THE APPLICATION
Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine,
As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away?
If seeking directly and for self alone,
The true and abiding you never can stay.
But all self forgetting, know well the law,
It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned.
Then go lose your life in the service of others,
And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound.
Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attain
to fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it your
ambition, for example, to become a great _orator_, to move great masses
of men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember that
there never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be a
truly great orator without a great _purpose_, a great cause behind him.
You may study in all the best schools in the country, the best
universities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until you
exhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may study
thus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this of
itself will _never_ make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue,
and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what a
demagogue is,--a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard
for one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater the
more contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon this
great principle you never can become a great orator.
Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes--Men
of Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men will
be in early bondage unless you give them your best service now--down to
our own Phillips and Gough,--Wendell Phillips against the traffic in
human blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men more
hard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it the
body merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this,
body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great
_purpose_, the great cause for _service_, behind each and every one.
The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement and
interests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once
marks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service and
self-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on the
side of the _Universal_, and this more than all else combined gives a
tremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of an
eagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul of
this kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, whereby
the great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of his
hearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds the
minds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal and
eternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, not
he who merely speaks pieces to them.
How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirably
shown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let us
pause to listen to a sentence or two: "True eloquence indeed does not
consist in speech.... Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way,
but they cannot compass it.... Affected passion, intense expression, the
pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it.... The
graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and
the fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on the
decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then
feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear
conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from
the eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, right
onward to his object,--this, this is eloquence." And note some of the
chief words he has used,--_self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose_. The
self-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use of
them.
True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents,
the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the _true
reporters of the soul_, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is so
frequently the case in public speakers,--these are all valuable, ay, are
very important and very necessary, unless one is content to live below
his highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; but
these in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater,
more powerful, and all-essential qualities.
Is it your ambition to become a great _states man?_ Note the very first
thing, then, the word itself,--_states-man_, a man who gives his life to
the service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, when
one says--a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it is
but another way of saying--a man who gives his life to the service of
his fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in the
true sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of its
individual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who puts
the interests of his own small self before the interests of the
thousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be a
larger man than this.
Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living and
among the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of each
and every one has been built upon this great principle, and that all
have been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it has
been. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, would
to-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had they
been a little larger in one aspect of their natures,--large enough to
have recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importance
of this great principle, and had they given the time to the service of
their fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in all
too plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them no
greater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire for
it has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have been
in our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, very
small number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possibly
not over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred or
more, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of this
very small number on account of his standing for some measure or
principle that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare,
thus truly fulfilling the great office of a _statesman_.
The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but few
statesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but it
is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to
deserve the name--statesman. The large majority in public life to-day
are there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of those
whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self,
purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case may
be.
Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, the
government instead of being in the hands of those who would make it such
in truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed to
serve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, little
whelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, at
times even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best the
particular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see that
this is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairs
the Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare to
public gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in that
great municipality have been and are filled by men who are there to
serve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are there
purely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degraded
condition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there are
scarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always to
continue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by what
they ought fully to realize to-day--that the moment the honest people,
the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves and
stay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand before
them for a period of even twenty-four hours. _The right, the good, the
true, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later when
brought to the front._ Such is the history of civilization.
Let our public offices--municipal, state, and federal--be filled with
men who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives are
founded upon this great law of service, and we will then have them
filled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced,
degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who are
unable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; but
enter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as a
politician.
* * * * *
Is it your ambition to become a great _preacher_, or better yet, with
the same meaning, a great _teacher?_ Then remember that the greatest of
the world have been those who have given themselves in thorough
self-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselves
so thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has been
no room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who have
thought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as to
spend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed,
theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, to
prove that the _ego_ you see before you is right in his particular ways
of thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearly
understood,--an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of God
himself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for the
bread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the great
majority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is finding
less use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when they
will scarcely be tolerated at all.
It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especially
in the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity,
has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it has
been deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater import
than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, that
that quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken by
the mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead of
running after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff,--for
stuff is the word,--this that we outgrow once every few years in our
march onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back to
think that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinking
that thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go each
day into the _silence_, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell for
a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you can
get _true power_ in no other way.
Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these
little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual
rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great
fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out
freely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however,
send and have it brought by another.
Go, then, into the _silence_, even if it be but for a short period,--a
period of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day,--and there come
into contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. _Send out
your earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will,
if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come to
you_. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all things
whatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It has
been tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where the
motives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehand
has been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truth
of this for yourself if you will but go in the right way.
All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten their
powers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not long
ago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher of
such wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an evening
or two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, we
were talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of his
beautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continually
conscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that all
longed for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't,
but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very next
sentence went on to tell of a fact,--one that I knew full well,--the
fact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone into
a little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during this
period under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear lady
knew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soul
power, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but,
bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the two
together.
It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this
great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great
work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power,
can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or,
using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean
creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,--and the one class differs
from the other even as the night from the day,--and you will find two
great facts in the life of each and all,--great soul power, grown
chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of
each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of
love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.
Is it your ambition to become a great _writer?_ Very good. But remember
that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel
mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward
and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then
you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in
writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be
exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a
large estimate.
What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his
habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. _He never
can write more than he himself is_. He can never pass beyond his
limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for
fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and
what he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world,
because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help
to mankind, if it _is_ something it needs, other things being equal,
that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will
come to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this way
only. _Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care
for mankind._
Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one
whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been
followed by others all similarly received. She says, "I never thought of
writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my
mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced," etc.
In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her
very first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt the
world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of
money, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was large
enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.
Note this also: "I write for the love of writing, not for money or
reputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth
a pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done for
the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely
than work done for mere payment." This is but the formulated statement
of what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or would
say,--at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in
regard to it.
So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for the
service of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universal
and making it possible for you to give something that will in turn of
itself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;
for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be let
fall again.
One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regard
to her writing, "I press my soul upon the white paper"; and let me tell
you the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands of
other souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, so
loving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does not
for self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a part
in countless numbers of other lives.
It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart.
Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in any
library, and you will find that their authors have made them what they
are not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this of
itself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are what
they are because the author's very soul has been fired by some great
truth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help to
mankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the human
kind.
* * * * *
Is it your ambition to become a great _actor?_ Then remember that if you
make it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, the
lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature that
operates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, will
aid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain to
heights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play for
the little _ego_ you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case you
may succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second
rate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and the
chances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thus
have your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail.
In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attain
to is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forget
yourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives and
the destinies of men.
* * * * *
Is it your ambition to become a great _singer?_ Then remember that if
your thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed,
you enjoy singing to yourself,--this, or you will be continually anxious
as to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose this
field of work because here you can be of the greatest service to
mankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men,
then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in your
growth and development and efforts, and other things being equal,
instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of your
audience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety will
be as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough to
accommodate even a small portion of the people who will seek
admittance. You remember Jenny Lind.
* * * * *
Is it your ambition to become a _fashionable society woman_, this and
nothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Then
stop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, you
never will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for you
fail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as finding
true happiness by searching for it _directly_, and the farther on you go
the more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you are
willing to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob life
of its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And,
while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the great
law that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service of
others,--that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and the
richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
happy your own life will become.
And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon this
great law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into that
full, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, and
that will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the life
of any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for you
are thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you will
thus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing the
emptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this,
you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and saved
you from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, but
commence now to build upon this true foundation.
Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance to
know, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of her
carriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy
(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side nor
the other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship,
while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'
shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q.'s carriage,
and this is the footman that goes with it,--instead of doing this, give
him an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on your
errands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to the
innumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them.
Is there any comparison between the appellation "Lady Bountiful" and "a
proud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman"? And, much more, do you think
there is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happiness
and satisfaction in the lives of the two?
* * * * *
Is it the ambition of your life to _accumulate great wealth_, and thus
to acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?
Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend _entirely_
upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard it
as a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind, then
well and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is to
pile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it a
life as unsatisfactory as one can live.
There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, of
themselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use and
disposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only _true_
greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotion
to one's fellow-men.
Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can be
anything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his life
piling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any but
what is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he can
possibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager and
grasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, and
leaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as the
great aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of old
iron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after day
because he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life and
lest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many of
the things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dying
there, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really a
hard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is not
such a great difference, if you will think of it carefully,--one a pile
of old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to
the same general class.
It is a great law of our being that we become like those things we
contemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble and
elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merely
material things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, our
natures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed of
their finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person or
picture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merely
nature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he finds
himself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealth
possesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite this
kind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few,
perhaps many.
During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in the
United States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one started
into life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating great
wealth. These two things he had in mind,--self and great wealth. And, as
he went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these.
The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he,
knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled and
accumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he then
lay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him,
only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. For
it might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of an
abject slave.
The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. It
was regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at his
death he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, all
uniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendous
power for good, how he might have been loved and honored during his
life, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entire
world. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thus
voluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal.
The other started into life with the principle that a man's success is
to be measured by his _direct usefulness_ to his fellow-men, to the
world in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth is
merely a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind.
Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we see
him great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himself
growing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, his
country, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comes
in contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them without
feelings of gratitude and praise.
Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personal
influence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private
trust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning,
using his splendid business capacities in its organization, having
uppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women may
there have every advantage at the least possible expense to fit
themselves in turn for the greatest _direct usefulness_ to their
fellow-men while they live in the world.
In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Many
hearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, the
servant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom he
has befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and give
thanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up as
his pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers.
Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot be
estimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced to
others, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who in
His righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And his
final munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered and
honored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats are
scattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived.
Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;
but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it will
make you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer and
better things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by the
principle that private wealth is but a _private trust_, and that _direct
usefulness_ or service to mankind is the only real measure of true
greatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you will
become and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joy
and happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of true
service, and therefore the best and truest life.
One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character,
that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealth
merely the _incident_. Nor can one afford to be among those who are too
mean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow and
increase these.