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The True Gentleman

My grandmother loved reading about the history of England, its various castles, and aristocrats. She would have enjoyed reading the following lines, which were found framed and hanging over the mantelpiece of an old house in England, descriptive of a true gentleman:

“The true gentleman is God’s servant, and the world’s master, and his own man. Virtue is his business; study, his recreation; contentment, his rest; and happiness, his reward.

God is his Father; Jesus Christ, his Savior; the saints, his brethren; and all that need him, his friends.

Devotion is his chaplain; chastity, his chamberlain; sobriety, his butler; temperance, his cook; hospitality, his housekeeper;

Providence, his steward; charity, his treasurer; piety, his mistress of the house; and discretion, his porter, to let in or out, as most fit.

Thus is his whole family made up of virtue, and he is master of the house.

He is necessitated to take the world on his way to heaven, and he walks through it as fast as he can, and all his business by the way is to make himself and others happy.

Take him in two words – a man and a Christian.”

Brethren and friends, let’s all be true gentlemen!