Again he paused--then went on--"Yes--for even in love, that purest
and most elevating of human emotions, the Soul must have its way
rather than the Body. Loss of the 'Soul' in love, means that love
then becomes the mere corpse of itself, and must needs decay with
all other such dust-like things. In every sentiment, in every
thought, in every hope, in every action, let us find the 'Soul,' and
never let it go! For without it, no great deed can be done, no
worthy task accomplished, no life lived honourably and straightly in
the sight of God. It shall profit us nothing to be famous, witty,
wealthy, or admired, if we are mere stuffed figures of clay without
the 'breath of God' as our animating life principle. The simple
peasant, who has enough 'soul' in him to reverently watch the sunset
across the hills, and think of God as the author of all that
splendour, is higher in the spiritual scale than the learned scholar
who is too occupied with himself and his own small matters to notice
whether it is a sunset or a house on fire. The 'soul' in a man
should be his sense, his sight, his touch, his very inmost and
dearest centre,--the germ of all good,--the generator of all peace
and hope and happiness. It is the one and only thing to foster,--the
one and only thing to save,--the only part of man which, belonging
as it does to God, God will require again. Some of you here present
to-day will perhaps think for a little while on what I have said
when you leave this church,--and others will at once forget it,--but
think, forget, or remember as you choose, the truth remains, that
all of you, young and old, rich and poor, are endowed in your own
selves with the 'making of an angel.' The 'Soul' within you, which
you may elect to keep or to lose, is the infant of Heaven. It
depends on you for care,--for sustenance;--it needs all your work
and will to aid it in growing up to its full stature and perfection.
It shall profit you nothing if you gain the whole world, and at
death have naught to give to your Maker but crumbling clay. Let the
Angel be ready,--the 'Soul' in you prepared, and full-winged for
flight! According to the power and purity with which you have
invested and surrounded it, will be its fate. If you have
voluntarily checked and stunted its aspirations, even so checked and
stunted must be its next probation,--but if you have faithfully done
your best to nourish it with loving thoughts and noble aims,--if you
have given it room to expand and shine forth with all its own
original God-born radiance, then will its ascension to a higher
sphere of action and attainment be attended with unimaginable joy
and glory. Let the world go, rather than lose the Divine Light
within you! For that Light will, and must, attract all that is worth
knowing, worth loving and worth keeping in our actual environment.
The rest can be well spared,--whether it be money, position,
notoriety or social influence,--for none of these things last,--none
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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