Be Courteous | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 17, 1863

"Be Courteous."

We are living in an age proverbial for its coarse, uncultivated, disrespectful, disobedient, corrupt, children. Hence this is one of the tendencies of the age against which the children of the remnant should labor with all their powers. To do this it should be remembered, first of all, that there is an express injunction in the New Testament to be courteous, or polite. It is thus a part of the faith of Jesus, and we are not up to the standard of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, if we are faulty in this respect.

We do not mean by politeness the hollow-hearted and foppish mummery to which the world generally attach the name, but true, genuine, Christian courtesy, or politeness, which every man, woman, boy and girl should possess, and which, if possessed, will show itself in a hundred ways in every day's intercourse with one another. We therefore commend, especially to the young among Sabbath-keepers, the following narration; for, although their experience may not be altogether like what is there set forth, it will still serve to illustrate the principle, and aid them in applying it to their own lives. An uncivil, passionate, impolite nonprofessor is a disgrace to himself, but only to himself; while the same traits in a professor, disgrace not himself only, but also the religion which he professes. U. S.

"How funny!" said Junius Ware, putting down his Testament. "I didn't suppose God cared anything about our being polite. I thought he wanted us to be good, and no matter about the rest."

"Being good is first of all," said his mother, "and it is better to be rough in manner, with an honest heart, than to be a perfect gentleman outside, and selfish and dishonest inside. But whoever obeys all Christ's words cannot help being good and polite also."

Junius trotted his foot without speaking, for a few minutes, as he always did when he was thinking, then he spoke out quick and heartily:

"Well, I've made up my mind now to try to 'be courteous' all the time. I will begin this very minute and if I forget I want you should say 'be c,' low, so no one will notice it but me."

Junius did not forget, all the morning. He said "excuse me," so pleasantly, when he stepped on Aunt Joanna's dress, that she was appeased and did not make the remark she had on her mind about boys' doing nuisances; he laid his puzzle cheerfully down when it was almost right, to look after his grandmother's spectacles, and he did not show any impatience when, after a long, tiresome search, they were discovered to have been all the time in their proper place, astride of the good old lady's nose; and he gave his brother Simon the first chance at flying his new kite when, as every boy knows, a new kite is worth twice as much as an old one.

"I won it! I won it fairly, and any boy will tell you so!" shouted Barty Cole, who, making a mistake in counting, stopped when he reached the fourth, instead of the fifth maple tree which was the goal.

"I don't think so!" returned Junius, in some heat. "You didn't touch the goal at all, and I'll leave it to any boy in school if that is fair winning."

Barty who was not quite an honorable boy, grew very red and angry.

"Do you mean to say I lie? I tell you I won in the race! I touched the fourth maple before you did, and if I hadn't blundered I should have been at the next tree long before you were there."

"Why, Barty Cole!" began Junius.

Then he stopped, for the name reminded him of its initials, also reminding him of his text. So he went on, in a different tone,

"Well, I s'pose you would, Barty. You always could beat me a running."

This good natured concession, so entirely unexpected, restored Barty's fair weather temper at once, and the two boys proceeded pleasantly to school.

"Skillful," said the teacher to the head boy in the spelling class.

Now Junius was the head boy but one, and it would of course be very gratifying to have the head boy miss. So, though it was neither courteous nor honest, Junius, as the boy hesitated, by the deaf and dumb alphabet, which was very fashionable in their school, twisted out the letters on his fingers, with only one middle l.

"S-k-i-l-f-u-l," spelled Carlos, who was looking directly at Junius' hand.

"Not right. The next," said the teacher.

So of course Junius went above him. But as he went, his conscience accused him, and he stepped quickly back again, raising his hand for permission to speak.

"Well, what is it, Junius?" asked the teacher.

"O, Miss Ford! I oughtn't to take my place, for Carlos might not have spelled wrong only I fooled him this way," he replied, twisting about his fingers again.

Miss Ford looked shocked at hearing of this deception, but she was so happy to find Junius ready to acknowledge his fault, and show himself so willing to make amends for it, that on the whole she was more glad than sorry.

But Carlos' eyes brightened, for he had so set his heart on wearing home the medal that night for his sick little sister to see! When Junius went home to dinner, he rushed in hungry and noisy, after the manner of schoolboys.

"Why can't children learn to be quiet in the house?" asked Aunt Joanna, who was inclined to fault-finding.

Junius vented the ill-humor which his aunt's words aroused, on Amy's black rag baby, which was monopolizing with its unpromising figure the shelf which belonged to his books. He threw it half across the room saying,

"There, you hateful old thing! See if you will get upon my shelf again!"

His mother picked up the offending doll.

"B. C. D., Black Cotton Doll," said she in a musing tone. "You don't learn abbreviations this term, do you, Juney?"

"Why, mother, you don't mean to say we ought to be polite to rag babies, do you?" burst out Junius.

"There is nothing said about excluding them in the command, is there?" asked Mrs. Ware.

"I suppose then, the next thing, you will say I ought to be courteous to the chairs and tables," exclaimed Junius.

"Certainly, I think so. If the chairs and tables do not suffer when treated impolitely, the person who treats them so, does. We can't do anybody or anything a wrong without injuring ourselves in the same degree."

Junius was too astounded and absorbed in thought to speak, but he peeled his potato and broke his bread at the dinner table with as much careful consideration as though they had nerves, and were capable of sensation.

When the children went home from school that night, Johnny McGee persisted in walking in the middle of the dusty road, and scuffing along with his bare feet in such a way that he raised a thick cloud of dust, which fell upon the white pantalets and aprons of the girls.

"Don't do so, Johnny!" said they.

But Johnny only scuffed the more.

"Here you Johnny McGee! stop that!" shouted Junius, who had fallen behind, at the head of the lane, to finish a marble and knife trade with Enos Trape.

The cloud which enveloped Johnny grew denser at this resolute command.

Without any more words, Junius seized him by the collar, and pulling him out of the road, with a decided shake, threw him upon the grass.

Johnny was up like a flash, and spit full in Junius' face, like a little Irish wildfire as he was.

Instead of resenting this indignity, Junius, suddenly remembering his text, stopped, and quietly wiping his face, said, "Excuse me for being so rough, Johnny. If you were impolite, it was no reason why I should be."

Johnny's mouth fell open in sheer astonishment, and his quick Irish nature feeling another impulse, he stood an instant, sheepishly gazing at the children, then started on a fast run, and was over the hills out of sight.

As he disappeared at the brow of the hill, Jim Coney, a negro idiot appeared in his place, coming toward the children. He had decked his ragged straw hat with some rooster feathers, tied a strip of bright calico about his waist, and with a mullein stalk for a cane, was strutting along, acting the dandy to the best of his foolish ability.

The children set up a shout of laughter when they saw him, in which Junius was at first disposed to join, but recollecting his text, he said to himself, "If we ought to be courteous to rag babies, we certainly ought to black Jim."

At that instant poor idiot Jim stepped on a rolling stone, and slipping, fell headlong.

Like a frightened baby, he begun to cry loudly.

"Aha Jim! Pride must have a fall! Hear him blubber!" shouted the children.

But Junius ran and helped him up, brushing the dirt from his clothes, and trying to comfort him.

His example made Susan Ells open her dinner basket, and give him a piece of ginger-bread which was left over from her luncheon.

Idiot Jim was delighted out of his fright and tears by the sight of it, and the children were happier.

Thus one little act of courtesy called out another, and so it will always be, for on other people, as well as on ourselves, everything we do has its influence.

Junius found it so. Because he tried to treat others politely, they were much more likely to treat him so.

And because the Spirit which helpeth our infirmities helped his earnest endeavors to be courteous in his heart, it grew continually easier for him to be always courteous in action.