Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-02-13
Living for Others.

]
That, says the lay sermon of the New York
| Herald. seems to be very odd injunction
and we rather wonder if st. Paul meant ex-
actly what he said We are apt to think that
our first duty is to look after our personal in
terests, lay up for ourselves stock of com
! fort and happiness and thereafter enjoy the
accumulation with perhaps passing word oil
pity for those who are not equally fortunate
The hard headed and hard-hearted view is
that every man must look out for himself
get all be can, keep all he gets and entel
neither into the joys nor sorrows of Others :
He is to live in a castle where he can have all
| the pleasures and luxuries of life, but is t.
keep the world from sharing his good fortune
by wall that cannot be scaled, a moat that
cannot be crossed and drawbridge that is
guarded by retinue of servants.
The Apostle dreams different dream. He
uses very revolutionary language, and Ian
guage which makes selfishness and covetous-
ness shrug their shoulders when he practi-
cally tells us that we are thoroughly hetero-
dox if we say, 'All that have is mine," for
the higher philosophy teaches us to put it
another way and say, "All that | have is
Gods"
What you possess--this he insists upon
what you possess belongs to others, if they
need It, Your business is not to hoard, but to
give You are not isolated from the world !;
you are part of it. If there is joy anywhere
you are to rejoice in it as though it were your
own, and if there is sorrow anywhere you are
10 4 n dc nd
The text opens up a very large domain
which has seldom been explored. the domain
of spiritual law. If we infract physical law
we suffer the punishment of pain; if we in
tract a spiritual law we suffer loss of charac
ter, loss which must be made up if it takes
half of eternity to do it. If we do not act on
the right principles here we shall 60 into the
other world handicapped; but the lesson must
be learned. if not in the present life. then in
the hereafter, and not one of the many pro-
cesses of evolution can be avoided or omitted
1t is better, therefore, to begin right than to
be forced to make things right by and by.
You cannot be at your best unless you
throw yourself into the welfare of others. 1t
requires a sturdy and a consecrated heart to
rejoice in the joy of others when there is little
to rejoice in in your own life, but such an at
titude of soul is godlike. The frame of mind
in which thing of that kind is possible is
quite ideal-it is angelic. The grosser ele-
ments of human nature are sloughed off and
you are in very truth child of God. There
is hardly loftier spiritual eminence to be
reached, for you have already climbed as high
as heaven.
Think of those in your vicinity, fellow
travellers 10 eternity, who are suffering the
pangs of poverty, whose burden would be
lightened by your presence in the gloomy
household and by the gift which you cal
spare and which you will never miss Ii
your surplus could fall to their lot; if thu
crumbs from your table could be bestowed Oh
them; if your warm sympathy were TO be Of
fered, not by way of condescension, but as
privilege which you claim the right to enjoy,
a larger benefit would accrue to you then to
them and this dull world would no longer bt
a vale of tears Brotherly love and interesl
are twice blessed Tor the blessing falls OIL
HIM who gives and him who receives.
Why do we make this life 50 cold anc
heartiess? Why DO We care SO little for what
happens to others and SO much for what hap
pens to ourselves? Why do we take every
thing within reach, as though happiness were
for the strong arm and the covetous heart? Is
not our philosophy narrow and our religion
pretence? Can we face the Lord without
shame or without the consciousness of per
sonal guilt if we have shared no ones grief
and rejoiced in no ones good fortune? Under
such circumstances we should find that the
pangs of remorse would render the joys of the
future futile and discover to our sorrow thai
only good deeds can make even heaven toler-
able
There is but one law for the sp1rit-the law
of love. We are III this world that we may do
what we can to make it better. We are per-
sonalIy associated with all the burden-bearers
within reach of our sympathy. and if we fail
to exert our utmost influence to Tighten the
sorrows of those who weep, to encourage the
struggling. to extend a helping hand to the
tempted, we are recreant to the fundamental
principles of pure and undefied religion and
have no right to expect the approval of the
Father of all His children. 1t is safer to APP
proach the future with the memory of self
sacrifice than with all the religious professions
that we're ever made, than with an assent to
all the creeds that were ever formulated.
Do your duty to yourself by dong your
duty 10 others. What you have, share it with
the needy Give them words of comfort
seek them out, go into their remote homes
and carry with you sanity soul which re-
joices with them that do rejoice and weeps
with them that weep. Then your life will be
worth something, and you will be greeted on
the other side with the welcoming words,
'Inasmuch as We did it unto one of the least
of these We did it unto me-"