, 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_.