National Baptist world., 1894-09-21
WHAT A MAN IS.
Faith the True and Essential Basis or
Character.

Faith the True and Essential Basis or
Character.
A common mistake with the unre-
fecting is to confound character with
mere reputation. The two are no more
the same than is mask Identical with
its wearer. Character never can be
mask, but reputation may be. A mans
chara cter is what he is: his reputation
what he appears to be. An honest and
upright man may have a reputation
which is true mirror of his character,
and so may thoroughly depraved and
debauched man. This is where ex-
tremes meet. But in too many cases
the reputation is one thing and the
character another. Even some profess
ing Christians are open to this accusa-
tion. The man who is conspicuous by
his piety on Sundays. and by his OPP
preston of those with whom he has
business dealings during the week, is
an example of this type. So is the
man who cultivates reputa-
tion for benevolence by large
donations to public charities
and compensates himself by extorting
from his employees an excessive amount
of la Dor in return for pittance barely
sufficient to keep body and soul to-
gether. Men are deceived by mans
reputation; God looks into the heart
and knows the man as he is.
Character is inalienable: it is not
mere thing in possession to be cast Off
at pleasure like a suit of clothes; nor
well-developed body or agreeable dis
position, for while these are manifesta-
| tions of character they may be tran
sient.
What is the basis of character?-
Faith, for a man is what he believes.
This faith is not simply an intellectual
exercise, it is a positive conviction OF
truth, and reliance thereon. Faith
is not Judgment, for Judgment
is an intellectual process and
all intellectual processes admit OF un-
certainty, while faith admits of none.
A child, before it has learned to reason,
has faith in it's mother. This is the
faith which the true Christian has in
his Heavenly Father and this is the
faith, this unquestioning reliance,
which is elemental in the formation of
character For what man believes
| that he does. A man who has i'm
plicit faith in God comports himself ac-
cording to Gods commands, and thus
develops a God-lilIe character. No need
of mask there The worldling has no
faith and no character. He has no fixed
purpose, he believes in nothing, save
shadows He may have a reputation,
but it is a sham, and will vanish before
investigation like specters before a
search-light.
Faith is essential to character. I'm
bounded and implicit faith in anything
will develop some character, good OF
bad, in any man. 1t may be faith IL
himself and his own possibilities. Pro
peeled by such conviction, he may be-
come, perchance, Napoleon. 1t may
be faith in the rectitude of a cause
which will raise him to the rank of q
William of Orange or of an Abraham
Lincoln. Or greater than all, it may
be faith in God. faith so great that
his memory, like that of Paul, of Lu
ther and an innumerable thrOng OF
others, will remain living testimony
to the truth through all ages.
Character is the force that storms ad
versity, overcomes difficulty and i'm
presses the personality of the man upor
his fellows, and the foundation Of al
character is faith.-YOung Mems Era