SYMMETRY OF CHARACTER by Rev. D. Wise

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1880

SYMMETRY OF CHARACTER.

By Rev. D. Wise

How shall symmetry of character be attained? By what means shall the young man repress his low and debasing qualities, develop what is noble and beautiful in human nature, and maintain a due proportion of each element of social superiority? This is a great question.

Harmony of character is produced by the action of some great central principle upon the conduct—a principle whose comprehensive grasp reaches to every act and feeling, regulating, stimulating, repressing, or guiding, as circumstances may require.

The stern heroism of Regulus, the Roman general, may serve to illustrate the influence of such a principle. This brave soldier, after being defeated, and kept in captivity for several years, was sent by the Carthaginians with an embassy to Rome, to solicit a cessation of arms and an exchange of prisoners. To secure his influence in their favor, they made him swear that, if the desired end was not attained, he would return to Carthage. The Roman took the oath, and departed.

Touched with the misfortunes of their general, the Roman senate was disposed to treat for peace, and retain the heroic Regulus. But he, knowing the weakness and exhaustion of Carthage, boldly advised the continuance of the war. Upon this, the senate rejected the overtures of the ambassadors; and, knowing the fate which awaited their general, entreated him to remain at Rome. His wife, his children, his friends, with tears and embraces, besought him not to rush on certain destruction. He was inexorable. He had sworn to return, and no considerations could change his iron purpose to keep his oath. He did return, and his ungenerous foes, to their eternal infamy, put him to death in the most cruel and malignant manner.

What was it that made Regulus proof against the tears of his friends, the love of his wife, the affection of his children, the fear of death?—for he resisted all these to fulfill his oath. Was he an unfeeling stoic? Nay!—but he was animated by that noble principle of Roman honor, which taught that death was preferable to a false, a mean, or a dastardly action! And it was this controlling sentiment, expelling or subduing all others, which led him to prefer his heroic death to the violation of a Roman's word. It also preserved him from sacrificing the interests of his country to his own safety. It made him at once a patriot and a hero.

Thus, you may perceive that the influence of a noble principle is like the action of the centripetal force on the solar system. As that attractive energy steadily maintains the unity and order of the universe, so a lofty, authoritative principle subdues the thoughts, emotions, and actions, to itself, and maintains a delightful harmony in the life of a young man, which commands the admiration and confidence of mankind.

It is the wave-line of beauty, which, running through all his conduct, imparts gracefulness to each act, and dignity and propriety to its entire character.

It is, therefore, a question of great moment to every young man, where to obtain a principle sufficiently comprehensive and powerful to regulate all the parts of his conduct, so as to form one harmonious whole. Some are satisfied with the sentiment of honor, such as ruled the Roman patriot. But that is obviously not sufficiently comprehensive. Your modern men of honor are gamblers, duelists, tyrants, Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, speculators, and the like; such things not being prohibited in the code of honor as established by public opinion, and the conduct of “great men,” falsely so called. Neither is the law of self-respect sufficient. It doubtless does much to regulate life in the sphere of home, but it is not proof against the temptations which assail men when abroad. Look, for instance, to the alarming fact, that the theatres, brothels, and other places of sinful resort in large cities, are chiefly supported by persons from the country. And who are these men from interior towns? What are they, when at home, but rigid moralists in appearance? Diligent, self-denying in their general habits, but immoral on occasions and opportunities. The reason is obvious. They are restrained among their friends only by that low standard of self-respect, which fears degradation in the eyes of others, but shrinks not from being mean in its own eyes, and guilty in the sight of God. It is not at all surprising, that a flimsy defence against temptation often yields to a fierce and persevering assault.

A fearful illustration of the absolute powerlessness of these restraints, when the soul is powerfully tempted, is furnished in the case of the late Professor Webster. If ever mortal man was placed in a situation to maintain a high character, through motives of self-respect and honor, he was that man. Educated, highly respectable in his connections, moving in the most refined and elevated circles in social life, widely known through his connection with the mother of American universities, the husband of an accomplished wife, the father of amiable, lovely daughters, and the possessor of what ought to have been an ample income,—how could he fail of feeling in their full force the claims of honor and the demands of self-respect? For him to do a notoriously mean or unlawful act, was to fall from the loftiest pinnacle of social honor to the lowest valley of shame. He knew this. Hence, honor and self-respect combined to keep him within the bounds of right and truth. But alas! how ineffectual were these restraints! Failing to reach the inner temple of the soul, they left him a prey to pride, extravagance and passion. Pushed by pride into extravagance, and by these again into acts of meanness, which, if proclaimed, would wound his haughty pride, his passions urged him to strike the desperate blow of murder, to free himself from the threatening danger. Passion won the day. He slew Patroclus, but fell into the hands of Achilles. By striking a man from existence whom he deemed his tormentor, he became a felon, and was dragged by the stern hand of the law from his high position to the scaffold! Alas! that his self-respect and his sense of honor should have failed to keep him from moral deformity and from crime! That it did not is an obvious fact; and that it cannot be relied upon in the hour when the tempter does his utmost, is equally demonstrable, from the nature of the case, and from the history of mankind.

Far higher, therefore, must that young man look than mere honor or self-respect, who would attain to symmetry and stability of character. Religion alone can furnish him with a principle at once potent and comprehensive enough for his stern necessities. Religion establishes itself on the throne of the soul. It exerts its restraining and transforming power over the will, the intellect, and the emotions. It persuades, entreats, and it also commands with Divine authority. It lays the soul under the weightiest obligation to walk by its great all-embracing principle. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Here is a far-reaching principle, laying every act, thought, and motive, under contribution; demanding the utter negation of self, and the subordination of the entire man, physical and spiritual, to the law of God. As the mysterious magnet points unerringly to the north pole of the earth, so does this law direct the soul of the young man to “the glory of God.” He must repudiate whatever act or thought dishonors his Creator; he must resolutely practice everything, however it may crucify the passions which tends to glorify the God of heaven. Here then, is a principle suited to his necessities, whose operation, if submitted to, must from the nature of the case, produce a lovely symmetry of character. It will bind and restrain unlawful passion, create integrity, stimulate to energy, to self-culture, to industry, to economy, to tact, to everything that developes noble qualities and latent powers. Nor are its requisitions of impossible performance. The same authority which announces the law also vouchsafes power to obey. “Ye shall receive power from on high!” “My grace is sufficient for thee,” are the encouraging promises of the Law-giver to every willing recipient of his command. And so effectually is that aid vouchsafed to every submissive and believing mind, that, filled with conscious power, it can view all the temptations of the inner and outer life, and exclaim, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me!”

To religion, therefore, young man, do I earnestly commend you, as the surest means of attaining harmony of character. Only let the “glory of God run like a silver thread through all your actions,” and you shall stand forth before the world a symmetrical man, and hence, a man of power; for

“’Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man.”

-Rev. D. Wise.