Life and Conduct | Page 3

and
enlists in the army, he may swagger about and look like a real soldier,
but a time will come when the spirit of the man will show itself, and he
will be set down at his real value. Or a young man in an office may act
dishonestly and go on perhaps for long doing so, and thinking he is
carefully concealing his frauds, but, when least expected, discovery
takes place, and ruin and disgrace follow. (2) Sorrow reveals character.
Nothing more truly shows what a man is than his bearing under the
sorrows of life. When the flag is wrapped around the flag-staff on a
calm day, when no breath of wind is moving, we cannot read the device
that is upon it, but when the storm unfurls the flag, we can read it
plainly enough. In the same way when the troubles of life beat upon
men we can read clearly what they are. Again, when we go along the
road on a summer day we often cannot see the houses that are
concealed by the foliage of the trees; but in winter-time, when the trees
are bare and leafless, we know what kind of houses are there, whether
they are squalid cottages or grand mansions. So in the winter-time of
life, when the leaves are blown away, men come out and we know what
kind of character they have been building up behind the screen of their
life. (3) If time and sorrow do not reveal character, eternity will. We

will appear then, not as we seem, but as we are. Christ is to be our
judge. Consider what a striking thing it is in the life of Christ that His
searching glance seemed to go right to the heart, to the hidden motive,
to the man within. "He knew what was in man." A poor woman passed
by Him as He sat in the temple. She was poverty-stricken in her garb,
and she stole up to the contribution-box and dropped in her offering.
Christ's glance went right beyond her outward appearance, and beyond
her small and almost imperceptible offering, to the motive and
character. "She hath given more than they all." All sorts of people were
around Him: Pharisees, with their phylacteries; Scribes, with their
sceptical notions; Samaritans, with their vaunted traditions: but He
always went right beyond the outward show. The Samaritan was good
and kind, though he got no credit for piety; the Pharisee was corrupt
and self-seeking, though he got no credit for piety; the Publican was a
child of God, though no one would speak to him. Christ reversed the
judgment of men on those people whom they thought they knew so
well, but did not know at all. So it shall be at the last; we shall be
judged by what we are.
IV. Character alone endures.--What a man has he leaves behind him;
what a man is he carries with him. It is related that when Alexander the
Great was dying he commanded that his hands should be left outside
his shroud, that all men might see that, though conqueror of the world
he could take nothing away with him. Before Saladin the Great uttered
his last sigh he called the herald who had carried his banner before him
in all his battles, and commanded him to fasten to the top of the spear a
shroud in which he was to be buried, and to proclaim, "This is all that
remains to Saladin the Great of all his glory." So men have felt in all
ages that death strips them, and that they take nothing with them of
what they have gained. But what we are ourselves we take with us. All
that time has made us, for good or evil, goes with us. We can lay up
treasures in ourselves that neither moth nor rust can corrupt, and which
thieves cannot steal away. "The splendid treasures of memory, the
treasures of disciplined powers, of enlarged capacities, of a pure and
loving heart, all are treasures which a man can carry in him and with
him into that other world."

We are but farmers of ourselves, yet may, If we can stock ourselves and
thrive, uplay Much good treasure for the great rent-day.--DONNE.
"All the jewels and gold a man can collect he drops from his hand when
he dies, but every good action he has done is rooted into his soul and
can never leave him."--Buddhist saying.
V. The highest character a man can have is the Christian Character.--(1)
Christ is the giver of a noble character. It is possible to be united to
Christ as the branch is united to the tree; and when we are so, His life
passes into ours: a change in character comes to us;