Precept & Practice – JANUARY 5 – Faculties and Powers
There is no knowing whither God might call us, if we would only keep our minds, by His help, free and true to hear His bidding when it comes. He may have for any one of us a task, a trust, far higher than we can ask or think. And on the drift and tone which our minds are now acquiring it may depend whether, when the time comes, we recognise our work or not; whether we press forward with the host of God, or dully fall away, it may be, into the misery of an aimless, listless life.
Bishop Paget.
We are born with faculties and powers capable of almost anything, such as at least would carry us further than can be easily imagined; but it is only the exercise of those powers which gives us ability and skill in anything, and leads us towards perfection.
John Locke.
oooOOOooo
From the Introduction to Precept and Practice
The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.
The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;- with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;- with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.
CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW
Suffolk Vicar 