Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-01-31
LIFE THROUGH FRIENDSHIP.

by I1ouIy Il. cope.
Greater love hath no man than this
that man lay down his life for his
friends. John XIV, 10.
1t often seems that the laying down
of life Is a particularly attractive
theme to people who have no lives
worth laying down. They like to talk
of the cross and the shame and the
shedding of blood, and they succeed
in satisfying their impulse for doing
these things by simply describing chem.
Yet the great voices of almost all re-
ligions speak of the laying down and
pouring out Of life as the price of
the salvation Of the world. In every
one of us there is something that an
swers and thrills to the thought OF
sacrifice the great have been those
who have given themselves gloriously.
Every normal man desires the sal
walton of the world, that is, the real
ization of It's highest possibilities, its
perfection on the pathway of progress,
and he asks, What does this mean,
ing up of the world?
The salvation of the world Is simply
the salvation of the people in the
world. If natural objects are defiled
we have detiled them; If society is de-
ranged it is people, persons, who have
deranged it. The new heaven will not
come by letting down golden streets; it
must come by lifting up the people to
golden ideals.
We do we'll to labor necessarily for
better conditions; but not to forget
that conditions spring out of character.
What measure of civic or national
rightness we may demand depends ON
the standards of rightness already
within us. Every problem we have
goes back to persons; every improve
ment we make grows out of personal
ity
The need of the world Is not laws,
nor logic, but life If you would lift
it you must give a life, must pour out
life. Without the shedding of blood
there is no putting away of the things
that debase and hinder; there is no
salvation for humanity without the
putting of our blood and bone and
sinew into It's service.
Life Is the only power that can make
life. The new life of society can come
only by vital processes Our lives. the
deep inner lives, are creating other
lives. We owe our moral lives to the
gift of life from friends, from those
who come nearest to us. Friendship
Is the vehicle for transmitting the high
err life.
The best thing you can give the world
is good life. 1t adds more to the
worlds wealth than any other thing.
What we are is our actual eternal con-
tribution to society. Every right life
means that humanity has so much
more vitality and spiritual health with
which to live; every evil life means so
much disease, so much of drag on
the world.
The living of true life is in itself
the giving Of that life to the world, the
outgoing of all good qualities In our
selves and their Importation to others.
The contact and infusion with charac-
ter we cannot escape. They who live
lay down their lives for their fellows
as well and as truly as they who die
Death, even the martyrs and the
hero's, is only an incident in the course
| Of this outgivlng life.
Most of all men need the grip of the
hand Of fellow and the nearness Of 8
life on which they can draw. To b,
true friend to any man is to give hin
the greatest gift we have to impart
/ To walk I'm comradeship with our Gel
lows. being true always to the best ii
ourselves, is to help them best to tha
| which is great and true. To walk our
selves I'm friendship with things infinite
and holy is 'o fuI eternal life.