| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 19 |
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When they are guests in a home, they have a way of showing a grateful appreciation of the favors and attentions bestowed upon them, and yet in so delicate a way as never to appear to flatter. When they feel it necessary to remind another of some remissness in duty, they do it so gently as not to lose the friend, but to draw him all the closer. They possess the art of manifesting an interest – not feigned, but sincere – in each one they meet, and succeed in leaving a pleasant impression and a benign influence upon all.
There are some who regard tact as insincerity or hypocrisy. They boast of their own honesty, which never tries to disguise a dislike for a person, which bluntly criticizes another’s faults even at the price of his friendship. They believe in truth in all its bare ruggedness, no matter how much pain it may give, and condemn all that thoughtful art which regards human feelings and tries to speak the truth in such a way that it may not wound and estrange. They love to quote the woe against those of who all men speak well, and that other saying of our Lord’s – that he had not come to send peace, but a sword. Their favorite prophet is Elijah, and they refer often to the biblical condemnation of certain who prophesied smooth things. They mistake bluntness for sincerity. In the name of candor they employ sarcasm or sharp and bitter personalities. When others are grieved or hurt or insulted, they answer, “I am a blunt man; I say what I mean, and you must excuse me.” Frankness is to be honored, but this is not frankness; it is impertinence, cruel unkindness, the outbreak of bad nature in him who speaks, which, instead of doing good, works only harm.
A true appreciation of the story of the teachings of the gospel will reveal the fact that our Lord himself exercised the most beautiful and thoughtful tact in all his mingling among the people. He was utterly incapable of rudeness. He never needlessly spoke a harsh word. He never gave needless pain to a sensitive heart. He was most considerate of human weakness. He was most gentle toward all human sorrow. He never suppressed the truth, but he uttered it always in love. Even the terrible woes he pronounced against unbelief and hypocrisy I do not believe were spoken in the tones of thunder trembling with rage which men impart to their anathemas. I think we must read them in the light of his tears over the city of his love, which had rejected him, pulsing and tremulous with divine and sorrowing tenderness. His whole life tells of most considerate thoughtfulness. He had a wondrous reverence for human life. Every scrap of humanity was sacred and precious in his eyes. He bore himself always in the attitude of tenderest regard for every one. How could it be otherwise, since he saw in every one a lost being whom by love he might win and rescue, or whom by a harsh word he might drive for ever beyond hope? He never spoke brusquely or made truth cruel. He saw in every man and woman enough of sadness to soften the very tones of his speech and to produce feelings of ineffable tenderness in him. He moved about striving to impart to every one some comfort or help.
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