Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-10-15
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FREEDOM IN SERVICE.
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ny henry +. Cope.
BY love serve one another."-Gal
v, 49,
One of the wisest of the ancient
Greeks dec red that the free man was
he who existed for himself and not,
like a slave, for the sake Of another
How sharply this contrasts with the
essential teaching of the worlds great
est religious leader, and they who find
the full and free life must learn to
live, not for themselves, but for 9TH
erS.
We have been for centuries burying
the simple teachings of the prophet of
Nazareth under survivals of ancient
superstitions and masses of philo-
sophical subtlety and speculation. Now
when his real message is spoken it
sounds so strange we call it new re-
ligion. The doctrine that the greatest
need Of the universe is, that men
should love one another and live for
one another, has been neglected so long
that it appears to be wholly new.
Your historians point to this and
tial article of Christian faith, but it
is neither in historical records nor in
theological formulas. The one thing
that marks and makes the true man
in religion is that he has learned that
life is just the chance to love and to
give life away. His faith is right who
is right with his fellows.
The most important hour in any life
is that in which it becomes conscious
OF the fact Of other lives pressing on
it, constituting society about it, and
making imperative demands upon it.
The hour of real conversion is when
one turns from living inward to liv-
ing outward, from selfishness to social
living, when the life begins to take
the law of love as its guiding star
Some lives never go through that
change; they MAINTAIN to death the
selfshness with which they were born,
which is perfectly normal in the child,
the selfishness of the life unconscious
Of the duties it owes to all other lives.
They may pass through emotional re-
ligious ecstasies, but their souls, their
best selves, remain bound in the bond
age Of self.
Every man begins new life when
he becomes conscious Of the fact of So
cial living, when he is touched with a
feeling Of the unity Of all living, when
some measure of passion of humani-
ty begins to move him. Life takes on
clio ~
poets vision and the youths ambition
glow and burn within.
To live for others is to widen the
bounds of life. Our sympathies make
the measure Of our souls. No man is
any bigger than his heart You are
great, not according to the number of
servants you have, but according to
the number whom you freely serve in
love-
Your hold on life depends on your
self-1nvestment in it. Your roots in So
ciety, in the universe, strike deep as
you are investing yourself in it. So
many lives have no root because they
are afraid to strike down out of sight,
to lose themselves. Sinking nothing in
sacrifice, they soon dry up and are
blown away.
Our modern problems of Individual
and social suffering, wrong an6 inius-
tice, are marks of an age that has not
learned to live by this law Of self-giv-
ing. We still believe, whatever creeds
our lips may utter, that every man
must look out for himself; we reject
the law that reigns universal through
all the rest Of nature that only in
sacrifice and service is fullness and
perpetuity of life found
This Is the faith most of all needed
by our faith, faith so fully to believe
in the law Of love, of service, of sacri-
flee, that we will seek first of all the
good Of others, bear one another's bur-
dens, live to make lives sweeter. hap
pier, to serve rather than to be served,
to find the sweet joy of kindness and
count it more than any other gain.
This Is the law of all life. All ma
ture is ever giving, losing, sacrificing
The worlds ideal life is symbolized by
a cross of self-sacrifice, loves consum-
nation. What higher, wider, deeper
faith do we need than this, just to go
our simple ways, in home, on street,
in store and shop, in family and hui
man fellowship, taking life as the
chance to find fullness of living so as
to have the more life, the richer and
more efficient life, with which to serve
one another, giving life in the COM
mon things Of living, in the kindly
word, the sympathetic act, the courte-
Gus deed, the Christly spirit?