"I am Sir Oracle, and when I speak
Let no man ope his lips!"
Nor was it studied, or copied, or put on for state occasions. He carried it with him wherever he went—into his own home, into the homes of his friends. It was with him in courts and palaces, among the refined and the titled nobility of this world; he never plucked it off on entering the humblest cottage of the poor. He was to his manners born, and they were suited to the man. In any assembly he would have been a striking figure.
There was a beautiful harmony in the character of his mind and the lineaments of his person. If the habitation was splendid, the inmate was worthy of it. His noble form and bearing were but the outward expression of the spirit within. A universal benevolence, powerful intellect, splendid courage, physical as well as moral, a noble independence of spirit, coupled with implicit faith and trust in God, a high sense of honor, unimpeachable integrity, indomitable determination, and a passionate love of liberty, justice and truth marked the outlines of his character—in short, the elements were
"So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world—'This is a man!"'
President Taylor believed absolutely in the universal Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. From that grand cardinal doctrine sprang his liberal views as to the hand dealings of God with His children. He despised anything that savored of narrow-mindedness or bigotry. Who does not remember with what scorn he treated the spirit which led the man to pray:
"Lord, bless me and my wife,
My son John and his wife,
Us four, but no more. Amen."
"I think sometimes," he would remark, "that as a people we are a good deal sectarian in our feelings, and it is necessary for us occasionally to look at the pit from whence we were dug, and the rock from whence we were hewn. We are all too ready to cry out, as the sectarians do in their different orders:
"'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,
The temple of the Lord are we!'
"We say we are the children of God. That is true, we are. We are sparks struck from the blaze of His eternal fire. But what of the rest of the world—whose children are they? They are also the children of our Heavenly Father, and He is interested in their welfare as He is in ours; and as a kind, beneficent Father towards His children, He has been seeking from generation to generation to promote the welfare, the happiness and the exaltation of the human family.
"We sometimes talk about the hand of God being over us. Of course it is, and will be over us for ever, if we will only serve Him, for He is always true. But His hand is over the nations of the earth also. He is interested in the welfare of this nation, and all other nations, and all other peoples, as well as in our welfare.