All Saints' Day and Other SermonsKingsley, Charles
Religion
All Saints' Day and Other Sermons
Kingsley, Charles
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
For so only will he come to the day's end in that wholesome and manful
temper, contented if not cheerful, satisfied with the work he has had to
do, if not satisfied with the way in which he has done it, which will
leave his mind free to remember all his comforts, all his blessings, even
to those commonest of all blessings, which we are all too apt to forget,
just because they are as necessary as the air we breathe; which will show
him how much light there is, even on the darkest day.
He has not got this or that fine thing, it may be, for which he longed:
but he has at least his life, at least his reason, at least his
conscience, at least his God. Are not they enough to possess? Are not
they enough wherewith to lie down at night in peace, and rise to-morrow
to take what comes to-morrow, even as he took what came to-day? And will
he not be most fit to take what comes to-morrow like a Christian man,
whether it be good or evil, with his spirit braced and yet chastened, by
honest and patient labour, instead of being weakened and irritated by
idling over to-day, while he dreamed and fretted about to-morrow?
Ah! I fancy that I hear some one say--perhaps a woman--"So easy to
preach, but so difficult to practise. So difficult to think of one thing
at a time. So difficult not to plot, not to fret, with a whole family of
children dependent on you! What does the preacher know of a woman's
troubles? How many things she has to think of, day by day, not one of
which she dares forget--and yet can seldom or never, for all her
recollecting, contrive to get them all done? How can she help being
distracted by the thought of to-morrow? Can he feel for frail me? Does
he know what I go through?" Yes. I do know; and I wonder, and admire.
To me the sight of any poor woman managing her family respectably and
thriftily, is one of the most surprising sights on earth, as it is one of
the most beautiful sights on earth. How she finds time for it, wit for
it, patience for it, courage for it, I cannot conceive. I have wondered
often why many a woman does not lie down and die, for sheer weariness of
body and soul. I have fancied often that God must give some special
grace to all good mothers, to enable them to do all that they do, and
bear all they bear. But still, the women who do most, who bring up their
families best, are surely those who obey their Lord's command, who give
their whole souls to each day's work, and think as little as they can of
to-morrow. With them, surely, the true wisdom is, not to fret, not to
plot, to do the duty which lies nearest them, and leave the rest to God;
to get each week's bill paid, trusting to God to send money for the week
to come; to get their children every day to school; to correct in them
each fault as it shews itself, without looking forward too much to how
the child will turn out at last. For them, and for parents of all ranks,
the wisest plan, I believe, is to make no far-fetched plans for their
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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