Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-08-21
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TO AID OTHERS.
By Rev. George T. Bowling.


! sat where they sat-Ezekiel 8 Is.
You do not want your life to be a
cipher. You want TO help some one and
you do not know how. You have very
little money TO give, perhaps none at
all; very little influence, very little Of
anything. But you have more than you
think. You have the possibility OF the
most valuable equipment that any man
ever had. Here was Ezekiel. He was
q youth just starting in the nobIest of
all callings, that Of preacher. Yet
God held him back until he had cult
yated what you may cultivate. He had
made all intellectual preparation. He
had absorbed the message that he was
to deliver to those poor captives down
there by the waters Of Babylon. In his
oriental manner of expressing It, he
had eaten" the roll on which the mes
sage was written. Still God held him
back. There was one more thing which
was absolutely necessary. He had to
put himself in their place. Then, but
not till then, he was prepared for his
work.
What Is the grea test underlying need
In the commercial world to-day? 1t is
not simply wages. Men are having
larger wages than they have ever had
in the history OF mankind. 1t is more
sympathy. 1t is greater willingness
on the part of thAse In position and
power to enter info real appreciation
Of the trials and anxieties of those
whom they control 1t Is a greater will
ingness on the part of the employee to
realize that his employer as well as he
has sleepless nights, too, and thus, Just
as often as he can, to give him credit
for at least trying. amid many perplex-
tiles of his own, to do his best.
Why is 1t that one preacher will
reach multitude and the other will
not? That is question which 1t is
seldom easy to answer, because there
Is no secret of success unless we use
the nebulous term personality" and
that does not answer For who can
tell US what personality Is? The .'se-
crets" are multlplex, and many OF them
escape analysis. But among them ALL
in the successful preacher we shall al
ways find this When he looks out
over his congregation on Sunday morn
ing. he has compassion on the multitude
as Jesus did; he puts himself In their
place. No man with a heart In him
can be formal or cold or unimpressive
when he can say TO himself at such a
time and feel 1t Here is a company |
Of struggling men and women. each one
the center of a history, each one in
some undef1nable way longing to be bet
ter than he Is. each one sitting his own
sob and fighting his own battle. And
each one of these trouble-tossed men
and women Is silently pleading for
some word of courage and hope" That
Is the secret" If there is any secret.
He sits where they sit.
And this same secret OF influence
runs al through life. Whether our pull
pit is In the church or the workshop, |
the schoOlhouse or the home. we can
never really help others until by the
power Of just such sympathy as the |
Master Himself felt we have put our
selves In their places Thus ore teacher
In the school Is more successful than
the other They may have the same |
equipment and often have but the first
has learned in spirit to become a little
child. to sit where they sit.
learn TO sit where he sits The last
thing that the good Samaritan gave was
his money.