(1) Duty is something owing to ourselves. Character is made up of duties, and by our character we must stand or fall. We owe it to ourselves to take the greatest care of our bodies. They should be cleansed and exercised every day of our lives. Many a man, who would feel outraged if his favourite horse were not thoroughly groomed and otherwise cared for daily, neglects his own body, which needs "grooming" quite as much as that of the horse. We owe it to ourselves to be careful as to what we eat, and as to the right quantity. If we give a dog too much meat or a horse too much grain, we know the result. We are not so careful about ourselves as about our animals.
We owe it to ourselves to be true in all things. "First to thine own self be true," says the great poet. We owe it to ourselves to be honest in the very smallest things as well as in the great; to be afraid of nothing except evil; to be clean in our thoughts and words; to be modest; to be kind; to be gentle to the weak; to be generous; to be charitable; to be modest about ourselves; to be temperate.
(2) Duty is something owing to others. We owe our parents a return for their love and care for us at a time when we should have perished without it. The return that is due them is that we should be a credit to them instead of a disgrace, so that the world may say, "Those parents have reason to be proud of their children." God has said: "Honour thy father and thy mother." We owe it to them to be diligent in our lessons, so that we may prepare to earn our own living, and not to be dependent upon them all our days. A boy may say: "I am not going to bother my head about this work. My father is rich, and I shall never have to work unless I like." A few years hence, men will say: "Look at that idle fellow! He is a disgrace to his parents. He is fit for nothing; he is going to the bad already."
We owe it to others to owe them nothing. "Owe no man anything." It is our duty to pay every debt in full, at the earliest moment possible. We owe it to others to keep as sacred every confidence reposed in us. We owe it to others to say no evil of them. De mortuis nil nisi bonum was a proverb of the Romans. It is wiser to speak evil of no one at all.
"He slandereth not with his tongue,
Nor doeth evil to his friend,
Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour."
(3) Duty is something owing to one's country. The names of the patriots will be the last to die from men's memories. Every man owes to his country his name, his influence, his strenuous labour, his liberty, his life itself, should that be needed. When Nelson, on the day of Trafalgar, gave to his ships the signal, "England expects every man to do his duty," he spoke for all nations, in all ages, under all circumstances. When Pompey's friends tried to dissuade him from setting sail for Rome in a storm, telling him that he did so at the peril of his life, he said, "It is necessary for me to go, it is not necessary for me to live." Perhaps the greatest example of patriotism shown in a love of Duty of modern times is that of Wellington. His greatness lay in doing thoroughly every duty that came in his way. For that he would sacrifice everything else. Late in his life he was content to suffer a temporary loss of popularity through devotion to what he believed to be a duty. He was even mobbed in the streets of London, and had his windows smashed while his wife lay dead in the house. The great motive power that underlay his whole career was whole-hearted devotion to Duty. He himself said that Duty was his watchword. "There is little or nothing in this life worth living for," said he; "but we can all of us go straight forward and do our duty." Nelson's last words were: "I have done my duty; I praise God for it."
Some years ago a troop-ship called the Birkenhead was wrecked off the coast of Africa. The officers and men saw the women and children safely into the boats, which sufficed for them alone. Those brave soldiers and sailors fired a salute as the ship went down, and thus cheerfully gave up their lives to the watery grave. Upon which a great writer said: "Goodness, Duty, Sacrifice—these are the qualities that England honours. She knows how to teach her sons to sink like men amidst sharks and billows, as if Duty were the most natural thing in the world."
(4) Duty is something owing to God. The highest act of duty is to acknowledge that we owe everything to God, except evil. We owe our lives to God, for from Him they came. We owe it to God that man is a human being, and not merely a higher sort of lower animal. God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." We owe to God all that we have, and especially all happiness that we enjoy. It is from Him that comes all the love that enters into our lives. He is the great source of love to the human race. That is why we call Him our Father; He is the personification of the love of which our earthly parents' love is an example. We owe to God gratitude for His love to us, manifested at every step of our lives, and we ought not merely to feel that gratitude, but also to express it to Him daily. It is our duty, therefore, to pray.