Politeness, like every thing else in one's character and conduct, should
be based on Christian principle. "Honor all men," says the apostle. This
is the spring of good manners; it strikes at the very root of
selfishness: it is the principle by which we render to all ranks and
ages their due. A respect for your fellow-beings--a reverence for them
as God's creatures and our brethren--will inspire that delicate regard
for their rights and feelings, of which good manners is the sign.
If you have truth--not the truth of policy, but religious truth--your
manners will be sincere. They will have earnestness, simplicity, and
frankness--the best qualities of manners. They will be free from
assumption, pretense, affectation, flattery, and obsequiousness, which
are all incompatible with sincerity. If you have sincerity, you will
choose to appear no other, nor better, than you are--to dwell in a true
light.
We have often insisted, that the Bible contains the only rules necessary
in the study of politeness. Or, in other words, that those who are the
real disciples of Christ, cannot fail to be truly polite. Thus, let the
young woman who would possess genuine politeness, take her lessons, not
in the school of a hollow, heartless world, but in the school of Jesus
Christ. I know this counsel may be despised by the gay and fashionable;
but it will be much easier to despise it, than to prove it to be
incorrect.
"Always think of the good of the whole, rather than of your own
individual convenience," says Mrs. Farrar, in her _Young Ladies'
Friend_. A most excellent rule; and one to which we solicit your earnest
attention. She who is thoroughly imbued with the Gospel spirit, will not
fail to do so. It was what our Savior did continually; and I have no
doubt that his was the purest specimen of good manners, or genuine
politeness, the world has ever witnessed; the politeness of Abraham
himself not excepted.