November 1st. All around us Christians are wearing themselves out in
trying to be better. The amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the
hearts of unnumbered thousands of men and women in whom we should never
suspect it; among the wise and thoughtful; among the young and gay, who
seldom assuage and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most
wonderful and touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed,
but more light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very
real energies already there. Pax Vobiscum, p. 14.
November 2d. Men sigh for the wings of a dove, that they may fly away and
be at Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is
WITHIN YOU." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the
bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men.
Hence, be lowly. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30.
November 3d. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy.
Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who does
what is right has the kingdom of God within him. Any boy who, instead of
being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has the kingdom of
God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy because he does
what is right, has the kingdom of God within him. The kingdom of God is
not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange religious
experiences: the kingdom of God is doing what is right--living at peace
with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. First, p. 11.
November 4th. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be
hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be meek. He who is without
expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is self-evident that
these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man are really above all
other men, above all other things. Pax Vobiscum, p. 30.
November 5th. Keep religion in its place, and it will take you straight
through life, and straight to your Father in heaven when life is over.
But if you do not put it in its place, you may just as well have nothing
to do with it. Religion out of its place in a human life is the most
miserable thing in the world. There is nothing that requires so much to
be kept in its place as religion, and its place is what? second? third?
"First." Boys, carry that home with you today--FIRST the kingdom of God.
Make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that the very
first thing. First, pp. 15, 16.
November 6th. The change we have been striving after is not to be
produced by any more striving after. It is to be wrought upon us by the
moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud
bursts, and the fruit reddens under the cooperation of influences from
the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under invisible
pressures from without. The Changed Life, p. 21.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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