Christian Virtues by Max A Forsythe
There is a worldly book that I want to purchase when the price becomes more affordable, and that is The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett. His work, which celebrates the moral foundations of the American enterprise, is only the latest printing in an age long search for ordering our public lives. Perhaps Aesop's Fables is the earliest secular publication which sought to pass along morals to stories collected to train up the younger members of society. At some point in time Solomon gathered together the best of the world's general revelation and arranged it according to the ordering of the Spirit.
An early American, Ben Franklin, spoke proverbially from the pages of his Poor Richard's Almanac, and in so doing inspired the hard working founders of finance, husbandry, business, industry and government. A current imitator of Mormon persuasion has even been granted access to Public Television to celebrate the seven habits of successful people. I even afflicted my English class with a reading of Franklin's advice and required a short paragraph report from each student this fall. Also, some years ago I had to do some secular family budgeting with a group of people and I created a fake checking account for a month to teach methods of financial management. In my scenario, there were even weekly checks to good old 1st Church to set a proper example. Entertainment expenses were grossly high I thought, and groceries and payments were absurd by my standards. I'll bet you can guess what practically every student in the class cut out! The essential lesson of honoring our God by tithing the income received was seen as an outrageous affront to proper money management by several people. And the entertainment, clothing and travel percentages were whined about as being far too low! Well did I appreciate the irony in Ben Franklin's introduction to his Almanac when he observed that the crowd who listened to Father Abraham quote Poor Richard hurried to forget the hard won advice as quickly as they also ignored the contemporary pastoral advice from their weekly pulpit.
I say all of this so that you understand my hesitation to begin another series that I understood the need for at least a year and a half ago. Isn't it providential that the changing of focus in our study of Romans demands that this area of life finally be addressed. As we saw in the first part of this chapter last week, Paul encourages his readers to become living sacrifices as they work diligently to please the God of heaven who has shown us so great a mercy in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And this has to be the very first and continuous point in all of our instruction in Christian virtues, otherwise we should just move into a glass house or a crystal cathedral where crowds can gather to hear pontifications on living well and wisely by human standards! I do not believe that the unconverted person can even attempt to order their lives by secular or even sacred advice. That is why good theology is always an absolute necessity to help us mirror the greater glory and honor of our Father in heaven. In other words, you just can't fake the Christian life! About a year ago, the people who make Head & Shoulders shampoo had to radically redesign their bottles because some impostor had gone to the trouble to duplicate their old bottles and labels but filled the inside with a cheap imitative recipe. There were complaints about the sad state of that famous brand and to save their good name and reputation, very many cases of the fake product were redeemed by hard earned currency. Yes, in the Christian life there are also very many imitators who would put on the label and the advertising but despise the necessity of a changed heart, mind and soul.
This is why Paul begins this whole section as he does with the admonition that "Love must be sincere". As Calvin observes there is no room for hypocrisy in the true Christian. Hate and abhor are probably an overstatement of our proper response to evil, Calvin insists that the textus Erasmus translation here is faulty and a heartfelt "turning" from evil is the better focus so that we may better cling to what is good. In our fellowship and our studies together, we ought always to focus on this turning away because, whenever we choose to honor God by obeying His word He is indeed glorified before a watching world.
Now, I will not say that it doesn't matter what you choose to do to honor God instead of clinging to evil, but putting that which is wicked away is the best and first step. In the sixties, some conservative Christians understood our passage in Psalm 139 last week to mean that human life begins with the folding over of the cells before the fetus is attached to the wall of the mother's womb. In their literal understanding of that passage, they felt free to practice some types of birth control within that very restricted time period. Today, the majority of conservative Christians believe that life begins at the moment of conception and anyone who would seek to hold to the belief that I just mentioned would be anathema to the pro-life cause. You see from this example that not everyone would agree on how to honor our Lord in this seminal matter which is so heightened emotionally in our day. Please understand it is still a very serious business to destroy a life that is known to exist and the French abortion pill should be kept out of this country as long as is possible for that very reason. But just as the very topic of "family planning" is controversial so are many other choices that mere humans must make in putting evil aside. Even the newly converted Roe of Roe v Wade has not concluded that every abortion is wrong.
When I argue with people and they mention the necessity of the health of the mother, and rape as being reasonable reasons to abort, I insist that when a young lady is raped that the first thing she should do when she is free from her rapist is to get to the nearest medical facility to be treated with a spermicide even as her wounds and emotions are being healed. We may not always agree with each other about our individual responses to putting sin behind and learning how to live the Christian life. It is for this reason that Paul encourages us to "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love" and to "honor one another above" ourselves.
In the last few years, I think I have learned a few things about brotherly love in action as the three most familiar brothers I know have begun the difficult task of developing a business partnership. The hardest task in that relationship as well as in our Christian relationships is to put the good of the other before your own good. In our Christian relationships, Paul insists that we should "never be lacking in zeal" as we serve our Lord. He then goes on in verses twelve to nineteen to specifically tell us how our daily service is to be ordered.
* Be joyful in hope.
* Be faithful in prayer.
* Practice hospitality.
* Rejoice with those who rejoice.
* Live in harmony with one another.
* Be willing to associate with the lowly.
* Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
* Live at peace with everyone.
* Be patient in affliction.
* Share with God's people who are in need.
* Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
* Mourn with those who mourn.
* Do not be proud.
* Do not be conceited.
* Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
* Do not take revenge.
This is quite a list if you pause to consider each admonition. And the working out of these instructions would take considerable study and practice and each person would have to tailor the instruction to their place and position in society.
Now before we close, there are two qualifications to this list that would encourage us to leave some matters to the Lord and in one case, if necessary to protect ourselves. Let us consider the last matter first by looking close at verse eighteen. There are words here of instruction for nations as well as for individuals. "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." From this and in related passages we can develop a doctrine of a just war. We can also see here that if we are assaulted or insulted beyond reasonable limits we have a minimal freedom to step into a court of law. But the aggressive use of force or legal means must be seen as beyond the pale of decent behavior. The other matter here is the injunction to leave room for God's wrath and instead of seeking revenge we are to feed and assist our enemies whenever possible. As we look at the world around us today, the peace that we enjoy is partially based upon our friendly reaction to those powers we defeated in World War Two. While there are some economic tensions, both Japan and Germany are on better terms with us than many other nations around the globe. And we accomplished that relationship by practicing at the international level the admonition in verse twenty-one. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." So let us put on the righteousness of our God and seek the good of those who oppose us so that His greater glory may be better known.
Amen.
At home in Juniper Green: Patience is a virtue
Published Date: 15 March 2009
By Fiona Reid
It has taken 10 years, but Alan and Lorraine Airth have finally perfected the combination of country and contemporary in their Juniper Green home
SOME people will buy a house and blitz the interior in months while others take years to realise their vision. Alan Airth can see the irony in the fact that, 10 years after buying this ADVERTISEMENT
mid-terrace villa in Edinburgh's Juniper Green area, the house iADVERTISEMENTs finally looking exactly
as he'd always visualised it – just as he, an IT consultant, and his wife Lorraine, a staff nurse, are preparing to move again.
Even finding this property was a long haul as the couple searched for 18 months after relocating from London, and considered properties from Edinburgh's New Town to Portobello before spotting this house on the western fringes of the city. "We loved the area," says Alan, "but I don't think we paid much attention to what the house looked like inside."
The scale of the refurbishment required didn't really hit the couple until they moved in, yet, having channelled all their money into buying the house, they had to approach things slowly, as and when they could afford it. Their first task was to replace the heating system and some of the windows, as they wisely focused on getting the fundamentals right before turning their attention to the look of the place.
"The challenge for me with this house was patience," says Alan. "I wanted to borrow more money to just get things done, as there was no point in doing the nice things until the basics were finished, but Lorraine was good at making me slow down and be more patient."
The five-bedroom house dates from around 1847 and was built, along with its neighbours, by master builder and joiner John Hill, who lived in one of the nearby houses for a time and let out the others. Number 11 is set over three storeys, with the sitting-room on the ground level spilling into a conservatory that extends along the rear elevation, which in turn opens into the huge south-facing garden. The house is actually arranged back-to-front, as this rear elevation is really the front of the house, making the most of the southerly orientation with views towards the Pentland Hills from the upper floors. Arriving off Belmont Road, the first room you enter is the dining-kitchen, and it's this space that sets the aesthetic tone with its contemporary lines, attention to detail and lovely use of colour.
This area also required the most work as the kitchen was previously where the dining area is now, while there was a corridor that was just wasted space. This entire area was reconfigured to create a much larger dining kitchen, which was designed by Kitchens International, as was the utility room set off the vestibule.
The dark grey hue of the units is Alan's favourite colour – indeed, it crops up again in the conservatory where one wall is painted in Farrow & Ball's similarly rich Downpipe – and the grey-green glass splashback enhances the warm tones in the units. The overscaled, bubble-shaped transparent orange FL/Y Icon pendant lights by Kartel balance the otherwise linear design and give a great 'pop' of colour, and the Eames DSR Eiffel dining chairs add a similarly retro touch. Alan added the recessed display alcoves behind the dining table, while slate-effect Amtico flooring provides a warm, pet-friendly alternative to the real thing for the couple's Westie, Mac.
You don't have to spend too long in Alan's company to see just how much he enjoys interiors – in fact, he hopes to explore this further, perhaps studying interior design and seeing where it takes him. Were the couple to have stayed here, Alan had other ideas for changing the house, pointing out how the two upper bedrooms – currently used as his 'den' to read or listen to music, and a study – could be redesigned as a master bedroom suite.
"It's not just about how a space looks, it's about how it works," he says. Take the bathroom, which was one of the early rooms the couple tackled. First time round Alan had to cut corners for cost, but four years ago he redesigned the space completely, taking inspiration from brick-style tiling he'd spotted while visiting New York when choosing the textured, buff-coloured wall tiles. More texture is added with the timber and granite-effect finishes, while the fittings are by the Italian company Catalano.
If the kitchen demonstrates Alan's eye for colour and clean lines, this space illustrates his zeal for functionality. Flimsy shower screens are a pet hate, so here the screen is a substantial 10mm wide, while Alan inset a shaving mirror into the tiling within the shower: simple, practical details that make the space work.
While this house has a relatively cottagey character, as evident in the original exposed timber detailing, this is offset by the contemporary fittings, furniture and lighting. "I've lived in Georgian houses before," says Alan, "and I wanted to drop something modern into the space, which is what I realised I could do here."
The grey and orange combo in the kitchen is a current favourite and is repeated throughout: in the cushions on the couple's bed, for example, or the grey Ikea sofa and shaggy orange-toned Brink and Campman rug in the sitting-room. There's no denying that colour plays an important role here, but Alan kept things subtle, probably as a reaction to the bright colour scheme the couple moved in to, he reflects.
"Maybe next time I'll indulge myself a bit more," he says, "but I wanted these spaces to feel warm and natural." Cue the combination of Farrow & Ball's Cord and String in the living room, alongside the solid oak floor.
And he is canny when it comes to sourcing things, as with the overscaled B&B Italia armchair he bought online from Europe for considerably less than its UK retail price. Some pieces are eBay finds, "though I'll always search two or three places to make sure I'm not getting ripped off". As for the aesthetics: "I'm not brilliant with pattern," he says. "With furniture, often for me it's the plainer the better."
He did break this rule once with the guest bedroom, which is the most overtly feminine space with its feature wall of Laura Ashley's Erin wallpaper, delicate chandelier and traditionally styled metal bed.
The catalyst for this design concert was Lorraine. "She wanted something that felt a bit 'old', so this is my interpretation of her idea," says Alan. "Now all our female friends come round and say, 'This is my room…'"
This interior shows the value of taking time and letting your ideas evolve with the house. "We've improved this house, we've got the bones of it right," says Alan. "This is what I had in my head when we moved in."
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