Precept & Practice – The Last Word – APRIL 20

There is one form which persistency takes that is peculiarly trying:  I mean that persistency of opinion which deems it necessary to stop and raise an argument in self-defence, on the slightest personal criticism…..   Love of the last word has made more bitterness in families, and spoiled more Christians than it is worth.   A thousand little differences of this kind would drop to the ground if either party would let them drop…..   Are they worth ill-tempered words, such as are almost sure to grow out of a discussion?   Are they worth throwing away peace and love for?   Are they worth the destruction of the only fair ideal left on earth – a quiet, happy home?   Better let the most unjust statements pass in silence than risk one’s temper in a discussion upon them. 

H. Beecher Stowe

Discussions, assuming the form of warm arguments, are never pleasant ingredients of domestic life never safe recreations between near friends.   They are, generally speaking, mere unsuspected vents for self-will;  and the cases are few where they do anything more than to make both parties more positive in their own way than they were before.

H. Beecher Stowe (Little Foxes)

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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