later generations see accomplished.  … Whoever plants a tree, or founds a school, or endows a laboratory, or enshrines an ideal in imperishable words, has faith in the future.  Whoever teaches a child that honor is more important than money, or kindness than brute force, or public service than private gain, has faith in the future.  That faith is among the most powerful of all forces in human experience.  It is the dynamic behind all progress.  Without it, the race would sink back into apathy and the dull contentment of fancied security, avoiding the hazards which alone make possible any real advance.  … Faith in the future means courage, more than anything else – the courage which Barrie called “the lovely virtue,” the courage that greets “the unseen with cheer,” that walks out into the darkest night with a quiet cheerfulness that transforms the face of the world until even the night is light about us.

— Frederick May Eliot (born September 15, 1889)

Frederick May Eliot (1889-1958)

The Democratic Ideal

The democratic ideal, even in its present inadequate and half-developed form, has behind it the matchless energy of the divine will.  It may indeed suffer reverses, it may find itself betrayed by the half-hearted allegiance of timid souls, it may face the most serious difficulties in adjusting its program to new and unforeseen situations, it may have to fight for its very life against powers and principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places; but it cannot be overthrown or destroyed, so long as faith in our own highest ideals remains in the soul …  To doubt that is to doubt the very foundations of all civilized religious faith, to surrender one’s birthright, and sink below … into the dark and noisome pit from whence, through thousands of years of infinite and painful endeavor, humankind has slowly climbed.

— Frederick May Eliot (born September 15, 1889)

The Religion of a Citizen

The longer and more intimate my knowledge of … political and social lives, the more deeply impressed I have become with the critical importance of the part that the Church and religion must play in making popular government what it ought to be, and in vindicating it as the best kind of government that an intelligent people can establish.

The necessity for the infusion of the religious spirit into the prevailing morality, for the purpose of giving it life and persistent influence, is a fact that everyone who studies the life of a people from the standpoint of a responsible administrator of government must recognize.  There are doubtless many individuals who live a moral and upright life, who are not conscious of religious faith or feeling or fervor; but however this may be in exceptional cases, it is the influence of religion and its vivifying quality that keeps the ideals of people high, that consoles them in their suffering and sorrow, and brings their practices more nearly into conformity with their ideals.  

— William Howard Taft (born September 15, 1857)

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Devout Fellowship With God

It is impossible for us to make the duties of our lot minister to our sanctification without a habit of devout fellowship with God. This is the spring of all our life, and the strength of it. It is prayer, meditation, and converse with God, that refreshes, restores, and renews the temper of our minds, at all times, under all trials, after all conflicts with the world. By this contact with the world unseen we receive continual accesses of strength. As our day, so is our strength. Without this healing and refreshing of spirit, duties grow to be burdens, the events of life chafe our temper, employments lower the tone of our minds, and we become fretful, irritable, and impatient.

— Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892)

Our Inheritance

To an unperverted mind and heart, the earth is sweet; and it is a pure pleasure to have a part in handling, improving, and using this whole stock of things we call our inheritance, — the materials by which we are fed and clothed, sheltered and served: the grains and fruits, the leather and wool, the cotton and silk, the wood and iron, the silver and gold. And when we operate on these materials through the useful and fine arts, when we mix mind and matter so as to create new forms and combinations for use and beauty, both life and the world grow rich and full of interest.

— Charles G. Ames (1828-1912)

Saturday, September 7, 2013

A True Idea of Right

It is surprising how practical duty enriches the fancy and the heart, and action clears and deepens the affections. Indeed, no one can have a true idea of right, until he does it any genuine reverence for it, till he has done it often and with cost; any peace ineffable in it, till he does it always and with alacrity. Does any one complain, that the best affections are transient visitors with him, and the heavenly spirit a stranger to his heart? Oh, let him not go forth, on any strained wing of thought, in distant quest of them; but rather stay at home, and set his house in the true order of conscience and of their own accord the divinest guests will enter.

— James Martineau (1805-1900)

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Distinguishing Between Selfishness and Self-Love

Let us distinguish between selfishness and self-love. Self-love is good and necessary; it makes a man value his own being, keep himself from harm, care for what belongs to him, use his opportunities, provide for his own welfare. He may do all this with perfect regard for justice and goodwill. He must either take care of himself, or be taken care of by others, or perish. Self-love thus saves him from being a burden. But selfishness is self-love carried to that excess which makes one blind to the rights of others and willing to inflict injury upon them to his own supposed advantage.

— Charles G. Ames (1828-1912)