So shall thy giving set for thee God's smile,
And thine own soul drink deep draughts of His love;
Earth's shadows shall grow bright as heaven, the while
A web of glory round thy life is wove.
—The British Congregationalist.
(2733)
Dignity sometimes goes down before a solemn responsibility. Susannah Wesley started some prayer-meetings in her house. When her husband, the rector, heard of it, it seemed to him to infringe on the dignity of the Anglican order and he wrote to her in disapproval of the meetings. Her reply is quoted in part by Rev. W. H. Fitchett:
If you do, after all, think fit to dissolve
this assembly, do not tell me that you desire
me to do this; for that will not satisfy my
conscience. But send me your positive command,
in such full and express terms as
may absolve me from guilt and punishment
for neglecting this opportunity for doing
good when you and I shall appear before the
great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
That terrible sentence was too much for the little rector, and the meetings were continued until he returned from London.—"Wesley and His Century."
(2734)
Men are often exalted in their best moral attitudes by being entrusted with great responsibilities. Thus Lamar Fontaine writes:
I received from Major Livingston Mimms,
the chief quartermaster of the Department
of Mississippi and East Louisiana, and also
of Johnston's army, a carte blanche on the
Confederate treasurer, in these words:
"The Confederate States treasurer will honor any draft presented to him signed by Lamar Fontaine."
As I realized the immensity of the trust that this paper conveyed to me, and imposed upon my integrity, I trembled and could hardly sit on my steed, but there arose in my heart a something, a feeling beyond my powers to describe. I was transported to a higher, better plane than I had ever before trod, and a determination that all the gold of earth could not have purchased.—"My Life and My Lectures."
(2735)
We may often accomplish more by putting responsibility on others rather than exercising it ourselves:
Daniel O'Connell had to defend a prisoner
for a capital crime, and the defense was
said by the attorney to be hopeless. Sergeant
Lefroy happened to be acting for the judge,
who had been suddenly indisposed, and being
then young and his character known to
O'Connell, the latter purposely put several inadmissible
questions to the witness, which,
of course, were objected to by the opposite
counsel. The sergeant at last rather peremptorily
stopt further questions of the same
kind. O'Connell then, with great warmth,
said, "As you refuse me permission to defend
my client, I leave his fate in your
hands—his blood be on your head if he be
condemned." He left the court at once with
majestic stride, in a huff, and paced up and
down outside the court for half an hour.
At the end of that time his attorney rushed
out of court, exclaiming, "He's acquitted!
he's acquitted!" This stratagem was successful,
and O'Connell with complacency told
his friends that he had intended to throw
the responsibility of the conviction on the
judge. (Text.)—Croake James, "Curiosities
of Law and Lawyers."
(2736)
One of the particulars in which we are drawn away from our traditions is in respect to the make-up and government of society, and it is in that respect we should retrace our steps and preserve our traditions; because we are suffering ourselves to drift away from the old standards, and we say, with a shrug of the shoulders, that we are not responsible for it; that we have not changed the age, tho the age has changed us. We feel very much as the Scotchman did who entered the fish-market. His dog, being inquisitive, investigated a basket of lobsters, and while he was nosing about incautiously one of the lobsters got hold of his tail, whereupon he went down the street with the lobster as a pendant. Says the man, "Whustle to your dog, mon." "Nay, nay, mon," quoth the Scotchman, "you whustle for your lobster."—Woodrow Wilson.
(2737)
See Desires, Inordinate.
