Part 5

Unselfishness is hard to practise, because it brings no reward in this life. The unselfish man, indeed, is often imposed on by the self-seeking, and more often still simply because he is unselfish, and never ceases to think of others. A Christian man in the city of Toronto, widely known for his charities, subscribed $500 to a deserving object. The committee in charge of the matter appointed collectors to go about and ask help from the public. A lady called upon this gentleman, not knowing that he had already given largely. He was about to tell her of his first subscription, when he noticed her face fall at the expected refusal. He immediately took her little book and put down his name for a second amount. He could not bear to send her empty away. His first subscription was generosity; his second, Unselfishness. There is a reward here for Unselfishness--the approval of one's own Conscience, and, after all, that is of greater permanent value than the praise of men.

In an age when there is so much grasping after personal gain, it is refreshing to read of great instances of forgetfulness of self. When the Victoria, after her collision with the Camperdown, was found to be sinking, Admiral Sir George Tryon ordered the sick and the prisoners to be brought up from below, and then gave the usual order, always the last to be given on a ship: "All hands for themselves." Not a man broke ranks until that order was given. Even then the chaplain stayed to help the sick, and so lost his life. The Admiral himself went down, standing on the bridge; and, most notable of all, young Lanyon, a junior midshipman, refused to leave the Admiral's side, though told to jump, and they went down together.

"He that loseth his life shall find it."

No. VII.

HONESTY

+Honesty is Truth practically applied to questions about the property of others. It is the principle of dealing with others as we would desire others to deal with us. The sole guide in fulfilling this obligation is not what the Law may be, but what our Conscience tells us.+

(1) Honesty is a form of Truthfulness. It is that form of it which is concerned with our dealings with others, especially as to their possessions. The opposite of it is called Dishonesty, and the worst form of Dishonesty is Stealing. The thief is hated, and feared, and despised more than any other sort of criminal. Men fear him as they do poisonous snakes; because the thief is a creeping creature, hiding himself and his actions from the light of day. He watches you until you feel secure, and are less careful than usual of your possessions; then he sneaks about, waiting for a favourable moment when no one is near to observe or suspect him before snatching your property. A man may commit a very grievous offence against another in a moment of passion; and, though we acknowledge the justice of his punishment, we do not hate him. But men hate a thief because he is a sneak, and because his offence is done in cold blood, not in the heat of anger; in an underhand way, not openly and above board.

The confirmed thief is one who has yielded his soul to the Devil. He deliberately sacrifices his character; he surrenders himself of his own free will to a life of evil. Stealing inevitably leads to lying, and these two things degrade the character more quickly than any other evils that touch it. Not only does he destroy the purity of his soul; before long he must yield up his body for punishment. Not one thief in a hundred goes long unpunished.

(2) There are other forms of dishonesty not so open as stealing, and, in some cases, not so harmful, but generally degrading and destructive of high character. One of these is Cheating. If a coal dealer is paid for a ton of coal and delivers only nineteen hundred pounds, he is guilty of stealing. If, however, he gives full weight, but sells the coal as first-class, when it contains shale or other impurities, and is really of a cheap grade, then he is cheating. The schoolboy who copies his night-work from another, or gets help, and then presents the exercise as his own, is guilty of cheating. This form of cheating is made worse when it is done in examinations, because the result affects not only the standing of the person who cheats, but deprives others of fairly won advantage.

(3) Another form of dishonesty is that by which one person takes advantage of another in a bargain, through his ignorance or helplessness, even though nothing is actually misrepresented. For example, A. asks B. to lend him ten cents for a month. B. knows that A. is in a tight place, and must have the money; and so he offers it on condition that A. will pay him twenty cents at the end of the month. B. is dishonest, because he takes unlawful advantage of A.'s necessity.

(4) There is a kind of cheating not referred to above--that is cheating in games. Apart from the effect of this kind of cheating upon the character, the game itself is spoiled. There is a tendency, nowadays, to play games for the sake of the victory alone, and to take no interest in games that one cannot win. We should play the game for its own sake, and frown down all attempts to win it by going just a little outside of what we know to be the rules. He who allows himself to cheat at games is forming a habit which will lead him to cheat later on in serious business.

(5) Another form of dishonesty is that relating to property lost and found. A boy finds a sum of money in a room, or hall, or playground, or even on the street. Money is a thing not easily identified, and there is, therefore, a temptation to pocket it and say nothing about it. This is dishonest. The duty in such a case is plain, to try to find the owner, and, if that cannot be done, then to put the money to some useful or charitable purpose, and not into one's own pocket.

(6) Still another form of dishonesty is that in which one person takes to himself the praise belonging to another; or allows another to bear blame belonging to himself. We often see boys letting others suffer, in one way or another, for what they have done. Nothing can be meaner or more contemptible. It is not uncommon to see people eager to take the credit, or praise, or even rewards, which properly belong to others, who have been thrust aside, or forgotten, for the moment. It is a form of dishonesty.

Honesty has another side also. When practised according to the voice of Conscience, without regard to what the law may be, it is the sign of a noble character. A young man's father fails in business, and dies suddenly, leaving many debts behind him unpaid. The young man makes a solemn resolution that he will save and save, and work his hardest, to pay off those debts, though he did not make them; that is the Honesty of the truly noble character. A very striking example of this sort of Honesty is that of Sir Walter Scott, who applied himself, though nearly sixty years of age, to the enormous task of paying off, by the sale of his stories, a debt of $600,000, which he did not actually incur, and from which he could have got free, according to the letter of the law. But his inflexible Honesty forced him into making an effort which doubtless shortened his life.

No. VIII.

FAITHFULNESS

+Faithfulness is being true to our word, and to our friends, fulfilling our obligations, and doing what we see is our duty, at all costs.+

Of the honest man we say: "His word is as good as his bond." Of the faithful man we say: "He was never known to desert a friend or neglect an important duty." Faithfulness is one of the strongest evidences of fine character. The boy who is sent on an errand by his mother, and resists the temptations of some playmates he meets on the way, to stop and have a game, is Faithful. Two boys going for a walk in the country decide to cross a field of ripe grain, and run the risk of being seen by the farmer in the next field. They are seen and chased. One can run much faster than the other; in fact, he can escape if he likes to leave the other. But he doesn't; and both are caught, and have their ears cuffed. That is an example of the Faithfulness of a friend. As the gentleman's psalm puts it,

"He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not";

or, as it is otherwise translated,

"He sweareth to his friend, and changeth not."

In the history of Napoleon we are told that, after his burial at St. Helena, his household sadly embarked for Europe. One of their number, however, Sergeant Hubert, refused to abandon even the grave of the Emperor. For nineteen years he continued at St. Helena, daily guarding the solitary tomb, and when the remains were at length removed to France the faithful old servant followed them home. How often we see people professing the utmost friendship and loyalty to one who has wealth and influence; but as soon as his money is gone, his faithless friends depart also. Is not that the case sometimes, even with schoolboys?

We should be faithful in performing obligations. It is said of Thomas Brassey, who has been called a great captain of industry, and who was one of the first to undertake great railway contracts, that the reason of his success lay in the fact that he was faithful in all obligations, and trusted his men as they trusted him. On one occasion, when he was building a railway in Spain, a man who had agreed to make a cutting through a hill found that it turned out to be a rock cutting, though the price was to be for a sand cutting. If there had not been perfect trust between the two men, the work would have stopped, and Mr. Brassey would have lost a large sum through delay. The sub-contractor went steadily on with the work, and had it almost finished, when Mr. Brassey arrived from England to inspect the works. When he came to the hill, the sub-contractor told him what he had done. Some men would have taken advantage of the sub-contractor; but Mr. Brassey allowed him double the price agreed upon, and kept a faithful servant by practising Faithfulness himself.

A merchant fails in business. He agrees with his creditors to pay them fifty cents in the dollar, and they then discharge him from his liabilities, and he begins business again. In a few years he makes a good deal of money. He determines to pay back to his old creditors the other fifty cents in the dollar, from payment of which they had released. That is a case of Faithfulness to one's obligations. The moral obligations to pay back everything remained, though his creditors had let him off. There are such men in the business world, and all honour to them! Horace says: "Fidelity is the sister of Justice."

We should be especially careful to be faithful in the performance of our promises. A promise is a sacred thing. It is an obligation undertaken of our own free will, and for which we have pledged our honour. That is what the sacred poet means in saying: "He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." Nothing can turn him from his promise, even though he is sure to suffer by it. There is a proverb which says: "Promises may get friends, but it is performance that must keep them."

Faithfulness is most difficult in the daily round and common task of life. Yet it is precisely there that Character is formed and built up. A reputation for Faithfulness cannot be made by being strictly faithful a few times, or in a few important things. We have to practise at it, and grow into the character of a faithful man after years of effort. A boy is given ten words to parse for next day. He does five carefully; and then, longing to get out to play, he does the others anyhow, just to be able to show the exercise, and escape detention; he is unfaithful. Or, he is given four stanzas of poetry to learn. He learns three, and takes his chance of being asked one of the three, and not the fourth; he is unfaithful. He is expected by his parents to watch over his younger brother who goes with him to school, but he lets the little fellow fight his own way; he is unfaithful. He listens without protest, or without moving away, to bad, or, perhaps, obscene, language. He is unfaithful to God, and to his father and mother.

The late Czar of Russia, Alexander III., was many times in danger of his life, and his father had been assassinated by Nihilists. Yet he refused to flinch from the path of duty. He was faithful to his great position and responsibilities, and was called the Peace-keeper of Europe. When he was fresh from a hair-breadth escape from the hand of an assassin, he said: "I am ready; I will do my duty at any cost."

The highest examples of faithfulness are to be found in the history of the Christian martyrs, who gave up their lives joyfully, rather than be found unfaithful. In the terrible persecution of the early Christians in A.D. 303, a young Roman noble, named Andronicus, was brought before the governor of the province. He was very bold in professing his faith in God. The judge said: "Youth makes you insolent; I have my torments ready." Andronicus replied: "I am prepared for whatever may happen." He was tortured upon the rack, scraped with broken tiles, and salt rubbed into his wounds, but remained immovable. Three times the torture was repeated. But with seared and scarred flesh, members cut off, teeth smashed in, and tongue cut out, he maintained his fidelity to the end. At last he was thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Anazarbus.