An Item by Joseph Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 24, 1863

An Item.

By Joseph Clarke

A TRUE gentleman will not lavish all his attentions and kindnesses upon some distinguished individuals, whom he dare not despise, reserving his slants and gibes and overbearing demeanor for his nearest intimates and associates and dependents; but by a constant good humor he renders all around him happy.

Even the half idiot as he meets the true gentleman is somehow made to feel at ease, and there is nothing a true-hearted man more scrupulously avoids, than to cause his inferiors to feel the iron heel of his superciliousness.

That man is not a true gentleman who is constantly endeavoring to enhance his own dignity by lowering in the estimation of others those whom he considers his inferiors. He uses all his ingenuity in discovering methods of winning and securing the friendship of others, as far as his pure motives will allow, by suiting his acts of kindness to ALL.

To the mentally weak he is a soft ray of morning; to the strong, he is a sunbeam; to the afflicted, a solace; to the gladsome, he is cheerful; to the tender, he is mild; to the froward, he can be stern; but he measures his affected wrath, for no gentleman will indulge in bad passions.

But home is the place to test the true gentleman; for they are counterfeits who are gentlemen only to those beyond the family pale, while they are monsters of cruelty within the sanctuary of home.

Like the tabernacle built by Moses, the holiest place was within the very heart of the temple, in the holy place, where the ark of the testimony was placed, so with the true gentleman, those who know him best love him most. JOSEPH CLARKE.