Life of Ahmad — Page 59
as EARLY LIFE 59 from the parties. By his first act he displayed a consideration too rare in the so-called civilised countries of the West; and by the second, he set an example to all officials, that they should be free from every form of corruption and extortion and thus not betray the trust placed in them. Nothing seemed to upset him. He was always cheerful. There was a beam in his eye—a beam of spiritual cheerfulness. This beam shed brightness, beauty and joy upon life in all its phases. It shone upon coldness, and warmed it; upon suffering, and comforted it; upon ignorance, and enlightened it; upon sorrow, and cheered it. He was, however, indignant at falsehood, selfishness, and cruelty. One who loves the right cannot be indifferent towards wrong or wrong- doing. There was one thing he could not bear—an indignity offered to his Master, the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa. Not that he would make an unseemly scene in public, but he would simply leave the place and the people who had not the sense to respect the greatest benefactor of mankind. The Indian press was not then very strong. Ahmad as subscribed to the following local papers and read them regularly: Saf i r of Amritsar; Agn i Hotr i ’s magazine, Hindu Bandu , and Mansh u r-e- Muhammadi : To the last named journal he sometimes sent articles. In the latter part of his life he read the Akhb a r-e-‘ A m of Lahore. Once Ahmad as was offered a very responsible and lucrative post in the education department of the