Quote by Henry Edward Manning

“The saint, though full of the most ardent charity for his neighbour, is no mere philanthropist. His main object is not to make himself useful; his supreme end is God—to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him. Next to this, or rather included in this, is his love for the souls which God has made for Himself; and as first of all, and chiefly, God has committed to him the care of his own soul, that must be the great, the absorbing object of his care. One soul—one eternity; these words are for ever ringing in his ears. The love of his neighbour cannot, therefore, be separated from his love of God, still less set in the balance against it. The benevolence which allows a man to be careless of losing God, or even of one degree of His grace, is not charity, but a mere natural feeling such as works in the bosom of the busy men of this generation, and is compatible with the absence of all personal holiness, and of all respect for the first and greatest of commandments.”