1.D 10. Social Habits
Social Habits.
You must be familiar with men; and you are fortunate if you have been brought up in a public school. There is a good deal of human nature learned by boys among boys, and by young men among young men. That is one of the arguments in favour of large gatherings of young men. A man who has struggled out from between the stones of the farm, and has fought his way through the academy, with the pity of everybody a pity which might well be spared, because it was God’s training has a fine education for practical life, because he knows men. The study of man is the highest of sciences.
Besides this general knowledge we are to have, we should take kindly to individual men, for the very purpose of studying them. Now, I take great delight, if ever I can get a chance, in riding on the top of an omnibus with the driver, and talking with him. What do I gain by that? Why, my sympathy goes out for these men, and I recognize in them an element of brotherhood that great human element which lies underneath all culture, which is more universal and more important than all special attributes, which is the great generic bond of humanity between man and man. If ever I saw one of those men in my church, I could preach to him, and hit him under the fifth rib with an illustration, much better than if I had not been acquainted with him. I have driven the truth under many a plain jacket. But, what is more, I never found a plain man in this world who could not tell me many things that I did not know before.
There is not a gate-keeper at the Fulton Ferry, or an engineer or deck-hand on the boats, that I am not acquainted with, and they help me in more ways than they know of. If you are going to be a minister, keep very close to plain folks; don’t get above the common people.
There is no danger that you will lose your sympathy with culture and refinement, as some people seem to fear. There is no danger that you will lose your purity and sensitiveness. There will be nothing incompatible in this course with the performance of your professional duties as a preacher.
Good-heartedness and good, plain, hearty sympathy with men, will help everything in you which ought to be helped, and diminish those things which ought to be diminished. Study human nature by putting yourself in alliance with men. Sec how a mother, that best of philosophers in practical matters, under stands every one of her children, and the special differences between them all; and docs she not carry herself with true intuition as to their daily needs, mid with the interpreting philosophy of sensitive love? She is the best trainer of men, and has the best mental philosophy, so far as practical things arc concerned.
There is but one other point. While you study men scientifically, in regard to the fundamental elements of human nature, and again by sympathies and kindly relations to individuals to learn them well, you must be much among them, generally.
You must act with men. Learn to be needful to them and to use them. A minister who stays in his study all the week long, and makes his appearance only in his pulpit to preach, may do some good, of a certain sort; but the preacher must be a man among men. Keep out among the people. I do not mean to say that you ought to make a great many pastoral visits, but that society men, women, and children, of all sorts ought to he your continual and familiar acquaintances. Books alone are not enough. Studying is not enough. There is a training for you in the actual daily contact with men, of mind with mind, which will keep you down, and you will not have so much professional pride. You will find many men abler than you, and a good many men who are better qualified to teach grace to you than you are to teach them. You will often find how very superficial has been your teaching to men. No man will find a better study than where the drooping heart is laid bare to him, or where the eve rnashing intelligence is acting in his presence. There you can see what your work has been, and what it is to be in the future.