Do you know it is not necessary to die to descend into hell?

Do you know it is not necessary to die to descend into hell and to feel its despair and misery? To look at life and the future as you do, is to descend step by step into torment. To use your reason is right and necessary; but you are now unreasonable, and rejecting the light. I warn you that if you persist in shutting it out, you will lose it.

Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886

God's laws are immutable

God's laws are immutable, and we only learn to adjust ourselves to them by life's solemn lessons.

Passive Resignation

Thy brothers, they are mortal, they must tread

Ofttimes in rough, hard ways, with bleeding feet;

Must fight with dragons, must bewail their dead,

And fierce Apollyon face to face must meet.

Was God, then, kinder unto thee than them,

thou whose little life was but a span?

Ah, think it not ! In all his diadem

No star shines brighter than the kingly man

Who nobly earns whatever crown he wears,

Who grandly conquers, or as grandly dies,

And the white banner of his manhood bears

Through all the years uplifted to the skies!

What lofty paeans shall the victor greet!

What crown resplendent for his brow be fit!

O child, if earthly life be bitter-sweet,

Hast thou not something missed in missing it?

Julia C. R. Dorr

TO A FRIEND AFTER THE LOSS OF A CHILD

When on my ear your loss was knelled,

And tender sympathy upburst,

A little spring from memory welled

Which once had quenched my bitter thirst;

And I was fain to bear to you

A portion of its mild relief,

That it might be as cooling dew

To steal some fever from your grief.

After our child's untroubled breath

Up to the Father took its way,

And on our home the shade of death

Like a long twilight haunting lay,

And friends came round with us to weep

The little spirit's swift remove—

This story of the Alpine sheep

Was told to us by one we love.

They, in the valley's sheltering care,

Soon crop their meadow's tender prime;

And when the sod grows brown and bare,

The shepherd strives to make them climb

To any shelves of pasture green

That hang along the mountain side,

Where grass and flowers together lean,

And down through mists the sunbeams glide.

But nought can lure the timid things

The steep and rugged path to try,

Though sweet the shepherd call and sing,

And seared below the pastures lie—

Till in his arms their lambs he takes,

Along the dizzy verge to go;

When, heedless of the rifts and breaks,

They follow on o'er rock and snow.

And in those pastures lifted fair,

More dewy soft than lowland mead,

The shepherd drops his tender care,

And sheep and lambs together feed.

This parable, by Nature breathed,

Blew on me as the south wind free

O'er frozen brooks that float unsheathed

From icy thraldom to the sea.

A blissful vision through the night

Would all my happy senses sway,

Of the Good Shepherd on the height,

Or climbing up the starry way,

Holding our little lamb asleep,

And, like the burden of the sea,

Sounding that voice along the deep,

Saying, Arise, and follow me!

In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion,

By guardian angels led,

Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,


He lives whom we call dead.

A poem by Mrs James Russell Lowell 

(Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886)

This is the only test you require

A faith lived rather than spoken, filling the soul with joy and peace in believing—must win the world.

Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886

Your five talents becoming ten

It is first to conquer yourself; then to develop and use wisely your physical, intellectual, and spiritual being. Do this, and you will find your sphere of influence widening, your five talents become ten.

Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886

There is no legacy like the example of a holy life.

We can no more develop spiritual powers without use and exercise than we can the physical. There is no virtue in being patient if our patience is never tried; cheerful if we are not tempted to be gloomy. It is the little words we speak, the little thought we think, the little thing we do or leave undone, the little moments we waste or use wisely, the little temptations, which we yield to or overcome—the little things of every day that make or mar our future life.

Of course, we shall fail sometimes, but we must see to it that we rise from every fall with a renewed spirit and stronger will, determined to win a blessing from every foe. Be peaceful and joyous; consecrate the simplest duties of every day; fill your life with earnest endeavour and perfect trust, and no matter how narrow and painful it may seem to you when it is ended, you will look back with wonder at the influence for good your quiet example and cheerful spirit have been, and realise also that you have won no small victory; while in failing to reach your possibilities, you injure others. Remember, there is no legacy like the example of a holy life.

Author unknown, Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886

The Adoration of the Magi | Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) | Erik Cornelius / National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Are Christ and the Holy Ghost identical?

Are Christ and the Holy Ghost identical? 

They are the same. As you speak of the character of a friend. The writers of the word meant the same. The spirit of Christ is the God manifested to humanity.

—Insight

How can one be sure to attain eternal life?

How can one be sure to attain eternal life? 

A man may be sure of that life if the tendency of his thoughts is Heavenward. The guide to it is the Christ life.

—Insight

This is judgment

Do you realise what failure means here [Spiritual Life]—remorse, regret, and sorrow for lost opportunities; words and acts your agony cannot recall; neglect too late to repair? So subtle is the far-reaching influence of a life, that not only must you meet your own failure and its influence upon those about you, but often, for generations, face the effect of the good or evil you did or left undone. This is judgment.

Light on the Hidden Way, Ticknor & Company, Boston, 1886