Levels of Living | Page 9

court death who seek only their own lives;
they find life who, disregarding death and loss, seek only to make
others live.
Religion is not simply a cure for my ills. True, it does cure many of
them, but only that I may be better able to do its work. It is a great
cause, a mighty project, commanding the noblest enthusiasms and the
highest efficiency of effort, the project of bringing this whole world to
salvation. And that not the salvation of a mental condition but of the
perfection of its whole being, the realization of its highest possibilities,
the full noontide of the day of God.
Is not this enough to satisfy any man and to call forth the best in him,
that he should in some way serve this glorious ideal? Is not this man's
purpose in this world even as it was the purpose of the one who called
Himself the Son of Man? What nobler summary could any life have
than His, that He went about doing good? How quickly would that
kingdom of heaven come if this were the program of every life!
Let but a man do his duty towards this shining ideal, let him but be
lifted up, carried along in the mighty enthusiasm it ought to engender,
and his own soul, his own development, his character perfection will
take care of itself. No man ever did any great work without becoming
greater himself, and greatness never was found in any other way. This
is an unvarying law. Service is the secret of culture.
The pious hypochondriac is sure to be a sickly soul. The best thing you
can do for your soul is to forget that you have one, just as the healthy
man forgets he has a heart or liver. The self-forgetting service is the
secret of happiness, of full finding of self. Freedom in self-giving
brings fullness in living.
In the right life the hour of prayer, the quiet thought, the search for
abstract truth, may all have their place; but it is only the place that the
wise workman gives to his meals. He does not live for these things;
they are but ministrants to his work. He uses everything that will make
him a better workman; but not because he sees the workman as his end.
He forgets himself in the perfection of that he seeks to make. The

saving of the soul, the culture of the self, as an end is shame and
suicide; as a means to service it is life and peace and perfection.

THE SATISFACTION OF SERVICE
A man always thinks more of his work than of his wages. He would
never be content to toil day in and day out but for the thought that
somehow to some one his work was worth while. Neither wages, nor
salary, nor any other cash consideration would of itself be sufficient to
satisfy him. The workman is proud of the product of his hands; his
reward is in that he has made; the good shepherd thinks more of the
flock than of their fleece or his pay.
Satisfaction in work can only come from service rendered. Whether a
man be plowing or preaching, sweeping the streets or building empires,
his work is only worthy if his motive be the good he is doing, the value
of the work itself. We call the man who preaches a minister, a servant.
There is no more honourable title, but it belongs to every one who
seeks to do any worthy work in the world.
The purpose of living is service, therefore the business of religion must
be the cultivation of proficiency in service. The work of Christianity is
to teach men how to be most valuable and useful as children and
parents, as neighbours and citizens, how to make the most of their lives
and to do the most with them. It aims to bring the race to its highest
efficiency.
Religion reveals to man the worth-while object of all his endeavours, to
work as a servant for others. Never was Jesus more glorious than when
He stooped to lift the palsied, to heal the sick, to feed the hungry. He
found His right to rule men by His exercise of the privilege of serving
them. The sheep belong to the good shepherd because he gives his life
to them.
This marks the true follower of the great Teacher to-day; his business is
to serve, he makes living an investment for humanity. He is

commanded to lose his life, to be willing to give up, to sacrifice all in
self-denial, to take his cross and suffer persecution and loss in this way
of walking after his Master.
But he is not told to throw his life away as a