The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-17
THE SOY OF sELF-sACRIFIcE.

 Times Dispatch. Richmond Va
 'Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame."-Hebrews xiii 2. i A young man sets out for the hIon- dike. He endures exile from home, a long and wearisome journey, and a disagreeable camp life for the sake of the fortune which he hopes to acquire.
 We make great mistake if we sup pose that Christ thus endured the cross for the sake of future -coro- nation. that He weighed the pain of a brief life against an eternity of glory. and chose the latter.
 Death so nigh
 When time must end, eternity Begin'--and cannot compute.
 Weigh loss and gain together. suit
 My actions to the balance drawn,
 And give my body to be sawn Asunder, hacked-in pieces, tied To horses, stoned, burned, crucihed,
 Like any martyr of the list?
 How gIadlyl--if I make acquist, Through the brief minutes fierce an-
 noy,
 Of Gods eternity of joy"
 If this were all, then Christ's self sacrifice was simply a shrewd specula- tion.
 Noi He saw the joy in the cross: therefore He despised the shame The ioy that was set before Him was the toy of self-sacrihce. It was as the 1oy of the soldier in the battle, of the nurse in the hospital service, of the athlete In the struggle. of the scholar in the problem. of the mother in mtn- istering to her child.
 what do we mean by self-sacrificeT What we ought to mean is the sacrifice of self. Self is forgotten, put aside, lost sight of, as Paul says, put to death; if if as ft were not There is no joy like that of a service of love so absorbing that one ceases to be conscious of self
 pr. Grenfell, young physician Tn London, with good prospects opening before him, abandons them and gives his life to the service of forgotten community of seamen and fishermen and Eskimos on the coast of Labrador. He beeomes their servant as doctor, preacher, merchant, magistrate, police man. Any post which has in 1t the promise of service he is ready to fill. Exile from home. cold ice storm; sleep iessness, poor food at the best, hunger at times, are his life companions Do not pity me-" he says to his American friends. "I am in a hurry to get back to my Labrador life; I am happiest there" He might write in his diary "I have never known what self-sacri- flee means" Of course not. When self IS QGaQ, LnGEG 10 hO SCAi lCAb eC AAAANN what sacrifice means.
 When one is trying to serve two masters: when one is trying to serve self a little and others a little, to divide ones energies between self-seekin and service of others, he is always unhappy. His service is incomplete; he has not the happiness that comes from conse- cration to unselfsh service. His self service is incomplete; he has not the happiness that comes from unabated seif-indulgence. But when one is so absorbed in his work so dedicated to his mission. so full of a great purpose that he has no thought for self, his life is one of unalloyed joy-the joy of self sacrifice.
 Buddha tells his followers that the secret of happiness is in the loss or consciousness: Nirvana is heaven. Christ tells His followers that the se- cret of happiness is fin the loss or self; consecration to service is heaven.
 The way to find comfort in our own sorrow is to forget 1t in carrying com fort to another. The way to Tighten our own burden Is to add to 1t the bur den of another. The highest of all Joy of a life so consecrated to service that there Is left no thought of self, or self sacrifice so complete that self does not know that it is sacrificed.