Character and Conduct – 2 January – Purpose

YOU did not come into this world by chance, you were not born by accident.   You all came charged with a mission to use your best efforts to extend the frontier of your Master’s Kingdom by purifying your own hearts and leavening for good the hearts of all who come within the sphere of your influence.   Your business here is not to enjoy yourselves in those fleeting pleasures which perish in the using;  not to sip as many dainties as you can from the moments as they fly;  not to gather as many flowers as you can pluck from the garden of this perishing earth;  not even to rest in the enjoyment of those nobler delights which come from the exercise of the intellect in the investigation of the works of God and man;  but rather to do your best to fit yourselves and others for the new heavens and new earth, which God has prepared for those who love Him.

Life Here and Hereafter, Canon MacCOLL

DO not despise your situation;  in it you must act, suffer, and conquer.   From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite.

Amiel’s Journal

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

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.