Little foxes that spoil the vines

Somewhere in the poetry of D.H. Lawrence there are these two short lines, "I have something to expiate:: A pettiness."

This is a remarkable acknowledgement from a man who observed few of society’s conventions. He also, unknowingly hit upon a real issue among Christian people - and one only has to look closely at the New Testament to realise that. The range of ‘little sins’, misdeanours, irritations and petty policies which beset the Churches of the Apostolic age are there in the text for all to read. The quarrelling women of Philippi were named by Saint Paul.

The apostle John alerted the fellowship over which he was the elder to the place seeking schemes of Diotrephes. The personality cult did nothing to help the troubled Church in Corinth. ‘Sowing discord among brethern’ was deemed an abomination in the book of Proverbs. Alas, there are always those who have developed into a sinsiter art form, the activity condemned by Alexander Pope, those who “Without sneering teach the rest to sneer.”

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In Kipling’s poem “If” he lists the challenges the growing youth must surmount, and among these he says, “If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.” Ine wonders how loving friends could hurt one, yet the poet feels this hurdle must be overcome.

Mercifully this emphasis by Lawrence is only a little part of the story of how human groupings treat each other. While pettiness of thought or word, hurts others, demeans ourselves and injures the fellowship, acts of magnanimity, and gracious words strengthen the Church, are a means of grace to the sensitive and care-worn and have an ameliorative impact on those outside the kingdom.

When Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Jail awaiting trial for bankruptcy he experienced an act of human kindness which he recalled with gratitude. He recalled, “When I was brought down from my prison cell to the Court of bankruptcy, between two policemen - a man - waited long in the dreary corridor that, before the whole crowd, when an action as sweet and simple hushed into silence, he might gravely raise his hat to me, as, handcuffed and with bowed head I passed him by. Men have gone to heaven for smaller things than that. I store it in the treasure house of my heart.”

A.C. Benson, the Victorian novelist said among his last words, “In these hours what comforts me is not the knowledge of my literary reputation or my social standing: still less the thought of my material possessions: rather it is that on some occasions - far too few I confess - I have been kind to people.”

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The world and the Church will always find a place for those who like the historians, whom Edmund Burke praised, those “who dip their pens in the milk of human kindness.” Those who live out the instructions of Saint Paul, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay evil for evil.”

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