The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1880-12-04
sELF-ABNEGATIoN.
When, two or three years ago, in our
religious gatherings we sung the lines
aOh 10 he nothing nothinv

Nnen, TWO or tnree years ago, III our
religious gatherings we sung the lines
"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 quar-
tiers with derision. 1t was said sarcas-
tically, "what has such cities as New
York, Boston or Chicago in common
with such self-abnegation "The
age" il was declared, is ''self-assertive,
and the thought of this hymn is utterly
foreign to its spirit and its life." Un-
questionably the criticism has some
foundation in 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 gen.
crous devotion of self TO a worthy and
sublime enterprise, if there is nothing
higher for man on earth than the zeal
Gus promotion of his own worldly in
tereSts. Christ not only rcbukes but
also hates the essential folly OF such a
theory. In His turn He demonstrates
with humanity, in substance saying -
"Be merciful 10 thyself; for whosoever
will Saae his life shall lose it," What
the Savior taught upon this point has
not only been reiterated by His disci-
pies, but even some of the heathen have
recognized its essential soundness.-
With clearness that may well put to
shame the boastcd broadness and dis
cernmcnt of our age, it was perceived
by several of the wiser paganS that to be
somfkIiAc life must be 1Okiing, and that
to sasc il it must be lost. One of these
writer's quote, and only one, and he a
representative of that Asiatic thought
which some restless minds are seeking
in our day to array against Christianity,
who claboraie:. into a philosophy what
Jesus delivered As an apothegm. | re-
fer to Lau- -Tszc, the Chinese, who was
contemporary with Confucius, and who
excellcd that celebrated parsonage in
the grandeur OF his teachings. Six
hundred years before Christ he gave
utierance TO the following sentiment :
"1'hc sage does not lay up treasures
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 ex-
claims: "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" ale
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 sugges-
tion, expressed by Oxen, "Zero is the
essence of mathematics. Just as We
are able by the sign 40" to make the
most abstruse and complicated calcula-
tions, so when man descends to that
sign OF nothingness is he able to rise to
the sublimest heights OF potency and
greatness. As zero is the very substance
OF mathematical science, so self-denial
is the very substance of personal useful
ness. Or, as the Talmud has it: "Who-
soever runs after greatness, greatness
runs away from him whosover runs
from greatness, greatness follows him."
Which is just equal to saying: "Who-
soever will save his life shall lose it, and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall save t."-Ej0m refenf sermon ~
Cco,gr c. Lo,Tmey, ID. d., Chicago.