PERSONAL POPULARITY

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 25, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 33.

PERSONAL POPULARITY.

It is a good thing to be well spoken of by one’s neighbors, and it is always pleasant to hear that one is most loved where he is best known; and yet popularity is not always a sign of real merit. Some men have a way of ingratiating themselves into the favor of others when in fact they are worthy of but little esteem. Some men, too, are popular because they say, “Yes, yes,” to everybody. They raise no antagonisms. They never resist the tide. They go as they are carried. They propose nothing; they oppose nothing. They are mere bubbles that float on the surface. They glitter and dance about, and seem to be something, but they are nothing. These walking negatives, these human minus quantities, enjoy a certain kind of popularity. They are in nobody’s way. Nobody speaks ill of them. They are nobody’s target. There is not enough stuff in them to make a target of. They have no demerits, it is true, but it is because there is nothing there for a demerit to stick to.

Men of pronounced character are always the object of somebody’s criticism. They think for themselves, and they say what they think. They have convictions and they have the courage of them. If a craze has overtaken the community in which they live, they have the boldness to rebuke it. How can they be otherwise than unpopular? True, it is a kind of superficial unpopularity, for deep down in the public mind and heart is a consciousness that such men are, after all, the safest and the most to be trusted; and in time of real danger and trouble, their counsel is sought when the noisy ones who hurrah with the multitude are forgotten. Still, taking the world as it moves on day by day, the thoughtless crowd will not speak well of a man who rebukes their follies and checks their waywardness.

But neither popularity nor unpopularity is a test of merit. The judgment of men is not always righteous judgment. The judgment of God is infallible. Conformity to his word is the true and only test of merit. The man whose life is in accord with the word of God ought to be popular, if he is not; and he whose life is not in such accord ought not to be popular, if he is.

It sometimes happens that a man’s neighbors, and those who are nearest to him and know most about him, are the most unsuitable of all persons to form an estimate of him. The most unpopular man that ever lived in this world was our Lord Jesus Christ. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” John 1:11. “Neither did his brethren believe in him.” John 7:5. The very people among whom he lived cried out, “Away with him, away with him!” and they took him out and hanged him on a tree, nailing him to the cross, amid the shouts and jeers of the multitude.

Unpopular as he was we should walk in his footsteps and take the consequences. He once said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18. And again he said, “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord.” Matt. 10:25. It is well to seek the good opinion of our neighbors and so to act as to secure it, but not if it requires us to deflect from the line of right. When the apostle speaks of being “all things to all men,” he means just what we have said. Be conciliating to all; be rude to none; please everybody, if possible; but be sure to please God first. A man who will do this will have opposition. With all his tact Paul had enemies, and plenty of them, and he was beaten with stripes five times, and stoned and left for dead. Our Lord said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Luke 6:26.

On the whole, a man’s personal popularity with reference to his personal interests, is a thing about which he need give himself no great concern. Let him fear God and keep his commandments, and the good Lord will be sure to give him as much favor in the sight of those with whom he has to do as will be best for him.—Christian Index.