Being and Doing – 18 December – Efforts and Successes

WE HAVE had our catastrophes, our hours of rest, our awakenings at the touch of new thoughts, or the advent of new friends;  our secret bitterness, our hours of loneliness, perhaps of despair;  our visions of ideal joy;  hopes too wild for fulfilment, but which left their sting of pleasure;  efforts after noble ends which failed, but whose failure, since the end was so divine, has done our hearts more good than many a poor success.

There is one question we must ask ourselves, and force the heart into sufficient calm to answer:  Has there been growth?   If so, catastrophes of heart or life, sorrows, sins, and failures, are practically nothing in the balance.   They are dead:  ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’   We have the right in Christ to start afresh…   If we feel that we have gained one new impulse towards good, that even one sin is weaker than it was, we are licensed to claim forgiveness:  and God loves the faithful violence which claims it and in the claim gains life enough to begin again.

STOPFORD BROOKE

EFFORTS are always successes.   It is a greater thing to try without succeeding, than to succeed without trying.

Bishop WALSHAM HOW

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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.