You may burn men at the stake, you may strip them of all their possessions, but you cannot keep them from believing in God.

The preeminence of Jesus Christ is still another fixed idea. However theories of his person may differ, the modern world is practically at one in its appreciation of the character of Jesus and of the bearing of his teachings and example on all our modern problems. Science and invention register great advances from year to year, but Jesus retains his mastership of the race.

Such are a few of the ideas that cling to countless human minds the world over. Why not fix them firmly in our own thinking and act upon them?

IT

"AFTER YOU, PLEASE”

T sometimes requires the services of an expert to determine whether a piece of furniture is genuine mahogany or ordinary wood overlaid with a handsome veneer. Neither is it always easy, from casual acquaintance, to decide whether politeness in a certain individual is real or superficial. But time will tell. I knew two men in college, one of whom was the most popular fellow in his class, and the other one of the most unpopular, but both were exceedingly deferential and considerate in the presence of others. In the one case, however, the politeness was the natural outflowing of a refined and unselfish character as spontaneous and beautiful as the blush upon the peach, while in the other case the politeness appeared to be simply a means toward the accomplishment of a selfish end, a species of toadyism by virtue of which he hoped to get the entrée into certain circles. But in the long run he lost the favor which he courted, as a man always does who tries to ride into popularity on his gentlemanly manners alone.

We on this side the water, with our democratic traditions, are inclined to look upon customs in other countries as mere empty formalism. Passing out of a Paris restaurant one day I noticed how my companion, a Parisian, lifted his hat to the lady cashier. "I do it," he explained, "not because she is a lady, but because I am a gentleman." I couldn't help wondering whether it would not be better to be a trifle less polite and a little more truly regardful of the feminine sex. And as between the suave manner with a flinty heart and the brusque manner with the kind heart, give me every time the latter.

But need a man be brusque in order to be genuine? By no means. Let us get back to the tap-root of politeness, which is a good heart. Starting with that, let a man cultivate the amenities and civilities. Few of us are as considerate as we ought to be of the rights and claims of others. In how many homes is politeness at a minimum! When company comes you brush up your manners for a day or two, but when the company departs you forget all about "Thank you" and "If you please." You keep the easy chair in the parlor when

your mother or sister comes in. You dare not be anything else but civil to a comparative stranger, but you are hardly decent to your dearest ones. So, too, in business circles. Some proprietors enter their stores or their offices without so much as a pleasant "good morning" to office boy or stenographer.

"After you, please" - what a world of hidden meaning there is in this little phrase which we take so lightly upon our lips. It means, when we think it through, that we have made the great renunciation, that we have really chosen to give others precedence, that we are willing to follow and not to set the pace, that we are content to be second or third or even fourth. Are we ready to undergo such a personal shrinkage? Of one who came nineteen hundred years ago, not to be ministered unto but to minister, it was said in later time, “Jesus Christ was the only perfect gentleman that ever lived."

I

"SHE COULD, SHE WOULD, SHE

DID"

NEVER happened to meet the woman on whose tombstone was carved this epitaph, but I have met her counterpart many times. And it may profit us all to pause a moment and reflect upon the meaning of such a summing up of a life career. How simple such a characterization is, how unconventional, how different from the ones which appear with almost wearisome monotony in every churchyard. And yet how adequate it is, too, how inclusive and beautiful. To be able to utter these six words about any man or woman whose life race is run is as much of a compliment as a large volume of glowing praise. Capacity, willingness, action; when those three traits are properly blended you cannot fail to get a strong, fruitful character. And almost all the tragedies in human life, almost all the mistakes and blunders are due to the absence of one or more of these qualities or to their being faultily related to one another. "She could." There was capacity, to begin