| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 2 |
Page 5 |
One of the most significant words of personal experience in the Old Testament is that in which David tells us, at the close of his wonderful life, that all he had attained and achieved he owed to God’s gentleness. “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” If God had been harsh with him – stern, critical, severely exacting, David never would have reached the noble life, with its wonderful achievements, which he finally attained. If God had been severe with him after his falls and failures, David never would have risen to power and distinction. God’s gentleness made him great. We can help others to become great only by being patient with them. Men and women everywhere need nothing so much as gentleness.
“So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.”
Are not many of us too brusque with each other? Do we not lack in kindliness, in patience, in tenderness? Some men would have us believe that gentleness is an unmanly quality. But it is not – rudeness and harshness are always unmanly; gentleness is divine. For many people, life is not easy, and we make it very much harder for them to live worthily when we deal harshly with the, when we are exacting, when we chide or blame them, or when we exercise our wits in saying smart, cutting, and irritating things to annoy and vex them. It was said of William Cullen Bryant that he treated every neighbour as if he were an angel in disguise. That is, he had a feeling akin to reverence for everyone who entered his presence. We do not know to who we are speaking when we meet a stranger any of these common days. Let us treat him as the poet did his neighbour – as if he were an angel.
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