We spoke recently of the spectrum of love having nine ingredients. Henry Drummond the philosopher lists Courtesy, as the fifth ingredient in the spectrum of love.
“Courtesy is love in society, Love in relation to etiquette.” Love doth not behave itself unseemly says Saint Paul in 1: Cor x111.” Politeness has been defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little things, and the one secret of politeness is to love. Love cannot behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their hearts, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply cannot do it. Caryle said of Robert Burns” There was no truer gentleman in Europe than the plough-man-poet. It was because he loved everything-the mouse, and the daisy, and all the things, great and small, that God had made, so with this simple passport he could mingle with any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on the banks of the Ayr.” The meaning of the word gentleman, It means a gentle man- a man who does things gently with love. The gentle man cannot in the nature of things do an ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle soul, the in-considerate, unsympathetic nature cannot do anything else. Love doth not behave itself unseemly.” Henry Drummond.
A Prayer_ Please Lord, Give me the grace I need to be a more courtious, and loving person, even in the small things of life.
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