The Penn's Grove record., 1913-11-28

DO|NGUNTOOTHERS
Basic Principle of Life to Be Re-
membered on All 0cca-
SionS.

In one of the most beautiful legends
of the Buddha we read that far, far
back, in the distant aeons' there lived
a hermit, Sumedha by name, who
found that he had solved the secret
of existence and could thus, if he so
pleased, cut himself off from that end
less chain of being in which he, like
every other unhappy mortal, was en-
shared. Deliverance from the terri
BILE succession of rebirths-Karma, as
it was called-was now his; and yet
he declined to take advantage of his
saving knowledge! Why" said he.
should l attain deliverance alone? |
VIII ambark anew on the ocean of ex-
1stence in a ship which will convey
men and devas." To this work, there
fore, of rescuing the ignorant and per
lsh1ng he forthwith devoted himself
through a long series of existences,
until at last the hour arrived when
he knew not only how to save him
self but also how to impart this
knowledge unto others. Then did he
appear upon the earth as Gautama, the
0NoOho oAQ SQOM u men the ElSuI-
Fold Noble Path to Nirvana!
h remarkable thing about this
Impressive story is the fact that it
lays down as a basic principle for the
whole of life that which we much too
easily regard as demanded only by
exceptional occasions. In the face
of some great crisis of disaster there
are never wanting dauntless souls
who gladly save others at the pen
OF their own happiness and security.
A mar safe upon the shore leaps into
the sea in a sublime endeavor to bring
to land a drowning stranger. A passer-
by dashes into a burning house to res
cue a sleeping baby, A woman on
the Titanic gives up her seat in a
l1feboat to IN older and feebler pas
senger and herself returns smilingly
to the deck Of the sinking vessel.
Thus ever is the hero present when
the heroic action must be done! But
how many of US thus sacrifice our
selves for others not only at such
times as these, but also in the ordi-
nary, humdrum routine walks of life?
And yet it is this very duty Of haz-
ard1ng our own security for others
sakes," as much in the commonplace
as in the critical events of life, which
constitutes the pith and mar. DIV of
the legend which 1 have taken for my
text. If we would live as nobly as
Sumedha then must we as gladly re-
tuse del1verance for ourselves while
others perish. We will refuse to
bask s%erenely in the light of knowl-
edge while others are stumbling in
the darkness of ignorance. We will
refuse to share the luxury of wealth
while multitudes are struggling in fe-
ver1sh anxiety to keep body and soul
together. I'VE will refuse to shelter
ourselves behind the bulwarks of re-
speciality while millions of waits
and outcasts are thronging our
slums, crowding our prisons and rot
ting in the end in our Potters' Fields.
We will refuse, in a word, like the an
cient hermit, to attain deIiverance
alone!" Rescued ourselves by some
blessing of inheritance or accident of
fortune, or grace of personal endeay-
or, from the miseries of ignorance,
poverty and social outlawry, we will
plunge back into the welter of the
worlds wr~etchedness and labor,
while it is yet day. to bring o 9TH
ers that glad deliverance of knowl-
edge, economic security and friendly
brotherhood which we ourselves have
known. For why should we be edu-
Gated and others ignorant? Why
should we be rich and others poor?
Why should we be lifted up upon a
rock and others be cast down into the
pit? What we have all shall have!
Yea, this they shall have aver
though it be purchased at the price
of our W denial or destruction!
To scorn to be saved while others
perish, to decline to live while others
die-and this, not only in the awful
crises of disaster, but quite as much
in the ordinary courses of daily life,
where "a thousand fall at (our) side
and ten thousand at (our) right hand"
here is the whole duty of man." SO
long as the injustice of an unequal
world shall last!