Precept and Practice – AUGUST 9 – Love – The Fountain in the Heart
Love that asketh love again,
Finds the barter nought but pain.
Love that giveth in full store
Aye receives as much and more.
Love, exacting nothing back,
Never knoweth any lack;
Love, compelling love to pay,
Sees him bankrupt every day.
In the long run all love is paid by love,
Though undervalued by the hosts of earth;
The great eternal government above
Keeps strict account, and will redeem its worth.
Give thy love freely; do not count the cost;
So beautiful a thing was never lost,
In the long run.
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
Better to love than be beloved,
Though lonely all the day;
Better the fountain in the heart
Than the fountain by the way.
(George Macdonald)
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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
Suffolk Vicar 