Character and Conduct – 10 October – Prayer

THERE can be no objection to praying for certain special things.   God forbid!   I cannot help doing it, any more than a child in the dark can help calling for its mother.   Only it seems to me that when we pray, ‘Grant this day that we run into no kind of danger,’ we ought to lay our stress on the ‘run’ rather than on the ‘danger,’ to ask God not to take away the danger by altering the course of nature, but to give us light and guidance whereby to avoid it.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

SPECIAL prayer is based upon a fundamental instinct of our nature.   And in the fellowship which is established in prayer between man and God, we are brought into personal union with Him in Whom all things have their being.

In this lies the possibility of boundless power;  for when the connection is once formed, who can lay down the limits of what man can do in virtue of the communion of his spirit with the Infinite Spirit.

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.