Another element of the best character is generosity, that loving good-will toward all creatures which turns the life into a bright, gushing fountain of goodness and blessing. This is the crowning grace of noble character; this makes man most like God, for "he that loves is born of God." You may be sincere and true and pure, but, were such a thing possible, if with all this excellence you have not a heart of love and pity and helpfulness, you are "nothing." Last, I mention, what has been already implied, steadfastness in loyalty and devotion to the right. It is the capacity to sacrifice every worldly interest in the maintenance of principle. Let me illustrate this by an incident of Scotland's heroic days. In the time of the Covenanters, John Welsh, minister of Ayr, was banished for his fidelity to his faith. His wife, a daughter of John Knox, was told by King James that her husband could return to Scotland if he would abandon his convictions, intimating that she, by a like abandonment, could induce him to do the same. Raising her apron, the noble woman replied, " Please your majesty, I'd rather kep his head there!" It was such character as hers that made possible the glorious history of the Covenanters; it is such character that makes life everywhere heroic. The need of this was not greater in Scotland and the seventeenth century than it is in America and the nineteenth century. In society, in politics, and in religion the call is loud for men and women of stamina, 99 "Men who have honor, men who will not lie, Men who can stand before the demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;' women who can revitalize our social life with a steadfastness of devotion to high principles which the luxury of wealth and the fascinations of ingenious and boundlessly diversified pleasure cannot undermine. 3. Finally, consider a few moments the worth of character. This scarcely needs demonstration here; life demonstrates it. The world recognizes the worth of character; all men pay tribute to it, the bad as well as the good. A knave once said to a man of distinguished honesty: "I would give twenty thousand pounds for your good name." When asked why, he replied, "Because I could make forty thousand by it," a knave's answer truly, but at the same time a significant tribute to moral worth. Commerce is built on the faith which good men inspire. "Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong; " they, and not the police, guarantee the execution of law,— their influence is the bulwark of good government. It was said of the first Emperor Alexander of Russia, that his personal character was equivalent to a constitution. Of Montaigne, it was said that his personal character was a better protection for him than a regiment of horse would have been, he being the only man among the French gentry who, during the wars of the Fronde, kept his castle gates unbarred. The man of character is the true aristocrat. Mr. Smiles tells us that Robert Burns was once taken to task by a young Edinburgh blood, with whom he was walking, for recognizing an honest farmer in the open street. "Why, you fantastic gomeril!" exclaimed Burns; "it was not the great-coat, the scone-bonnet, and the Saunders-boot hose that I spoke to, but the man that was in them; and the man, sir, for true worth, would weigh down you and me, and ten more such, any day!". an answer worthy of the poet who wrote, "The rank is but the guinea-stamp, Fisher Ames, while in Congress, said of Roger Sherman of Connecticut: "If I am absent during a discussion of a subject, and consequently know not on which side to vote, I always look at Roger Sherman; for I am sure, if I vote with him I shall vote right." He was a pious man, says his biographer, faithful in his closet, in his family, on the bench, and in the Senatehouse. But I need not multiply instances of tribute paid to character. Thank God, they abound; there is no one of you but knows some man or woman whose beautiful life makes the earth fairer, and the sunshine more bland, and gives a sounder health to society. Genius may dazzle us, but character draws us upward like a celestial gravitation. Accomplishments may win our admiration, but character commands our respect, while it shames our follies, and rebukes our vices. Good men do not die. They pass out of our sight, and leave the walks that knew them lone some; but in their moral power over those among whom they lived, they abide, absolving life from grossness, and keeping it wholesome. Their names become household words, are wrought into our speech, and add a new value to country and home. "The memory of the just is blessed." You who are young are building your characters as those who build abiding habitations. What you shall be in moral quality and power in the far future, not only of time but also of eternity, you are now determining by your choices and your deeds, by the thoughts that you cherish, and the habits that you form, by your purposes and your faith. The situation is most interesting, and in its possibilities it is unspeakably solemn. Be wise now. Remember that you are not alone in your choice and endeavor; God is with you, and is working for you and in you. What may seem an insuperably difficult task to you, already caught in the toils of nascent habit, He will enable you successfully to achieve. He has given you a Saviour who is at once your friend and exemplar. Character in its highest form is Christ-likeness. Open your hearts freely to him; draw upon the inexhaustible sources of his power and grace; live in his companionship, in his school, under his gentle and strong mastership, and by him you will be safely led, until at last you come "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." |