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Ne* York 1*609 USA '"^ (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone ^S (^'6) 288- 5989 - Fa« The Homely Virtues By Ian Maclaren ("■.ev.John Witscn) Author of " Beiide the Bonnie Brier Buih,' "The Mind of the Muter," etc., etc. t Toronto : The Copp Clark Co., Limited 1902 lSC;i39 COPrilOHT, I9at. BV DODD, MEAD * COMrAIIY CdHVKlOHT, jq..,, BV Jons WaISIIN /■•/rsl EdiltoH puUisktd Oclattr, iqox INTRODUCTORY ORDirAKY PEOPLE I. SxRAKiHTNESS II. Thoroughness III. Kindness IV. Thrift i V. Gratitude 1 VI. Reverence T VII. Moral Courage VIII. Courtesy i I s 4 1 1 % ORDINARY PEOPLE Ordinary People It sometimes occurs to one that as there are so many philanthropic so- cieties in our day and another would make no great difference, it might be useful, as well as kindly, to estab- lish a society for the protection of ordinary people. Its subjects would be all persons above the age of twenty-one who had never written a book, nor a magazine article, nor a pamphlet, nor a letter to the "Times " ; who had never stood for Parliament, nor addressed a political meeting, nor taken the chair at a charitable gather- ing, nor moved a vote of thanks to a speaker ; who do not hold any view entirely their own on the doctrine of the Christian Church, or the origin of the Bible, or the relation of the sexes, or the division of property ; 7 Homely Virtues who are not distinguished players at anything, nor brilliant conversation- alists, nor wickedly sarcastic, nor un- printed poets— persons, in fact, who do their daily duty, and pay their debts, and act a neighbour's part, and speak about the weather, and go to Church ; persons who are not orig- inal nor brilliant nor erratic, who are neither inventors nor reformers nor cranks, nor anything else except law- abiding, tax-paying, housekeeping, kind-hearted citizens-commonplace people. They endure great wrongs in our day, and no one is trying to redress them, although the world is going crazy with sentiment. No great man of letters has commonplace people within his horizon (although Scott and Dickens had a tender Ordinary People regard for them). The modern writ- er elaborates for the elect who can admire his precious style ; thoughtful preachers talk over the heads of plain folk, and address themselves to what are called the thoughtful, who are understood to be always wrestling with high-class problems or giving themselves to amazing missions. Art, if the painter wishes to save his repu- tation with superior critics, abandons scenes of homely life and simple human motives and labours on pictures which have to be explained like prize puzzles and might as well be painted for the Martians as for the average man of this world. The ordinary person is ignored and browbeaten and made to understand that his conversation is a stupidity, that he 9 Homely Virtues himself is a weariness, and that unless you can sparkle, however feebly, you have no reason for existence. The ordinary person feels his position, and, although it may seem amazing in a creature of lower organisation, is quite as sensitive as the bright people who have the wonderful ideas and say the striking things. It is pathetic to hear him explain, if he be up in years, that "we old fogies are out of it now," and that the young people know everything; and if he is still young, that he is " not a clever chap," but that there is " no use my trying to take a hand in conversation." Yet the old man may have done a good day's work in the world, and the young fellow may hav a level head and both may be of far more value Ordinary People than people whose tongues ne.er cease and who have a windmill in their heads. So I want to make a plea for ordinary folk who are good and for ordinary ways of goodness. It is a consolation for an ordinary person to remember that he belongs to the vast majority of his race and that if he be outdistanced in talk, he will succeed in the vote. Out of a hundred thousand inhabitants in a city only a handful would be recog- nised upon a public platform, m,aFaradayiand eotHers,per,,p3 great in their day redu rf^''"'^'"^'-^^'^'-now Tntrr^'^'^^^^'^^^^^'-'^^^^e Perhaps an ordinary person m find comfort in th> fact that, after alf ameless people have done some of Who made the first flint knife? Who Ordinary People first cultivated the land ? Who first constructed a boat ? Who first lit a fire? Who invented the alphabet? Who first struck on the idea of nu- merals ? Who first established gov- ernment ? Who carried out the first barfer? Who built the first house? No one knows, but those were the great inventors and pioneers of the race, and beside their achievements many great discoveries which have v/on men fame and rank are not worthy to be compared. What is the inventor of a reaping machine to the man who first sowed seed ? Or the inventor of the steam engine to the man who first put out to sea in his own boat? Besides, when you come to extraordinary men, who write their names on the pages of history and 13 Homely Virtues before whom we all justly bow. how do we know there was not an ordinary person behind them who has to divide the credit? Bunyan gave us the Pi.gnm« Progress," but we do not know the names of the good old women whom he heard talking about rehg,on as they sat in the sun. and whose words gave a new direction to h'shfe. Lord Shaftesbury will long be held m honour in England for thesocal reformation that he wrought but place, if you please. Lord Shaftes- bury s nurse, who taught the lonely ?; '^; P""^'P'" °f godliness, ihe hall nngs with applause when a distmguished scholar obtains his degree, but what of the country schoolmaster who first inspired him with the passion for learning? The '4 Ordina v People multitude talk of i distinguished ca- reer ; they do not think of the man's father, who toiled and saved and sacrificed himself that the lad might have his opportunity. What of the great man's motiier, whose name is nothnz/ autint* marketplace? A very c try womai , yet she was the motF 'this distiirjuished man. She nurs. im, she trai led Mm, she comfi'rte?"! aim, sh« inspired him; it is possib'e that "-his ordinary woman, as you judge hi ,^ . e Kim his brains. He stands upo lei shoulder, and is seen of all mm, while she is unseen. Ever' famous ' s raised upon the lives )f othiTs t a ^'enetian palace rests upon fl- ' s beneath the water. What, also, ur ay ask, could the extraorainary ptupie do without the >s Homely Virtues ordinary? It is the enthusiasm of a nation which places a statesman in power and enables him to carry out beneficent laws. It is the patience and courage of the common soldiers which givf 'he victory to the general. It is the skill and intelligence of artisans that secures the success for the capitalist. It is the audience, eager and responsive, which inspires the poet. The prosperity of a country depends on the millions of people who are doing their tale of work every day, bringing up their children in respectability and religion, and dis- charging humble household duties and resisting every-day temptations ; the •rena of national life depends upon what a multitude of people are think- mg and feeling and wishing and striv- I6 Ordinary People ing; and the goodness of the common- wealth is made up of the character o*" an innumerable number of undistin- guished folk. We may not be phil- osophers, nor travellers, nor statesmen, nor conquerors, yet we ordinaries have our own sphere. We are the soldiers in the army which won the battle ; we are the multitude to whom the thinkers spoke; we are the voters by whom the statesmen legislate; we are the force of which historians write. There are thousands of volumes containing the record of births in the archives of the registrar -general, and the keeper is accustomed to shew a cele- brated entry here and there. But all the pages of all the volumes are filled with names, and each name represents a person who has been born into the '7 Homely Virtues world, and, in many a case, has lived to old age and has done his piece of work. Without this nameless and innumerable multitude there had been no work and no race. Can anyone be sure who is doing the most valuable and lasting work, how the accounts are to be struck at the close of the day ? Does it follow of necessity that a woman who makes clever speeches on the platform is rendering greater service to her gen- eration than the house mother, who has guided her household well, and secured the peace and comfort of home to her husband and children ? Can the minister who preaches to thou- sands in the great city be certain that he deserves more of the Church than his country colleague who is quietly Ordinary People building up the character of young men who shall by and by make the strength of the city ? Is a brilliant writer a greater gain to the common- wealth than a silent merchant who has extended its commerce to the ends of the earth and filled a thousand homes with plenty ? It is impossible to say; it is not necessary to make compari- son ; it is sufficient to remember that fame may not always mean value, and that the soundest work in the world may be done by obscure people. When all has been said, it remains that the one thing we are called upon to do, and the one thing for which weshall bejudged,isourduty. There is some particular work which lies to everyone's hand which he can do better than any other person. What '9 Homely Virtues we ought to be concerned about, is not whether it be on a large scale or a small — about which we can never be quite certain — nor whether it is going to bring us fame or leave us in obscurity — an issue which is in the hands of God — but that we do it, and that we do it with all our might. Having done that, there is no cause to fret ourselves or ask questions which cannot be answered. We may rest with a quiet conscience and a contented heart, for we have filled our place and done what we could. Thr. battle of life extends over a vast area, and it is vain for us to enquire about the other wings of the army ; it is enough we have received our orders, and that we have held the few feet of ground committed to our Ordinary Peoj/le charge. There let us fight and there let us die, and so fighting and so dying in the place of duty we cannot be condemned, we must be justified. Brilliant qualities may never be ours, but the homely virtues are within our reach, and character is built up not out of great intellectual gifts and splendid public achievements, but out of honesty, industry, thrift, kindness, courtesy, and gratitude, resting upon faith in God and love towards man. And the inheritance of the soul which ranks highest and lasts forever character. IS STRAIGHTNESS Straightness It seems a far cry from the fifteenth Psalm to a modern exchange, and the circumstances of the East long before Christ, and of the West in our day, are very different. Yet it is a sug- gestive fact that the moral judgment of the Jewish psalmist and a Western merchant agrees to the letter upon the description of a man of honour. No doubt the psalmist, with his genius for religion, states the case for decision after a more impressive fashion — " Lord, who shall abide in Thy Taber- nacle ? Who shall dwell in Thy Holy Hill ? " and the merchant would rather ask, in our secul"' form of speech, " Is he the right kind ? " It is natural for the Jew to enquire who is fit for fellowship with God, and natural for the Anglo-Saxon to ask who is fit for 25 V Homely Virtues fellowship with men. But it comes to the same thing in the end, for if a man's morality gives him entrance to God's Tabernacle, he will be welcome in any respectable human society ; but if a man be cast out on moral grounds from such society, he may not hope to dwell in God's Holy Hill. The Old Testament writer would call his ideal man righteous, which is one of the lordly words of human speech, and we, in our anxiety to keep clear of cant, would prefer to sum him up as straight; but let us understand that this familiar term, handed about among old and young, religious and non- religious, is simply the homely equiv- alent of righteous. An idea, like a soldier, has its parade uniform and its working dress, and straight is the un- Straightncss dress of righteous. Righteousness in the Old Testament is not a theological, but an ethical word, and has to do not with a person's creed, but with a person's character. The righteous man of the Psalms is the righteous man the world over, in every ex- change, every club, every society, every workshop. And in calling righteous- ness by the name of straightness, we have acclimatised this noble quality in the speech of modern life. There are two types of men, and by their comparison we can remind ourselves what is meant by straight. There is the man who may be clever and interesting and good-natured, and even, in a sense, pious, 'liot on whom you may not depend. If you ask him an inconvenient question, he will 27 Homely Virtues prevaricate i„ his answer, and you -.11 find that his words have a double "jeaning so that whil you wait for h.ni at the front and, as you suppose. onydoorofthehouse.hehassneLd out at the back door Ifyou n,ake » bargam w,th him, it will be your wsdom to have his proposal i„ black and wh,te without delay, since the chances are if the market goes against h'm he w,ll assure you, with many a profession of regret, that you mis- understood his figure. When goods are delivered by this man, it is abso- lute y necessary to verify every quality by he sample, since, through some carelessness on the part of his people, an inferior value is apt to be sent. ^ ^' '''^' ^°^ ''«i«ance in some emergency, you may take it for granted a8 Straightness that his affairs are much worse than he has told you ; and if he succeeds in borrowing money, he will have a hundred excuses for not repaying it. Should his firm be compelled to stop payment, very strong remarks indeed will be made upon the condition of his books; and if he becomes bank- rupt, the chances are he will be re- fused a discharge. When he plunges into a controversy, he will misquote his opponent's words, or wrench them out of their context; and when he played games at school, hi- came as near cheating as he could. He is tricky,shifty,smooth-tongued,double- faced, not straight. Over against hin cliere is the man who may be plain in manner, and blunt of speech, and slow in 29 Homely Virtues understanding, and who, perhaps, may make no profession of religion, but who can be depended upon at all times, in every word he speaks and in everything he does. His smile may not be so faking nor his style so plausible, but he looks you in the face and his words have the accent of sincerity. He means what he says and he says what he means, and if vou mmfP h;™ yoj will never be He in the lurch, may be long in coming to a de- cision and he may he hard in a bar- gain. When the bargain is made, whether by word of mouth or a nod of the head, just as much as by letter which has been copied, he will stand by it, though he lose his last penny. He will not whine about his Straightuess losses, for they are the fortune of war, nor will he brag about his honesty, for he expects that to be tak^n for granted. If you have to meet him in debate, he may press you hard and be very keen in his views, but he will always deal fairly with you, looking for the sense ofwhat you said, an'' . ' taking any advantage of the w ' If he has a quarrel with you, he -v > have it out with you face to face, anc would scorn to slander you behind your back. He also may be unable some day to pay his debts, and that will be the bitterest trial of his life ; well, he will work night and day to regain his prosperity, and then he will pay his creditors, every one, with interest. Never was he known to make capital out of any doubtful 31 'Ml ill Homely Virtues point in a game, for, though he was eager to win, he was still more deter- mined to win like a sportsman. And this is what we mean by a straight man. There are many things for which one may fairly criticise the world, and by that I mean the people who do not profess to be religious; but let us freely acknowledge that they have at least one good quality, and that is an honest appreciation of straightness. The man who cheats at a game, who goes back upon a bargiin, who shirks the post of danger, who filches away another doctor's patient, who ex- poses a woman's frailty, who brings up the catastrophe in a man's private hfe, is despised and cast out by the world. The pariah of the world is a 3> ill Straightness sneak, and for him there is no more mercy than for a rat. Upon the other hand, while one firmly believes that the Church of Christ sets upon the whole an example of unparalleled virtue, yet one is haunted with the feeh. : that the Church has not always laid enough stress upon righteous- ness, in the Old Testament sense of the word, and that she has given the idea the cold shoulder. She has enforced the commandments which touch on piety and on purity; she has not given so clear a sound upon the commandment of truthfulness. If ai . man denied the creed or if any man was a gross evil-liver, the Church, except in her worst times, would deal strictly with him ; but if he were simply dishonest and disingenuous, 33 Homely Virtues mean and tricky, she has been apt to let him alone, so that he came to feel that she did not care, and his own conscience was lowered. Perhaps one might go furth sr, and say that crooked- ness has been a rehgious sin and has almost had the sanction of the Church although it has ever received themani- festjudgmentsofGod. Abraham was the father of the faithful and a noble type of religion, but Abraham lied to Pharaoh with just that kind of lie which finds its shelter beneath the shadow of religion. He played upon words, saying that Sarah was his s.ster, which, in a sense, she was, but allowing Pharaoh to understand that she was not his wife, which of course she was. It was not a downright falsehood, but a guarded and calcu- Straightness kted departure from the truth, a policy in which the religious con- science has shown itself an adept. There is a kind of man who will not drink nor swear, who believes in the deity of Christ and the eternal punish- ment of the wicked, but who has no more idea of personal honour than a fox, and who will do things at which a high-class man of the world would be aghast. We are inclined some- times to think that if a man be religious, he must be straightfor- ward, and if he be straightforward, he must be religious. But we have leaped too hastily to a conclusion, for there are people with a genuine sense of religion who are as crooked as a corkscrew, and there are people who would never dream of calling 35 Homely Virtues themselves religious, but yet they are as straight as a die. As, for ■nstance, Jacob in the one class, and 11 the other suc^ , man as the Duke of Wellington among English- men, and Abraham Lincoln among Americans. Nothing has brought such scandal on religion in public life as the dis- honesty of a certain kind of religious people who will call themselves by the name of Christ, and take part in religious tneetings, and set themselves up as censors of morals, but who betray the trust of poor investors, and bring banks to ruin, and start bogus companies, and make discredit- able bankruptcies, and obtain pos- session of the means of relatives and trustful people, and who tirn out 36 Straightness bad work, so that every decent man condemns them, and, when they are not cunning enough, the law fortu- nately lands them in prison. With their mixture of Phariseeism and duplicity, with their cant and their lying, such people are a reproach and a byword, and are ever being flung in our faces. While they are praying and preaching, young men are declaring everywhere that it is because of them they are not Christians. If the Old Testament gospel of morality had been more stringently preached, the Church would not have been cursed with the presence of men who have dared to speak for her, but whom neither God in His Holy Hill, nor the world in her market-places, can tolerate, because they do not walk uprightly nor work righteousness. 37 Homely Virtues Nor has the Church as an historic body established 30 high a claim as one would like for straightforward- ness. Why is it that priests have earned so bad a name and been so keenly hated by the people? Why has one order been expelled from nearly every country i„ Europe, and has often brought cruel persecutions upon Us fellow Christians? It were a slander to say that all priests are bad, smce many have been men of smgular devotion and of vast sacri- fices; but it is a fact that, as a class pnests have been less than straight.' I hey have used words in a double sense; they have practised the doc- tnne of reserve; they have invented astounding excuses for falsehood- they have brought casuistry to the' 38 Straightiiess height of a science. One of their chief characteristics has been that rat- like cunning which Browning illus- trates in the priest of the " Ring and the Book." Whether called priests or not, all ecclesiastics are tempted to be crafty and diplomatic. They make up catching motions ; they de- vise subtle schemes of policy ; they are afraid of exciting prejudices ; they are fond of ambiguous words. Certainly no one has ever said that they were simple and guileless. There are fair grounds for saying that while the Church has taken the intellectual failing of heresy and made it into a sin, she has condoned the moral failing of trickery and almost raised it to a virtue. Has it ever happened to us to have 39 i!|! Homely Virtues a dispute, say, about a statement we have made, or about a matter of business, or about family affairs, or even about a game with a man of the world, and he told us plainly that we had acted dishonourably ? Not ille- gally—which is a different matter, and has to be tried by a different standard— but dishonourably, as be- tween man and man, when tried by the working code of straightness. If he was wrong, it was a bitter moment that he should have thought so badly of us ; but if he was right, was it not ghastly ? What did we do' m that moment when the light was suddenly turned on in the cellar of our souls, and we saw the loathsome creatures of darkness making for their holes? Did we acknowledge our sin to 40 Straightness man and God, or did we try to justify ourselves, and afterwards — which is the cheapest thing that we could do — pretend that we were martyrs for religion's sake ? When Pharaoh told Abraham to his face that he was a liar, it was one of the lamentable paradoxes in the history of religion, for in that hour Pharaoh stood higher than Abraham before the conscience of men and in the sight of God. If anyone be conscious that he has a taint of crookedness in his blood, and that he is inclined to play tricks; if he has already been exposed and put to shame because he did not speak the truth, and his hands were not clean, lei him face the situation and bestir himself There is nothing but contempt and humiliation in store for Homely Virtues 1 the dishonourable man at the hands of the world, nothing but self-reproach and self-loathing within his own soul. His own wife, try as she may, will not be able to respect him, and his children, as one thing after another becomes plain to them, will be ashamed of him. And whatever he believes and however he prays, there can be no welcome for him with God, who is the fountain of truth and righteousness. The thoughts of men are often foolish and their judgments vain ; but, after all, i .y honour straightness. The ways of God are ofter> dark and past finding out, but of one thing we may be sure, the blessing of God rests upon righteous- ness, both in this world and in that which is to come. 4* II THOROUGHNESS Thoroughness When one's position is assured he can go where he pleases, and as thorough- ness 'vill appear in many humble places before this article is ended, it may be well to remind ourselves at the beginning that it holds high rank in the religious life. Our Master was inspired by this principle when He would allow no disciple to turn Him from the Cross, and ceased not in His high endeavour till He had finished the work which His P'ather gave Him to do. He was severe upon impulsive profession without stability of action, and He gave His highest praise not to brilliant ability, but to faithful service. His commandment unto His followers was to be faithful unto death, and His promise a crown of life. St. Paul exhorts his converts 45 Homely Virtues to work out their salvation with fear and trembHng, and declares that all the energy of his life was gathered to a point, " this one thing I do." One of the chief conditions of victory in the Kingdom of God is thoroughness. The same law runs in ordinary life, and he only need expect to attain success and win the honour of his fellow men who is thorough. The reason why men fail is, in five cases out of six, not through want of in- fluence or brains, or opportunity, or good guidance, but because they are slack; and the reason why certain men with few advantages succeed, is that they are diligent, concentrated, per- severing and conscientious — because, in fact, they are thorough. One sees every day the story of the hare and 46 Thoroughness the tortoise repeated, when the bright man is outdistanced by an unpromis- ing competitor, because he is self- confident and erratic. An irregular swiftness has no chance in the end of the day against the pace which may be slow, but is unresting. As the conditions of labour in every depart- ment of human life become more exacting, there will be no use for the shiftless and incapable men. His preserves, where he can mismanage and not be punished, are growing fewer every year ; neither a merchant, nor a college tutor, nor the Church, nor the public service will tolerate him soon ; the day is close at hand when even the English army will have none of him, and the last resort of brave incapables will be closed. 47 Homely Virtues Society is beginning to demand tiiat whatever a man professes to do he must be able to do, or else Society will wash her hands of an unprofitable servant. If the slack man does not mend his ways, he will have to go to the workhouse. People conceal their inherent slack- ness from themselves by all kinds of ingenious excuses. When they are caught tripping in their own depart- ment of knowledge it is because their minds are so taken up with principles that they cannot keep hold of every minute detail, or they blame their treacherous memory — as if their minds were simply crammed with goods, but this tricky servant brought the wrong article. When they miss an engagement or have not finished 48 Thoroughness their work in time, it is due to the multitude of their affairs. As if we did not know that the busiest man is usually the most exact and the idlest man has his time most crowded. M'hen things come to the worst, they fall back on absent-mindedness, which they secretly consider to be associated with genius, and which ought to place them beyond criticism. No doubt there are people who seem to have been born without the faculty of memory, just as there are people who are born blind, and there are other people in whose mind there is a loose wheel, just as there is a cer,.ain proportion of our fellow men in lunatic asylums ; but, as a rule, those excuses, when they are boiled down, simply come to persistent and cul- pable slackness. 49 Homely Virtues Thoroughness can prove itself in various ways, and not least by honest thinking. It is not good to be a bigot, and to give no credit for intelligence to our opponents, either in politics or in religion ; but there is something worse than bigotry, and that is instability — to have no opinion except what is pumped into you by your neighbour, or to have one opin- ion to-day and another to-morrow, or never to rise above opinion, and to reach conviction. This type of man is neither Liberal nor Conservative, neither Republican nor Democrat ; in England he is said to have a cross- bench-mind, and in America he is called a mugwump, and in neither country does he receive any great measure of intellectual respect. His Thoroughness indecision may be due to a certain quality of mind which never can come to a conclusion, and never can take a side strongly, but the chances are that want of conviction means intel- lectual indolence. Surely it is our duty to think out the great subjects of lift; to our furthest limits, to form our creed by the best light God has given us, and having won our creed, to live and defend it. Let us believe something with all our might, and while the best thing is to believe in Christ and to be a thoroughgoing Christian, the next best thing is to believe, as St. Paul once did, another creed, and to be true to it, for the day will come when God will give to the honest thinker more light, and he will be all the braver soldier of Christ 51 Homely Virtues because he had been a brave enemy. We would respect ourselves more and be stronger men if we could only take our stand somewhere, and, where we stood, be prepared to die. Thoroughness should also brace our habits in daily life. No doubt there is an accuracy which is niggling and a regard for order which is slavish ; there is also an inaccuracy and a disorder which disfigure life from morning till evening; and to escape being a Pharisee in this macter one need not be a publican. Some people seem to have made a rule of unpunctuality ; they are late in rising, late for meals, late for trains, late for engagements, late even for pleasure ; they are exact and accurate in one thing only — in being so many minutes Thoroughness behind time. They are dull of hear- ing in the morning, their watches are ever going slow ; beyond all other people they are detained by unex- pected visitors or sudden duty. No one may depend upon them; they are a trial unto their friends and the scorn of their enemies ; and the cause of their shame is slackness. There is the woman who is always badly dressed, without neatness and without taste ; and when you see a woman with unmended gloves and a torn dress, you may be sure that she is an incapable housekeeper and a helpless wife, for if a woman has not spirit enough to keep her dress in repair she is bound to be slack in every duty of life. There is the man who writes so badly that he is convinced himself that he 53 Homely Virtues has a literary gift, in which case the profession of letters has the easiest condition of entrance and the largest number of members among all the departments of human activity. Illegible writing is a slovenly habit for which no excuse can be offered except want of education, and its punishment falls on innocent people, on postmen, on clerks, on busy pro- fessional men, and on friends who cannot understand the news that has been sent The school, large or small, which does not teach its boys to write should be marked inefficient, and the people who will not do their best to write legibly should be classed with the illiterate. Thoroughness should be vindicated in the work to which we have been 54 Thoroughness called and by which we have to be judged. If we play a game, let us strive to play it well, and not be a " footy " ; if we undertake a piece of work, let us finish it to the last jot and tittle. If we profess a subject of knowledge, let us have it at our finger ends. If wc take up a scheme, let us see it through; and if we choose a side, let us play the man. There is honour for the man who can be trusted to the end and whose work does not need to be done over again, who can always be found in his own place, and will always do what is expected of him. There is continual dishonour for the person who is slip- shod and unreliable, and fickle and lazy, for he is like the reed which pierces the hand that leans upon 55 Homely Virtues it. Nowhere is thoroughness more needed than in religious work, nowhere is slackness more prevalent. There are Christians who serve Christ as diligentlv and faithfully as they do their earthly work, and they shall not miss their reward ; but many of Christ's servants would not be tolerated for a week by any other master. The poorest joint-stock company in the land is better served by its directors than many congregations are by their office-bearers. There are no teachers anywhere so ignorant and so casual as certain Sunday-school teachers; there is no clerk in a dry goods store dare treat his duty as lightly as some of the voluntary officers of the Christian Church. They will absent themselves without leave and without I Thoroughness excuse; they will never enquire how their work is being done or whether it is done it all ; they will not take the trouble to prepare themselves to do it, and they are not concerned when it fails in their hands. They will place their pleasure and their fancies, and their social engagements, and their imaginary ailments before their Christian duty. And it would be difficult to say how little must be the burden, how short must be the time, that they would be willing to count an obligation upon them and would be prepared to face. One is some- times inclined to propose a general resignation of the Christian staff, and then an invitation to all who were prepared to do Christ's work as well as the work of the worid is done. 57 Homely Virtues and it might be that three hundred thoroughgoing men like the Band of Gideon would do -vu-. for Christ than ten times the number of irre- sponsible casuals. And thoroughness takes its highest form in character, where slackness is a germ of destruction. One of the most disappointing and dangerous people in society is the man or woman who is agreeable, and plau- sible, and sparkling, and amusing, but insincere, changeable, and unprin- cipled and facile. There is no dis- loyalty, no baseness, such a person may not be capable of, not so much because he is immoral, but because he is slack. You must not count him a friend, since he may cast you off to-morrow ; you must not assume he will stand temptation, since his SB Thoroughness character is weak at the foundation. Character is the ground of trust and the guarantee for good living, and that character only is sound which rests upon a good conscience and a tlean heart and a strong will. What one fears is that a slovenly habit of work may in the end mean a slovenly soul, for character is estab- lished by action. As we carry our- selves in an innumerable series of acts from morning till night, doing our work slackly with detached mind and nerveless hands, or doing it thoroughly with a scrupulous con- science and full purpose of heart, we are either building our house upon the sand, and the first flood will sweep it away, or upon the rock, against which the fiercest flood will beat in vain. 59 Ill KINDNESS Kindness It seems as if there were a fashion in virtues as in dress, and that private kindness were more at home in the past than in the present. The gener- ation which is bidding us good-bve, and whom in our superior moments we criticise, 'vas not ashamed of generous emot:jns. Our fathers met their fellow creatures upon a basis of unaffected cordiality; they took an affectionate interest in the affairs of their friends ; they were still capable of shaking hands. Their faces gave proof of the warmth within ; they did not pose nor use falsetto adjectives ; they were sincere, straightforward, warm-hearted Oar generation is apt to receive its frends upon a r-tage, with the gesture and expression fixed by the rule of fashion ; it is shocked 63 Homely Virtues by any outbreak of human feeling, and will smile feebly when wished a Happy New Year, as if apologising for a lapse into barbarism. It con- ceals affection and suppresses feeling, although practising little tricks and artificial moods for dramatic effect. Amid this cant of up-to-date lan- guage, this smart attitudinising, this " perfect devotion " to a hundred different people, this calculated rap- ture over an incident which is forgotten next minute, this studied enthusiasm for a cause taken up by some great lady, this weari- some hypocrisy of manr rs, one longs for the unconventio al sim- plicity and the reality of other days. We grow weary as we hear the note of conversation taken from a pitch 64 Kindness fork, as we see fkces arranged for an occasion, and then disarranged again to be ready for the next scene. We welcome as a relief the veriest Philistine with a heart in his bosom and no fear of man before his eyes, who grasps our hand like a man and drives us before him in the joy of meeting. The depreciation of kindness in private life, which is one of the features of our day, is very largely due to the fashion of intellectualism, but yet human nature below the surface of crazes and phrases remains the same, and his fellows still judge a man by his heart rather than by his head. When the jury is selected, not from a coterie, but from the market- place, the person who is kind will 65 Homely Virtues ever be preferred to the person who is clever, and " thoughtful," to use a cant word of our day, is still less than warm-hearted. Walter Scott and Dickens will ever have a larger hold upon the people than Hardy and Meredith, not because their art is finer, but because their spirit is kindlier. An affectionate child is more welcome than those monsters of modern precosity who furnish their foolish parents with sayings for quotation, and who have worn out all healthy sensations at the age of ten. The girl who is honest, unaf- fected, considerate, good natured, still receives the prize of respect and of love. No young man is better liked than he who has a genuii interest in the aged and little children, 66 Kindness in poor lads and in weak people. People mention with pathetic delight that although such and such a man be so able, yet none is more mindful, and here it is interesting to note how the mind is brought under subjection to the heart, for when we say mind- ful we do not mean intellectual, but helpful. Women who create around them a quiet and genial atmosphere will never want for grateful subjects. Hot temper is condoned by the world if there be in the man a heart of love yet greater than the passing flash of rage. People will put up with hasty words and discourteous actions for the true heart which is behind them, and will remember the shining of the sun long after they have forgotten the thunderstorm. Many a sinner against 67 Homely Virtues God and man has been forgiven both in heaven and earth because he loved much. No cleverness and no success can redeem heartlessness. People who are not constant and sympathetic, who are showy and affected, may imagine that they are admired — they are really detested. The chief crown of life is the love of your fellow men, and that is ever given to those who have a heart. If any one should think that the value of kindness is exaggerated let him remember its moral quality. Why is it that some people are unkind? Usually because they are hard or cynical, or thoughtless or worldly. In short, because however ready may be their flow of sentiment or graceful their manners, they are at the core 68 Kind ness thoroughly selfish. They do not help their neighbours, because they are always engaged furthering their own personal interests ; they do not feel for their neighbours, because their own joys and sorrows absorb their whole stock of emotion ; they do not think about their neighbours, because their one imperious subject is them- selves. They are the slaves of a masterful egotism, which thinks and feels and acts in terms of self; to which the world is but the stage scenery for a single character and other men only a chorus. What does it mean that a person is kind ? That he remembers other people, that he is not bound up with his own affairs, that he is capable of making sacrifices, that he is willing to serve 69 Homely Virtues his fellow men. It means that his heart is not of stone, hut of flesh, that his spirit is not of the world, but of Christ. Religion may be tested by many virtues, but it may be safely said that its surest proof is kindness. One may be pure and honest and industrious, but if he is not kind he is so far less a Christiin. One, on the other hand, may have many faults, but if there be in him a pitiful and friendly heart, he is so far a Christian. He who shows not mercy, it is fair to argue, has never tasted the mercy of God, and he who never thinks of his brother has never realised how God has thought of him. While he that loves proves that he has been loved, for love is of God, and he who helps p oves that he has Kindness been helped by Jesus Christ. When we rate kindness as a form of facile good humour, we are depreciating this virtue; it is nothing else than the love of God in common life. "For mercy, pity, peace, und love, Is God our Father deur ; And mercy, pity, peace and love, Is man His child and cure , . . And alt must love the human form, In heathen, Turk, or Jew. Where mercy, love and pity dwell, There God is dwelling, too." Another reason why we ought to make much of kindness is that unkind- ness contributes so largely to human misery, and kindness to happiness. There are the major and the minor trials of life, and the major trials, thank God ! do not come often, 71 Homely Virtues although their shadow may remain for years. We are apt to think that they are beyond human consolation, and yet the mourner will tell you that in the day of sore distress he was greatly comforted by a letter, by a word fitly spoken, by a call at the rig; it time, by a little attention. The hci'rf is lonely in the straits of life and is thankful for company; it is wounded and bruised and wiii^mes the wine and oil. '("he y..>od Samaritan is the proof . r G