| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 19 |
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“Let each one of us please his neighbour.” Blot self out of your thought. That is the first great lesson.
“Love thyself last. Look near, behold thy duty
To those who walk beside thee down life’s road;
Make glad their days by little acts of beauty,
And help them bear the burden of earth’s load.
“Love thyself last. Look far and find the stranger
Who staggers ‘neath his sin and his despair;
Go lend a hand, and lead him out of danger,
To heights where he may see the world is fair.”
But there is more of the lesson. At least, there is a qualification. Pleasing the other man is not all. We might please him to his hurt. He may have a heavy burden, and it would please him to have us come up beside him and lift the burden away. But that might do him harm, defeating the purpose of God in giving him the burden. The lessons may be hard, and it might please the child if we would sit down beside him in the evening and do them for him. But it would not be a kindness to him. Love makes a great many mistakes of this kind. Some one writes: “The mother who defeats the growth of her child by releasing it from a distasteful disciple is not devoted, but ignorant; the father who shields his son from the penalties that might arrest the downward tendency is not tender, but cruel.” Some people are pleased by flattery, but flattery only puffs up – does not edify, build up. There are some whom sin pleases – but sin leaves curse, not blessing; harm, not help.
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