Precept & Practice – MARCH 12 – Moral Influence
Two methods exist of aiming at human improvement by adjusting circumstances without, and by addressing the affections within. The one is institutional and systematic….. the other is personal and moral, the influence of soul on soul,- life creating life. And in comparing these, it is not difficult to show the superior triumphs of the latter, which was the method of Christ and Christianity….. Initiation into the interior nature is the quality which, above all others, gives one mind power over another.
Martineau
Nothing that is really evil can ever be suppressed, it must be supplanted by something better.
In the parable of the sower, the principle comes to the front, that it is not so much what is done upon the man as what is done by the man himself, that transforms him into a higher creature.
The Reverend Henry Lotham (Pastor Pastorum)
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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 