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

The Heroical Rest.  September 14

Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already is to have more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things must find his account in being made ruler over many things.  That is the true and heroical rest which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God.  As for those who either in this world or in the world to come look for idleness, and hope that God will feed them with pleasant things, as it were with a spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call themselves saints and elect.

    Westward Ho! chap. vii.  1855.

Body and Soul.  September 15

Remember that St. Paul always couples with the resurrection and ascension of our bodies in the next life the resurrection and ascension of our souls in this life, for without that, the resurrection of our bodies would be but a resurrection to fresh sin, and therefore to fresh misery and ruin.

    All Saints’ Day Sermons.  1870.

Love in Absence.  September 16

Absence quickens love into consciousness.

    MS.
The baby sings not on its mother’s breast;
Nor nightingales who nestle side by side;
Nor I by thine: but let us only part,
Then lips which should but kiss, and so be still,
As having uttered all, must speak again.

    Sonnet.  1851.

Special Providence.  September 17

If I did not believe in a special Providence, in a perpetual education of men by evil as well as good, by small things as well as great, I could believe nothing.

    Letters and Memories.

Love of Work.  September 18

“Can you tell me, my pastor, what part of God’s likeness clings to a man longest and closest and best?  No?  Then I will tell you.  It is the love of employment.  God in heaven must create Himself a universe to work on and love.  And now we sons of Adam, the sons of God, cannot rest without our mundus peculiaris of some sort—our world subjective, as Doctor Musophilus has it.  But we can create too, and make our little sphere look as large as a universe.”

    MS. Novel.  1844.

Fret not.  September 19

Fret not, neither be anxious.  What God intends to do He will do.  And what we ask believing we shall receive.  Never let us get into the common trick of calling unbelief resignation, of asking and then, because we have not faith to believe, putting in a “Thy will be done” at the end.  Let us make God’s will our will, and so say Thy will be done.

    MS.  1843.

Peace!  Why these fears?
Life is too short for mean anxieties:
Soul! thou must work, though blindfold.

    Saint’s Tragedy, Act ii. Scene x.

Battle before Victory.  September 20

Whenever you think of our Lord’s resurrection and ascension, remember always that the background of His triumph is a tomb.  Remember that it is the triumph over suffering; a triumph of One who still bears the prints of the nails in His sacred hands and feet, and the wound of the spear in His side; like many a poor soul who has followed Him, triumphant at last, and yet scarred, and only not maimed in the hard battle of life.

    All Saints’ Day Sermons.  1870.

Night and Growth.  September 21

As in the world of Nature, so it is in the world of men.  The night is peopled not merely with phantoms and superstitions and spirits of evil, but under its shadow all sciences, methods, social energies, are taking rest, and growing, and feeding, unknown to themselves.

    Prose Idylls.  1850.

Passion.  September 22

Self-sacrifice!  What is love worth that does not show itself in action? and more, which does not show itself in passion in the true sense of that word: namely, in suffering? in daring, in struggling, in grieving, in agonising, and, if need be, in dying for the object of its love?  Every mother will give but one answer to that question.

    Westminster Sermons.  1870.

Worth of Beauty.  September 23

It is a righteous instinct which bids us welcome and honour beauty, whether in man or woman, as something of real worth—divine, heavenly, ay, though we know not how, in a most deep sense Eternal; which makes our reason give the lie to all merely logical and sentimental maunderings of moralists about “the fleeting hues of this our painted clay;” and tell men, as the old Hebrew Scriptures told them, that physical beauty is the deepest of all spiritual symbols; and that though beauty without discretion be the jewel of gold in the swine’s snout, yet the jewel of gold it is still, the sacrament of an inward beauty, which ought to be, perhaps hereafter may be, fulfilled in spirit and in truth.

    Hypatia, chap. xxvi.  1852.

Empty Profession.  September 24

What is the sin which most destroys all men and nations?  High religious profession, with an ungodly, selfish life.  It is the worst and most dangerous of all sins; for it is like a disease which eats out the heart and life without giving pain, so that the sick man never suspects that anything is the matter with him till he finds himself, to his astonishment, at the point of death.

    National Sermons.  1851.

True Poetry.  September 25

Let us make life one poem—not of dreams or sentiments—but of actions, not done Byronically as proofs of genius, but for our own self-education, alone, in secret, awaiting the crisis which shall call us forth to the battle to do just what other people do, only, perhaps, by an utterly different self-education.  That is the life of great spirits, after, perhaps, many many years of seclusion, of silent training in the lower paths of God’s vineyard, till their hearts have settled into a still, deep, yet swift current, and those who have been faithful over a few things are made rulers over many things.

    MS. Letter.  1842.

Office of the Clergy.  September 26

There is a Christian as well as political liberty quite consistent with High Church principles, which makes the clergy our teachers—not the keepers of our consciences but of our creeds.

    Letters and Memories.  1842.

Opinions are not Knowledge.  September 27

. . . As to self-improvement, the true Catholic mode of learning is to “prove all things,” as far as we can, without sin or the danger of it, to “hold fast that which is good.”  Let us never be afraid of trying anything new, learnt from people of different opinions to our own.  And let us never be afraid of changing our opinions.  The unwillingness to go back from once declared opinion is a form of pride which haunts some powerful minds: but it is not found in great childlike geniuses.  Fools may hold fast to their scanty stock through life, and we must be very cautious in drawing them from it—for where can they supply its place?

    Letters and Memories.  1843.

The Worst Punishment.  September 28