Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-27


don't think you are quite so mean to any
one else as you are to yourself You
thought you were too good to yourself; one
of the things you had privately resolved to
overcome was your. growing selfshness?
Well, that's right-that comes under this
resolution; YOUR selfshness hurts yourself
more than it does anyone else.
A close-fsted, narrow-hearted man-and
you're anything but that, son-doesn' It
dwarf humanity; he doesn't make the world
mean; he Just shrivels himself until his
stingy little soul rattles about in his dried
carcass like wrinkled pepper grain in an
old shoe. All the wrong, all the evil, all
the sin you do in this world, hurts yourself
worse than it hurts anyone else. The
treachery of Judas only resulted in the sui
eide of Judas; didn't kill the Church
Peters denial of his Master only gave Peter
a sore heart to carry around with him, o
living sleepless ache, all the days of bis
life
Benedic. Arnold's treason merely accom-
plished all that it possibly could accomplish
the disgrace and ruin of Benedict Arnold;
the United States is still here. Its birth
day wasn't postponed a week by any man s
treachery. The Doodle alderman who stole
made a jaIl-bird of one man. Every time
you do foolish thing, my boy, you hurt
yourself Be good to yourself and you can't
help loving your neighbor.
To thine own self be true:
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
The Liabi lity to Break Rules.
Now there are three good resolutions you
have entered on the record for this year.
That's enough for any fellow to forget and
break. wouldn't have too many laws on
my private statute books if we're you. 1t
only requires ten commandments to keep
the whole world straight; three ought to be
enough for you. And they will be. Some
times they will be too many for you. I
reckon you will break two or three of them
this morning. But don't let that discourage
you. The verv fact that you consider it
necessary to make them is evidence that you
are more than liable to break them.
We don't make laws to restrain people
from doing what they don't want to do, but
quite the reverse. II you should go into
country and find in their statutes nine laws
in every ten laws against stealing you would
say 'this is nation of thieves" When
you observe that the greatest question of
reform oftenest discussed, constantly brought
forward, never changing and always agi-
tated, is temperance, you naturally say
"the prevailing vice among these people is
drunk enness."
And you are correct Your good resolu-
tions are so many barriers you erect be-
tween yourself and your faults. and you are
going to try to break them down every day,
and some day, I very much fear, you will
succeed. Well, when you do,' put the
barrier up again. Don't make new resolu-
tions; splice the old ones. That makes them
stronger than new ones, if you do it prop
erly. You may break the same resolution
in new place, but that splice will hold.
be all splice: then you will have hawser
that will hold you.
am almost always little suspicious of
a resolution that is never broken, or, at
least badly strained. One year, being
wearied with my many failures, I resolved
that I would introduce among others
that went to the Speakers desk
few resolutions that I would surely keep.
So I wrote on the first page of my new diary:
The Danger in Making Resolutions.
Resolved, That 1 will not kill a preacher
this year.
Well, sir, it is q notorious fact, in the
church of which I AM shining sleeper,
that that very year, driving my pastor and
two deacons over to a prayer meeting in
Gladwyne Chapel one night, L ran over
bank as steepas a stone wall, in the dark,
and came within an accident policy of
breaking the necks of the whole confer
ence. l tell you what, my boy, made all
haste to rescind that resolution. There is
about a resolution that impels
fellow to break it. He wants to try it.
You give boy delicate vase to hold,
and tell him how precious it is, and to be
very, very careful with it, and he will take
hold of it with both hands at first, and
then withdraw one finger at time to see
how near he can come to letting it fail
without dropping it. When be plays "toss-
BALI against the side of the house, he
always plays it Just as close to the window
as he can. until at last he goes through it.
After that-and the event Immediately SUBJ
end of the barn is good
enough for him.
Well, this is long sermon, but you can
stand it once year. Run along to church
now; got any money for the basket?
you've got enough for church collec-
tion?" Well, not in that sneaking little
nest of pennies you haven't. You want to
make one resolution as an important appen-
dix to the others, and you want to stick to
it, too it properly belongs as sub-head un-
der the third:
Resolved That will put into the contribu-
lion basket every Sunday at least the price
Of theater ticket.
Specification: And you don't sit in the
gallery, either, my boy; know where you
sit. And you don't go alone, too. know
you. And Pm mighty easy with you not to
put the cost of a December bouquet on your
1 know what it costs you
when you do the thing about right. But
I'll let you off with the cost of the ticket.
And I'll speak to the deacons about hav-
ing collection taken at every service,
maybe.
But won't do that right away. 1 will |
be gentle with you if you tote fair and give !
The church as much as you give the opera |
house. And, give it just as willingly. If |
you're going to give 1t with snarl and a |
protest every time, keep it and buy yourself |
pocket mirrors with it. Then you can look |
1t the meanest man living every time YOU
get alone. And that will remind you that |
Tou promised to be good to yourself
RoBERT J. BURDETTL