Living the Radiant Life: A Personal NarrativeJames, George Wharton
Religion
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative
James, George Wharton
Conduct of life
What, in Nature, to some men is the end of things to others is the
beginning. The sacred writer says that God even "maketh the wrath of men
to praise him," as well as their love and tenderness.
Life is not all comprised about a slender figure and transparent
profile; faultless coils of hair; soft, rich, clinging garments; laces
falling over taper fingers; graceful and dignified demeanor; low and
sweetly modulated voice, and the perfection of faultless manners. There
may be a place for the rude, uncouth clodhopper with disfigured
features; tousled hair; clad in homespun or cheap denim; rags taking the
place of lace; boorish and clumsy demeanor; a voice like a steamer
foghorn; and the apotheosis of all that is blundering and awkward in
manner.
I do not, for one moment, defend any unnecessary boorishness or
uncouthness of manner, and must not be understood as doing so, but at
the same time, in spite of these things, I am impelled to state my
conviction that the latter class is more needful to the real progress
of the world than the former. I notice that several times in the history
of the world, canal-drivers, shepherd-boys, wood-choppers, and
rail-splitters have made wonderful pilots for the Ship of State.
God has use in His world for the rough as well as the polished; the roar
of the thunder as well as the coo of the dove; the stentorian
trumpet-tone as well as the still, small voice. John the Baptist came
from the desert robed in skins and camel's hair; his voice, doubtless,
was not soft and well-modulated as were those of Herodias and Salome. He
was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." His call contained the
thunder tones of the storm and wild cry of the lonely eagle seeking its
solitary aerie; the strength and the roar of the lion. It was neither
refined, pleasing, nor cultured, but it possessed life and power and it
was chosen to herald the coming of the Messiah.
Nowhere have we been told that Elijah, Jeremiah and Daniel were noted
for the soft and dulcet tones of their voices, yet they were the chosen
instruments of the Divine in overthrowing dynasties and changing the
history of nations. Peter the Hermit was not a sweet-voiced singer in
Israel, but he started a movement that led to the civilization of
Europe. I doubt not that the charges of the British against Joan of Arc
that she cried in a coarse military voice when she led the armored
hosts of France were true, but she drove the foreign invader from the
soil of her beloved France where they had held footing for nigh upon a
hundred years and no one else had been able to win a victory from them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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