Precept and Practice – NOVEMBER 20 – God – Our Father

There are moments in our life when those who seek most earnestly after God think they are forsaken of God;  when they hardly venture to ask themselves, Do I believe in God, or do I not?

Let them not despair, and let us not judge harshly of them;  their despair may be better than many creeds.

‘God’ a great divine has said is a great word.   He who feels and understands that, will judge more mildly and more justly of those who confess that they dare not say that they believe in God…..   I know that I shall be accused of having defended and glorified atheism…..   Let it be so!   If there are but a few here who know what I mean by honest atheism and who know how it differs from vulgar atheism, aye from dishonest atheism, I shall feel satisfied, for I know that to understand that distinction will often help us in the hour of our sorest need…..

Let us think of God as a father, let us think of men, of all men, as His children.   Does a father mind by what strange, by what hard a name his child may call him, when for the first time trying to call him by any name?…..

And if one child calls us by one name and another by another, do we blame them?…..

(Professor Max Müller – Hibbert Lectures)

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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