THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 535, 28 May 1920, Page 3

THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN

IDEAL CHARACTER. "A large part of our nation has always had a lay religion, by which men live on six days a week, and do not forget it on the seventh." writes Dean Ingle in the Sunday Express. "It may' be called the religion of an English gentleman. It is an ideal which embodies those qualities which are most distinctive of our national character, and we cannot bear to be accused of having been false to it. Even a bishop would be much moie angry if-he was told he was no gentleman than if he was told he was no Christian. For the only unpardonable sin in England is to be a cad, that is"to say, to violate those standards of conduct and feeling to which all gentlemen are glad to conform. The ideal is so sacred to us that we do not like to talk about it or appeal to it. It seems almost indelicate to drag it out. If we ever lose this ideal (and there are some popular writers who throw scorn upon it because they do not understand it) we shall lose the sheet anchor of our national character; we shall lose what for most Englishmen is the religion of their heart, whatever other colours they may wear upon then sleeves. We may say this without denying that the ideal has changed, is changing, and ought to be changed still further. It has come down to us laden with many outward prejudices, and irrational survivals. Some ot these can be traced to the period of wigs, some to the period of doublet and hose, some to the period of shields and battleaxes. No ideal can remain stationary, while it is alive, the free air of criticism must be allowed to play only upon it. We want all Englishmen, without respect of social station, to be men of humour. truthful, courteous brave, and fair-minded. We should like them to have healthy bodies and healthy minds, with a certain grace and beauty and distinction, physical, mental and moral. We want tham to respect the personality of all with whom they come in contact. Ihese are the essential parts of the tng lishman's religion for the laity, rhey accord very well with the Chilian ideal, which refines and elevates the character still further, lhe per fee Christian would h e tl > e P e, tect gentleman. Put together the loth Psalm and the 13th Chapter ot 1. Corinthians, and you will have a veiy complete unification of our Sunday and our week-day religion.