Chapter VI: Part 6

Something like this is my ideal of a boy. I am very desirous that your future shall be bright and useful and successful, and I, and others who are interested in your welfare, will hope to hear nothing but good of you; but we can have no greater joy than to hear that you are walking in the truth. Some of you may become rich men; some may become very prominent in public affairs; you may reach high places; you may fill a large space in the public estimation; you may be able and brilliant men; but there is nothing in your life that will give us so much joy as to hear that “you are walking in the truth.”

Truth is the foundation of all the virtues, and without it character is absolutely worthless. No gentleness of disposition, no willingness to help other people, no habits of industry, no freedom from vicious practices, can make up for want of truthfulness of heart and life. Some persons think that if they work long and hard and deny themselves for the good of others, and do many generous and noble acts and have a good reputation, they can even tell lies sometimes and not be much blamed. But they forget that reputation is not character; that one may have a very good reputation and a very bad character; they forget that the reputation is the outside, what we see of each other, while the character is what we are in the heart.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).

――Printer’s, punctuation, and spelling inaccuracies were silently
corrected.

――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.

――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.