Precept & Practice – MAY 22 – Graciousness

And as the love of Christ for small ungifted, humble, faithful persons is a transcendent comfort, no less comfort is the acceptance by Christ of little things, the pity of Christ for evil things, the tenderness of Christ for things despised;  He instantly made use of the poor lad’s five barley loaves and two small fishes.   His symbols for the kingdom of God were the handful of leaven which the woman took and hid in three measures of meal, and the grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds.

Very beautiful is it to observe the facility with which our Lord yields Himself to the supply, not of the absolute wants merely, but of the superfluities of others.   The gracious Lord has sympathy with all needs, with the finer as well as the commoner needs of our life.   For all the grace and beauty and courtesy of life are taken account of in Christianity, as well as life’s sterner realities;  and the Spirit of Christ, in Himself and in His disciples, does not slight or despise those any more than these.

Archbishop Trench

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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