Precept and Practice – OCTOBER 24 – Progress of the World

I see all things as a growth, a sublime unfolding by the Laws of God.   The race ever rises toward Him.   The old things which were its best once die off from it as no longer good. Its charity grows, its justice grows.   All the nobler, finer elements of its spirit come forth more and more – a continuous advance along the paths of Law…..   The development of Man is itself the great revelation of Him.

James Lane Allen

…..The last hundred years have made a vast difference, and the last thirty years have deepened the difference, between the old and new conceptions of society, as they have between the old and new conceptions of Christianity.   That which would have been laughed at by our grandfathers as impossible, and if possible subversive of society – the comity of nations, the disappearance of disunion among men, the actual brotherhood of men – has partly become a matter of experience, is partly a matter of deep desire;  and thousands are working steadily for its fulfilment.   Nearer than before, but as yet further than we wish, is the day when the will of love shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Reverend Stopford A. Brooke (The Gospel of Joy)

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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