Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-04-17
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ENLARGING THE LIFE.

By Henry T. Cope.


"And if thou draw out thy soul to
the hungry and satisfy the afflicted
soul, then shall thy light rise in obscur-
1ty and thy darkness be as the noon
day. lviii, 10.
1t is the things that draw us out
that lift us up. The measure of any
life is in the extent to which it goes
out to the interests of other lives, the
extent to which sympathy is cultivated
and intelligent service is rendered
where it is most needed.
The difference between the wise and
the ignorant is in the range of the
knowledge, the experience, and life in
terests which each is able to use. The
difference between the great life and
the little one is similar; the former
finds nothing foreign to him; the latter
limits his horizon usually by living
wholly for himself.
SelfiShness is a fatal barrier to any
enlargement of the life. If you desire
greatness only for your own sake. in
deed, if you are thinking of either
y
find it. The lives that have been flung
away in sublime abandon, those that
have poured themselves out in answer
to loves imperative are those that have
found the full life
Selfishness is the saddest sin. the
one that seems to underlie almost all
others. 1t blights with it's first breath
all the fair Towering and rich fruitage
of any life that yields to it. 1t COM
pels us to lose our legitimate prizes by
snatchfng greedily at all the prizes !;
it insures pain by leading us to seek
only our own pleasure.
Under how many guises comes this
form of soul suicide? One calls it cul-
ture, another ambition, another self
respect, yet often each does but mean
that the life has only one end, it's own
advantage, every action but one mo-
tive, personal advantage, and con-
science asks but one question, What
do | make by this?"
If in every act, in every hour, you
are thinking first or only Of yourself !;
if you have adopted the policy of car
ing for number one" as the guiding
principle in life, you may make money,
you even may make a lCputatiOn, but
there are some other things you will
not make, some other things your
money cannot buy nor your reputation
secure. You will not make friends !;
you will not make joy or life or an
enduring name
Somehow in the press of life we too
often think of it as wholly a matter of
business shrewdness; we look to find
success and satisfaction by following
closely the rules of business, by playing
the game of life with an eye single to
our own glory and personal profit. But
in what way is such q life, no matter
what it's profit may be, better than that
of any galley slave chained to the oar?
It is not the life that seeks only to
gather and rake in, it is the life that
radiates, gives out, reaches its inter-
ests, thoughts. and helpfulness to ever
widening circles, that grows, that finds
life. that knows it's joys. that really
is cultured, developed, educated.
This is tie vital principle of the
Christian religion, but we too often
have obscured it with our self-seeking.
How often has religion meant simply
the passion to insure the individuals
soul against some dreaded punishment,
or to secure to the individual some pc
culiar peace or joy. The surest way
to miss any such blessings is to seek
them for themselves and for ourselves
alone.
He who lets others into his life en-
larges thus his own. He who opens the
doors of his heart to the needy, the
lonely. the sad, the mourning, finds
that as they bring in their sorrows and
their tears fair flowers Of JOY spring up
about him, the cheer he gives them be-
comes in greater measure his own, and
the love he gives away becomes his
choicest possession.
The man who went about doing good,
who had no thought save for the needs
and cares of others, is the one who,
above all others, found the full and
satisfying life. He who knew so we'll
the way of life called on no man to
save his own soul, uttered no shrewd
precepts of preservation. but
taught by life of self-giving the sec
ret of full living.
There is only one way to discover
whether this philosophy is best or not,
+rv it for a while. Try thinking Of the
helpless, planning pleasures for dreary
lives bearing some loads for weak and
weary backs, being willing to lose your
own life, and see whether he was not
right who said, HE that loseth his
life shall find 1t"
GODS ECONOMY.