Precept and Practice – JULY 18 – Fellowship

He had rarely been in contact with a fellow-creature in such abandonment of distress.   It was terrible to witness;  yet it gave him a sense of fellowship, of nearness, even of power, which had in it an element of deep-seated satisfaction…..   And then, thinking of that recently visited altar of the dead, thinking of the one perfect relationship he had known-his relationship to his mother – it came to him as a revelation that not participation in the pride of life and the splendour of it still less association in mere pleasure and amusement forms the cement which binds together the units of humanity in stable and consoling relationship;  but association in sorrow, the cry for help and the response to that cry;  whether it be help to the staying of the hunger of the heart and of the intellect, or simply to the staying of that baser yet very searching hunger of overstrained nerves and an empty stomach.

(Lucas Malet – The Far Horizon)

It is the hardships and troubles and sorrows of life that draw us nearest to one another, offer a field for our sympathy, cement and sanctify our friendships, melt our hearts into kindly feeling for our neighbours, and, in our own hour of darkness, bring us nearest to the love and compassion of God.

(C. J. Perry)

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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