Norwich bulletin., 1911-09-04
PURPOSE OF GOD THAT
MAN LIVE FOR OTHERS.
Rev. j. C. Wyckoff Preached Sunday
Morning at Second Church

At the Second Congregational
church Sunday morning Rev. ]. c.
Wyokoff of New Canaan, uncle of the
pastor, Rev. H. ]. Wyckoff, occupied
the pulpit and preached from Romans
IA: Z, None of US liveth to himself.
He said:
The affirmative form is every man
lives for others. 1t is not the desire
of men to live for others, but it, is the
purpose of God that they shall. He
has made this purpose known in his
works first, in his word afterward
God himself lives for others. He
has created a universe on principles of
mutual dependence, where every thing
depends on other things, and every
creature on other creatures, and every
thing and every creature on himself.
The mineral kingdom supports the
vegetable kingdom; the vegetable king
dom supports the animal, and all to-
gether support man and glorify God.
The sun exists to support its planets
and satellites, and with gravitating
power helps to preserve the order of
all other suns in the dependent har-
>mony of the celestial world. In the
material world every creature exists
for other creatures.
In the social order of mankind every
man not only does but must live for
others. and must give himself for
others. In the world of work, no
worker from the day laborer for wages
to the man of the highest professional
or specific skill, can make a living for
himself if he will not give himself to
do something for others: and in order
thus to live for others all must forego
selfish preferences and self indulgence.
SelfShneSs is suicidal.
Living for others is the irrevocable
decree of God; the memorable penalty
is loss and self abasement. To reverse
this decree in the material universe
would leave but the wreck of matter
and the crush of worlds" to reverse it
in human life would be instant ruin
to the great part of mankind and in
the end barbarism for all.
By thus living for others, do we save
ourselves? Not wholly; for after all
we can do for others our personal SAL
walton is a question of self-not of
selfshness, but of selfhood.
This selfhood, however, cannot be
perfected by living alone, by solitary
life. We are placed in society to be
affected, moulded, perfected by the in
huence of our neighbors. Because of
my neighbours power to make my self
hood like his selfhood, it is of the ut
most Importance to me that 1 should
do all | can for him, in order to make
him like what I want to be myself
Our good influence on our neighbors
thus comes back upon ourselves. Be
something to our character and self
hood, they have some possession in it,
and none of us has an exclusive pos
session of our own character and self
hood.
This grows out of the purpose of God
to show us by his constitution of So
ciety the necessity of obedience to the
Saviour's second great commandment
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
self.
BY voluntary obedience to this COM
mand we eliminate our baser self and
selfshness and escape a losing conflict
with nature, our neighbors and God,
and emerge into the freedom of our
better self in joyful harmony with
nature, our neighbnr and God for
Christ by assuming our potential hui
mainly has come into our neighbor-
hood and SO has mighty power to
transform our better self into likeness
come the sons of God And God so
realizes his fatherhood, the essence of
which is love, by bestowing that love
on US; and we by receiving it realize
our divine childhood which is the es-
sence of our better Selfhood
Thus God, our neighbors and our
selves, realizing our individual and
mutual selfhoods, realize also an ever
lasting joy, and as children of God we
enter at last in heaven upon everlast-
ing obedience to the two great com
mandments of our Saviour: Thou
shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all
thy heart and mind and soul and
strength. and thy. neighbor as thyseIf'
This is the onsuqnmation of the ev-
erlasting joy of God and man.