his favourite doctrine, and one which he used
to defend, when at rare intervals he allowed himself to discuss any
subject, from the writings of his favourite theologian, Clement of
Alexandria.

Above all, Abbot Philamon stopped by stern rebuke any attempt to revile
either heretics or heathens. "On the Catholic Church alone," he used to
say, "lies the blame of all heresy and unbelief; for if she were but for
one day that which she ought to be, the world would be converted before
nightfall."

_Hypatia_, chap. xxx. 1852.

Danger of Thinking vaguely. January 13.

Watch against any fallacies in your ideas which may arise, not from
disingenuousness, but from allowing yourself in moments of feeling to
think vaguely, and not to attach precise meaning to your words. Without
any cold caution of expression, it is a duty we owe to God's truth, and
to our own happiness and the happiness of those around us, to think and
speak as correctly as we can. Almost all heresy, schism, and
misunderstandings, between either churches or individuals who ought to be
one, have arisen from this fault of an involved and vague style of
thought.

_MS._ 1842.

The Possession of Faith. January 14.

I don't want to possess a faith, I want a faith which will possess me.

_Hypatia_, chap. xvii. 1852.

The Eternal Life. January 15.

Eternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says and is and
does what prophets prophesied of Him that He would say and be and do. "I
am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. And let
him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will, let him take of the Water
of Life freely." For ever Christ calls to every anxious soul, every
afflicted soul, to every man who is ashamed of himself, and angry with
himself, and longs to live a gentler, nobler, purer, truer, and more
useful life, "Come, and live for ever the eternal life of righteousness,
holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is the one true
and only salvation bought for us by the precious blood of Christ our
Lord." Amen.

_Water of Life Sermons_. 1865

The Golden Cup of Youth. January 16.

Ah, glorious twenty-one, with your inexhaustible powers of doing and
enjoying, eating and hungering, sleeping and sitting up, reading and
playing! Happy are those who still possess you, and can take their fill
of your golden cup, steadied, but not saddened, by the remembrance that
for all th