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The Elements of Character by Mary G. Chandler

M >> Mary G. Chandler >> The Elements of Character




Pure and holy influences come to us immediately through our Companionship
with those among our fellow-beings who have received of the overflowings
of the Divine Fountain of goodness and truth. But when we reverently
approach that Fountain, we receive immediately, with a power and fulness
that can descend upon us through no human being.

What we receive through other mediums reaches only the lower and more
external planes of our being; but prayer brings us, if we pray aright,
before the throne of the Most High, and opens those inmost chambers of
the soul that remain for ever closed and empty unless they are opened
and filled by the immediate presence of the Lord. These constitute that
Holy of Holies which is the inmost of every human soul. The world at
large may enter its outer courts, chosen friends may minister before the
altar of its sanctuary, but within all this there is a holier place,
which none but the Lord can enter; for it is the seat of the vital
principle of the soul, which can be touched and quickened by no hand but
his.

The quality of the life of the whole being depends upon the degree in
which we suffer the Lord to dwell within our souls. His Companionship
fills and vivifies everything that is below it. The more entirely we
walk with the Lord, the more constant we shall be in the performance of
all our duties. The more entirely we open our hearts to his influence,
the more benefit we shall receive from all other influences. The more
reverently we listen to the truth that comes directly from him, the more
capable we shall be of finding out and appreciating the truth that comes
indirectly. The more we open our hearts to receive his love, the more
perfect will be the love we shall bear towards our fellow-beings. The
more constantly we feel that we are in his presence, the more perfect
will be the hourly outgoings of our lives.

Intimate Companionship with the Lord does not abstract us from the world
around us, but fills that world with new meanings. There is nothing
abstract in the nature of the Deity. He is operating perpetually upon
all nature. Gravity, organic life, instinct, human thought and
affection, are forms of his influx manifesting itself in varying
relations. Wherever he comes there is life, and his activity knows no
end.

Let no human being think that he holds Companionship with the Lord,
because he loves to retire apart, to pray, or to contemplate the divine
attributes, if, at such times, he looks down upon, and shuns the haunts
of men. The bigot may do so; and all his thoughts about things holy, all
his prayers, only confirm him in his spiritual pride. Every thought of
self-elevation, every feeling that tends towards "I am holier than
thou," smothers the breath of all true prayer, and associates us with
the spirit of evil; for our prayers cannot be blessed to us if pride
inspire them. Neither let any one suppose himself spiritual because
material life or material duties oppress him. God made the material
world as a school for his children; and he will not keep us here a
moment after we are prepared for a higher state. We are putting
ourselves back when we work impatiently, in the feeling that the duties
of life are beneath us.

If we would abide with our Heavenly Father, we must cooperate with him
perpetually. It is doing his will, not contemplating it, that teaches us
his attributes, and builds us up in his image and likeness. His fields
are ever white unto the harvest; let us work while it is yet day, ever
bearing in mind that he gives us the power to work, and that we can work
rightly only so long as we live in the constant acknowledgment of our
dependence upon Him.


THE END.

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He wrote it in just three weeks, furiously and loudly tap-tap-tapping away on his typewriter on 12ft long reels of paper so that he did not have to stop, just writing writing writing fuelled only, he said, by coffee…

It became one of the most important American novels of the last century and yesterday the original manuscript - a scroll taped together with eight reels of paper - of Jack Kerouac's On The Road was unfurled in the UK for the first time.
Fifty years after the novel which more or less defined the Beat generation, was published in Britain, the Barber Institute in Birmingham is showing what is now one of the most valuable literary manuscripts in existence as part of its exhibition Jack Kerouac: Back On the Road.

The exhibition's curator Professor Dick Ellis said there had been a lot of competition to get the scroll which is itself spending a lot of time on the move, having toured a string of US cities and hitting the road to Rome once this show is over. "We're very excited indeed," he said. "This is an iconic manuscript. It is a record of the huge effort Kerouac put into composing it. It was 20 days of typing 6,500 words a day, flat out, in spontaneous composition. He wanted to record things with the most possible accuracy using the spontaneous technique. His typewriter became a compositional instrument.

"Truman Capote once accused Kerouac of typing rather than writing, I would say he was learning the ability of using the typewriter like a jazz instrument, like a saxophone. He also had an incredible memory. And he had great speed at typing, he became a lightning typist. He came to be able to use a typewriter in a way that has not been seen before or since. Kerouac said he wrote fast because the road was fast."

About 22 of the scroll's 120ft will be on display in a specially built cabinet and while visitors will have to slightly tilt their heads, Ellis believes they will get a much deeper knowledge of what Kerouac was all about. It comes to Birmingham courtesy of Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, who bought it for $2.4m (£1.6m) in 2001 before agreeing to a tour. Of course, in the published novel, there are paragraph breaks but in the scroll, there are none. Kerouac did not have the time. The exhibition runs until January 28.

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