Precept and Practice – NOVEMBER 26 – Silence

Silence is in truth the attribute of God;  and those who seek him from that side invariably learn that meditation is not the dream but the reality of life;  not its illusion but its truth;  not its weakness but its strength.   Such act of the mind is quite needful, in order to rectify the estimates of the senses and the lower understanding, to shake off the drowsy order of perceptions, in which, with the eyes of the soul half closed, we are apt to doze away existence here.   Neglecting it now, we shall wake into it hereafter, and find that we have been walking in our sleep.   It is necessary even for preserving the truthfulness of our practical life.   It is always the tendency of action to fall into routine and become mechanical;  to become less and less dependent on the living forces of the Will, and to continue itself by mere momentum in the direction it has once assumed.

(James Martineau)

Even when the right is clearly seen, meditation is needed to collect our powers to do it.   It is the great storehouse of our spiritual dynamics, where divine energies lie hid for any enterprise, and the hero is strengthened for his field.   All great things are born of silence.

(James Martineau)

oooOOOooo

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