The Layman's Breviary; Or Meditations for Every Day in the Year (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... said O Lord and Master, they despise Thy robe, Thy flaming garment they despise, Self-living robe, because Thou touchest it, Because it touches Thee, charged with Thy power This now they scorn, --the pictures on it too --Godlike as they themselves are, all Thy spirits, How much so e'er they after Thee have wrought, Shaped, and created; images and thoughts, Man fashioning man and works so worthy man, --Though they have wrought so much which Thou hadst planned, Yet has not the divinest of them all Created after Thee a grain of sand Not one will ever after Thee create A drop of water, no, nor air enough To give a.fly one breath, not even that Say nothing of those full and swelling veins Of blood, wherein each droplet is a star, A light, a lustre and far less say aught Of the whole giant frame the termite-pile Of ether-waves the golden giant shell Full of clear liquid pearls Alas, Thy house, The snail-house formed out of their own life-sap, Thy likeness, by Thyself delineated, Thy property, yea, property of soul, --This they despise, the pictures on it, too The robe of beauty incorruptible And indestructible that wraps Thee round, Conceals, reveals, contains Thy deity, Just as the human body forms the man, Who is man only while in flesh. The flesh, The incarnation of the Eternal Love, Yea that, O Lord and Master, they despise And O were this unsearchable existence Thy body, ah, hadst Thou a body, too, And were it still diviner than Thy soul, --Then would their petty thought divorce itself From Thee forever, just because their soul A body wears, which crumbles into dust XXVIII. Goodness is simple Being. Goodness is nothing more than simple being; All other being is but going-to-be, Or going astray from being, going to waste. Be not, O good...