Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-30
GIVING.

lQualntancc, III Ne - III fouuceu circuu-
stances.'
GIVING.
A HOmily Appropriate to the
Times-A Few SesasOnabke Sug-
gestiOns.
1t would seem to be easy enough, if
he has the money to pay for it withal,
for man can make present to him.
self; and some contrive to do this with
out the money. 1t is wonderful with
how little compunction a man who is
filed with beRevolence toward himself
can use the purse of an easy-going as
sociate, or help confiding tradesman
to fill up his ledger and day-book. All
Numbers with 5 before them are as
nothing to No. 1. Penitent people in
a scrape say, II have been my own
worst enemy" as if they meant it;
but the real opinion oe every indiyidu-
al is that he is his own best friend.
The world, however, Cor various good
reasons, has put stigma upon selfish
ness; and whoever asserts, about this
Christmas time, hat-generosity is q
humbug or weakness, will find him.
self regarded as the enemy Of the hu-
man race, especially by the shopkeep-
ers. Upon any one OF these merry
days, in any stately street or mean
alley of this great city, there is seif-
denial enough practiced to refute reg
iment of Rochefoucauids. There is no.
body so rich as not to feel the pinch of
giving ut all, and often those who are
rated the richest feel it the most smart
Iy; while, if we could have an invent
Ory of the real and personal estate of
the Good SamaritOn, we should prob
ably find him to have been no Croesus,
since he journeyed humbly on a dom
key. Ii we could have accurately
stated the sum total of all the money
spent during the holidays for gifts, and
then ascertain how much of this expen-
diture was really ill afforded and in
volved personal sacrifice, we should
have encouraging data for a better
opinion of human nature.
We are constantly Eestowing upon
ourselves food and raiment, articles of
personal adOrnment or comfort, this or
that which gratities or possibly pro-
claims our good taste; but it is stimu-
lating to think how much most men
and women actually bestOw upon
others. We do not recken the free
hand with which parents endow their
children, nor the lavishnesS OF lovers;
but he who has genius for giving;
showers his larges5 upon those whom
he does not know, upon the poor into
whose gladdened faces he will never
look, and upon the suffering whose re.
lief he can only imagine. He takes
pauperism upon trust he accepts what
the directors OF this or that society say
to him; he receives no thanks from
those who are succored by his bounty;
nor is he particularly desirous of having
his name printed in the list of benefac-
tors. So moiety of the worlds giving
is with no blare of trumpets. The
modest and retiring shuttle off their
bounty in q corner, and in a shame
faced way, with d "There, take it,
beg" There is benevolence which
makes bigger noise, but its sum total
after all is smaller.
This is what man gives to himself
the pleasure OF giving; the conscious
ness that somebody is helped, the GER
tainty that q fit want has been fitly
supplied, and life made happier. He
saws to himself, "We will not have the
fine book, the costly picture, the gem
which we wanted but the money
shall go to the Society for Providing
Destitute Children with Ham, Sand
witches and Wooden Horses" AHd q
brave business he will do thus before
A. D. 1876 starts upon his twelve
months travel-the old will be made
younger, children roster, lean and lank
warmer and plumper, the
sick more hopeful, the dark places
brighter. 'Tis very sweet ald genial
and invigorating, this conspiracy, be-
tween a man and his own better nature.
1t glorifies tradesman's windows it
makes looped raggedness whole; it
kindles coal fires and sets something to
cooking over them; it fills homes full
of happy laughter and freshens up the
world bravely, rendering 1t quite q
to those who are beginning
to think it better and brighter than au
old junk-shop.
Why should not man just now
make himself present of good reso-
luton or two? All morality and all
recognize our duplex ma
lure, and we take cognizauee Of it in
,ur daily parlance. We say, 81 have
promised myself" The sage in the
play admonishes his son to be "true to
himself if he ",gould not be false toany
man." Nobody can get away from
Sometimes it would
ave brain-sick man from madness if
ne could do so. We put consciousness
10 the best account when we so order
our lives that It cannot approach US;
when we fill it with the good gifts OF
memories, so that it shall
repay us an hundred fold. We all wish
ourselves A Happy New Year, but it
s only honorable action and self-denial
whice can secure true felicity to those
beings which we call ourselves. We
nnst be chary and wary in our dealings
with our personality, and make friends
with our own souls. There may be
plenty and prosperity and apparent
triumph without this, but no real hap
piness, no wise life, no pure and entire
Wy. Tribune.
DaS-ooxol~uo Vournufa