| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 18 |
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Most Christian people are better than they seem. There are excellent men whose goodness is rugged and cold like the bare granite rocks. It is strong, firm, true, upright, but lacks the finer graces of the Christliest piety. It is quite possible to love and not be kindly affectioned. There are homes in which there is love that would make any sacrifice, but in which hearts are starving for kindly expression. There is a dearth of those tender words and thoughtful little acts which a true gentleness would suggest. There are fathers who love their children and would give their lives for them who are yet wanting in those kindly expressions which so endear the parental relation. There are friendships that are true enough, but which are not hallowed by those graceful attentions and those tokens of thoughtfulness which cost so little and are worth so much. There are men whose hearts are full of benevolent dispositions toward the need, and of sincere sympathy for those who suffer, in whose lives none of these benevolent thoughts or feeling of compassion take practical form. There are men with kindly natures whose manners are gruff and rude. There are others who boast of honest frankness in speech whose words are so harsh or ill timed as to give immeasurable pain. Then how rare is that wise tact which seems always to know what one is in need of, and comes always at the very right moment with its delicate attention, its unostentatious ministry, its quiet help!
“The ill timed truth we might have kept,
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say,
Who knows how grandly it had rung?”
There is great need, therefore, of thought with regard to the fitting expression of love. The kindly feeling must find some way to utter itself – a way, too, in keeping with the beauty of the sentiment. Many a lovely thought loses all its loveliness when clothed in speech or act. The benevolence of the heart must show itself in amiability of deportment and in deeds of mercy. Manner is as important as matter. The gruff man can never impart much happiness to others. Kindness must be kindly expressed.
The true test of Christian love is in life’s closer relations. There is a great difference between loving people we never saw, and never shall see, and those with whom we mingle continually in actual contact. There are some persons whose souls glow with love for the benighted heathen far away who fail utterly in loving their nearest neighbors or those who jostle against them every day in business and in society. No doubt it is easier to love some people at a distance. Distance lends enchantment to many lives, just as a far away rugged landscape may seem charmingly picturesque. We cannot see their faults and blemishes. We are not required to endure their uncongenial or disagreeable qualities. We do not meet them in the rivalries of business or chafings of social life. We see nothing of the petty meanness and selfishness that closer association would reveal in them. Our lives are not impinged upon at any point by theirs, and there can therefore be no friction. If we were brought into close association with them, our interest in them might be lessened. Many men who have been excellent friends while meeting occasionally and in favorable circumstances have ceased to be friends when brought into close contact in the attritions of daily life. There are few characters that will bear the microscopic lens.
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