DIFFERENT TYPES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

DIFFERENT TYPES.

LESSONS FOR ALL. I (By S.) Among the many sayings in the Bible that we can speak of as suggestive, none is more so than the saying we come upon in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door." An open door! What an arresting statement. And how often we have found it true in our experience. How constantly doors have opened before us inviting us to all kinds of duties and to all kinds of discoveries and adventures.

Take, for example, the open door of human society —a door that is always open. What an extraordinary variety of men and women it reveals, even in a small area, and within a limited circle. It was Lord Asquith, I think, who remarked in his diary that he was struck with discovering this in his Cabinet when he was Prime Minister. He found, the more he saw of them, that no two of his colleagues were quite alike in any one respect. It is this discovery of the different types of people one meets within even the smallest compass that has made it possible for some of our best writers to become novelists. Jane Austen is a case in point. All that she saw of English society was. in a few country houses and cottages. Even Anthony Trollope had but a limited- acquaintance with social life in the England of his' day. And when we turn to contemporary writers it is surprising how few are the 1 characters, and how circumscribed is the scene in the case of some ot the most distinguished of them. I remember being struck with this i/i reading, some years ago, a novel that, out of 400 competitors, was awarded a thousand guinea prize. It was Lettice Cooper's "The Ship of Truth." There are not more than five or six leading characters in it, but, with that scanty material, a couple of children and two or three minor characters, she succeeded in revealing a little world of reality. And that, as I have remarked, is what this door that is open reveals to us practically every day, whether our lot is large and spacious, or narrow and circumscribed. And the point I want to make is this, that we live, and have to live in this little world. It is not something we look at. It is something we are playing a part in. And how we are playing it is the great thing. We associate, and co-ope-rate, and live with, and rub shoulders with all sorts of types—with people who are stiff, genial, selfish, generous, stupid, clever, conceited, modest, foolish and wise. No two of them have the same nature. No two have the same outlook. Some of them we are the better for coming in contact with. From others we go away with a poorer belief in ourselves and in human nature. But there they are, and we have to take them as we find them. And what is it all but an opportunity and a call to us to avoid becoming suspicious and cynical and censorious, and to cultivate tolerance, good nature, and -charity—a charity that suffers long and is kind, and that shows itself even in trifles. That is certainly the way to bring blessing to ourselves and to others, and to gain in power and influence.