Character and Conduct Part 4

THACKERAY.

Character of Henry Drummond

JANUARY 22

_Of Henry Drummond._--"He seemed to be invariably in good spirits, and invariably disengaged. He was always ready for any and every office of friends.h.i.+p. It should be said that though few men were more criticised or misconceived, he himself never wrote an unkind word about any one, never retaliated, never bore malice, and could do full justice to the abilities and character of his opponents. I have just heard that he exerted himself privately to secure an important appointment for one of his most trenchant critics, and was successful.... The spectacle of his long struggle with a mortal disease was something more than impressive.

Those who saw him in his illness saw that, as the physical life flickered low, the spiritual energy grew. Always gentle and considerate, he became even more careful, more tender, more thoughtful, more unselfish. He never in any way complained. His doctors found it very difficult to get him to talk of his illness. It was strange and painful, but inspiring, to see his keenness, his mental elasticity, his universal interest. Dr. Barbour says: 'I have never seen pain or weariness, or the being obliged to do nothing, more entirely overcome, treated, in fact, as if they were not. The end came suddenly from failure of the heart.

Those with him received only a few hours' warning of his critical condition.' It was not like death. He lay on his couch in the drawing-room, and pa.s.sed away in his sleep, with the sun s.h.i.+ning in, and the birds singing at the open window. There was no sadness nor farewell.

It recalled what he himself said of a friend's death--'putting by the well-worn tools without a sigh, and expecting elsewhere better work to do.'"

_Character Sketch by_ W. ROBERTSON NICOLL _in "The Ideal Life."_

Character of R. L. Stevenson

JANUARY 23

"I Have referred to his chivalry only to find that in reality I was thinking of every one of the whole group of attributes which are a.s.sociated with that name. Loyalty, honesty, generosity, courage; courtesy, tenderness, and self-devotion; to impute no unworthy motives and to bear no grudge; to bear misfortune with cheerfulness and without a murmur; to strike hard for the right and take no mean advantage; to be gentle to women and kind to all that are weak; to be very rigorous with oneself and very lenient to others--these, and any other virtues ever implied in 'chivalry,' were the traits that distinguished Stevenson."

_The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.

"Through life he did the thing he was doing as if it were the one thing in the world that was worth being done."

_The Life of R. L. Stevenson_, GRAHAM BALFOUR.

Being and Doing

JANUARY 24

"Upon the man who desired to be His disciple and a member of G.o.d's Kingdom were laid the conditions of a pure heart, of a forgiving spirit, of a helpful hand, of a heavenly purpose, of an unworldly mind. Christ did not ground His Christianity in thinking, or in doing, but, first of all, in being."

_The Mind of the Master_, DR. JOHN WATSON.

"History and literature furnish many instances of men who have made their mark in virtue of a striking _personality_; whose reputation rests, not on any visible tokens,--not on kingdoms conquered, inst.i.tutions founded, books written, or inventions perfected or anything else that they _did_,--but mainly on what they _were_. Their merely having pa.s.sed along a course on earth, and lived and talked and acted with others, has left lasting effects on mankind."

_Pastor Pastorum_, HENRY LATHAM.

Being and Doing

JANUARY 25

"Perfection is being, not doing--it is not to effect an act, but to achieve a character. If the aim of life were to do something, then, as in an earthly business, except in doing this one thing the business would be at a standstill. The student is not doing the one thing of student-life when he has ceased to think or read. The labourer leaves his work undone when the spade is not in his hand, and he sits beneath the hedge to rest. But in Christian life, every moment and every act is an opportunity for doing the one thing of _becoming_ Christ-like. Every day is full of a most expressive experience. Every temptation to evil temper which can a.s.sail us to-day will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world. Nay, the very vicissitudes of the season, day and night, heat and cold, affecting us variably, and producing exhilaration or depression, are so contrived as to conduce towards the being which we become, and decide whether we shall be masters of ourselves, or whether we shall be swept at the mercy of accident and circ.u.mstance, miserably susceptible of merely outward influences. Infinite as are the varieties of life, so manifold are the paths to saintly character; and he who has not found out how directly or indirectly to make everything converge towards his soul's sanctification, has as yet missed the meaning of this life."

FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON.

Life-Giver, not Deed-Doer

JANUARY 26

"Christ was not primarily the Deed-Doer or the Word-Sayer. He was the Life-Giver. He made men live. Wherever He went He brought vitality. Both in the days of His Incarnation and in the long years of His power which have followed since He vanished from men's sight, His work has been to create the conditions in which all sorts of men should live."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

"Therefore with all the strength G.o.d has given us, let us be fulfillers.

Let us try to make the life of the world more complete. What can we do?

First, each of us can put one more healthy and holy life into the world, and so directly increase the aggregation of righteousness. That is much.

To fasten one more link, however small, in the growing chain that is ultimately to bind humanity to G.o.d beyond all fear of separation, is very much indeed. And besides that, we can, with sympathy and intelligence, patience and hope, bring up the lagging side in all the vitality around us, and a.s.sert for man the worth, the meaning, and the possibility of this his human life."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

Seeing One's Life in Perspective

JANUARY 27

"If we wish to cultivate our higher nature we must have solitude. It is vitally necessary at times that we should be able to get away from every other being on the face of the earth. What thoughtful person does not love to be alone; to be surrounded with no objects but the fields and the trees, the mountains and the waters, to hear nothing but the rustling of the foliage and the songs of the birds, and to feel the fresh breeze of heaven playing upon his cheeks? Moreover, when we are very much in contact with human life, when we are mingling with it, we are liable to become too conscious of its turbid side, or drearily oppressed with its commonplace features. To see human life, and weigh it in its many aspects, we need at times to go away and be as it were on a pinnacle, where we can take it all in with one sweeping glance. Solitude can affect us somewhat as religious wors.h.i.+p does. It can take us out of the consciousness of where we belong, away from the ordinary selfish instincts by which we may be dominated.

"Too much solitude may be dangerous, just as too much of the sense of mystery may be. Yet something of it is essential to our advance in spiritual life. A man must go away where he can feel the mystery of his own being. Moreover, a certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth of the mind, and it is in solitude that great principles are first thought out, and the genius of eminent men formed, for solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the real parent of genius.

Solitude, moreover, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character, and is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations."

H. W. SMITH.

"One sees one's life in perspective when one goes abroad, and to be spectators of ourselves is very solemn."

HENRY DRUMMOND.

Triviality

JANUARY 28

"Triviality is the modern equivalent for worldliness, the regard for the outward and the visible. The trivial mind is enmity with G.o.d, and it is of many kinds. There is the triviality which concerns itself with 'nothing,' which gossips about 'him' and 'her,' and becomes serious over a form, a phrase, a dress, a race or a show. There is the triviality to which the working people are forced by the cares of this life, who all day and every day have to think of the bread which perisheth, while their souls starve for lack of knowledge which endureth. The cares of life as often choke the growth of the Word as the deceitfulness of riches. There is also that most insidious kind of triviality which tends to haunt the more serious circles, wrapping itself in talk about social schemes, Church progress, policies and philosophies, pa.s.sing itself off as serious, when all the time the concern of the talker is to achieve a wordy success or to get notice for his little self or his little system."

_The Service of G.o.d,_ CANON BARNETT.

"I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality."

Th.o.r.eAU.