xpression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the
greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In
a single word, it is _service_,--not self but the other self. We shall
soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to
others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or
a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable
law.
The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Eastern
land, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the people
gathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tender
truths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identically
this when he said and so continually repeated,--"He that is greatest
among you shall be your servant"; and his whole life was but an
embodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatest
name in the world to-day is his,--the name of him who as his life-work,
healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;
sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, the
needy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it all
taught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live in
their higher, their diviner selves,--in brief, to _live_ his life, the
Christ-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatest
principle of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to be
enunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. "He that is
greatest among you shall be your servant," or, he who would be truly
great and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant.
And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?
Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in the
light of its right and true meaning, than the word "servant" there is no
greater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shall
soon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy has
been that of a servant, and apart from this no such life _ever has been
or ever can be lived_.
O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, for
contentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are on
the wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and you
will see that your advance along this very line will be manifold times
more rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unless
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