Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-01-31
"Never Give Less Than Your Best" In
a Good, Safe Rule to Al
ways Follow.

How quick we are to excuse some
unlSind or rude ac1on by saying that
persons must take Us as we mean, not
as we say" that Eat heart" we are
Su right. Perhaps it would be wiser
TO remember that we are usually
| judged by our words and actions and
not by our hearts secret impulses
and promotings. 1t is hard to make
the world see deeper than the out
ward manifestations. We are all too
busy with our own lives to stop long
at the portals of another life and
study its secret ways, go down the
various paths that lead to the hid
den chambers and note the causes
that mar or beautify the outward
actions.
After all, why should we not be
willing to be judged by the daily
trend of our lives, by the way we
live before the world? 1t is not often
true that we are better than we
seem to those who know us best,
because it is characteristic of human
nature to wish to satisfy the ex-
pectations of friends and this makes
| us eager to do our best to gain their
uuCOuSclOuSly
many times seek to hide our mistakes
or sins from loving hearts lest some
little shadow fall upon the bright
ness of the love that has made life
| sweet to us. Our best" is ourselves,
| and our real selves will always be the
result of what lies deepest down in
| the recesses of our hearts which
| springs to life at the demand of an
other nature that appeals to US
strongly.
We cannot help giving "our best"
to those whom we hold dear and we
are apt to misstate the facs when we
| claim that we are not what we seem.
You never mistake a rose for
thistle, nor a stately lily for a field
| daisy. Everything in nature pro-
duces its own kind freighted with in
| dividual characteristics that cannot
be mistaken, and to human beings
| alone we ascribe the power of con-
| cealing their real natures and appear
ing in characters that are mere out
| ward masks wholly unlike what lies
beneath. There is something radical
| ly wrong with n nature that finds it
| easy TO practice deception, even In
small matters. 1t is repugnant to a
truly noble character to deceive even
an enemy, even to use what might be
termed kindly deception" where the
plain truth would seem to be hazard
Gus. 1t is blot on the fair banner
\ of truth, even if it be done in kind
ness, and when once it is known that
we have deceived our friend, never
| again will there be just the same
perfect trust imposed in us by that
| friend, for shaken faith ever after
| trembles in the balance, uncertain
whether to believe implicitly or not.
We are ALL in a measure. open books.
| read by more than we think and bet
| ter understood than we have believed
possible.
We deceive ourselves oftener than
| others when we excuse our outward
| lives, calling the fountain swee.
when its overflow is impure Some
where, deep down in our natures. lie
| the germs that breed the deformities
in our characters that we attempt to
Justify as necessary--or look lightly
upon as mere outward growths cas-
| lily removed. When we give our
! selves we give ''our best" whether it
be worthy of acceptance depends
! upon what we are. and the outward
, man is after all but the reflection of
| the inward, the real self 1t will not
, do to dignity occasional lofty i'm
| pulses that come to every human be-
, ing; the real character is not what
we would be, but what we are. II ia
the source of all the outward mani
festations by which the world is Jed:
its decision as to our real worth.
1t is true that the soul has locked
! chambers into which no one but the
Father ever enters, and there are
pure thoughts, the memory of kind
| deeds and Christlike acts. never noted
by any but the one in whose ewes
nothing is too small to be noted that
/ is done in His name. Still these are
not always the index to the real life
whose daily and hourly acts are tell
ing for good or evil on those about
them. AS every tree is known bv
its fruit" so every life writes its own
record by its contact with the world.
How we live is what tells, not how
long, for that life is long which an
swers life's greatest end."-Burling-
ton Hawkeye