Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 20 – The Dead
Mourn not for her as gathered to the Past.
Her past has power upon the coming years,
And she herself, O mourner, will outlast
Her dust, this marble, and all human tears.
(Tennyson)
I hate the black negation of the bier,
And wish the dead, as happier than ourselves
And higher, having climbed one step beyond
Our village miseries, might be borne in white
To burial or to burning, hymned from hence
With songs in praise of death, and crowned with flowers.
(Tennyson – The Ancient Sage)
Thus saith the Lord: ‘Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears. There is hope in thine end.’
(The Bible)
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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
Suffolk Vicar 