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

“Senor,” said Brimblecombe, “the best way to punish oneself for doing ill seems to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God means you well is to find out whether He will help you to do well.”

    Westward Ho! chap. xxv.

Political Economy of the Future.  November 20

I can conceive a time when, by improved chemical science, every foul vapour which now escapes from the chimney of a manufactory, polluting the air, destroying the vegetation, shall be seized, utilised, converted into some profitable substance, till the black country shall be black no longer, the streams once more crystal clear, the trees once more luxuriant, and the desert, which man has created in his haste and greed, shall in literal fact once more blossom as the rose.  And just so can I conceive a time when by a higher civilisation, formed on a political economy more truly scientific, because more truly according to the will of God, our human refuse shall be utilised like our material refuse; when man as man, down to the weakest and most ignorant, shall be found (as he really is) so valuable that it will be worth while to preserve his health, to develop his capabilities, to save him alive, body, intellect, and character, at any cost; because men will see that a man is, after all, the most precious and useful thing on the earth, and that no cost spent on the development of human beings can possibly be thrown away.

    All Saints’ Day Sermons.  1870.

God’s Pleasure.  November 21

The world was not made for man: but man, like all the world, was made for God.  Not for man’s pleasure merely, not for man’s use, but for God’s pleasure all things are, and for God’s pleasure they were, created.

    All Saints’ Day Sermons.  1869.

The Hospital Nurse.  November 22

Fearless, uncomplaining, she “trusted in God and made no haste.”  She did her work and read her Bible; and read, too, again and again at stolen moments of rest, a book which was to her as the finding of an unknown sister—Longfellow’s “Evangeline.”

    Two Years Ago, chap. xxviii.

Let us learn to look on hospitals not as acts of charity, supererogatory benevolences of ours towards those to whom we owe nothing, but as confessions of sin, and worthy fruits of penitence; as poor and late and partial compensation for misery which we might have prevented.

    National Sermons.  1851.

No Work Lost.  November 23

If you lose heart about your work, remember that none of it is lost—that the good of every good deed remains and breeds and works on for ever, and that all that fails and is lost is the outside shell of the thing, which, perhaps, might have been better done; but better or worse has nothing to do with the real spiritual good which you have done to men’s hearts.

    Letters and Memories.  1862.

True Temperance.  November 24

What we all want is inward rest; rest of heart and brain; the calm, strong, self-contained, self-denying character, which needs no stimulants, for it has no fits of depression; which needs no narcotics, for it has no fits of excitement; which needs no ascetic restraints, for it is strong enough to use God’s gifts without abusing them; the character, in a word, which is truly temperate, not in drink and food merely, but in all desires, thoughts, and actions.

    Essays.  1873.

A Present Veil.  November 25

What is there in this world worth having without religion?  Do you not feel that true religion, even in its most imperfect stage, is not merely an escape from hell after death but the only real state for a man—the only position to live in in this world—the only frame of mind which will give anything like happiness here.  I cannot help feeling at moments—if there were no Christ, everything, even the very flowers and insects, and every beautiful object, would be hell now—dark, blank, hopeless.

    MS. Letter.  1843.

Cowardice.  November 26

There is but one thing which you have to fear in earth or heaven—being untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to God.  If you will not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak.  You are a coward; you desert God.

    True Words for Brave Men.

Blind Faith.  November 27

In Him—“The Father”—I can trust, in spite of the horrible things I see happen, in spite of the fact that my own prayers are not answered.  I believe that He makes all things work together for the good of the human race, and of me among the rest, as long as I obey His will.  I believe He will answer my prayer, not according to the letter, but according to the spirit of it; that if I desire good, I shall find good, though not the good I longed for.

    MS. Letter.  1862.

Small and Great.  November 28

Begin with small things—you cannot enter into the presence of another human being without finding there more to do than you or I or any soul will ever learn to do perfectly before we die.  Let us be content to do little if God sets us little tasks.  It is but pride and self-will which says, “Give me something huge to fight and I shall enjoy that—but why make me sweep the dust?”

    Letters and Memories.  1854.

True and False.  November 29

We must remember that dissatisfaction at existing evil (the feeling of all young and ardent minds), the struggle to escape from the “circumstance” of the evil world, has a carnal counterfeit—the love of novelty, and self-will, and self-conceit, which may thrust us down into the abysses of misrule and uncertainty; as it has done such men as Shelley and Byron; trying vainly every loophole, beating against the prison bars of an imperfect system; neither degraded enough to make themselves a fool’s paradise within it, nor wise enough to escape from it through Christ, “the door into the sheepfold,” to return when they will, and bring others with them into the serene empyrean of spiritual truth—truth which explains, and arranges, and hallows, and subdues everything.

    Letters and Memories.  1842.

The Mind of Christ.  November 30

How can we attain to the blessed and noble state of mind—the mind of Christ, who must needs be about His Father’s business, which is doing good?  Only by prayer and practice.  There is no more use in praying without practising than there is in practising without praying.  You cannot learn to walk without walking; no more can you learn to do good without trying to do good.

    Sermons for the Times.  1855.

SAINTS’ DAYS, FASTS, & FESTIVALS

NOVEMBER 1

All Saints’ Day

Commemoration of the Blessed Dead

“If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour,” said the Blessed One.  And if God honours His servants, shall not we honour them likewise?  We may not, as our forefathers did blindly, though lovingly, worship them as mediators and lesser gods, and pray to them instead of to their Father in heaven to whose throne of grace we may all come boldly through Christ Jesus, or believe that their relics will work miracles in our behalf, thus honouring the creature instead of the Creator.  This we may not do, but we may honour the Creator in His creature, and honour God in those who have lived godly and God-like lives; and when they have passed away from among us—souls endued by God with manifold virtues and precious gifts of grace—we may give thanks and say, These, O God, are the fruits of Thy Spirit.  Thou honourest them in heaven with Thy approving smile.  We will honour them on earth, not merely with our lips, but in our lives.  What they were we too might be, if we were as true as they to the inspiration of Thy Spirit.  Help us to honour their memories, as Thou and they would have us do, by following their example; by setting them before us, and not only them, but every holy and noble personage of whom we have ever heard, as dim likenesses of Christ—even as Christ is the likeness of Thee.  Amen.

    MS. Sermon.

NOVEMBER 30

St. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr

Form your own notions about angels and saints in heaven—as you will, . . . but bear this in mind: that if the saints in heaven live the everlasting life, they must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and of good works.  The everlasting life cannot be a selfish, idle life, spent only in individual happiness.

    Good News of God Sermons.

December

It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve,
I went sighing past the Church across the moorland dreary:
“Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave,
And the bells but mock the wailing sound, they sing so cheery.