The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-08-22
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
TRUE GREATNESS.

, Most people have false notions as to wha
greatness is. They associate it with glar'
and glitter, with popular recognition ant
popular appearance. The general who hal
led the armies of his country to magnificent
victories, the statesman of broad, pbilosophic
views and farSeeiDg sagacity, the scientist
who has discovered and revealed the secrets
of nature, the divine who has published a
standard work on theology, the preacher
who pleads for Christ with the eloquence Of
Apollos and the SUCCESS of Paul, these are
the men who are generally pronounced
great. It is not considered that greatness
may dwell in cottages as well as in palaces,
and be found with the widow who rears her
ragged children for Christ, no less than with
the man whose fame has been given to the
world in deeds of glory. And hence it is,
that some are truly great who do not know
it, and that many, perhaps, are deferred from
seeking greatness because they believe it un-
attainable.
But true greatness is not dependent on
the adventitious circumstances of ones life.
1t may, indeed, be connected, as it often is,
with an exquisitely constructed intellect, an
exalted field of action, and deeds that strike
and dazzle, and immortalize; but these are
not by any means essential to it. 1t tbelongs
essentially to character, and consists in the
careful and successful training and develop
ment of our spiritual nature, with all its
multiform activities. 1t is not the mere eyi-
dence of Bacon whom Pope pronounces
"The wsest, brightest, meanest of mankind"
or of Warren Hastings, whose administra-
ton in India may have been brilliant, but
was far from being pure; but that substan-
tial work, both of heart and life, which meets
with Gods approval, and will live when the
memory of all things earthly has died away.
In word, it is holiness of character and holi-
ness of effort. Show me fullrouDded Chris
tian, ripening in all his graceS, and doing his
life-work with heavenly mind and con-
tented spirit, in the sphere which God has
assigned him, and l will point the world to a
truly great man, whether he be Havelock
or Jackson, or only shepherd feeding his |
flock upon Salisbury plains.
And in this view of the subject, there is |
room for the exercise of truly ssnctifed am-
bition on the part of every Christian. We
need not to seek glory on broad and blazing
fields of action, we may find it in the narrow
limits of self conquest and progressive as
similation to Christ. We may not all climb |
to high positions either in the Church or the |
State-6od may not have bestowed upon US
the gifts and graces which would fit us to
occupy the most commanding and responsible
places-but we may aspire to greatness of
soul, greatness of character, greatness of
effort even, when measured not by fictitious,
but true standard. We may learn by. the |
grace of God to master the evil and cultivate
the good, to extirpate the harsh and bitter,
and put on the gentle and kind, to round off
the angles, and give symmetry to the figure,
to lay aside the earthly, and be clothed with
the heavenly; and though our actions may
fill but nook in the worlds great busy
arena,
awe may make our lives sublime"
In our families and before our neighbors,
with our words and by our deeds, we may all
achieve greatness which may be un-
heralded, indeed, by human praise, but
shall live when monumental brass and mar
bic are no more. M.