Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 1 – Prayer – A Mighty Strength 

…..Prayer as conscious communion with our Father.   It is a mighty strength for life, a mighty power in the soul of man to be able to say- ‘God my Father is within me.   I am His and He is mine.   I speak with Him, He speaks with me.’

(Reverend Stopford A. Brooke – The Gospel of Joy)

That prayer, sooner or later, is answered, to all who have prayed earnestly and constantly, is, in different degrees, a matter of personal experience.

…..They who never pray, or who never pray with the humility, confidence, and importunity that wins its way to the heart of God, cannot speak from experience as to the effects of prayer;  nor are they in a position to give credit, with generous simplicity, to those who can.   But at best, on such a subject as this, the voice of the whole company of God’s servants may be held to counterbalance a few a priori surmises or doctrines;  and it is the very heart of humanity itself which from age to age mounts up with the Psalmist to the Eternal Throne ‘O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.’

(Canon Liddon)

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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