ticm of long 1 years of labor. In heathen mythology it is said
that the Goddess Minerva sprung from the head of Jupiter,
at once full-grown and glorious; but character, like a g’rand
edifice is of slow growth, as the builder lays brick after
brick, stone after stone, erects beam after beam, so slowly
and laborously, this character work advances. There is not
an act of our lives, however small, not even a thought, that
does not add a stone to that edifice. If it be a false stone an
unworthy beam, we can no more take it out of our character,
than we can take a stone out of the solid wall of a building.
There it is and there it will stay, and it will weaken our
whole character for all time.
Some of the most atrocious characters in history were
men of giant intellect. An invalid may be decked with jew
els, but these import neither appetite, life nor streng-th. A
monkey clad in silk and housed in a marble palace is but a
monkey still. These outward trappings are but superficial
and decorative, the mere guilding of life. What is needed
is a genuine, solid, moral, character. This is the most val
uable possession in this world. A man may be reputed
wealthy and this may give him honor among men but world
ly reputation is not character. His elevation in consequence
of his wealth may have beneath it frauds and swindles, a
foundation so decayed that he who occupies this seat which
the world calls high, may some day fall so low that an an
gels eye will not be able to penetrate the depth of his de
scent. Character is not built of such materials, but of love,
faith, hope, self-denial, truthfulness and patience ; —these,
the underlying elements of a good character, like the sap' of
a tree, run into every branch of life, shaping, coloring and
giving direction to every part of it.
Character and not circumstances make a man happy or
miserable. Wealth, position in society, and education, are
nothing but the scaffolding, The question of prime import
ance does not concern the scaffolding, but how is the build
ing getting on. There is a vast difference between the two.