August 18th.  The Christian Life is not a vague effort after righteousness—­an ill-defined, pointless struggle for an ill-defined, pointless end.  Religion is no dishevelled mass of aspiration, prayer, and faith.  There is no more mystery in Religion as to its processes than in Biology.  Natural Law, p. 294.

August 19th.  There is much mystery in Biology.  “We know all but nothing of Life” yet, nothing of development.  There is the same mystery in the spiritual Life.  But the great lines are the same, as decided, as luminous; and the laws of natural and spiritual are the same, as unerring, as simple.  Will everything else in the natural world unfold its order, and yield to Science more and more a vision of harmony, and Religion, which should complement and perfect all, remain a chaos?  Natural Law, p. 294.

August 20th.  When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast.  He is like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head.  Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said:  “Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?” The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this—­that those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal.  The Changed Life, p. 11.

August 21st.  The Image of Christ that is forming within us—­that is life’s one charge.  Let every project stand aside for that.  “Till Christ be formed,” no man’s work is finished, no religion crowned, no life has fulfilled its end.  The Changed Life, p. 62.

August 22d.  Our companionship with Him, like all true companionship, is a spiritual communion.  All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is purely spiritual.  It was after He was risen that He influenced even the disciples most.  The Changed Life, p. 38.

August 23d.  Make Christ your most constant companion.  Be more under His influence than under any other influence.  Ten minutes spent in His society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, and heart to heart, will make the whole day different.  Every character has an inward spring, let Christ be it.  Every action has a key-note, let Christ set it.  The Changed Life, p. 40.

August 24th.  Under the right conditions it is as natural for character to become beautiful as for a flower; and if on God’s earth there is not some machinery for effecting it, the supreme gift to the world has been forgotten.  This is simply what man was made for.  With Browning:  “I say that Man was made to grow, not stop.”  The Changed Life, p. 10.

August 25th.  How can modern men today make Christ, the absent Christ, their most constant companion still?  The answer is that Friendship is a spiritual thing.  It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time.  That which I love in my friend is not that which I see.  What influences me in my friend is not his body but his spirit.  The Changed Life, p. 37.