_Sermons for the Times_. 1855. Secular and Sacred. March 10. I grudge the epithet of "_secular_" to any matter whatsoever. But more; I deny it to anything which God has made, even to the tiniest of insects, the most insignificant grain of dust. To those who believe in God, and try to see all things in God, the most minute natural phenomenon cannot be secular. It must be divine, I say deliberately, divine, and I can use no less lofty word. _Town Geology_. 1871. Content or Happy? March 11. My friends, whether you will be the happier for any knowledge of physical science, or for any other knowledge whatsoever, I cannot tell. That lies in the decision of a higher Power than I; and, indeed, to speak honestly, I do not think that any branch of physical science is likely, at first at least, to make you happy. Neither is the study of your fellow-men. Neither is religion itself. We were not sent into the world to be happy, but to be right--at least, poor creatures that we are--as right as we can be, and we must be content with being right, and not happy. . . . And we shall be made truly wise if we be made content; content, too, not only with what we can understand, but content with what we do not understand--the habit of mind which theologians call (and rightly) faith in God, true and solid faith, which comes often out of sadness and out of doubt. _Lecture on Bio-geology_. 1869. Duty of Man to Man. March 12. Each man can learn something from his neighbour; at least he can learn this--to have patience with his neighbour, to live and let live. Peace! peace! Anything which is not _wrong_ for the sake of heaven-born Peace! _Town and Country Sermons_. 1861. Blessing of a True Friend. March 13. A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in the days of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our battle as we can. It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends: the mean and cowardly can never know what true friendship means. _Sermons on David_. 1866. True Heroines. March 14. What is the commonest, and yet the least remembered form of heroism? The heroism of an average mother. Ah! when I think of that broad fact I gather hope again for poor humanity, and this dark world looks bright, this diseased world looks wholesome to me once more, because, whatever else it is or is not full of, it is at least full of mothers. _Lecture on Heroism_. 1873. Secret Atheism. March 15.