Meaning of “Give thanks unto God for His grace, but…”

The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter X, “Of gratitude for the Grace of God,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The sentence appears in the chapter’s fifth paragraph and treats gratitude for even the least divine benefit as part of humility; this remains explicitly Christian devotional teaching rather than a general promise of material reward.

Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of Providence,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. The passage is explicitly theological Stoicism: Epictetus says understanding should lead people to sing hymns, bless the deity and recount divine benefits.

Aurora Leigh, Book VII, printed page 304 / Wikisource scan leaf 313, scan-backed Chapman and Hall third edition (London, 1857), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #56621. Aurora’s “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God” belongs to an explicitly theistic argument about art, spiritual perception and the divine significance of ordinary nature. It remains poetic-religious narration rather than a scientific claim about nature.

The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II, Valley of Humiliation, represented by Project Gutenberg #39452, the Jesse Lyman Hurlbut-edited Every Child Can Read edition that includes the Part II episode. Mr. Great-heart and the pilgrims see a shepherd boy feeding his father's sheep and hear him sing ‘He that is down needs fear no fall...’; the song is followed by Great-heart's praise of the boy's heart's-ease. The previous #131 fallback does not contain this represented Part II passage, so the evidence layer moves to #39452. The stanza remains embedded Christian-allegorical character song rather than Bunyan autobiography or secular clinical advice about humility.

Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.

Orthodoxy, Chapter VII, “The Eternal Revolution,” Project Gutenberg #130. “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly” appears inside Chesterton’s explicitly Christian paradox contrasting levity, pride, humility and self-forgetfulness. It remains apologetic and metaphorical religious prose rather than a literal scientific claim about angels, gravity or psychology.