Page:War and the Christian Faith.pdf/36

These tags and old phrases and worn proverbs, then, may be much wiser and truer than they seem—there is, by the way, a whole secret philosophy in "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"—and so "Happy as a bird" may be a literal truth; a bird may really be happy. But, then, there is the other tag, "As busy as a bee." This is true also; but we hardly realise that the two sayings might be varied: "As busy as a bird," and "As happy as a bee." These are no less true, and true for the same reason. The bird on the wing seems almost as happy as an idle man about town, the bee gathering honey seems almost as good as a Coketown factory hand. But in reality, each is equally busy. And each is absolutely happy because it is living in perfect conformity to the order of its being. Each is leading a single, and not a double,