Only remember at all times to get back
as fast as possible out of it into health, and regard the real
equilibrium as the centre of things. You should always look at the
_heilig_, which means holy, and holy means healthy.
Well, that old etymology--what a lesson it is against certain gloomy,
austere, ascetic people, that have gone about as if this world were
all a dismal-prison house! It has, indeed, got all the ugly things in
it that I have been alluding to; but there is an eternal sky over it,
and the blessed sunshine, verdure of spring, and rich autumn, and all
that in it, too. Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour
face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker
has given. Neither do you find it to have been so with old Knox. If
you look into him you will find a beautiful Scotch humour in him, as
well as the grimmest and sternest truth when necessary, and a great
deal of laughter. We find really some of the sunniest glimpses of
things come out of Knox that I have seen in any man; for instance, in
his "History of the Reformation," which is a book I hope every one of
you will read--a glorious book.
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