IIION OUR RELATION TO LIFE
How are we seeking to get the most out of life? By selfishly striving to grasp all the good things therein for ourselves? By trying to stamp our own individuality upon everything, by making ourselves a personal power? Or are we realizing that only in serving others can we best help ourselves? “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” And what is a servant? One who works for others. Look over the women of your acquaintance. Is it the self-seeking woman, who sacrifices her dignity in a scramble for prominence and who pushes herself, regardless of the rights of others, into prominent positions, whose name stands for real service and real value in the world? Or is it she who forgets herself and the paltry honors that come with self-sought place in honest, unselfish work and far-seeing,wise and charitable thought for the best good of the whole whose name is written high on “Rolls of Honor”?
She who is great enough to lose sight of small, unworthy aims and makes it her chief purpose to help and serve others will always be the one who is instinctively trusted. True greatness and true happiness do not come when we set ourselves deliberately to call them to serve our purpose. It is only by putting our lives in harmony with the great principle of service to our fellow-men that we shall find them. It is of little use to strive to attain popularity, greatness, power over others; it is of infinite use to find out how we can be of service to those with whom we are associated, and then to forget ourselves in such service. Kindliness, helpfulness, service: these three were never more needed than now. The great-hearted, sympathetic, charitable-minded, brave woman is needed everywhere. She it is who is beloved, who makes for peace and righteousness; yes, and for power. And it is easy to see why she is the woman of power.
Let us learn the secret of “putting ourselves on the side of the universal.” Let us work from the heart, giving ourselves with no thought ofpersonal gain. The more we do this the broader will become our vision, the grander our lives; and thus while we are giving ourselves to others the fuller and richer and truer will life be for us; and we shall cease to think whether we are getting our money’s worth, satisfied with the joy of living and the unconscious growth within. Can there be anything more beautiful in life than to become one of those rare souls whose personality is a help to their fellow-creatures; whose very presence is like a benediction, and from whom goes out a silent influence that cannot be defined, yet which every one within its radius feels, even though not a word be spoken? And is there not a way by which this serenity of soul, this illumination, may become a characteristic of every good woman?
The more we are in ourselves the more we can do, the more we shall desire to do for others. There is nothing greater in life, nothing greater in Christianity than this great principle of helpfulness and service and love for others. It is the kingdom of heaven to which we all aspire some time or other, only we do not always realize that it is here and now if we will have it so. And in proportion as we stand for higher conditionsand better influences we are an uplifting power to those around us. We cannot do this, however, if we allow ourselves to take narrow and petty views of the lives and motives of others. Only by merging the personal side of things into the larger, universal one; by rising above prejudices and becoming indifferent to the criticisms and opinions of others—so long as we are sure of being actuated by right motives ourselves—do we reach the higher life. Service to others is the great solution to the actual problem of life. Realizing and building our lives upon this great, eternal principle, minor things will not matter.
Think how much more charitable we then shall be toward the faults and failings of others. We may even so accustom ourselves to the larger view of life and service that we shall not readily see shortcomings in those around us; or, if called to our notice, they will not rasp or fret us, because our souls are lifted above the plane where such trials are possible. And, above all, we shall be possessed of that larger charity that sees beneath the surface and knows that we have no right to judge our sister. Have we innate knowledge and infallible wisdom ourselves thatwe shall decide for another? Can we know of the struggles another woman makes for a better life, or condemn her when she fails? “You may think I am cynical in my speech and impatient in my words at times,” exclaimed one woman to another who had rebuked her, “but you do not know how many times I have overcome that tendency, nor that I am striving daily to outgrow it.”
The limitations of other women are no personal concern of ours. It is ours to do for others, to lose our own pettiness and enlarge our own horizon by giving loyal, loving service, and this includes a broad, universal love to all women, to the world around us—a world, whoever and whatever we are, that always needs us. It may be the world of home, it may be the public schoolroom, it may be the ranks of fashionable society, or it may be the small circle of the small country town, but our love and our service are needed. We are individually responsible for so much.
“From each as she has power to give, to each as she has need.” What a motto! It is so easy to forget that each one has something to give to some one. And what is this giving to “eachas she has need”? It is being gracious, broad-minded, tolerant of others, “not easily puffed-up”—nor put out, either; it is by keeping ourselves in a serene, well-balanced frame of mind that will act on others as a bit of bright sunshine falling across a dark corner. We cannot give to others anything better than is in our own natures, and only by keeping them bright and sunny can we shed sweet temper and serenity of soul wherever we go. “How shall we keep ourselves so if we are not born that way?” asks somebody. Cultivate the habit. We have habits of mind as well as of body. Cultivate sunshine and sweetness in ourselves at home, every day and every hour in the day, and we shall have no difficulty in keeping sweet and pleasant everywhere else. Let us each be the woman for whose presence her friends wait as for a benediction of peace.
Do you not know women whose very presence is uplifting, whose very atmosphere is peace? We might all be so if we would set ourselves steadily and calmly to work to find our balance and lift ourselves to a mental plane where outside worries and flurries and tempers and jealousies could not reach us. It would be a work of time, perhaps, but it would pay. And havingonce arrived at that condition we should help others just as naturally as the sun sheds its life-giving beams on the dependent earth. Let us learn the highest secret of life, self-giving. Not for what it will bring us in peace or honor or happiness, but because we realize how much the world needs disinterested help, and how much more we need to give it. “If you would have all the world love you, you must first love all the world.”
“We buy ashes for bread;We buy diluted wine;Give me the tree—Whose ample leaves and tendrils curledAmong the silver hills of heaven,Draw everlasting dew.”
“We buy ashes for bread;We buy diluted wine;Give me the tree—Whose ample leaves and tendrils curledAmong the silver hills of heaven,Draw everlasting dew.”
“We buy ashes for bread;We buy diluted wine;Give me the tree—Whose ample leaves and tendrils curledAmong the silver hills of heaven,Draw everlasting dew.”
“We buy ashes for bread;
We buy diluted wine;
Give me the tree—
Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled
Among the silver hills of heaven,
Draw everlasting dew.”
A few years ago Mr. Trine took occasion to send out to his friends a little card with the following printed thereon. It helped us all, and therefore I pass it on like so much “sunshine”:
“A SORT OF CREED.“To live up to our highest in all things that pertain to us.“To lend a hand as best we can to all others for this same end.“To remain in nature always sweet and simple and humble, and therefore strong.“To open ourselves fully and to keep ourselves pure and clean as fit channels for the Divine Power to work through us.“To turn toward and keep our faces always to the light.“To do our own thinking, listening quietly to the opinions of others, and to be sufficiently men and women to act always upon our own convictions.“To do our duty as we see it, regardless of the opinions of others, seeming gain or loss, temporary blame or praise.“To play the part of neither knave nor fool by attempting to judge another, but to give that same time to living more worthily ourselves.“To get up immediately when we stumble, face again to the light, and travel on without wasting even a moment in regret.“To love all things and to stand in awe or fear of nothing save our own wrongdoing.“To recognize the good lying at the heart ofall people, of all things, waiting for expression, all in its own good way and time.“To love the fields and the wild flowers, the stars, the far-open sea, the soft, warm earth, and to live much with them alone, but to love struggling and weary men and women and every pulsing living creature better.“To strive always to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.“In brief—to be honest, to be fearless, to be just, to be kind. This will make our part in life’s great and as yet not fully understood play truly glorious, and we need then stand in fear of nothing—life nor death; for death is life.“Or, rather, it is the quick transition to life in another form; the putting off of the old coat and the putting on of a new; a passing not from light to darkness, but from light to light, according as we have lived here; a taking up of life in another form just where we leave it off here; a part in life not to be shunned or dreaded or feared, but to be welcomed with a glad and ready smile when it comes in its own good way and time.”
“A SORT OF CREED.
“To live up to our highest in all things that pertain to us.
“To lend a hand as best we can to all others for this same end.
“To remain in nature always sweet and simple and humble, and therefore strong.
“To open ourselves fully and to keep ourselves pure and clean as fit channels for the Divine Power to work through us.
“To turn toward and keep our faces always to the light.
“To do our own thinking, listening quietly to the opinions of others, and to be sufficiently men and women to act always upon our own convictions.
“To do our duty as we see it, regardless of the opinions of others, seeming gain or loss, temporary blame or praise.
“To play the part of neither knave nor fool by attempting to judge another, but to give that same time to living more worthily ourselves.
“To get up immediately when we stumble, face again to the light, and travel on without wasting even a moment in regret.
“To love all things and to stand in awe or fear of nothing save our own wrongdoing.
“To recognize the good lying at the heart ofall people, of all things, waiting for expression, all in its own good way and time.
“To love the fields and the wild flowers, the stars, the far-open sea, the soft, warm earth, and to live much with them alone, but to love struggling and weary men and women and every pulsing living creature better.
“To strive always to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
“In brief—to be honest, to be fearless, to be just, to be kind. This will make our part in life’s great and as yet not fully understood play truly glorious, and we need then stand in fear of nothing—life nor death; for death is life.
“Or, rather, it is the quick transition to life in another form; the putting off of the old coat and the putting on of a new; a passing not from light to darkness, but from light to light, according as we have lived here; a taking up of life in another form just where we leave it off here; a part in life not to be shunned or dreaded or feared, but to be welcomed with a glad and ready smile when it comes in its own good way and time.”