| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 20 |
Page 4 |
An old writer says,
“Fret not: ‘tis wasteful, for it lets thy work:
And selfish, for it doth thy neighbour irk:
And faithless: did not God thy lot prepare?
But chiefly needless, being healed by prayer.”
The Bible is the best book of manners ever written. All its teachings are toward the truest and best culture. It condemns whatever is rude in act, coarse and unlovely in disposition, ungentle in word or thought. Jesus Christ was the most perfect gentleman who ever lived, and all His teachings are toward whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, pleasing to others, well spoken of. Saint Paul, also, is an excellent teacher of good manners. If we would learn to live out the teachings of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, for example, we should need no other instruction on how to behave. No rules of conduct ever formulated in books of etiquette are so complete or cover all possible cases so fully as these few words in that immortal chapter: “If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
This subject is very important. We cannot pay too careful heed to our manners. Religion is love, and love, if it be true and large hearted, inspires perfect manners. There are certain conventional rules regulating one’s conduct in good society, which every one should know and follow. There is a place for etiquette, and no one has a right to ignore the formalities which prevail among refined people. But the essential element in all good manners is the heart. The love which Saint Paul so earnestly commends inspires gentleness, kindliness, thoughtfulness, unselfishness, humility, good temper, self control, patience, endurance of wrong, and all the graces.
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