Daily Thoughts: selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife

Make a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, to lie down at night without being able to say, I have made one human being at least a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day.  You will find it easier than you think, and pleasanter.

    Sermons for the Times.  1855.

Self-control.  April 13

A well-educated moral sense, a well-educated character, saves from idleness and ennui, alternating with sentimentality and excitement, those tenderer emotions, those deeper passions, those nobler aspirations of humanity, which are the heritage of the woman far more than of the man, and which are potent in her, for evil or for good, in proportion as they are left to run wild and undisciplined, or are trained and developed into graceful, harmonious, self-restraining strength, beautiful in themselves, and a blessing to all who come under their influence.

    Lecture on Thrift.  1869.

Women and Novels.  April 14

Novels will be read; but that is all the more reason why women should be trained, by the perusal of a higher, broader, deeper literature, to distinguish the good novel from the bad, the moral from the immoral, the noble from the base, the true work of art from the sham which hides its shallowness and vulgarity under a tangled plot and a melodramatic situation.  They should learn—and that they can only learn by cultivation—to discern with joy and drink in with reverence, the good, the beautiful, and the true, and to turn with the fine scorn of a pure and strong womanhood from the bad, the ugly, and the false.

    Lecture on Thrift.  1869.

Expect Much.  April 15

Expect great things from God, and also expect the least things, for the great test of faith is shown about the least matters.  People will believe their soul is sure to be saved who have not the heart to expect that God will take away some small burden.

    MS. Letter.  1842.

What is Theology?  April 16

Theology signifies the knowledge of God as He is.  And it is dying out among us in these days.  Much of what is called theology now is nothing but experimental religion, which is most important and useful when it is founded on the right knowledge of God, but which is not itself theology.  For theology begins with God, but experimental religion, right or wrong, begins with a man’s own soul.

    Discipline and other Sermons.

Sweetness and Light.  April 17

Ah, that we could believe that God is love, and that he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him!  Then we should have no need to be told to cultivate sweetness and light, for they would seem to us the only temper which could make life tolerable in any corner of the universe.

    Essay on the Critical Spirit.  1871.

The Contemplative Life.  April 18

“Woman is no more capable than man of living on mere contemplation.  We must have an object to whom we may devote the fruits of thought, and unless we have a real one in active life we shall be sure to coin one for ourselves, and spend our spirits on a dream.”

“True, true,” chimed in the counsellor, “spirit is little use without body, and a body it will find; and therefore, unless you let people’s brains grow healthy plants, they will grow mushrooms.”

    MS. unfinished Story.  1843.

Sudden Death.  April 19

“What better can the Lord do for a man, than take him home when he has done his work?”

“But, Master Yeo, a sudden death?”

“And why not a sudden death, Sir John?  Even fools long for a short life and a merry one, and shall not the Lord’s people pray for a short death and a merry one?  Let it come as it will to old Yeo!”

    Westward Ho! chap. xxxii.  1855.

Prayer and Praise.  April 20

Pray night and day, very quietly, like a little weary child, to the good and loving God, for everything you want, in body as well as soul—the least thing as well as the greatest.  Nothing is too much to ask God for—nothing too great for Him to grant: glory be to Thee, O Lord!  And try to thank Him for everything . . .  I sometimes feel that eternity will be too short to praise God in, if it was only for making us live at all!  And then not making us idiots or cripples, or even only ugly and stupid!  What blessings we have!  Let us work in return for them—not under the enslaving sense of paying off an infinite debt, but with the delight of gratitude, glorying that we are God’s debtors.

    Letters.  1843.

The Divine Spark.  April 21

Man?  I am a man, thou art a woman—not by reason of bones and muscles, nerves and brain, which I have in common with apes, and dogs, and horses—I am a man, thou art a man or woman, not because we have a flesh, God forbid! but because there is a spirit in us, a divine spark and ray which nature did not give, and which nature cannot take away.  And therefore, while I live on earth, I will live to the spirit, not to the flesh, that I may be indeed a man.

    Lecture on Ancient Civilisation.
    1873.

The Worst Calamity.  April 22

The very worst calamity, I should say, which could befall any human being would be this—to have his own way from his cradle to his grave; to have everything he liked for the asking, or even for the buying; never to be forced to say, “I should like that, but I cannot afford it.  I should like this, but I must not do it.”  Never to deny himself, never to exert himself, never to work, and never to want—that man’s soul would be in as great danger as if he were committing great crimes.

    All Saints’ Day Sermons.

Men and Women.  April 23

“The Lord be with you, dearest lady,” said Adrian Gilbert.  “Strange how you women sit at home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking!  Ah! hech! were it not for Scripture I should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree.”

    Westward Ho! chap. xiii.  1855.

Faith in the Unseen.  April 24

He was not one of those “ungodly” men of whom David speaks in his Psalms, who rob the widow and the fatherless.  His morality was as high as that of the average, his honour higher.  But of “godliness” in its true sense—of belief that any Being above cared for him, and was helping him in the daily business of life: that it was worth while asking that Being’s advice, or that any advice would be given if asked for—of any practical notion of a heavenly Father or a Divine educator—he was as ignorant as thousands of persons who go to church every Sunday, and read good books, and believe firmly that the Pope is Antichrist.

    Two Years Ago, chap. i.  1856.

Death—Resurrection.  April 25

As we rose to go, my eye caught a highly-finished drawing of the Resurrection painted above the place where the desk and faldstool and lectern, holding an open missal book, stood.  I should have rather expected, I thought to myself, a picture of the Crucifixion.  She seemed to guess my thought, and said, “There is enough in an abode of heavy hearts, and in daily labours among poverty and suffering, to keep in our minds the Prince of Sufferers.  We need rather to be reminded that pain is not the law but the disease of our existence, and that it has been conquered for us in body and soul by Him in whose eternity of bliss a few years of sadness were but as a mote within the sunbeam’s blaze.”

    MS. unfinished Story. l843.

Woman’s Work.  April 26

Woman is the teacher, the natural and therefore divine guide, purifier, inspirer of man.

    MS.

Passion—Easter—Ascension.  April 27

Good Friday, Easter Day, and Ascension, are set as great lights in the firmament of the spiritual year;—to remind us that we are not animals born to do what we like, and fulfil the simple lusts of the flesh—but that we are rational moral beings, members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, and that, therefore, like Christ, we must die in order to live, stoop in order to conquer.  They remind us that honour must grow out of humility; that freedom must grow out of discipline; that sure conquest must be born of heavy struggles; righteous joy out of righteous sorrow; pure laughter out of pure tears; true strength out of the true knowledge of our own weakness; sound peace of mind out of sound contrition.