Precept and Practice – JUNE 13 – Moody and Miserable

If your enemy has injured you, or your friend deceived you;  if your brightest hopes have been clouded, or your reputation blackened, pray for your enemies, and then up and be doing.   Better gather field flowers, plait rushes, weed the garden, or black your own shoes, than be idle.   Occupation will raise your spirit, while idleness will bring it down to the dust.   Occupation will often blunt the edge of the sharpest grief, keep the body in health, and preserve the mind in comparative peace.   He that is in trouble should do something to get rid of it.   Something must be done, and done by yourself too, when you are in trouble, or otherwise it will stick as close to you as the skin that covers you.   The moment you feel yourself getting moody and miserable, seek Divine support by prayer, and then set yourself a task immediately, something that will compel you to exert yourself, and you will be surprised at the relief it will afford you.   And especially employ yourself in doing good, and mitigating the sorrows of others:  while taking a thorn from the bosom of another, you will lose that which rankles in your own.   Occupation cures one half of life’s troubles, and tends to mitigate the remainder.

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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