Precept and Practice – AUGUST 1 – The Aim of Friendship

The aim of true friendship anywhere is not to make life easy for one’s friend, but to make something of the friend.   That is God’s method.   He does not hurry to take away every burden under which He sees us bending.   He does not instantly answer our prayer for relief when we begin to cry to Him about the difficulty we have, or the trial we are facing, or the sacrifices we are making.   He does not spare us hardship, loss, or pain.   He wants not to make things easy for us, but to make something of us.   We grow under burdens.   It is poor mistaken fathering or mothering that thinks only of saving a child from hard tasks, or severe discipline, It is weak friendship that seeks only pleasure and indulgence for a loved one.

Love is very different from a desire to shield from pain.   Eternal Love gives to painlessness a very subordinate place in comparison of excellence of character.

(The Reverend F. W. Robertson)

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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