of sight or taste or smell, no little enjoyment that makes the moment
pass more brightly, no drop of oil that eases the friction of the
wheels of life, but it may be elevated into greatness and nobleness,
and will then first be understood in its true significance, if it is
connected with Him. God does not desire to be put away high up on a
pedestal above our lives, as if He regulated the great things and the
trifles regulated themselves; but He seeks to come, as air into the
lungs, into every particle of the mass of life, and to fill it all
with His own purifying presence.

Recognise Him in common joys. If, when we sit down to partake of them,
we would say to ourselves, 'The Lord has made us joyful,' all our home
delights, all our social pleasures, all our intellectual and all our
sensuous ones--rest and food and drink and all other goods for the
body--they would all be felt to be great, as they indeed are. Enjoyed
in Him, the smallest is great; without Him, the greatest is small.
'The Lord made them joyful'; and what is large enough for Him to give
ought not to be too small for us to receive with recognition of His
hand.

Another piece of wholesome counsel in this matter is--Be sure that you
use the joys which God does give. Many good people seem to think that
it is somehow devout and becoming to pitch most of their songs in a
minor key, and to be habitually talking about trials and
disappointments, and 'a desert land,' and 'Brief life is here our
portion,' and so on, and so on. There are two ways in which you can
look at the world and at everything that befalls you. There is enough
in everybody's life to make him sad if he sulkily selects these things
to dwell upon. There is enough in everybody's life to make him
continually glad if he wisely picks out these to think about. It