REPUTATION AND CHARACTER.
By Henry Ward Beecher
THERE is a broad difference between reputation and character. Reputation is appearance. Character is reality. Reputation is what men give us. Character is what we are in ourselves. Man looks upon reputation, God sees character. Reputation may be left behind. Character must go with us. Bacon says: "The worthiest persons are frequently attacked by slanderers, as we generally find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. The clubs and stones lying thickly around the fruit tree point out with certainty where the best apples grow. Icebergs swim so deep that it is not uncommon to see them moving to the windward, the undercurrent bearing them onward against wind and tide. Get down deep, my brother, into the strong undercurrent of God's love, and the breath of slander can never sweep you before it." A faith which a man dare not preach for fear of the people before him, and dare not deny for fear of the rabbis behind him, and dare not honestly and thoroughly examine for fear he shall be obliged to preach or deny it, will never move the hearts nor affect the consciences of men. Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues. God made a million spears of grass where he made one tree. The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with forests, but with grasses. Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are not a hero.—Beecher.