The Elements of Character | Page 5

cruel
slaveholder, and possibly lower than a kind one.
The intemperate, and often malignant, violence with which men preach,
and lead on crusades, against special vices, proves them ignorant of, or
indifferent to, the significance of virtue as a whole. It does not enter
into their hearts to conceive of the beauty of that growth in grace which
results in the complete stature of a man,--that is, of an angel. In their
haste to produce great growth in some particular direction, they
overlook the fact, that in precise proportion to such growth must be the
dwarfing of the other members of the soul. Man was created in the
image and likeness of God; and he becomes truly a man only so far as,
through the grace of God, his whole being voluntarily assumes that
resemblance to the All-perfect for which he was designed. So long as
he makes no effort to become regenerate, after he has arrived at an age
to be at liberty to choose between good and evil, he turns himself more
and more away from God, and becomes less and less like him. While in
this state, he may possess many seeming virtues, may enjoy an
untarnished reputation, may win the love of many friends; but is none
the less the hollow image of that which should be the substance of a
man. He is following only the devices of his own heart,--seeking only
the good things of this world; and there is no virtue in anything that he
does, though he may seem to devote all that he has, or all that he is, to
purposes of charity or reform. Man begins to be truly virtuous,--to be
truly a man, only when, relying on the strength of the Lord to sustain
his endeavors, he begins to avoid sin because it is abhorrent to God,
and to fulfil the commandments because they are the words of God.

Then only he begins to form himself into the symmetrical figure of a
man; and to become perfect after the manner in which the Heavenly
Father is perfect.
The virtues all lock into each other. They cannot stand alone. Like the
stones of an arch, no one of them can be wanting without making all
the rest insecure. That Character alone is trustworthy in which each
virtue takes its relative position, and all are held in place and confirmed
by the key-stone of a living faith in the great central fact, that there is a
God of infinite goodness and truth, whose commandments are the laws
of life in this world and the world to come.
We cannot religiously obey one commandment unless we desire to
obey all, because in order to obey one religiously we must obey it from
reverence to the divine authority whence it emanates; and when such
reverence is aroused in the heart, it sends the currents of spiritual life to
every member of the spiritual frame, permeating the whole being, and
suffering no disease to remain upon the soul. He, therefore, who
devotes himself to some one object of reform enters upon an
undertaking involving one of the most subtle temptations by which man
is ever assailed. Spiritual pride will lie in wait for him every moment,
telling him how clean he is compared with those against whose vices he
is contending; and unless he is very strong in Christian humility, he
will soon learn this oft-repeated lesson, and will go about the world
with the spirit of the Pharisee's prayer ever in his heart,--"God, I thank
thee that I am not as other men, intemperate, a slaveholder, a contemner
of the rights of the weak. I am not, like many men, contented with
fulfilling the common, every-day duties of life. They are too small for
me. I seek to do great things; and to show my devotion to thee by going
armed with all the power the law allows, to put down vice by force, and
drive it from the face of the earth."
There is a class of men who assume to be, and are received by many as,
philanthropists, who appear to delight in detecting and publishing to the
world the vices of their fellow-beings. They seem to love to hate; and
to find, in vilifying the reputations of those to whom they are opposed,
a pleasure that can be compared to nothing human; but rather to the joy
of a vulture as he gloats over, and rends in pieces, his carrion prey.
While reading or listening to the raging denunciations of such persons,
one is painfully reminded of the spirit that a few generations ago armed

itself with the fagot and the axe in order to destroy those who held
opinions in opposition to the dominant power. The axe and the fagot
have