Every day, I grow more and more appalled at the way I see my fellow human beings behave themselves.  This lack of manners is not a new phenomenon.  Indeed, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America:

“Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store; they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners. The influence of the social and political state of a country upon manners is therefore deserving of serious examination… In democratic countries manners are generally devoid of dignity because private life is there extremely petty in its character; and they are frequently low because the mind has few opportunities of rising above the engrossing cares of domestic interests… The men who live in democracies are too fluctuating for a certain number of them ever to succeed in laying down a code of good breeding and in forcing people to follow it. Every man therefore behaves after his own fashion, and there is always a certain incoherence in the manners of such times, because they are molded upon the feelings and notions of each individual rather than upon an ideal model proposed for general imitation.”

If de Tocqueville found the lack of manners important enough to include in a book on American culture in 1835, what would he say today?  Men like George Washington understood manners.  As a schoolboy, he copied out a set of maxims for manners and they have since been published as the Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation. While some of them have fallen victim to time, (“Spit not in the fire…”) many are still just as applicable today.  

7. Put not off your Cloths in the presence of others, nor go out your Chamber half Dressed.

38. In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician if you be not knowing therein.

41. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors of arrogance.

48. Wherein you reprove another, be unblameable yourself; for example is more prevalent than precepts.  

49. Use no reproachful language against any one, neither curse nor revile.  

110.  Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of Celestial fire called Conscience.

Emily Post, in 1922, was just as blunt.  She wrote that even beyond the “dictum of etiquette is the fundamental code of honor.”  “The honor of a gentleman demands the inviolability of his word, and the incorruptibility of his principles; he is the descendant of the knight, the crusader; he is the defender of the defenseless, and the champion of justice—or he is not a gentleman… A gentleman’s manners are an integral part of him and are the same whether in his dressing-room or in a ballroom, whether in talking to Mrs. Worldly or to the laundress bringing in his clothes. He whose manners are only put on in company is a veneered gentleman, not a real one.”

Really, how have we gotten from that to this?  The most common two tools while driving now are the horn and the finger.  In books on “how to be a gentleman,” as if such things can be learned from a book, instructions are found on how to deal with the difficult situation of finding yourself and your wife at a party where your mistress is also in attendance.  The art of etiquette, and indeed the entire code of conduct for gentlemen, has been reduced to knowing which fork to use.  And even that is ignored.  Some of the mistakes would be laughable, if it was not rude to laugh at others making absolute fools of themselves.  (Note: Do not clap between movements at the symphony… and do not laugh at those who do…) 

As many of you may know, especially readers of my uncle’s site, I had throat surgery yesterday.  It was nothing overly serious, they just clipped my uvula.  It seems 23 years of sinus infections had enlarged it until it was about five times its normal length.  

Here’s what is interesting.  There were no blades involved.  All the cutting was preformed with concentrated light, a laser. It is amazing how power the basis of sight can be.  Light is all around us, yet it can be concentrated to the point it cuts the hardest metals, diamonds, and yes, human flesh.  

Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve were clothed with light.  Prior to being thrown out of Heaven, Lucifer was clothed with light.  In fact, light is often used to proclaim the glory of God.  

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.” (Is. 58:8)

 “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” (Is. 60:1)

“But the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” (Is 60:19b)

“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

“And when I could not see for the glory of that light…” (Acts 22:11)

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

“And after these things I saw another angle come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” (Rev 18:1)

“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” (Rev. 21:23)

If man can harness the power of light into something as piercing as a laser, how much more piercing is the glory of God?  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God,” and we can see its magnificence with every sunrise and sunset.  How much more glorious will it be at the second coming when Christ appears on the horizon in all his glory?  The light will be so powerful as to drive all the sin and darkness from the world.  

Here’s the challenge.  Christians’ lives should be a reflection of God’s glory and his light should shine through us.  This reflected light should pierce the gloom and darkness of this sin filled world and show unbelievers the pathway to redemption.  How bright is your light?