The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-23
"Oh to be nothing, nothing
But simply to lie at His feet,
A broken, empty vessel,
For the Masters use made NEE

''Oh! to be nothing, nothing
But simply to lie at His feet,
broken, empty vessel,
For the Masters use made meet,
the sentiment was received in some
quarters with derision. 1t was said
sarcasticauy, ''what has such cities as
New York, Boston, or Chicago in COM
mon with such self-abnegation?" ':The
age" it was declared, is ''self-assertive,
and the thought of this hymn is utterly
foreign to its spirit and its life." I'm
questionably the criticism has some
foundation i'll fact; but admitting this
to be correct, it does not condemn the
sentiment of the hymn, but rather the
temper of our times. Unhappy are we
if our civilization has so materialized
us that no room can be found for the
generous devotion of self to worthy
and sublime enterprise, ifthere is moth
ing higher for man on earth than the
Jealous promotion of his own worldly
interests. Christ not only rebukes, but
also hates the essential folly of such a
theory. In His turn He demonstrates
with humanity, in substance saving:
''Be merciful to thyself; for whatsoever
will save his life shall lose it." What
the Savior taught upon this point has
not only been reiterated by His disci-
Piles, but even some of the heather have
recognized its essential soundness.
With a clearness that may well put to
shame the boosted broadness and dis
cernment of our age, it was perceived
by several of the wiser pagans that to
be something life must be nothing, and
that to save it it must be lost. One of
these writer's quote, and only one, and
he representative of that Asiatic
thought which some restless minds are
seeking in our day to array against
Christianity, who elaborated into a
philosophy what Jesus delivered as an
apothegm. l refer to Lau-Tsze, the
Chinese, who was contemporary with
Confucius, and who excelled that
celebrated parsonage in the grandeur
of his teachings. Six hundred years
before Christ he gave utterance to the
following sentiment: ''The sage does
not lay up treasures. The more he does
for others the more he has of his own.
The more he gives to others the more he
is increased On which sentiment
the translator and editor of his works
offers the following:
"a man there was though some did count him
mad,
The more he gave away the more he had"
In another place this ancient sage
exclaims: HE who bears the reproach
of his country shall be called the lord
of the land. He who bears the calam-
tiles of his country shall be called the
king OF the world" "He that
makes mars. He that grasps loses.
The sage makes nothing, therefore he
mars nothing" "When he
wishes to be before the people he must,
in his person, keep behind them.
When he wishes to be above the people
he must, in his language, keep below
them" He also declared "that he
that is diminished shall succeed" and
to him may be traced the pregnant
suggestion, expressed by Oxen, Zero
is the essence of mathematics. Just
as we are able by the sign go" to
make the most abstruse and compli-
Gated calculations, so when man de-
scends to that sign of nothingness is
he able to rise to the subimest heights
of potency and greatness. AS zero is
the very substance of mathematical
science, so self-denial is the very SUBJ
stance of personal usefulness. Or, as
the Talmud has it: Whosoever runs
after greatness, greatness runs away
from him. whatsoever runs from great
ness, greatness follows him." Which
is just equal to saying: Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it, and
whatsoever will lose his life for my
sake shall save it."-From Recent
Sermon By George c. Lorinaer, DID,,
Chicago.