Edward Meyrick Goulburn

“ Most true it is that those who honestly attempt this exercise of Faith find it difficult. What attainment worth making, either in things natural or spiritual, was ever easy? Every thing is granted, not instantaneously, but in course of time, to prayer and striving. “Try again” is the simple expedient, which must be resorted to after a hundred failures. No wonder that in a world of sense and numberless distractions the Presence of God should be a hard lesson to learn. But when learned, it is a great secret of holy influence ”

“ Peter’s Home were, in the high sense of the word, a healing shadow—if the moral and spiritual influence exercised by the Sisters upon the patients were such that souls were won by it to Our Lord. And I can quite conceive that this might be so under the proper conditions. True; the period for which each patient may reside in the Home is but short. But then three or four weeks’ association with devoted servants of Christ, whose devotion transpires naturally and is not obtrusively put forward, may, under His Grace, work a great change, and leave an impression which will never be erased. ”

“ Habitually to assure our hearts of this “thing not seen” is to live by Faith. And to live by Faith is to overcome the world and self; it is the life for which Christ redeemed, and for which the Holy Ghost regenerated us. ”

“ The real reason why, when great trials come, Christians are so little prepared to meet them—why even persons religious in the main are all abroad, and know not which way to turn, when they are visited with bereavement or bodily suffering—is, that they have never, if I may so say, acclimatized themselves to the loving endurance of God’s Will amidst the numerous little thwartings and contradictions of daily life. ”

“ Even the shadow of Peter passing by is sometimes effectual to a spiritual cure. If the fire of God’s Grace is burning bright and clear upon the altar of our hearts, it will throw out sparks in our passage through life. And it is in the nature of sparks to kindle, when they light on combustible material. Every soul with which we come in contact is sympathetic, and accessible at all times through its sensibilities. And its sympathies and sensibilities become greater oftentimes in the hour of weakness and necessary withdrawal from the world. Persons come to your Home to convalesce. ”

“ The very globe itself, too, and all the fellow-planets that have lost their sun, are to become mere balls of ice, swinging silent in the darkness. Such is the light, which revisits us in the silence of the morning. ”

“ And the moral influence which we exert without being conscious of it is always exactly true to our character, which cannot be said of our voluntary influence. A man may preach, and exhort, and throw himself into Christian enterprises, and thus gain a reputation for piety, and yet be a self-seeker, actuated by ambition, or a desire to stand well with others. Many will say to Our Lord at the last day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? ”

“ To pray is to seek God’s Face—is it not? Then if a state of mind could be more or less realized, in which the soul is always conscious of being under God’s Eye, would not that be prayer without ceasing? ”

“ Faith is the great principle of the renewal of our character. p. 21Without Faith there is no elevation of mind, no spiritual buoyancy, no hope, no possibility of advance or improvement. Now when we recommend the constant reminiscence of God, we recommend virtually a constant exercise of Faith. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” The Presence of God is of course a “thing not seen.” And of all things not seen it is the nearest to us, and that in which we have the most vital interest. ”

“ So the Christian is a light, even ‘the light of the world;’ and we must not think that because he shines insensibly or silently, as a mere luminous object, he is therefore powerless. The greatest powers are ever those which lie back of the little stirs and commotions of nature ”

“ Worldliness of heart and secularity of aim is sure to transpire to those around us, however much we may array ourselves in the livery of religion. Love of power, or love of pre-eminence, or mortified vanity,—if we are under the dominion of these sentiments, we cannot easily disguise them from others, however effectually we may close our own eyes to their presence within. ”

“ Indeed he is the great human model of the grace of Charity. And I may remind you that the inspired description of this grace (the highest of all the Evangelical Virtues) sets it forth almost exclusively in its aspect towards man. Charity is the sweetest flower which grows in the garden of the soul. ”

“ Words thrown out when we are off our guard, ways of acting which have become more or less instinctive, are all full charged with this moral influence, and have in fact a much more powerful (though a more subtle) efficacy than the things we say and do of set purpose.—Then again, the shadow is always a correct outline of the body of which it is a shadow. ”

“ People will go on thinking (or acting as if they thought) that nothing short of a calamity is a sufficiently dignified occasion for the display of religious principle; and thus they do not avail themselves of the annoyances of daily life, as a field for the cultivation of patience and surrender of the will. And thus numerous precious opportunities of growth in grace run to waste. ”

“ Paul’s panegyric of Charity plainly shows that its place is in the world, where are oppositions, collisions, provocations, suspicions; “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
But the most conclusive of all arguments against a life exclusively contemplative in a world of sin and sorrow is the pattern of Our Blessed Lord Himself. ”

“ My Sisters in Christ, it is because this yearning after a complete withdrawal from the active works of mercy, this false ideal of a life holier than Christ’s life, has unhappily shown itself in some of the English Sisterhoods, that being here by the invitation of your Superior, I speak thus strongly and plainly on the subject. Be well assured that any life, the plan of which is out of conformity with the Word of God and the Example of Christ, will be attended with the worst results upon the character of her who adopts or seeks to adopt it. ”

“ We are both thinking of our arguments, and how we shall meet what is advanced by one another; but all the while, the consciousness is present to us that we are making the right turns, and really advancing to the place for which we are bound. But I should wrong the sense of the Divine Presence, if I said only that it need be no interference with our occupations; I should rather say that it is the greatest furtherance to them. For every work needs energy to be done well ”

“ A chill creeps on, and frosty winds begin to howl across the freezing earth. Colder, and yet colder is the night. The vital blood at length, of all creatures stops congealed. Down goes the frost toward the earth’s centre. ”

“ And of course this is especially likely to be the case with Communities of Women. Without denying to the piety of Women very great and peculiar excellences, beyond p. 8those which characterize the religious feelings of men,—while fully appreciating all the sympathy and power of heroic endurance manifested by Christian Women, and fully recognizing the general truth, that Religion thrives far better in the soil of a susceptible heart than in that of a powerful understanding,—we must yet grant that the female type of piety has a weak side,—the side, namely, of a morbid sentimentalism. ”

“ A shadow is an influence cast by a man’s body, and may usefully remind us of the influence cast p. 12by his mind. As all bodies must cast a shadow in the sunlight, so every rational soul must, by the law of our nature, exert an influence in its walk through life on every other rational soul with which it comes in contact. However narrow and however humble be the circle in which we move, our character, habits, tone, certainly tell in it ”

“ In the vigilant superintendence of our Diocesan (who kindly permits me to inscribe these pages to him) we have every guarantee that reasonable people can desire for St. Peter’s Home being conducted on the soundest principles, for its members being kept in faithful allegiance to the Church of their Baptism, warned against and secured from those dangers to which the experience of the Church teaches that Religious Communities are exposed, and made a great blessing to those who are sheltered and tended in their quiet retreat, and to the poor and sick people in their neighbourhood. ”

“ My Sisters in Christ, cultivate this habit of surrendering your will in trifling matters to God. You must know by experience that the discipline of an Institution like this is by no means a security against the little crosses and contradictions of daily life. A task falls to your lot which is not that which you like best, or think yourself most fit for. ”

“ As sin therefore drives man to screen himself by diversions, or by business, from God’s Presence, so it is one of the first instincts of Grace to seek God’s Face. We may do so now with the utmost confidence through the Blood of Our Lord, knowing that Justice itself has nothing to allege against us when we come before God with that plea; and the oftener we do so amidst the occupations, hurry, and cares of daily life, the holier and the happier shall we be.—Next ”

“ But supposing the community composed exclusively of those who have a moral right to join it (of those who have no ties, or none which they cannot perfectly satisfy while living in the comparative seclusion of a Sisterhood) , the perils to which their life exposes them are not few, and all the more dangerous because they are subtle. ”

“ I. The first practice we recommend for securing a holy influence upon others is the Practice of God’s Presence,—that the mind should be momentarily collected in hours of business, as well as in hours of devotion—the oftener the better—and placed with a holy ejaculation, or a devout aspiration, or an expression of confidence or love, under His Eye. ”

“ They were national reformers; and national reformers cannot do their work without coming into rude collision with the sins, and prejudices, and errors of their day; when they were taken from the earth, it was with all the soil and dust of Earth’s conflict upon them. ”

“ Remember in this matter of intention that there is no duty so trifling, no service so humble, which may not be done to the Lord. And in doing the commonest things, pray and strive to exclude as much as may be the operation of lower motives. Let the thought be simply, “For Thee, dear Lord.” When the habit has been acquired of doing trifles thus, it p. 26will communicate a grace to our actions, and a brightness and alacrity to our spirits in performing them, which cannot fail of being felt by those under whose eyes we act. Men and women are very quick at reading one another’s real motives. ”

“ Possibly the life of a Sister may present fewer difficulties to the attainment of a high standard of sanctity than life (under its ordinary conditions) in Society; but even if this be granted, which must we rate higher, the faith and zeal which evades difficulties, or the faith and zeal which meets and triumphs over them? ”

“ When attained, it does not really interfere with occupations, though it might seem that in any mental work it would be a distraction to turn the mind away. For the state is a consciousness of God’s Presence. Now consciousness of the human presence is quite compatible with vigorous exercise of the mind. ”

“ I believe it might be shown that many of the most eminent doctors of the Church, previously to the Reformation, have decided that life in the World may be altogether as spiritual, and exemplify a standard of holiness at least as high, as life in a Convent. ”

“ He Himself has constituted the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, His representatives, and has assured us that what is done to them, He will count as done to Himself. ”

“ There ought to be in every living Church a plastic power, which adapts its machinery to the wants of the age, and to the ever-varying shapes which Society is taking; and we rejoice to find in our own Church evidences of this power. ”

“ These Communities are a kind of hotbed for rearing devotional feeling and piety of a high caste. It is not at all necessary to deny that very beautiful forms of piety are often reared there, as very beautiful flowers are under glass. ”

“ The intention to serve Him in His members may be so readily formed, no doubt whatever resting on the fact that He may be really served in this shape. Then, too, this thought will stand you in good stead, when your kindness is not reciprocated; when you are met by indifference and coldness, or thrown out of heart by ignorance and perversity. ”

“ Francis de Sales, and have observed the difference of tone between the generality of them which are addressed to women, and the few in which his correspondents are men, will immediately recognize what I mean. Souls should be dealt with on the same principles, whatever souls they be ”

“ Enthusiasms many and fervent are rising up in her, and driving her members to these new agencies, which should not be regarded with suspicion because they are new, but rather tried fairly, and guided discreetly, and watched vigilantly. ”