Precept & Practice – MAY 18 – Courtesy

…..Courtesy, I believe, is nothing else than sympathy with the self-respect of others.   It is just the touch of help, the appointed service, which each one of us may render to others, and may receive from others, in regard to this profound condition of man’s welfare.   There are many forces that imperil self-respect;  it is undermined by sin, it is mocked and threatened by temptation, it is discouraged by the experience of failure;  only the grace of God, forgiving and renewing us, suffices wholly to repair and reinvigorate it.   But amongst the means He uses to protect us from our own despondency, to lift up our hearts, to give us hope and courage to regain lost ground, none, I think, is surer or more blessed in its work than courtesy.   It helps men to sustain their self-respect by the quiet, frank, unquestioning respect it shows them;  and it helps them to recover self-respect by presuming that they have not lost it.   It moves along the level ways where most of life goes on;  it generally has to do with those comparatively little matters which make up most of life;  but in those level ways, amongst those lesser things, it is analogous to that assumption of high spiritual capacity which calls out in all men the very best that they can yield;  it may even seem a reflection of God’s goodness in trusting us that He may make us trustworthy.

Bishop Paget (Studies in the Christian Character)

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