an.

_Lecture on Ancient Civilisation_.
1873.

The Worst Calamity. April 22.

The very worst calamity, I should say, which could befall any human being
would be this--to have his own way from his cradle to his grave; to have
everything he liked for the asking, or even for the buying; never to be
forced to say, "I should like that, but I cannot afford it. I should
like this, but I must not do it." Never to deny himself, never to exert
himself, never to work, and never to want--that man's soul would be in as
great danger as if he were committing great crimes.

_All Saints' Day Sermons_.

Men and Women. April 23.

"The Lord be with you, dearest lady," said Adrian Gilbert. "Strange how
you women sit at home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to
break our hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah! hech!
were it not for Scripture I should have thought that Adam, rather than
Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree."

_Westward Ho_! chap. xiii. 1855.

Faith in the Unseen. April 24.

He was not one of those "ungodly" men of whom David speaks in his Psalms,
who rob the widow and the fatherless. His morality was as high as that
of the average, his honour higher. But of "godliness" in its true
sense--of belief that any Being above cared for him, and was helping him
in the daily business of life: that it was worth while asking that
Being's advice, or that any advice would be given if asked for--of any
practical notion of a heavenly Father or a Divine educator--he was as
ignorant as thousands of persons who go to church every Sunday, and read
good books, and believe firmly that the Pope is Antichrist.

_Two Years Ago_, chap. i. 1856.

Death--Resurrection. April 25.

As we rose to go, my eye caught a highly-finished drawing of the
Resurrection painted above the place where the desk and faldstool and
lectern, holding an open missal book, stood. I should have rather
expected, I thought to myself, a picture of the Crucifixion. She seemed
to guess my thought, and said, "There is enough in an abode of heavy
hearts, and in daily labours among poverty and suffering, to keep in our
minds the Prince of Sufferers. We need rather to be reminded that pain
is not the law but the disease of our existence, and that it has been
conquered for us in body and soul by Him in whose eternity of bliss a few
years of sadness were but as a mote within the sunb