me new thing, for some
greater sensation, for some more startling sign. "Show us a sign from
heaven," is the incessant cry of the Pharisee and Scribe: and when the
appetite has been once created, it can never be appeased, but is always
set on some novelty more marvellous and startling than anything which
has preceded. Be content with a holy ministry which does not dazzle by
its fireworks, but sheds a steady sunshine on the sacred page.
Cultivate familiarity with the grand, solid works of our English
literature. Avoid the use of extravagant adjectives. Take an interest
in the games of children; in the common round and daily task of
servants and employes; in the toils and tears of working-girls; in the
struggling lot of the charwoman who scrubs your floors, and the lad who
cleans your boots. Do not be always gaping at the window for bands to
come down the street; but be on the pavement before your house with a
helping-hand and kindly word for the ordinary folk that labour and are
heavy-laden. It is remarkable that in all these there are tragedies
and comedies; the raw material for novels and romances; the characters
which fill the pages of a Shakespeare or George Eliot. All life is so
interesting; but we need eyes to see, and hearts to understand. There
has been no age greater than this; there is no part of the world more
full of God than yours; there is no reason why you should not see
Madonnas in the ordinary women, and Last Suppers in the ordinary meals,
and Holy Families in the ordinary groups around you--if only you have
the anointed eyes of a Raffaelle or a Leonardo de Vinci. If the world
seems common or unclean to you, the fault lies in your eyes that have
made it so.

_Let us not disparage ourselves_. We know our limitations; we are not
capable of working miracles--our best friends are well acquainted with
this, for no eyes are quicker than Love's. We are sparrows, not larks;
clay, not alabaster; deal, not mahogany. But if we cannot work
miracles, we can speak true, strong words about Jesus Christ; we can
bear witness to Him as the Lamb of God; we can urge men to repent and
believe the Gospel. The world would have been in a sorry plight if it
had depended entirely on its geniuses and miracle-workers. Probably it
owes less to them than to the untold myriads of simple, humble,
obscure, and commonplace people, whose names will never be recorded in
its roll-call, but whose lives have laid the foundations