SOCIABILITY by H. E. Sawyer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 29, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 18

SOCIABILITY

By H. E. Sawyer

BY H. E. SAWYER.

How much good we might do in this world, were we sociable, friendly, and obliging in our manners as we pass friends in the street, at church, or anywhere else we chance to meet them. These little acts of sociability cost nothing, but are often worth more than gold or silver. How much unhappiness would be avoided by adopting this plan of scattering sunshine wherever we are, at home as well as abroad.

“Hawthorne, in his diary, makes record of a day wherein he resolved to speak to no human soul. He went to the village, got his mail at the post-office, returned, and triumphantly records the fact that he spoke to no man. Is it any wonder that, with all his genius, Hawthorne was a melancholy and essentially an unhappy man? How much wiser and better the opposite course. Think of how much happiness you might convey to others by kindly notice and a cheerful conversation. Think how much sunshine such sociability lets back into your own soul. Who does not feel more cheerful and contented for receiving a polite bow, a genial “good morning,” a hearty shake of the hand? Who does not make himself the happier by these little expressions of fellow-feeling and good-will? Silence and a stiff, unbending reserve are especially selfish and essentially vulgar. Coolness is one of the great follies of the day. The generous and polite man has a pleasant recognition and cheerful word for all he meets. He scatters sunbeams wherever he goes. He paves the path of others with smiles. He makes society seem genial and the world delightful to those who else would find them cold, selfish and forlorn. And what he gives is but a tithe of what he receives. Be sociable, then, wherever you go, and wrap your lightest words in tones that are sweet and a spirit that is genial.”