Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 23 – Spiritual Fellowship 

Love can never give an adequate account of itself;  it is invariably a dealing with infinite values, and when we come to that we come to God.   That is what we are doing now where true love is;  can death do anything to alter it?   No, indeed, it can but shatter walls and liberate energies that seek a higher expression.   I do not believe that death ever can mean a real cleavage between soul and soul;  it means, however little we understand it, in some way a drawing nearer, a sweeter self-impartation on the side of the one whose eyes have been opened…..

If we have faith and courage enough to cast ourselves in the darkest hour, when the sense of loss is greatest, upon that consciousness of ever-present, all-pervading, all-sufficing, eternal good, there will assuredly come to us the conviction that Death is no divider, but the necessary means to a closer union of spirit with spirit, than earth life can ever know.   Even now God is the ‘Nexus between soul and soul;’  do you think it will be different when the soul lays the body down?   the nearer you live to God, the more strongly will this truth possess you, and, though the wrench of bereavement may be painful, it cannot make you despair.

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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