The Grace of Silence

Strong faith in its results tends to promote the grace of silence, by placing objects in their true position, and by assigning them their true value. To the natural mind all those things, which have a special relation to self, appear distorted and exaggerated. Indeed all things, whether they have a particular relation to self or not, inasmuch as they are perceived out of their true relations, are perceived incorrectly. The ordinary events and occurrences of life, as they are viewed in reference to this life alone, are too much magnified in importance. They expand themselves, in the mind’s eye, out of all just limits. Faith, on the contrary, views them in the light of eternity, which brings them to their true size. Events, therefore, which leave the man of faith in quietness of spirit, disturb and agitate the natural man, unloose the tongue of suspicion and complaint, and fill the world with his outcries. In the storm on the lake of Galilee, Christ was asleep in the vessel, while every thing around was filled with confusion and clamor. His disciples awoke him with the request, that he would interfere in their behalf. His reply was; “Why are ye fearful, oh, YE OF LITTLE FAITH? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” Matthew 8:26.

True faith is naturally followed by silence in regard to those trials and those interests, which are of a private and personal nature. It is so for the important reason, which has just been mentioned, namely, that it places objects in their true relation and assigns them their true value. And it is so for other reasons, which might be mentioned. When we are tempted and afflicted, it is natural for us to look for assistance and consolation somewhere. We are so constituted that we cannot well avoid it. And in the defect of faith, which attaches us to that which is unseen and spiritual, we turn and rest upon that, which is seen and sensible. We fill the ears of our families; and not contented with this, but looking every where for help except to Him who alone can give aid, we extend the voice of our complaints to every one, who is willing to hear. But it is very different with the person, who has faith; especially if it exists in a high degree. He has but little to say to men in his trials. He as naturally and confidingly goes to his heavenly Father, as the child, in its season of affliction goes to its earthly parent.

— edited from The Life of Faith (1852), Part 2, Chapter 14.

The Drop and the Ocean

Behold the vast, the sounding sea;
And tell me, can its boundless flow,
Great emblem of eternity,
A separation ever know,
From the small drops that with it go.

Oh no! The drops and sea are one;
And each from each existence take,
As to each other's arms they run;
And all their thirst of being slake,
In the great, unity they make.

And thus with thee, oh feeble man!
There is no reach, no power of art,
Which, variant from the heavenly plan,
Can give thee strength or life, apart
From life that flows in God's great heart.

Whate'er we call our own is Thine,
Oh, life of God! oh living sea!
We live, and with a life divine,
When our small drop flows into Thee,
Made one in heavenly unity.

— Christ in the Soul (1872) LXII.

Holy Deliberation

What is done hastily, is not likely to be done well. There is need, therefore, of HOLY DELIBERATION; especially when we consider, that the results of an eternity may depend on the movements of a single moment.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLI.

Eternity of Love

Oh LOVE! The life-power of my heart,
If all things else should die,
There's one thing, that can never part,
There's one thing ever nigh.

I look upon the worlds above;
Their light may all decay;
But there's eternal life in LOVE;
Love cannot pass away.

Oh sun, that in thy fading years,
May cease at last to shine,
Thou canst not whisper to my fears,
That such a lot is mine.

Oh no! the shining sun may fade,
And wither like a scroll;
But death is powerless to invade
The love-light of the soul.

—  Christ in the Soul (1872) XL.

Holy Love is a Gift of God

Holy beings are created after the divine model; but it is worthy of notice, here as elsewhere, that the existence, which stands for the model, is itself the creating power. — God is their Father. Man, in not being able to make himself, is not able to make that holy love, which is the center of himself. On the contrary, holy love is a gift, as divine in its source as it is divine in its nature. It is just as impossible for men to originate, by their own action, the principle of pure or holy love within them, as it is to originate their own existence, or the power of perception and memory. Pure love cannot be created on the basis of prudential calculations; nor can it be originated by any other human device. Device, calculation, cannot raise itself to that divine height. And the reason is, it is a constituent, something inherent and organic, something without which reason itself, in its pure and unbiased forms, could not have been brought into action; something which does not and cannot by any possibility exist, except as a nature. In God it is nature eternal; in all other holy beings it is nature given.

— A Treatise on Divine Union, Part 4, Chapter 4.

There Can Be No God Without Love

God, considered as the Infinite, or I AM, sustains a fixed and necessary relation to everything which is. His relation to space is realized and fulfilled in his omnipresence. His relation to duration finds its expression and fulfillment in his eternity. His relation, as an infinite and perfect being to objects of knowledge, is realized and fulfilled in his omniscience. His relation to percipient and sentient beings, to all beings that are susceptible of happiness, is corresponded to and completed by his love; or, what is the same thing, by his desire of their happiness. So that it may be said, that he is present to and envelopes time by his eternity, space by his omnipresence, all things knowable by his omniscience, and all percipient and sentient existences by his LOVE. And as there can be no God without eternity, no God without omniscience and omnipresence, so, still more truly and emphatically, there can be no God without love. Take  away  love, and then, in distinction from the infinity of his natural existence, nothing which constitutes God, remains; nothing to give birth to happy existences, nothing to protect them and to secure their happiness, nothing to give them confidence, nothing lovely, and nothing to be loved. Take away love from the divine nature, and what would remain would be either an infinite indifferent being, or an infinite Satan.

— A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 4, Chapter 2.

Consecration for All Time and Eternity

The consecration of ourselves to God must be made for ALL COMING TIME. It is true, that there may be specific consecrations of a modified character, restricted to particular objects and occasions, and limited also to definite periods. A person, for instance, may devote himself exclusively, for a limited time, to the one important object of erecting a place of public worship. And regarding him as giving to this one object all his powers of body and of mind, we may properly speak of him, in an imperfect or modified sense of the term, as CONSECRATED to this particular work. But it is quite obvious, that such instances of consecration are exceedingly different from the one under consideration; which is fundamental and universal in its character, and which would be inconsistent with itself, if it were applied to one ob­ject to the exclusion of others; which takes into view the very being and nature of the soul; which considers the principles of man's departure from God and also the principles involved in his restoration; which recognizes the full amount of God's immutable and infinite claims; and which, therefore, on the grounds of truth and rectitude, as well as of safety and of happiness, cannot be made for a less period than all time and eternity.

—edited from The Interior of Hidden Life (2nd edition 1844) Part 1, Chapter 4.

Reflections on the New Year

I.
HELD in their path of glory by the hand,
That rear'd all nature's bright and wondrous frame,
That made the sky, the ocean, and the land,
And all that dwell therein, whate'er their name;
Held by that wondrous hand of might and pow'r,
The distant stars their steady course have run,
The moon hath watch'd in her aerial tower,
Along his annual round hath march'd the sun,
Until his task once more, his Zodiac race, is done.

II.
Yes! Time's unwearied course hath borne us on;
Successively the rapid seasons pass'd;
Another twelve month's space is come and gone,
And a  New  Year upon the world is cast.
Time's noiseless wheel rolls on, and; oh how fast!
'Tis like the tide that rushes to the sea;
Uncounted things are on it — at the last,
Those of the earth shall perish, cease to be,
But souls, a spark of heaven, go to eternity.

III.
The earth, still subject to its ancient curse,
Hath felt its storms, and shook with thunder's dread,
And Death, to make its bosom populous,
Hath smitten down full many a weary head.
The young, the man of scatter'd locks and gray,
All ages to the grave's cold rest have gone,
The dwelling-place of silence and decay.
There dwells the worm; the serpent feeds upon
The soulless mass deformed, and twines the skeleton bone.

IV.
The living too, whose bosoms erst did beat
With promise high and unabated joy,
How many now in gloomy sorrow sit,
And constant woes their life and hopes annoy!
How many in the course of one short year,
Who love received, and love as warmly gave,
Now shed o'er sunder'd ties the burning tear!
Alas! earth's ties are often like the wave,
That brightly clasps the shore — then breaks, and seeks its
grave.

V.
See here a mother mourning o' er her son!
How desolate her soul! And seated there,
With countenance of deeper grief, is one,
New rob'd in widow's weeds. Into thin air
And blackness terrible hath sunk their light.
Oh! Happy they, when joys terrestrial fade,
Who rest on God's right arm and changeless might.
There's nothing firm of all things that are made,
But life shall wane to death, and substance change to shade.

VI.
Yes, there's a spirit of change in all things round,
Which shows itself, as year on year goes by;
Which at the last shall sink the solid ground,
Nor spare the brighter fabric of the sky;
Both heaven and earth shall be one cemetery.
Down from their home of light the stars shall fall,
The blaze, that lights the solar pathway, die,
While clouds and flame shall wrap this earthly ball,
Its  wither'd pomp depart, and fade its glory all.

VII.
Boast not, because these things have never been,
For we shall see them, though we see not now,
When rolls through heaven the final trumpet's din,
And lightnings bind the "seventh angel's brow."
Then months and New Years shall be o' er.
Ah, how That final. trump shall rock the land and sea!
Then shall the proud, majestic mountains bow,
The islands and the continents shall flee,
The solid earth go down, and time no more shall be.

VIII.
The years of earth shall pass; but heavenly years
Shall start upon their endless destiny.
The joys of earth shall perish; but no tears
Shall dim the brightness of the joys on high.
The scenes and things below shall fade away;
The brighter scenes of heaven shall be the same,
Without a blighting touch, without decay;
And all her hosts, in one sublime acclaim,
Shall pour their transports high, and shout the Saviour's name.

— The Religious Offering (1835).