"I should be but an arrant humbug to affect to despise the honor that the world seems disposed to bestow upon us. I say us, for I cannot and will not take it all to myself. I may have been the originator of the idea, but I could have done nothing without your co-operation, dear friends. But this is very unprofitable conversation. Let's talk about something else. There's my old duck pond, Lake Erie. Scores of times have I sailed from one end of it to the other; and hundreds of times have I bathed in its limpid waters. There is no spot on earth that I love as I do beautiful, historic Lake Erie."
This was the grand and peculiar feature of Dr. Jones' character--an utter disregard for his own aggrandizement and self-interest, and a sincere desire to make everybody about him happy and comfortable. And, underlying it all, was a sublime faith in Almighty God. These three essentials make the great man: modesty, unselfishness, and faith in God. Anyone is great who possesses them, and no one is great who lacks either of them. If the reader has not gathered that Dr. Jones' character was a most happy combination of these cardinal virtues, then we have in no degree done him justice. And while he was kind and loving to all about him, yet he was terribly severe with the incorrigibly mean and vicious. If he had a great fault, it was in this particular. No one could be more loving and tender with a penitent; but the stiff-necked and haughty, the oppressors of the poor, were an abomination unto him.
"I used to fear that I was too savage when I came into contact with such people," said he; "but one day, while reading the 15th Psalm, I received a flood of light upon the subject. This psalm begins by asking: 'Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' In enumerating the qualifications of such person, the psalmist says: 'He that contemneth the evil man, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord,' Now that word 'contemn,' for the first time, attracted my special attention. I had read it scores of times, but had never realized how strong a term was here used. No stronger is to be found in the language. It means to despise, detest, spurn, etc. I was startled, but I was at the same time glad. I could not help it, but I always did despise and detest a man who would grind the face of the poor, or who would keep back the wage of the laborer. Not that I would judge him, or take vengeance upon him; and I must forgive him and receive him as my brother when he repents. But until he does turn from the evil of his ways, and does his best at making restitution, I can do a jolly good job at 'contemning' him."
