The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-12-23
A REMINO DER.

A REMINDER.
Christmas Comes to Teach Us That the
Whole Life SHOULD he . ''Season~ for
Dotng Good to All.
There 10 one passage in the New
Te.tament the translation of which,
both in the new and the old version, has
Aeemed to us to miss Paul's meaning.
''In due season." says the English
translation. "wo shall reap il we faint
not: as we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men," Now,
the word rendered '.season" in one
clause and opportunity in the other
Is the same. What the Apostle says is
tn .: '.ln due season we shall reap II we
faint not; as therefore we have season.
let us do good unto all men," Th IS
our spring season, when we are to SOW
our benevOlence; by d y comes the
fruits of 1t. II all your good-dong
brings yos no reward. il 1t is all .
thankless task, still be not weary; the
seed may le seemingly dead in The
locked furrow, but faith sees the golden
grain waving in the future above the
grave. The fe is Coils sppo nted sea-
n for do NJ good; the next life s Gods
appointed season for harvesting.
God has SO ordered the whole econ
omy of this life that no man can well
live and prosper without dong good to
his fellow-men. The farmer can make
nothing from h farm W thout feeding
the hungry; the cotton manufacturer
nothing from his m II without clothing
the naked; the railroad company moth
ing on its stock without carrying food
from the surplus markets to The hungry
mouths. The money that lies idle N
cnest is val;eless to its possessor; noth-
ing blesses its owner that does not also
bless some one else. There are, indeed,
some few methods of money-getting
that carry only curse with them
gambl ng. most forms of liquor selling.
many forms of speculation; but all egit-
innate business holds wealth in both
ha, .ds, and g YES al ke to the seller on
the one side of the counter and to the
buyer on the other. Thus, in the very
nature and constitution of life, no man
can be act vely engaged in the COM
monest forms of bread winning without
giving also bread t., his neighbor. H.
yes IN season in which he is perforce
compelled to do good, whether he will
or no.
We have often pointed out this gen.
erai pr nciple, and urged upon our
readers tho truth that the law of Chris
tian love is not complied with by doles
of charity, large or small; that it re-
Quircs the conservation of one q whole
bus ne-s, aud all ones possess ons, to
the service Of human tv, and the use of
all his faculties and all his opportun ties
in making the world cher, wiser, and
better than he found it, 1t is not
enough, as chance gives us an OppOr-
tunity, to do casual good here and
there. True love, wise love. love with
the insight OF faith, perez yes n all of
fe a season OF doing good. and acts ac-
cord ngiy, and oftentimes it hnds tself
perplexed between the conflicting claims
of what men call bus ness and benevo-
lence-perplexed to know whether it
can do more good by keep ng its ener-
es and its means IN the ord nary chan
nels of industry. or d.verting them in
other direct ons.
But Christmas comes to remind us.
among other things, that no man can
mess channels. and to do good only by
methods tist stra ghtway remunerate
HIM. Lest we should forget the claims
OF humanity. and tn nix wholly OF our
salaries and not of our service, wholly
Of what we are to receive and not at all
OF what we can give, the Lord makes
clear to Us that some benefactions must
be rendered which bring with them no
return. So He gives us our On ldren.
on whom We lavish love and service.
looking for no recompense. except the
recompense which love pays in grateful
appreciation. So He gives us some
helpless poor-''The poor We have al
ways with you;" SO lie give, us oppor-
tunity to minister in higher realms to
needs which can not pay for service,
in churches which are never truly self
support ng. and in colleges and
higher inst tutions of learning whose
stock declares no earthly divi-
dcnds. So. too. he brings about re-
current festivals. Chr ,stmas and b rth-
days, and bids us forget the larger cares
of bus ness toll in the smaller cares Of
domestic love. And the father escapes
tn. worry of the street. buying to- s in
stead OF stocks. and books instead of
gram, and studying only how he shall
make the heme lu,A nous with low ng
faces, and resounding with laughter
and the clapping of hands. This is not.
il he be q true man, moro . work OF
love than is all the more serious labor
Of his fe in truth. 1t is less it is not
the work and II is the recrest on ofl0ve.
At such times she ceases to wear q
serious guise and . In tied brow. and