February 13th.  This is Degeneration—­that principle by which the organism, failing to develop itself, failing even to keep what it has got, deteriorates, and becomes more and more adapted to a degraded form of life.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 101.

February 14th.  It is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold and examine separately, that on purely natural principles the soul that is left to itself unwatched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall away into death by its own nature.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 104.

February 15th.  If a man find the power of sin furiously at work within him, dragging his whole life downward to destruction, there is only one way to escape his fate—­to take resolute hold of the upward power, and be borne by it to the opposite goal.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 108.

February 16th.  Neglect does more for the soul than make it miss salvation.  It despoils it of its capacity for salvation.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 110.

February 17th.  Give pleasure.  Lose no chance in giving pleasure.  For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit.  Greatest Thing in the World.

February 18th.  If there were uneasiness there might be hope.  If there were, somewhere about our soul, a something which was not gone to sleep like all the rest; if there were a contending force anywhere; if we would let even that work instead of neglecting it, it would gain strength from hour to hour, and waken up, one at a time, each torpid and dishonoured faculty, till our whole nature became alive with strivings against self, and every avenue was open wide for God.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 112.

February 19th.  Where is the capacity for heaven to come from if it be not developed on earth?  Where, indeed, is even the smallest appreciation of God and heaven to come from when so little of spirituality has ever been known or manifested here?  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 116.

February 20th.  Men tell us sometimes there is no such thing as an atheist.  There must be.  There are some men to whom it is true that there is no God.  They cannot see God because they have no eye.  They have only an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 115.

February 21st.  Escape means nothing more than the gradual emergence of the higher being from the lower, and nothing less.  It means the gradual putting off of all that cannot enter the higher state, or heaven, and simultaneously the putting on of Christ.  It involves the slow completing of the soul and the development of the capacity for God.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117.

February 22d.  If, then, escape is to be open to us, it is not to come to us somehow, vaguely.  We are not to hope for anything startling or mysterious.  It is a definite opening along certain lines which are definitely marked by God, which begin at the Cross of Christ, and lead direct to Him.  Natural Law, Degeneration, p. 117.