human
I was thinking how selfish we naturally are; those beautiful flowers reminded me of it, and seemed to reproach me. God gives us such a profusion of colour, and harmonises it so marvellously to delight us; and yet how ready we are to pick out, as it were, the sombrest tints in his dealings with us, and to keep our eyes fixed on them.
gpt
Yes, I quite agree with you, Colonel Dawson; there is abundance of selfishness in our days, especially among young people. They seem to think of nothing but having their own way, and seldom condescend to admit that those who have been brought up in less enlightened days can have gained any wisdom by experience.
human
Ah! I dare say, replied the other;
gpt
I've no doubt that young people, many of them at least, have a large share of this very unlovable quality. Perhaps we have all of us more of it than we should like to admit to ourselves. But now, to tell the truth, I am on the look-out for one or two unselfish people;--can either of you, my dear friends, help me to find them?
human
I think you will search in vain in _this_ neighbourhood,
gpt
Nay, my dear Miss Stansfield, are you not a little uncharitable? Surely you can point me to some who love doing good, and forget themselves in doing it.
human
I can say `Yes' to the first but not to the last part of your question, was the reply.
gpt
There are plenty who love doing good, according to the popular estimate of goodness; but they love still more to be known and praised as the doer of it.
human
Well, rejoined her visitor,
gpt
I fear not, Colonel Dawson. However, I will mention a few of what I believe to be but counterfeit gems. There are the Wilders, for instance. Those girls are always doing good, and their brother too. You have only to look into the local papers to see what a broad stream of good works is perpetually flowing from that family. What with ecclesiastical decorations, Sunday-school and day-school _fetes_, dancing at charity balls, managing coal and clothing clubs, and a hundred other things in which the world and the Church get their alternate share pretty evenly, that family is a perfect pattern of good deeds for everybody to look at,--like the children's samplers, which their mothers point to with so much pride, as they hang up framed in their cottages.
human
Then you do not consider that there are likely to be any unselfish workers in the Wilder family?
gpt
You had better ask my niece, colonel. She will give you an unprejudiced opinion.
human
I am asking now in confidence, and with an object, not from mere idle curiosity, far less from any wish to pick holes in the characters and conduct of any of my neighbours. So, Miss Mary, kindly give me your opinion.
gpt
I fear that my aunt is right in her judgment of the Wilders. I dare not recommend them to you as likely to prove, in the truest sense, unselfish workers. They are very kind and good-natured, and no one can help liking them; but--
human
I understand you, said the colonel;
gpt
I fear not; but then I should be sorry to judge them harshly, only you asked my honest opinion.
human
Oh, speak out, my dear, speak out, said her aunt;
gpt
Ah yes, said the colonel thoughtfully,
human
I'm afraid you'll hardly be able to find any in this neighbourhood, for the clouds,
gpt
Nay, nay, my dear friend, cried the colonel cheerily,
human
Ay, said the old lady dryly,
gpt
You think not? Well, let me tell you what I have heard of her. Those who know her well say that she never seems so happy as when she is doing good and making others happy. Her mother calls her `my sunbeam.' She seems to take a pleasure in thwarting herself in order to gratify others. If she wants to go out for a walk, and some tiresome visitor comes in, she will laugh, and say, `I was just wanting some one to come and keep me in, for I dare say I should have caught cold if I had gone out just now.' Or it may be quite the other way. She is just sitting down to draw or play, and some one calls and asks her to take a walk, and she at once leaves her occupation, jumps up, and says, `Ah, how nice this is! I ought to take exercise, but felt disinclined; and you've come at the very right time, to entice me out.' In fact, her greatest pleasure seems to be to cross her own will and inclinations, that she may do what will give pleasure to others. Such is the picture that intimate friends have drawn of her; and certainly it is a very charming one. What say you to it, Miss Mary?
human
It is very beautiful, Colonel Dawson--
gpt
Ah, then, too highly coloured, I suppose you would say. Give me your candid opinion.
human
It is very difficult to say what I feel, replied Mary Stansfield,
gpt
Of course it does, broke in the elder lady;
human
I fear so, dear aunt. I cannot help thinking that, as some one has said of faith, so it may be said of true unselfishness, that `it is colourless like water,'--it makes no show nor assertion of itself. But dear Grace Willerly is a sterling character for all that.
gpt
So then, said the colonel, after a pause,
human
I must give up in despair, must I? No, that will never do. Now, I am wanting a quiet worker in the shade for poor Bridgepath,--some young lady friend who has a little leisure time, and will go now and then and read in the cottages there the Word of God, and give some loving counsel to those who need it so much. I have the good vicar's full consent and approbation; he will gladly welcome any such helper as I may find for the post. It will be a true labour of love; and, without any more words I am come to ask Miss Stansfield if she will spare her niece for the good work, and Miss Mary if she will be willing to undertake it.
gpt
Impossible! cried the old lady.
human
Me!
gpt
Nay, not impossible, dear friend, said the colonel gently.
human
I want this service of love only once a week for an hour or two, and I am sure you can spare my young friend for that time.--And as for yourself, Miss Mary, I believe, from what I have seen of you, that you are just fitted for the work; and I am sure that you are too sincere to excuse yourself on the ground of an unfitness which you do not really feel.
gpt
And what am I to do?
human
Exercise a little of this true unselfishness, dear friend. You see there are many ways in which you too can show true unselfishness in the cause of that Master whom I know you truly love, though he has laid you aside from much active work for him.
gpt
I don't understand these many ways in which I can show unselfishness, Colonel Dawson.
human
Do you not? May I mention some?
gpt
Yes, do,
human
Well, bear with me then, while I make one or two suggestions which our late conversations have been leading up to. I will imagine myself in your place, and looking out to see where I may best put the stamp of the Cross on my life. I am wishing to do good, I am trying to do good: but may it not be that my benevolence is sometimes rendered so ungraciously that it gives more pain than pleasure to those who receive it? Ah, then, I will put the stamp of the Cross here. I will try, not only to do good, but to do it graciously. Perhaps, again, I am looking upon suffering and natural infirmity of temper as an excuse for harshness and hard judgment, and not as a call to exercise charity, patience, and forbearance. Then let me put the stamp of the Cross here also. Or, once more, perhaps I am in the habit of looking for the weeds rather than the flowers, for the shadows rather than the sunshine, in my lot. Well, then, here again I may place the stamp of the Cross, by exercising quiet, unostentatious self-denial and unselfishness before the loving eyes of him who has made us for himself, and redeemed us that we might in all things glorify him. Might I not thus, dear friend, exhibit true unselfishness, and at the same time brighten my own heart, and also the hearts of others?
gpt
Thank you, thank you, faithful friend. Mary shall undertake the post if she will.