Being and Doing – 23 May – Truth

I WISH to be alive to all the little low and dark motives which are continually coming into the soul, and which, I believe, if they are not marked and continually carried up to a higher power to be prayed away, are ever liable to settle there, and thence to come out in some questionable and deceitful action.   Truth, real inward truth, is the rarest, I think, of all things.   Some little petty subterfuge, some verbal or acted dishonesty, we are continually surprised into;  and against this neither a high code of honour nor an exact profession of religion is much preservation.   Continued intercourse with the Father of Light, revealing our own darkness to us is, I am quite sure, the one safeguard, and a Christian who should lose this is in more danger of stumbling than an infidel.

F. D. MAURICE

FALSEHOOD is so easy, truth so difficult…   Examine your words well and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something about them which is not the exact truth.

GEORGE ELIOT

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These quotes are from ‘Being and Doing’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1908 for members of the Being and Doing Guild whose object is to do all they can for the relief of suffering and misery.

Most of the writers are 19th Century Christians from Britain and Europe who were committed to living their faith through deeds as well as words – Being AND Doing.

For many years these words have kept me company and encouraged me on the journey of faith.  I hope they will encourage others also.