{"product_id":"2940013191303","title":"A Christmas Sermon","description":"An unconscionable time a-dying--there is the picture (\"I am afraid,\u003cbr\u003egentlemen,\") of your life and of mine. The sands run out, and the hours\u003cbr\u003eare \"numbered and imputed,\" and the days go by; and when the last of\u003cbr\u003ethese finds us, we have been a long time dying, and what else? The very\u003cbr\u003elength is something, if we reach that hour of separation undishonoured;\u003cbr\u003eand to have lived at all is doubtless (in the soldierly expression) to\u003cbr\u003ehave served. There is a tale in Tacitus of how the veterans mutinied in\u003cbr\u003ethe German wilderness; of how they mobbed Germanicus, clamouring to go\u003cbr\u003ehome; and of how, seizing their general's hand, these old, war-worn\u003cbr\u003eexiles passed his finger along their toothless gums. _Sunt lacrymae\u003cbr\u003ererum_: this was the most eloquent of the songs of Simeon. And when a\u003cbr\u003eman has lived to a fair age, he bears his marks of service. He may have\u003cbr\u003enever been remarked upon the breach at the head of the army; at least he\u003cbr\u003eshall have lost his teeth on the camp bread.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe idealism of serious people in this age of ours is of a noble\u003cbr\u003echaracter. It never seems to them that they have served enough; they\u003cbr\u003ehave a fine impatience of their virtues. It were perhaps more modest to\u003cbr\u003ebe singly thankful that we are no worse. It is not only our enemies,\u003cbr\u003ethose desperate characters--it is we ourselves who know not what we\u003cbr\u003edo;--thence springs the glimmering hope that perhaps we do better than\u003cbr\u003ewe think: that to scramble through this random business with hands\u003cbr\u003ereasonably clean, to have played the part of a man or woman with some\u003cbr\u003ereasonable fulness, to have often resisted the diabolic, and at the end\u003cbr\u003eto be still resisting it, is for the poor human soldier to have done\u003cbr\u003eright well. To ask to see some fruit of our endeavour is but a\u003cbr\u003etranscendental way of serving for reward; and what we take to be\u003cbr\u003econtempt of self is only greed of hire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd again if we require so much of ourselves, shall we not require much\u003cbr\u003eof others? If we do not genially judge our own deficiencies, is it not\u003cbr\u003eto be feared we shall be even stern to the trespasses of others? And he\u003cbr\u003ewho (looking back upon his own life) can see no more than that he has\u003cbr\u003ebeen unconscionably long a-dying, will he not be tempted to think his\u003cbr\u003eneighbour unconscionably long of getting hanged? It is probable that\u003cbr\u003enearly all who think of conduct at all, think of it too much; it is\u003cbr\u003ecertain we all think too much of sin. We are not damned for doing wrong,\u003cbr\u003ebut for not doing right; Christ would never hear of negative morality;\u003cbr\u003e_thou shalt_ was ever his word, with which he superseded _thou shalt\u003cbr\u003enot_. To make our idea of morality centre on forbidden acts is to defile\u003cbr\u003ethe imagination and to introduce into our judgments of our fellow-men a\u003cbr\u003esecret element of gusto. If a thing is wrong for us, we should not dwell\u003cbr\u003eupon the thought of it; or we shall soon dwell upon it with inverted\u003cbr\u003epleasure. If we cannot drive it from our minds--one thing of two: either\u003cbr\u003eour creed is in the wrong and we must more indulgently remodel it; or\u003cbr\u003eelse, if our morality be in the right, we are criminal lunatics and\u003cbr\u003eshould place our persons in restraint. A mark of such unwholesomely\u003cbr\u003edivided minds is the passion for interference with others: the Fox\u003cbr\u003ewithout the Tail was of this breed, but had (if his biographer is to be\u003cbr\u003etrusted) a certain antique civility now out of date. A man may have a\u003cbr\u003eflaw, a weakness, that unfits him for the duties of life, that spoils\u003cbr\u003ehis temper, that threatens his integrity, or that betrays him into\u003cbr\u003ecruelty. It has to be conquered; but it must never be suffered to\u003cbr\u003eengross his thoughts. The true duties lie all upon the farther side,\u003cbr\u003eand must be attended to with a whole mind so soon as this preliminary\u003cbr\u003eclearing of the decks has been effected. In order that he may be kind\u003cbr\u003eand honest, it may be needful he should become a total abstainer; let\u003cbr\u003ehim become so then, and the next day let him forget the circumstance.\u003cbr\u003eTrying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; a mortified\u003cbr\u003eappetite is never a wise companion; in so far as he has had to mortify\u003cbr\u003ean appetite, he will still be the worse man; and of such an one a great\u003cbr\u003edeal of cheerfulness will be required in judging life, and a great deal\u003cbr\u003eof humility in judging others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt may be argued again that dissatisfaction with our life's endeavour\u003cbr\u003esprings in some degree from dulness. We require higher tasks, because\u003cbr\u003ewe do not recognise the height of those we have. Trying to be kind and\u003cbr\u003ehonest seems an affair too simple and too inconsequential for gentlemen\u003cbr\u003eof our heroic mould; we had rather set ourselves to something bold,\u003cbr\u003earduous, and conclusive; we had rather found a schism or suppress a\u003cbr\u003eheresy, cut off a hand or mortify an appetite.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073681080560,"sku":"2940013191303","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013191303_p0.jpg?v=1763577716","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013191303","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}