r quiet
rooms, feeling safe, serene, even chilly, yet everywhere about us,
peacefully confined in all our furniture and belongings, is a mass of
inflammability, stored with gases, which at a touch are capable of
leaping into flame. I remember once being in a house in which a pile
of wood in a cellar had caught fire; there was a short delay, while
the hose was got out, and before an aperture into the burning room
could be made. I went into a peaceful dining-room, which was just
above the fire, and it was strangely appalling to see little puffs of
smoke fly off from the kindled floor, while we tore the carpets up and
flew to take the pictures down, and to know the room was all crammed
with vehement cells, ready to burst into vapour at the fierce touch of
the consuming element.

I saw once a vast bonfire of wood kindled on a grassy hill-top; it was
curiously affecting to see the great trunks melt into flame, and the
red cataract pouring so softly, so unapproachably into the air. It is
so with the minds of men; the material is all there, compressed,
welded, inflammable; and if the fire can but leap into our spirits
from some other burning heart, we may be amazed at the prodigal force
and heat that can burst forth, the silent energy, the possibility of
consumption.

I hold it to be of supreme value to each of us to try to introduce
this fire of the heart into our spirits. It is not like mortal fire,
a consuming, dangerous, truculent element. It is rather like the
furnace of the engine, which can convert water into steam--the
softest, feeblest, purest element into irresistible and irrepressible
force. The materials are all at hand in many a spirit that has never
felt the glowing contact; and it is our business first to see that the
elements are there, and then to receive with awe the fiery touch. It
must be restrained, controlled, guarded, that fierce conflagration;
but our joy cannot only consist of pure, clear, lambent, quiescent
elements. It must have a heart of flame.

XXIII

FAITH

We ought to learn to cultivate, train, regulate emotion, just as we
train other faculties. The world has hardly reached this point yet.
First man trains his body that he may be strong, when strength is
supreme. When almost the only argument is force, the man who is drawn
to play a fine part in the world must above everything be strong,
courageous, gallant, so that he may go to combat joyful and serene,
like a man inspired. Then