Identifier: storyofourchrist00bird (find matches)
Title: The story of our Christianity; an account of the struggles, persecutions, wars, and victories of Christians of all times
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Bird, Frederic Mayer, 1838-1908 Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901
Subjects: Church history
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa., Peerless Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ss, the unsurpassedcharm that did so muchto make him belovedand famous, won allhearts that could bewon. The rebel citywas now almost asloyal as Rochelle orTours. The beautifultraits in Henrys char-acter shone out in hisliour of success. Neverwas there a better illus-tration of the sayingthat good manners are $good morals. His pop-ular qualities—hisfamiliarity with inferi-ors, his easy condescen-sion that never seemedto condescend, his con-stant cheerfulness, hisabounding humor,—came from no studiedpolicy, no superficialpoliteness: they werethe natural growths ofa good soil, springingluxuriantly from a richand generous heart. Many have been purer, more truthful, more rigidly upright,than be : some have been more disinterested ; nowhere out of France, and rarelyin it, has monarch or private man shown more that was winning and lovable.There was no malice in his nature, nothing of personal grudge or vindictiveness.In an age in which the strong arm and the hard heart ruled, when secret
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ENTRANCE OF HENRY IV. INTO PARIS. 452 THE STORY OF OUR CHRISTIANITY. murders and ferocious cruelty were matters of course, his gentleness anticipatedour modern ideas and manners, and seemed to predict the advent of a better erawhich was yet far off. Much as he loved battle, he hated to punish in coldblood. He had a noble maxim which savored rather of the pulpit than thecamp : The satisfaction one gets from revenge lasts but a moment: that whichclemency yields is eternal. If his Huguenot troops had stormed Paris fouryears earlier, he could hardly have prevented a frightful massacre : now all wasto be forgiven and forgotten. He proclaimed a universal amnesty, and saidthat he would gladly give fifty thousand livres to buy back the two French lives

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