| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 8 |
Page 5 |
One asks: “Do we want to know ourselves? Then let us ask everyday: ‘How have I met the drudgery of my regular work? How have I treated those who work beside me or who have claims upon me? How have I kept my temper over little worries? How often have I looked to God and toward high ideals? What thoughts have been my companions?’ Here are the real, accurate tests of character. They do not give us an easy time of it. But they are true. According as the answers to them are satisfactory or not we are growing or weakening in character and becoming fit – or unfit – for the revealing crisis when it comes.”
Home tests us. It ought not to be so, but perhaps no other place tests our Christian consecration more severely than our home. Its very sweetness seems to free us from the restraint we feel in the presence of strangers. Those who do not love us would not endure the words and acts which we sometimes compel our dearest to bear from us. It is pitiful to think how often those who stand for Christ in his church, and who elsewhere witness a good confession for him, in their own homes seem to feel themselves absolved from all the courtesies and amenities of love, even of good manners.
“Studied, folded, and laid away
Manners too fine for every day!
The graceful bow and the gentle touch
That cost so little and means so much;
The smile that charms like the rare perfume
Of a rose jar hid in a shadowy room;
The song from the twilight nook apart
That finds its way to a burdened heart;
The yielding of self and of selfish ends,
Reserved for the plaudits of transient friends:
This–this–the cruel sneer provokes–
‘Anything goes with one’s own folks.’”
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