Precept and Practice – OCTOBER 25 – Luxury

In one form or another an ineradicable instinct has prompted Christians in all times to free themselves from luxurious and self-indulgent ways of living;  to walk as disciples of Him who ‘had not where to lay His head’;  to lay aside, not only every sin, but every weight, that so they may run the race set before them, not as beating the air, but as those that strive for the victory.   It is, indeed, not easy to define the precise kind or amount of luxury which it could of necessity vary.   But the principle is,  I think, clear.   In life, as in art, whatever does not help, hinders.   All that is superfluous to the main object of life must be cleared away, if that object is to be fully attained. In all kinds of effort, whether moral, intellectual, or physical, the essential condition of vigour is a severe pruning away of redundance.   Is it likely that the highest life, the life of the Christian body, can be carried on upon easier terms?

Caroline Emelia Stephen

The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.

Bishop Phillips Brooks

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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