rbid him not."

_Sermons_.

The Hopes of Old Age. March 17.

Christianity alone deprives old age of its bitterness, making it the gate
of heaven. Our bodies will fade and grow weak and shapeless, just when
we shall not want them, being ready and in close expectation of that
resurrection of the flesh which is the great promise of Christianity (no
miserable fancies about "pure souls" escaped from matter, but)--of
bodies, _our_ bodies, beloved, beautiful, ministers to us in all our
joys, sufferers with us in all our sorrows--yea, our very own selves
raised up again to live and love in a manner inconceivable from its
perfection.

_MS._ 1842.

. . . No! I can wait:
Another body!--Ah, new limbs are ready,
Free, pure, instinct with soul through every nerve,
Kept for us in the treasuries of God!

_Santa Maura_. 1852.

The Highest Study for Man, March 18.

Man is _not_, as the poet said, "the noblest study of mankind." God is
the noblest study of man, and Him we can study in three ways. 1st. From
His image as developed in Christ the Ideal, and in all good men--great
good men. 2dly. From His works. 3dly. From His dealings in history;
this is the real philosophy of history.

_Letters and Memories_. 1842.

Eclecticism. March 19.

An eclectic, if it mean anything, means this--one who in any branch of
art or science refuses to acknowledge Bacon's great law, that "Nature is
only conquered by obeying her;" who will not take a full and reverent
view of the whole mass of facts with which he has to deal, and from them
deducing the fundamental laws of his subject, obey them whithersoever
they may lead; but who picks and chooses out of them just so many as may
be pleasant to his private taste, and then constructs a partial system
which differs from the essential ideas of Nature in proportion to the
number of facts which he has determined to discard.

_Miscellanies_. 1849.

Duty. March 20.

Duty, be it in a small matter or a great, is duty still; the command of
Heaven; the eldest voice of God. And it is only they who are faithful in
a few things who will be faithful over many things; only they who do
their duty in everyday and trivial matters who will fulfil them on great
occasions.

_Sermons for the Times_. 1855.

The Great Unknown. March 21.

"Brother," said the abbot, "make ready for me the divine elements, that I
may consecrate them." And he asking the reason therefo