SMALL FAULTS AND VIRTUES.
By Hannah More
TRIFLING is ranked among the venial faults. But if time be one grand talent given us in order to our securing eternal life; if we trifle away that time so as to lose that eternal life, on which by not trifling we might have laid hold, then will it answer the end of sin. A life devoted to trifles not only takes away the inclination, but the capacity for higher pursuits. The truths of christianity have scarcely more influence on a frivolous than on a profligate character. If the mind be so absorbed, not merely with what is vicious, but with what is useless, as to be thoroughly disinclined to the activities of a life of piety, it matters little what the cause is which so disinclines it. If these habits cannot be accused of great moral evil, yet it argues a low state of mind, that a being who has an eternity at stake can abandon itself to trivial pursuits. If the great concern of life cannot be secured without habitual watchfulness, how is it to be secured by habitual carelessness? It will afford little comfort to the trifler, when at the last reckoning he gives in his long negative catalogue, that the more ostensible offender was worse employed. The trifler will not be weighed in the scale with the profligate, but in the balance of the sanctuary. Some men make for themselves a sort of code of the lesser morals, of which they settle both the laws and the chronology. They fix "the climactericks of the mind;" determine at what period such a vice may be adopted without discredit, at what age one bad habit may give way to another more in character. Having settled it as a matter of course that to a certain age certain faults are natural, they proceed to act as if they thought them necessary. But let us not practice on ourselves the gross imposition to believe that any failing, much less any vice, is necessarily appended to any state or any age, or that it is irresistible at any time. We may accustom ourselves to talk of vanity and extravagance as belonging to the young, and avarice and peevishness to the old, till the next step will be that we shall think ourselves justified in adopting them. Whoever is eager to find excuses for vice and folly, will feel his own backwardness to practise them much diminished. C'est le premier pas qui coute. It is only to make out an imaginary necessity, and then we easily fall into the necessity we have imagined. Providence has established no such association. There is, it is true, more danger of certain faults under certain circumstances; and some temptations are stronger at some periods, but it is a proof that they are not irresistible because all do not fall into them. The evil is in ourselves who mitigate the discredit by the supposed necessity. The prediction, like the dream of the astrologer, creates the event instead of foretelling it. But there is no supposition can be made of a bad case which will justify the making it our own; nor will general positions ever serve for individual apologies. Who has not known persons who, though they retain the sound health and vigor of active life, sink prematurely into sloth and inactivity, solely on the ground that these dispositions are fancied to be unavoidably incident to advancing years. They demand the indulgence before they feel the infirmity. Indolence thus forges a dismissal from duty before the discharge is issued out by Providence. No—let us endeavor to meet the evils of the several conditions and periods of life with submission, but it is an offense to their divine dispenser to forestall them. But we have still a saving clause for ourselves whether the evil be of a greater or lesser magnitude. If the fault be great we lament the inability to resist it, if small, we deny the importance of so doing; we plead that we cannot withstand a great temptation, and that a small one is not worth withstanding. But if the temptation or the fault be great, we should resist it on account of that very magnitude; if small, the giving it up can cost but little; and the conscientious habit of conquering the less will confer considerable strength toward subduing the greater. There is again, a sort of splendid character, which, winding itself up occasionally to certain shining actions, thinks itself fully justified in breaking loose from the shackles of restraint in smaller things; it makes no scruple to indemnify itself for these popular deeds by indulgences which though allowed are far from innocent. It thus secures to itself praise and popularity by what is sure to gain it, and immunity from censure in indulging the favorite fault, practically exclaiming, "Is it not a little one?" Vanity is at the bottom of almost all, may we not say, of all our sins? We think more of signalizing than of saving ourselves. We overlook the hourly occasions which occur of serving, of obliging, of comforting those around us, while we sometimes, not unwillingly perform an act of notorious generosity. The habit however in the former case better indicates the disposition and bent of the mind than the solitary act of splendor. The apostle does not say, whatsoever great things ye do, but "whatsoever things ye do, do all to the glory of God." Actions are less weighed by their bulk than their motive. Virtues are less measured by their splendor than their principle. The racer proceeds in his course more effectually by a steady, unshakened pace, than by starts of violent but unequal exertion. That great abstract of moral law, that rule of the highest court of appeal, set up in his own bosom, to which every man can always resort, is, "all things that ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them." This law, if faithfully obeyed, operating as an infallible remedy for all the disorders of self-love, would by throwing its partiality into the right scale, establish the exercise of all the smaller virtues. Its strict observance would not only put a stop to all injustice, but to all unkindness; not only to oppressive acts but to unfeeling language. Even haughty looks and supercilious gestures would be banished from the face of society, did we ask ourselves how we should like to receive what we are not ashamed to give. Till we thus morally transmute place, person, and circumstance with those of our brother, we shall never treat him with the tenderness this gracious law enjoins. Small virtues and small offences are only so by comparison. To treat a fellow creature with harsh language, is not indeed a crime like robbing him of his estate or destroying his reputation. They are however all the offspring of the same family. They are the same in quality though not in degree. All flow, though in streams of different magnitude, from the same fountain; all are indications of a departure from that principle which is included in the law of love. The consequences they involve are not less certain, though they are less important. The reason why what are called religious people often differ so little from others in small trials is, that instead of bringing religion to their aid in their lesser vexations, they either leave the disturbance to prey upon their minds, or apply to false reliefs for its removal. Those who are rendered unhappy by frivolous troubles, seek comfort in frivolous enjoyments. But we should apply the same remedy to ordinary trials as to great ones; for as small disquietudes spring from the same cause as great trials, namely, the uncertain and imperfect condition of human life, so they require the same remedy. Meeting common cares with a right spirit would impart a smoothness to the temper, a spirit of cheerfulness to the heart, which would mightily break the force of heavier trials.202You apply to the power of religion in great evils. Why does it not occur to you to apply it in the less? Is it that you think the instrument greater than the occasion demands? It is not too great if the lesser one will not produce the effect, or if it produce it in the wrong way; for there is such a thing as putting an evil out of sight without curing it. You would apply to religion on the loss of your child—apply to it on the loss of your temper. Throw in this wholesome tree to sweeten the bitter waters. As no calamity is too great for the power of christianity to mitigate, so none is too small to experience its beneficial results. Our behaviour under the ordinary accidents of life forms a characteristic distinction between different classes of Christians. The least advanced resort to religion on great occasions, the deeper proficient resorts to it on all. What makes it appear of so little comparative value is, that the medicine prepared by the great Physician is thrown by instead of being taken. The patient thinks not of it but in extreme cases. A remedy, however potent, not applied, can produce no effect. But he who has adopted one fixed principle for the government of his life, will try to keep it in perpetual exercise. An acquaintance with the nature of human evils and of their remedy, would check that spirit of complaint which so much abounds, and which often makes so little difference between people professing religion and those who profess it not. If the duties in question are not great, they become important by the constant demand that is made for them. They have been called 'the small coin of human life,' and on their perpetual and unobstructed circulation depends much of the comfort as well as convenience of its transactions. They make up in frequency what they want in magnitude. How few of us are called to carry the doctrines of christianity into distant lands! but which of us is not called every day to adorn those doctrines, by gentleness in our own carriage, by kindness and forbearance to all about us? In performing the unostensible duties, there is no incentive from vanity. No love of fame inspires that virtue, of which fame will never hear. There can be but one motive, and that the purest, for the exercise of virtues, the report of which will never reach beyond the little circle whose happiness they promote. They do not fill the world with our renown, but they fill our own family with comfort, and if they have the love of God for their principle, they will have his favor for their reward. In this enumeration of faults, we include not sins of infirmity, inadvertency and surprise, to which even the most sincere Christians are but too liable. What are here adverted to are allowed, habitual, and unresisted faults; habitual because unresisted; and allowed from the notion that they are too inconsiderable to call for resistance. Faults into which we are betrayed through surprise and inadvertency, though that is no reason for committing them, may not be without their uses; they renew the salutary conviction of our sinful nature, make us little in our own eyes, increase our sense of dependence, promote watchfulness, deepen humility, and quicken repentance. We must however be careful not to entangle the conscience or embarrass the spirit by groundless apprehension. We have a merciful Father, not a hard master to deal with. We must not harrass our minds with a suspicious dread, as if by a needless rigor the Almighty were laying snares to entrap us, nor be terrified with imaginary fears, as if he were on the watch to punish every casual error.—To be immutable and impeccable belongs not to humanity. He who made us best knows of what we are made. Our compassionate High Priest will bear with much infirmity, will pardon much involuntary weakness. But knowing, as every man must know who looks into his own heart, the difficulties he has from the intervention of his evil tempers, in serving God faithfully, and still however earnestly desirous of serving him, is it not to be lamented that he is not more solicitous to remove his hindrances by trying to avoid those inferior sins and resisting those lesser temptations, and practicing those smaller virtues, the neglect of which obstructs his way, and keeps him back in the performance of higher duties? Instead of little renunciations being grievous, and petty self-denials a hardship, they in reality soften grievances, diminish hardship. They are the private drill which trains for public service. If, as we have repeatedly observed, the principle is the test of the action, we are hourly furnished with occasions of showing our piety by the spirit in which the quiet unobserved actions of life are performed. The sacrifices may be too little to be observed except by him to whom they are offered. But small solicitudes and demonstrations of attachment are scarcely perceptible to any eye but his for whom they are made, bear the true character of love to God, as they are the infallible marks of affection to our fellow creatures. By enjoining small duties, the spirit of which is everywhere implied in the gospel, God as it were, seems contriving to render the great ones easy to us. He makes the light yoke of Christ still lighter, not by abridging duty, but by increasing its facility through its familiarity. These little habits at once indicate the sentiment of the soul and improve it. It is an awful consideration and one which every Christian should bring home to his own bosom, whether small faults willfully persisted in, may not in time not only dim the light of conscience, but extinguish the spirit of grace; whether the power of resistance against great sins may not be finally withdrawn as a just punishment for having neglected to exert it against small ones. Let us endeavor to maintain in our minds the awful impression that perhaps among the first objects which may meet our eyes when we open them on the eternal world, may be that tremendous book, in which, together with our great and actual sins, may be recorded in no less prominent characters, the ample page of omissions, of neglected opportunities, and even of fruitless good intentions, of which indolence, indecision, thoughtlessness, vanity, trifling and procrastination concurred to frustrate the execution.—H. More.