Friday, April 04, 2008


"Each youth is a new creature, full of delightful and mysterious possibilities. Each brain comes clothed with its own secret, having its own orbit, attaining its own unique experience. Ours is a world in which each individual, each country , each age, each day, has a history peculiarly its own.
This newness is a perpetual stimulant to curiosity and study. Gladstone's recipe for never growing old is, "Search out some topic in nature or life in which you have never hitherto been interested, and experience its fascinations." For, some, once a picture or book has been seen, the pleasure ceases. Delight dies with familiarity. Such persons look back to the days of childhood as to the days of wonder and happiness. But the man of real vision ever beholds each rock, each herb and flower with the big eyes of children, and with a mind of perpetual wonder. For him the seed is a fountain gushing with new delights. Every youth should repeat the experience of John Ruskin. Such was the enthusiasm that this author felt for God's world, that when he approached some distant mountain or saw the crags hanging over the waters, or the clouds marching through the sky, "a shiver of fear, mingled with awe," set him quivering with joy....."
Newell Dwight Hillis, "A man's value to society". Photo by Walter Tatulinski

2 comments:

Mel said...

I LOVE this post! I've been through a season of renewing in my own life that has so remade my way of thinking that literally everything - every experience, emotion and every single piece of God's creation, individually and corporately - hold endless and enjoyment and delight for me... Even hard stuff, the painful stuff. Someone at my work is leaving our office, and I'm grieving over the loss. But even in that experience of grief, I'm filled with joy, and actually enjoying the emotion of sorrow. It's a wonderous, heavenly paradox!

FCB said...

As I read your responses, they bring a smile, you are a blessing and your faith oozes out of each line.
Fred