Heaven and hell--the spiritual world--are they merely invisible places in space which may become visible hereafter? or are they not rather the moral world of right and wrong? Love and righteousness--is not that the heaven itself wherein God dwells? Hatred and sin--is not that hell itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to God? _Water of Life Sermons_. The Awfulness of Life. May 16. Our hearts are dull, and hard, and light, God forgive us! and we forget continually what an earnest, awful world we live in--a whole eternity waiting for us to be born, and a whole eternity waiting to see what we shall do now we are born. Yes, our hearts are dull, and hard, and light. And therefore Christ sends suffering on us, to teach us what we always gladly forget in comfort and prosperity--what an awful capacity of suffering we have; and more, what an awful capacity of suffering our fellow-creatures have likewise. . . . We sit at ease too often in a fool's paradise, till God awakens us and tortures us into pity for the torture of others. And so, if we will not acknowledge our brotherhood by any other teaching, He knits us together by the brotherhood of suffering. _All Saints' Day Sermons_. 1871. Hope and Fear. May 17. Every gift of God is good, and given for our happiness, and we sin if we abuse it. To use your fancy to your own misery is to abuse it and to sin. The realm of the possible was given to man to _hope_ and not to _fear_ in. _Letters and Memories_. 1842. Cry of the Heart and Reason. May 18. A living God, a true God, a real God, a God worthy of the name, a God who is working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He has made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a God who satisfies not only the head but the heart, not only the logical intellect but the highest reason--that pure reason which is one with the conscience and moral sense! For Him we cry out, Him we seek, and if we cannot find Him we know no rest. _Water of Life Sermons_. 1867. Speaking the Truth in Love. May 19. Whenever we are tempted to say more than is needful, let us remember St. John's words (in the only sermon we have on record of his), "Little children, love one another," and ask God for His Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, which, instead of weakening a man's words, makes them all the stronger in the cause of truth, because they are spoken in love. How difficult it is to distinguish between the loving _tact_, which avoids giving offence to a weaker brother, and the fear of man, which bringeth a snare! _MS. Letter_. 1842. Peasant Souls. May 20. . . . Dull boors See deeper than we think, and hide within Those leathern hulls unfathomable truths, Which we amid thought's glittering mazes lose. They grind among the iron facts of life, And have no time for self-deception. _Saint's Tragedy_, Act iii. Scene ii. 1847. Death and Everlasting Life. May 21.