There are various ways of helping the world, and all are to be commended.
Perhaps the way that costs the least, and consequently helps the least, is
the giving of good advice. This, we believe, is about the poorest thing
that can be given to man. It is a gratuity on the giver’s part which is
never received quite as it is bestowed. But it is usually born of good
intentions, and so we have to be thankful for it, even if we do not use
it. To those who are inclined, however, to render assistance to their
fellow-beings, we would say: Give good advice last, or, at any rate, give
something with it. There is no use telling a poor man where there is a
good restaurant when he has no money in his purse.
Another way of helping the world is the material way—giving something that
will relieve its wants, pay its debts, or add to its independence. The
sympathy that takes the shape of dollars and cents always reaches the
heart. The rarest virtue in this world of ours is generosity, and the
rarest man is he who gives to the world asking for no dividends but in the
happiness of his fellow-creatures. Money, when wisely bestowed, comes
about as near the shape of an angel as any earthly thing can assume.
But there are other ways of assisting the world, and while we admit all
the good that can be done with money, men and women need to-day to be
helped with truth, helped with justice. Mankind are suffering from
falsehoods, from wrongs as well as from ignorance, from want and poverty.
Those who are unjust to their fellows should help them by dealing justly
by them. Those who are keeping the world in darkness should help it by
telling the truth. Truth and justice are every man’s right, and every
man’s due. You can help the world by being just to it, by using your
fellow-beings honestly, squarely, justly. You can help it by telling the
truth and by concealing nothing that is true.
Man needs an education in unselfishness. He must learn to work for himself
without working against others. The advantage which a man gains to-day is
too often at the disadvantage of his brother or sister. It is a poor
victory which inflicts suffering. The true measure of man’s success is the
joy his life confers upon the world.
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The man who wants to be an angel is never in a hurry to begin.
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The man who gets on his knees has not learned the right use of his legs.
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Ignorance is all that saves some people: if they knew more they would do
worse.