Precept & Practice – MARCH 18 – An Atmosphere of Affection

I spoke casually just now of the joy, which, as appears by the Book of Acts, illumined the Apostles’ lives.   This came greatly of love;  not merely from the affection of the brethren for each other, but from a general lovingness, a capacity for Love, which, on coming into action, made them look differently on all they saw.   This, like their Faith, had grown up from their being in their Master’s company.   They felt how He loved them;  and if ever one among them was disposed to think lightly or unkindly of a brother disciple, he might recollect how dear that brother – faults and all – was to Christ;  and then he could hardly help feeling that if his Master bore with him, he might do so too.   They marked also Christ’s beneficence, His eagerness to render kindness, His readiness to use His wondrous power for the good of those who had no claim upon Him, His gentleness in rebuke, His never recurring to a bygone fault.   And this sense of being beloved, this living in an atmosphere of affection, generated in them the capacity for Loving, just as the Home Love that is round a child, not only awakens in it affection to those who show affection towards it, but teaches it what love is;  and engenders in it a great outcome of Lovingness which it strews broadcast, and bestows, not on persons only, but on animals, and even on inanimate things.

The Reverend Henry Latham (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