Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 4 – Prayer – A Channel

The best things in the divine life, as in the natural, will not come to us merely for the asking;  true prayer is the whole strength of the whole man going out after his needs, and the real secret of getting what you want in heaven as on earth lies in the fact that you give your whole heart to it, or you cannot adequately value it when you get it.

(Collyer)

Life is a great word.   It is a larger word than religion or goodness or character.   Fulness of life, that is what we want.   In our efforts toward right living, we often fail, not for want of a pure and strong purpose, but because we have not in ourselves enough vital force to give effect to our purpose.   We are like an engine which does not do its work well, because it has not a sufficient head of steam on…..

The secret of noble and joyful living lies largely in putting ourselves in steady communication with the reservoirs divinely set for the supply of man’s soul.

(George S. Merriam)

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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