Being and Doing – 8 July – Principle and Happiness

WE CAN’T choose happiness either for ourselves or for another;  we can’t tell where that will lie.   We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment, or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us, for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives.   I know this belief is hard;  it has slipped away from me again and again, but I have felt that if I let it go for ever, I should have no light through the darkness of this life.

GEORGE ELIOT

THINGS which could never have made a man happy, develop a power to make him strong.   Strength, and not happiness, or rather only that happiness which comes by strength, is the end of human living.”-

PHILLIPS BROOKS

TO LOVE God is our Happiness, to trust in Him is our Repose, to surrender ourselves entirely to His will is our Strength.

CHARLES BEARD

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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.