Character and Conduct Part 10

EMERSON.

Responsibility

FEBRUARY 28

"Thousands live and die in the dim borderland of dest.i.tution; that little children wail, and starve, and perish, and soak and blacken soul and sense, in our streets; that there are hundreds and thousands of the unemployed, not all of whom, as some would persuade us, are lazy impostors; that the demon of drink still causes among us daily horrors which would disgrace Dahomey or Ashantee, and rakes into his coffers millions of pounds which are wet with tears and red with blood; these are facts patent to every eye. Now, G.o.d will work no miracle to mend these miseries. If we neglect them they will be left uncured, but He will hold us responsible for the neglect. It is vain for us to ask, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' In spite of all the political economists, in spite of all superfine theories of chilly and purse-saving wisdom, in spite of all the critiques of the irreligious--still more of the semi-religious, and the religious press, He will say to the callous and the slothful, with such a glance 'as struck Gehazi with leprosy, and Simon Magus with a curse,' 'What hast thou done? Smooth religionist, orthodox Churchman, scrupulous Levite, befringed and bephylacteried Pharisee, thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the ground!'"

F. W. FARRAR.

"The healing of the world Is in its nameless saints. Each separate star Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars Break up the night, and make it beautiful."

BAYARD TAYLOR.

The Sin of Indifference

MARCH 1

"They hear no more the cries of their brothers caught in the nets of misery: 'Help us, we are peris.h.i.+ng.' The curtains of their comfort are fast drawn; they sit at home wrapt in family ease. Outside, the sleet is falling, the bitter wind is blowing, thousands of the children of sorrow are dying in the fierce weather. G.o.d Himself is knocking at the door, calling 'Come forth and seek the lost with Jesus.' We hear nothing, the cotton of comfort stops our ears. For a time, till G.o.d Himself breaks in on us with storm, and disperses our comfort to the winds, we can run no Christian race.... Therefore, lay aside, not all comfort--men have a right to that--but that excess of it which softens and enfeebles the soul; which sends to sleep the longing for G.o.d's perfection; which makes our life too slothful to follow Christ, the Healer of the world!"

_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.

"All my soul is full Of pity for the sickness of this world; Which I will heal, if healing may be found By uttermost renouncing and strong strife."

_The Light of Asia_, E. ARNOLD.

Wasted Emotions

MARCH 2

"Pity, indignation, love, felt and not made into acts of pity or of self-sacrifice, lose their very heart in our dainty dreaming, and are turned into their opposites. Our animation and activity of love, unexercised, becomes like the unused muscle, attenuated; and we are content to think with pleasure of the times when we were animated and active--a vile condition. But the worst wretchedness of these losses does not consist in the damage we do ourselves, but in the loss of power to benefit mankind, in the loss of power to do G.o.d's work for the salvation and the greater happiness of man. We are guilty to man, and guilty before G.o.d, when we lose our powers in inglorious ease. We owe ourselves to men and women; no amount of work frees us from the duty of keeping ourselves in the best possible trim, body and soul, mind and spirit, that we may n.o.bly work the loving work of Him that sent us."

_The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE.

"Opportunities are swarming around us all the time, thicker than gnats at sundown. We walk through a cloud of them."

VAN d.y.k.e.

"Doing" more than "Feeling"

MARCH 3

"Our Lord ... always brings back to mind that doing is more than feeling."

_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.

"A maxim of Professor James 'never to suffer a single emotion to evaporate without exacting from it some practical service.'"

_The Making of Character_, Prof. JOHN MACCUNN.

"But two ways are offered to our will-- Toil with rare triumph, Ease with safe disgrace:-- Nor deem that acts heroic wait on chance!

The man's whole life preludes the single deed That shall decide if his inheritance Be with the sifted few of matchless breed, Or with the unnoticed herd that only sleep and feed."

LOWELL.

The Sacredness of Work

MARCH 4

"All true work is sacred; in all true work, were it but true hand-labour, there is something of divineness."

CARLYLE.

"Some of the commonest faults of thought and work are those which come from thinking too poorly of our own lives, and of that which must rightly be demanded of us. A high standard of accuracy, a chivalrous loyalty to exact truth, generosity to fellow-workers, indifference to results, distrust of all that is showy, self-discipline and undiscouraged patience through all difficulties,--these are among the first and greatest conditions of good work; and they ought never to seem too hard for us if we remember what we owe to the best work of bygone days."

_The Spirit of Discipline_, Bishop PAGET.

"Whether thy work be fine or coa.r.s.e, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought; no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it."

EMERSON.

Doing our Best

MARCH 5

"It is not the quant.i.ty of our work that He regards, but the quality of it. He is less anxious that we should fulfil our task--for He can make up for our deficiencies--than that we should do our best; for what He desires is the improvement of our characters, and that requires the co-operation of our own wills with His."

_Life Here and Hereafter_, Canon MACCOLL.

"Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul."

CHARLES BUXTON.

"Life is too short to waste,