Precept and Practice – JULY 30 – Comradeship

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or, more correctly, being loved in spite of yourself.

(Victor Hugo)

Comradeship is our refuge from despair.   It has been called a battle;  but it is infinitely more.   It is ‘rest after toyle, port after stormie seas.’   It is strong and sure and beautiful as death itself.   If it is stern, it is tender. It holds a great protection.   In the hour of our worst failure, in our agony of remorse, when we are loathsome to ourselves, and God seems to have cast us off, we know there is a refuge open to us, and it is the trust of our friends.

We know that they who may have uttered scathing words to us when our eyes were blind with pride, will only have gentle words now.   We know that they whose glances probed our secret treacheries will be ready with divinest balm now.   Our sins are manifest to them;  but their covenant is not with our sins.   Their covenant is with our poor, baulked longings after righteousness, and with our broken hearts.   Their covenant is with our better angel, whose face is hidden for our guilt.   Their covenant is with Christ and God.

(May Kendall – Comradeship)

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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