Precept and Practice – OCTOBER 11 – A Rebuking Vision

A little shock has struck them for a moment out of the dizzy whirl of selfish life a piteous face seen in the street, a book they have read, a casual remark at dinner, the sound of a bell at night, the ruin of a friend, the heartlessness of another, the quiet of a summer night – and in a moment the soul knows what its life is, is not, and ought to be.   As they think, the whirl of selfishness draws them back.   They yield; and in another moment fly round and round the same blind, foolish, and guilty circle as before.   But they cannot get rid of the instant of conscience.   Its ghost flits crying and wailing before the prow of their ship.   ‘Why did you not hear?’  it cries;  ‘why have you lost your soul?’

It is hard for honest humanity to be patient with these persons who do so much more harm to the world than the criminals whom we imprison.   But patience with them, such patience as God has with them, is better than denouncing them…..   It is only a form to Pharisaism, but pity such as love gives to those who are wounded and think themselves well, by which we ought to act upon these people. And the proper action of this lovingness, a word better than pity, for it implies no superiority, is through patience.

Reverend Stopford A. Brooke

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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