to be as good as I am," he seems to say to all who happen to look
at him, "and you will be as happy." And he "smiles, and smiles, and
smiles."

He has a small soul, a small heart, and a small brain.

As a rule, he is a well-to-do person. It pays better to have a narrow
mind than to have broad sympathies.

He drinks tea, but prefers cocoa, as being a more virtuous beverage.

He is perfectly destitute of humor, and is the most inartistic creature
in the world. Everything suggests to him either profanity or indecency.
The "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," by Dean Ramsay,
would strike him as profane, and if placed in the Musee du Louvre,
before the Venus of Milo, he would see nothing but a woman who has next
to no clothes on.

His distorted mind makes him take everything in ill part. His hands get
pricked on every thorn that he comes across on the road, and he misses
all the roses.

If I were not a Christian, the following story, which is not as often
told as it should be, would have converted me long ago:

Jesus arrived one evening at the gates of a certain city, and he sent
his disciples forward to prepare supper, while he himself, intent on
doing good, walked through the streets into the marketplace. And he
saw at the corner of the market some people gathered together, looking
at an object on the ground; and he drew near to see what it might be.
It was a dead dog, with a halter round his neck, by which he appeared
to have been dragged through the dirt; and a viler, a more abject, a
more unclean thing, never met the eyes of man. And those who stood by
looked on with abhorrence. "Faugh!" said one, stopping his nose, "it
pollutes the air." "How long," said another, "shall this foul beast
offend our sight?" "Look at his torn hide," said a third; "one could
not even cut a shoe out of it!" "And his ears," said a fourth, "all
draggled and bleeding!" "No doubt," said a fifth, "he has been hanged
for thieving!" And Jesus heard them, and looking down compassionately
on the dead creature, he said: "Pearls are not equal to the whiteness
of his teeth!"

If I understand the Gospel, the gist of its teachings is contained in
the foregoing little story. Love and forgiveness: finding something to
pity and admire even in a dead dog. Such is the religion of Christ.

The "Christianity" of the "unco guid" is as like this religion as are
the teachings of the Old Testament.

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