The perfect gentleman

 

Livingstone wrote that on one occasion he was surrounded at nightfall by an army of infuriated savages, and was tempted to vanish away in the dark when he suddenly remembered the promise: "I will be with you all the days," and went to sleep appeased because he knew it was the word of a perfect gentleman.

There is so much fraud nowadays that the vast majority of people do not know anymore what a gentleman is. Politicians have mastered the art of storytelling: it appears as if they now study it at the University. Tabloids are so hungry for scoops that they do not hesitate to set-up fables from scratch to sell as many copies as possible. Reality shows are almost always rigged. Sellers receive a special coaching in order to convince poor gullible clients to buy trinkets they don’t need at all. Let’s not even mention bankers or lawyers! And what about cyber crime? Any email requesting for any kind of assistance is suspect; even when it seems to come from a known contact. Indeed, one can be framed up in no time. I don’t want to make an inventory of all the existing scams and lies but I just want to emphasize that there is so much fraud and falsehood around us that extreme caution and spontaneous lack of trust have become second nature to many. There are no more gentlemen.

However, a few “ages” ago, a gentleman was a person of noble birth or who, without being of noble birth, had noble inclinations and manners. He was a man with chivalrous qualities; someone whose conduct conformed to a high standard of propriety or correct behaviour. A gentleman was a man of his word. If he had promised you something or had committed himself in any way vis-à-vis you, you could be quite certain that unless death gets involved, he was going to honour his commitments. To call into doubt the word of a supposed gentleman was one of the worst humiliations.

This said, we can now take the full measure of Livingstone’s words. Remembering that the Lord was a perfect gentleman meant he immediately realized that he could have absolute confidence in the fact that he was not alone and would not be left to face the ‘‘savages’’ alone. He could sleep in peace: those with him were far more numerous than those against him.

Let’s learn to take the LORD at His word. He is not an empty talker; He is a man of honour and the most perfect gentleman. Let’s not forget it and let’s make a conscious effort to believe and peacefully rely on everything He tells us. It's one thing to believe the facts related about Christ as true and quite another to believe that what He tells us personally is also true. God in Christ is Faithful!

Have a wonderblessed week, have Peace!