thing that man will ever invent will absolve him from
the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is
righteous, holy as God is holy.

_Sermons on David_. 1866.

Happiness. February 2.

God has not only made things beautiful; He has made things happy;
whatever misery there is in the world there is no denying that. Misery
is the exception; happiness is the rule. No rational man ever heard a
bird sing without feeling that the bird was happy, and that if God made
that bird He made it to be happy, and He takes pleasure in its happiness,
though no human ear should ever hear its song, no human heart should ever
share in its joy.

_All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871.

A Dream of the Future. February 3.

God grant that the day may come when in front of the dwellings of the
poor we may see real fountains--not like the drinking-fountains, useful
as they are, which you see here and there about the streets, with a tiny
dribble of water to a great deal of expensive stone, but real fountains,
which shall leap, and sparkle, and plash, and gurgle, and fill the place
with life and light and coolness; and sing in the people's ears the
sweetest of all earthly songs--save the song of a mother over her
child--the song of "The Laughing Water."

_The Air Mothers_. 1872.

Bondage of Custom. February 4.

Strive all your life to free men from the bondage of _custom_ and _self_,
the two great elements of the world that lieth in wickedness.

_MS. Letter_. l842.

Henceforth let no man peering down
Through the dim glittering mine of future years
Say to himself, "Too much! this cannot be!"
To-day and custom wall up our horizon:
Before the hourly miracle of life
Blindfold we stand, and sigh, as though God were not.

_Saint's Tragedy_, Act i. Scene ii.
1847.

The Childlike Mind. February 5.

There comes a time when we must _narrow_ our sphere of thought much, that
we may _truly enlarge_ it! we must, _artificialised_ as we _have_ been,
return to the rudiments of life, to children's pleasures, that we may
find easily, through their transparent simplicity, spiritual laws which
we may apply to the more intricate spheres of art and science.

_MS. Letter_. 1842.

Unselfish Prayer. February 6.

The Lord's Prayer teaches that we are members of a family, when He tells
us to pray not "_My_ Father" but "Our Father;" not "_my_ soul be saved,"
but "Thy kingdom come;" not "give