SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1924, Page 11

SUNDAY READING

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Rev. A. H. Collins.

I THE SEVEN CARDINAL VIRTUES NO. 5; COURTESY. “Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritates, never resentful.”—l. Cor., xiiii., 4. (Dr. Moffatt’s translation). “Christian” and “gentlemiait” ought to be synonymous terms, for if “Christian” stands for anything worth while, it means a lover and a learner of One Who wns the Most Perfect Gentleman the world has ever seen. Christ was “the Master of the Science of Right Living,” and to be Christian means to accept Christ as Saviour and Pattern. We may not claim Him as the Saviour from sin, and refuse to accept Him as Lord in the realm of conduct. Bishop Faber speaks of Christ as coming into the world “to teach the creature how to behave himself in presence of the Creator”; and thia is true, but it is not all the truth. Christ came to teach the creature how to behave himself in the presence of his fellow creatures. “Be courteous” is no less an obligation than to be honest and truthful. Our Lord was born into a rough and brutal world; and part of His humiliation was His association with people whose manners were coarse and rude. A notable example is that of Simon the .Pharisee, who behaved like a churl to his guest. He invited Christ to his house and withheld the common courtesies of Eastern hospitality and treated the Master as a social inferior. Our Lord noticed the deliberate rudeness, and rebuked it with exquisite dignity, and pointed to the contrast supplied by the conduct.of a woman, who had lost a good deal, bat had kept .her native good manners; for Coventry Patmore is right when he says that none of the fine arts is so fine as the art of manners. Genuine countesy is the sacrament of ' i-' feeling, and issues out of the full:- of the heart, as streams from fountains. MARKS OF COURTESY. Nor was it by the rebuke of discourtesy that Christ exulted this virtue. He supplied perfect example. His life breathed courtesy as violets exhale perfume and the sun emits light. Jjet one example be given as typical of His v hole life. When the woman taken in sin was hounded into His presence, confused and dishevelled, and when her accusers shrieked their charges, Christ ignored them, and stooped to write in the dust of the public street. Why did He do that? Because He was a gentleman and would save the woman from embarrassment. It was the refined act of One Who shrank from giving pain, which is one of the marks of courtesy, for courtesy, as Christ interpreted it, is not a matter of bowing and handshakes, add finery; it is “tha outw’ard and virible sign of an inward and spiritual grace’’; it is the refined action of a re'fined heart.

Wordsworth, in his sonnet addressed to John Milton, calls on the great Puritan to come back to England, ‘‘and give us manners, virtue, freedom, power ” Some would think the word “manners” ill chosen. They would admit, that Puritanism gave our Motherland “virtue, freedom, power,” but not “manners.” Were they not rough and blunt and a bit uncouth in speech and dress? Perhaps they were. But “manners” do not consist chiefly of such things. The Puritan had no use for hollow and complimentary insincerities; but they had a genuine reverence for trust and reality; and Cromwell was a true gentleman. though his linen was not always spotless and he had a wart on his face and a bite in his words. IRREVERENCE IS BAD FORM. Of course, this raises the question. What are the marks of good breeding? In what does courtesy differ from its imitations? Forms of courtesy vary wdth times and lands. But with ail the changes there are features which do not change, and 1 imagine the poet of Grasmere was thinking of these changeless things when he wrote of the “manners” of the Puritans. One of these unchanging things was reverence for what is sacred and serious. They did not jest about religion. They set character above brilliance, or fashion, or wealth. ] have said forms of courtesy change, and the standard of good manners varies; but the sacred sanctions of religion do not change, and all irreverence is bad form, whether it is irreverence towards God or man, irreverence to the Lord’s Day, or the Lord’s House. Yet in some circles it is possible to find food for jokes in the religious faith and habits of the people; and some descendants of “a hundred earls,” with the bluest of the blue blood have cast off the restraints of religion. To the Puritan such habits are contemptibly bad manners.

Another unchanging mark of good breeding is regard for man as man, and quite apart from the accidents of birth and station. It was said of Sir Walter Scott, “He speaks to every man as if he were a blood relation.” Yes, and the school of Christ was where Sir Walter learned that chivalry. That was how Christ treated men. His attention and regard were not reserved for the high born and the high browed. He bore Himself with the same winning and holy graciousness towards the fallen, the outcast, the scorned of society <«nd the scum of the city. He rebuked, in His inimitable way, the discourtesies of the rich; and he marked and praised the courtesies of the poor. He treated with the same wonderful reverence, the fallen woman and her self-righteous sister; the despised publican and the more moral pharisee, and He did so because He saw the man and not the man’s social state. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit made him so. BEGINNING OF DEMOCRACY. Carlyle declares that democracy was ■born at Bunker’s Hill, but he was a good few centuries out in his reckoning. Democracy was born at Bethlehem. It was Jesus Christ who said, “Of how much greater value is a man than a sheep.” It was He who taught us to look beneath the social surface and see in every man the glory of incarnate God; and it is bad manners to idolise clothes and station, to the neglect of

jmanhood. ’But we, have not yet learned Uie lesson. We still hold to what the 'Bible calls “respect of persons.” Our I estimate is still based on the accident.? of existence instead of the esse’ritials. |We see men with the eyes of Mr. Worldly Wiseman. “The snob ye have always with you!” Even churchmen grow obsequious in the company of a millionaire and a lord! The spirit is clean contrary to the spirit of Christ. It never occurred to Him that outward circumstances eoitld make the smallest difference to a man’s real status, or affect his value in the sight of God. Dr. Clifford has this piece in his diary: " I wish is to use my gifts and opportunities so as (1) not to hurt any single soul. and. most of all. not any feeble, sensitive, suffering soul; (2) not to enjoy any benefit life offers in such a way as to injure another; and (3) to make every enjoyment of life an aid to others,” That is the spirit of courtesy. If then it be asked what Wordsworth meant by “manners” as understood by the Puritans, and, what is more important. what the New Testament means b; "courtesy,” let this answer stand, it is reverence for the sacred things of life, including man and not rank or station. HOMAGE OF IMITATION. Now’ in the light of what I have been saying, we can hardly fail to notice the contrast between this sweet and gracious figure of Jesus Christ and those called His disciples. Saint James noted it in striking terms. The dogmatists of the church have almost invariably been discourteous towards those who differed from them. Athanasius described the Arians in bitter terms, and you may be sure his opponents pay him back measure for measure. The orthodox of one generation have bitterly assailed the doctrines that were accepted by the orthodoxy of the next. Whatever theologians have been, they cannot be said to have been .polite; and as to paying deference to their brother theologians whose views did not agree with their owji, they would regard it as lamentable weakness. '“See how these Christians hate one another,” was the old pagan taunt* What a pitiful story might be told of the ill-mannerly quarrelling of the sects! Yet as Dr. Whyte used to say, “Better error should live than love should die ”

1 make no plea for the affectation of courtesy, but I would plead for the grace that refines the heart and imparts to us the deep and genuine spirit of love and Christian courtesy. Tfie church ought to be the school of good manners. It should not be possible to find anywhere a company of gentlefolk equal to those who profess and call themselves Christians. Henry IV 7 . of France was standing one day with his courtiers at the entrance to a village, when a poor man passed by and bowed to the very ground, and the king returned the salute in the same way. His attendants expressed surprise, but the monarch finely replied, “Would you have your king exceeded in politeness by one of the lowest of his subjects?” The story is capable of another application, Lfor if our Immortal King stooped to ?en of low estate, should not we pay Him the homage of imitation?

TWO COURTESY REMINDERS.

I end this address by reminding you of these two things: First, let us understand there is no quality more distinctive of a true Christian than this giace of courtesy. There is something lacking in our religion if we think only of being delivered from penalty, and fail to see that being Christian means to be saved from lough, coarse, speech ana surly ways. “If any man be an Christ Jesus he is a new creature,’’ and a new creature wid cultivate new habits. “The porcupine is not a strict ircralist,” says Maclaren. Cowper sings “Pure in her aim and in her temper mild. Her wisdom seems the weakne.ss of a child. Not soon provoked, however stung or t teased, And if perchance made angry goon appeased. The worst suggested she believes the best,

Su&picion lurks not in her artless breast.

Discourtesy is un-Christian. My second word is that courtesy is a powerful agent in evangelism. We cannot all preach, but we can so live as to commend the doctrine of Christ. John Banyan tel}s how he was influenced by a few godly women who sat in the sunshine and talked of the things of God. You cannot dragoon men into goodness; but you may charm them by a life that breathed gentleness and purity and grace, in a word breathes courtesy. I do not believe that work for God or man is quite as important as we are apt to think. What we are counts for more than what we do or what we have, in fact it is the one tiling needful. I mean what we are in relation to onr experience of God. It is far, far mor? important to become conformed to the likeness of Christ than to wear ourselves out in what is commonly called His service. And is not the mosit potent kind of service that which is spontaneously effected by a pure and radiant life? O that all Christians could be fully persuaded of this! Our sternest task is that of subduing our ever insistent selfishness and desire to stand well with the world, even the little world of our familiar daily concerns.