Character and Conduct – 20 August – Friendship

WE should learn from Jesus that the essential quality in the heart of friendship is not the desire to have friends, but the desire to be a friend;  not to get good and help from others, but to impart blessing to others.   Many of the sighings for friendship which we have are merely selfish longings, – a desire for happiness, for pleasure, for the gratification of the heart, which friends would bring.   If the desire were to be a friend, to do others good, to serve and to give help, it would be a far more Christlike longing, and would transform the life and character.

Personal Friendships of Jesus, J. R. MILLER

TO love is better, nobler, more elevating, and more sure, than to be loved.   To love is to have found that which lifts us above ourselves;  which makes us capable of sacrifice;  which unseals the forces of another world.   He who is loved has gained the highest tribute of earth;  he who loves has entered into the spirit of heaven.   The love which comes to us must always be alloyed with the sad sense of our own unworthiness.   The love which goes out from us is kept bright by the ideal to which it is directed.

Bishop WESTCOTT

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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 them here readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.