News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-04-15
DOINGUNJOOTHERS
Basic Principle of Life to Be Re-
membered on All 0oCa-
Si0nS.

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
o. 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 Notwithstanding, as
it was called-was now his; and yet
he declined to take advantage of his
saving knowledge! why" said he,
should | attain deliverance alone? |
will ambark anew on the ocean of ex-
istence in a ship which will convey
men and devas." To this work, there
fore, of rescuing the ignorant and per-
ishing he forthwith devoted himself
through a long series of existences,
until at last tAe 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
Buddha, and show to men the Eight
Fold Noble Path to Nirvana!
The 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 ic;c % i; I,
are never wanting dauntless souls
who gladly save others at the expense
of their own happiness and security
man safe upon the shore leaps into
~the sea in a sublime endeavor to bring
to land drowning stranger A passer-
by dashes into burning house to res
cue a sleeping baby, A woman on
the Titanic gives up her seat in a
lifeboat to an 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-
arding our own security for others
sakes," as much in the commonplace
as in the critical events of life, which
constitutes the pith and marrow of
the legend which l have taken for my
text If we would live as nobly as
Sumedha then must we as gladly re-
fuse deliverance for ourselves while
others perish. We will refuse to
bask sereneiy 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.
verish anxiety to keep body and soul
together. We 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 word. like the an
cient hermit, to attain deliverance
asone!" Rescued ourselves by some |
blessing or inheritance or accident of |
fortune, or grace of personal endeav.
or, from the miseries of ignorance,
poverty and social outlawry, we will |
plunge back into the welter of the i
worlds wretchedness and labor,
while it is yet day." to bring to 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 end others be cast down into the
pit? What we have all shall havei
Yea, this they shall have even
though it be purchased at the price
Of our own denial or destruction
70 scorn to be saved while others
perish, to decline to live while others