1. The men who do great deeds, who leave a mark behind them, who bend stubborn circumstances to their will, who influence other men (bearing into their hearts the passions or the policy which they have themselves conceived), are always the men who have a firm faith in their own judgment, and a resolute conviction that they will achieve what they have set themselves to do: so that they are not always explaining and apologizing and qualifying and standing on the defensive, but rather going straight forward and fearlessly calling upon others to follow them.
We may have seen, perhaps, in the great world, the almost irresistible power of those who have this faith in themselves, who never doubt that they are aiming at the one right aim. And in the narrower world of our home or private life, we may know how easily we accept the advice, or even welcome and rest and delight in the control of one who is not afraid to bear the responsibility of a positive decision, who can venture largely by faith in himself.
Thomas Chalmers had faith in God—faith in human nature —faith, if we may say so, in his own instincts—in his ideas of men and things—in himself; and the result was, that unhesitating bearing up and steering right onward—”never bating one jot of heart or hope” — so characteristic of him. He had “the substance of things hoped for.” He had “the evidence of things not seen.” [Note: John Brown, Horoe Subsecivoe, ii. 127]
It was continually interesting to note the differences between my two comrades [Millais and Collins], one fated to win honours, whatever the obstructions might be; the other, spite of original gifts and of strenuous yearnings, doomed to be turned back on the threshold of success by want of courageous confidence. [Note: W. Holman Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, i.]
I believe (although I admit I have no utterance from him as foundation for my belief) that from the very beginning of his political work Roosevelt kept before him the idea of becoming President, and he had the large measure of self-confidence which is one of the most essential factors towards political success. This self-confidence, an admirable quality in itself, needs, however, in order not to interfere with a good development of character and with the foundations of judgment, to be kept in control. An exuberance of assured opinions is natural enough in a man of a certain temperament and at an age which may still be classed as sophomoric. As a man grows older and his responsibilities increase, he ought, in order to maintain a wise relation with his fellow-men, to keep his self-confidence under lock and key, so to speak, bringing it to the open only at critical moments. [Note: G. H. Putnam, Memories of a Publisher, 139.]
2. A man’s faith in himself will give him a strange power and energy for work: he will set himself great tasks and bear great labour and privation, if this is—as probably in some form it will be—necessary: for he will feel that his life is a great thing to be ordered and lived on a large scale, with aims that are worth all the more self-denial because he is sure that he will attain them.
The young have naturally more faith than the old, more faith in themselves, because they have no experience of their limitations; more faith in the world, because they are at liberty, according to their fancy or their ideal. This is wisely ordered in both respects, for how shall a man act if he has no faith in himself? and how should he attempt to do anything for the world if he thought the world was not worthy of his exertions? So much for faith as a spur to action. [Note: John Stuart Blackie, Day-Book, 99.]
Responsibility may be defined as a man’s ability to respond, but our use of the ability is our own, and it cannot be forced. God coerces no man, though He allures by the ceaseless play of a love that will not let us go. That we do not always respond is due to our lack of sensitiveness to the lure; we have not the length of vision which sees the end of splendour to which it fain would draw us. Archdeacon Wilberforce found the root of all sin to consist in ignorance of our highest good.
“Know this, oh man, sole root of sin in thee
Is not to know thy own divinity.”
The quotation was ever on his lips. [Note: C. E. Woods, Archdeacon Wilberforce: His Ideals and Teaching, 83.]
3. The man who has faith in himself, if he is a good man, will resolutely put away all mean and little ways of self-indulgence; he will not be always rewarding himself for everything he does; he will be truthful and outspoken, since falsehood and dissimulation are the refuge of men who are uncertain or ashamed of themselves: and he will lift his life and thoughts above all that may degrade or hinder or enfeeble him. Even a little faith in himself can wonderfully raise and strengthen a man: even as there is no more hopeless temper than to have mean or base or grumbling thoughts about that which God has made us and given us.
There is a class of people who are comparatively valueless to the world because of a certain morbidness which they are pleased to call sensitiveness. In reality it is nothing of the sort. It is self-love—a refined variety of it, to be sure, but none the less is it the result of a selfishly subjective state, in which they look in and not out, and down and not up, and fail. to lend a hand—not from any real unkindness or unwillingness, but simply because they are looking in, and looking down, and do not see the opportunity. They will tell you they are “so lonely” and “so blue” and “so unhappy” and so exceedingly “misunderstood.” Well, perhaps they are misunderstood and undervalued. Often it is true; often they are persons of fine susceptibilities (which they mistake for fine sympathies), and perhaps under different circumstances would reveal qualities of a higher kind than those they manifest. Environment is a very determining influence, and there are probably few of us who might not have been much worthier and much happier persons under circumstances quite different from the existing ones. To have been born to inherited wealth and culture and its extended opportunities would certainly seem to be a factor in advance over that of being born in a log cabin, and learning to read by the light of a pine-knot. As a matter of actual record, however, the history of great lives puts a premium on the hardships and the pine-knot. [Note: Lilian Whiting, The World Beautiful, 15.]
Reckless of danger, loss, and shame,
In the free, fearless faith of youth,
Forward through good and evil fame
To battle in the cause of truth.
4. The man who has faith in himself will exercise his will and overcome. Now every man has some will, enough to constitute his responsibility, and will, like any other gift or power, can be cultivated. An act of will means more will. No man knows how much will he has until he wills to put forth his will for all it is worth. Let him fortify his will by thought and watchfulness, let him bring to it the mighty re-enforcement of prayer, let him regard it as a sacred trust to be consecrated to the highest ends, let him thus guard against undue depression when it seems to fail him, and he will be daily heartened to find what surprises of achievement there are at the heart of a power which is always there, if we will believe it. It is in the cultivation of the will that, of all places, we must say, and have the courage of our word:
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it,
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin, and then the work will be completed.
Men, in fast increasing numbers, have virtually arrived at the conclusion that fate, by whatever name it may be called, is our grim, but real deity, working through the two principal forces of heredity and surroundings. The past not only in ourselves, but in the line of which we come, determines our future; and where we are is practically what we are, and what we must be. I am confronted at almost every turn of my ministry with this doctrine, which empties life of its sacredness, and gives the lie to everything that makes this human world of ours grand and glorious. It has become an atmosphere, and men breathe it who never try to phrase it. These men would be the last to claim any merit in this; and it might be unjust to charge them with wilful folly. They are, as a rule, the average people about us, who do not trouble with such questions as “Is life worth living?” They simply accept the fact that they have an existence to be got through as best they can. When we try to reason with them about responsibility, they tell us that they were not consulted about their coming into the world; that they had no choice as to parentage, or in the circumstances they found here of place, home, and surroundings; and, deprived of a choice compared with which no other is worth the name, it is too late in the day to talk about responsibility. “Every man,” says one who is now held to speak with authority, “is the product of his times, and the instrument” —mark the term—”the instrument of his circumstances.” And there is just enough in all this to make the essential lie at the heart of it the more deadly. Its inevitable effect is to destroy man’s faith in himself. [Note: Ambrose Shepherd, D.D.: A Memoir and Sermons, 93.]
5. Finally, the man who has faith in himself will (again, if he is a good man) love himself and that truly. The duty of self-love is clearly and definitely set forth in the second great commandment of the gospel. In Christ’s own words, that commandment runs thus: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” “As thyself.” These are the crucial words of this commandment. It is obvious, therefore, that until we have learnt what “self” means we cannot know what “neighbour” means; and until we have practised the duty of true self-love we cannot know how best to practise the duty of true love towards our neighbour. We must learn how we ought to love ourselves aright before we can learn to love aright our neighbours as we ought; seeing that Christ Himself has constituted self-love as the safe and just standard of our love to others. Our duty to ourselves is the only true measure of our duty to our fellow-men. It is not until we understand what we owe, and ought to do, to ourselves that we can clearly see what we owe, and ought to do, to our fellow-men. Not only for our own sake, therefore, but for the sake of our neighbours, it is of supreme importance to ponder in our hearts and carry out in our conduct this great duty of self-love—a duty which, while never allowing us to forget, but always insisting that in fear and trembling we remember, the depravity of our nature and the dangers of that depravity, yet insists also that we should never forget, but always remember in wonder and love and awe, the divinity of our nature and the possibilities of that divinity.
It is our paramount duty to look at, and love, ourselves comprehensively, and look at, and love, ourselves whole.
In fulfilling this duty we shall be preserved from the peril of allowing the lustful schism of any part in us to destroy the happy union of the whole. Self-love is love of the soul and love of the body, and each in its proper place. Sometimes the metaphor is used that the soul is a precious gem contained in the casket of the
body. But such a metaphor falls far short of the truth; a casket may be battered, defiled, spoilt; yet open it and you shall find the gem, perfect, pure, and inviolate. Not so with the soul and body; if self-indulgence, or sloth, or unworthy deeds, abuse and stain the body, you cannot throw the body aside and find anywhere a soul pure and untouched; a truer analogy of the relation between soul and body would be that between the electric light and the wire along which it flashes: if the wire is spoilt or cut, the light can only shine more dimly or not shine at all. A body well disciplined, kept in strict control, wakeful, alert, ready for action, will lend its own strength to the soul; the soul, free from defiling memories, free from embarrassing entanglements of the body, will gain an assured confidence to act on the side of all that is right. We must test the powers of our own body, we must know its functions: we must treat it as the great ally of our soul, and then we shall feel that interaction of soul and body which Browning has expressed so well and which he has put into the mouth of a Jewish Rabbi :
Let us not always say
“Spite of this flesh today
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!”
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry “All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!”
