Issue Number:04

Date: 08/26/1933

p. 01,02, c. 03


Making Life Worthwhile


There is an old saying, "The gentle touch of a friendly hand, the light of a knowing smile, the call of a heart that can understand, are the things that make life worthwhile." This little quotation embodies the sum total of my present thoughts. What makes life worthwhile? The world today is figuratively sick with strife, disappointment, poverty, hatred and misunderstanding. Material help is good, cooperation for betterment even surpasses good, but spirituality is the most efficient cure. It is a medicine without a patient and one may minister and receive it without money. A leper spurned gold that was scornfully tossed to him by Sir Launfal, a legendary knight, but later accepted sympathy offered through brotherhood and understanding.

Every man may be rich in spirituality. A trace of it is found in every human being, but the development of it is all important. This isn't a country to country, or house to house proposition, but a man to man. This is not far reaching, for if it is nourished within, the results of it may be seen in our every-day activities.

A professional football player who knew that great stakes were up on him played hard, but something was lacking. Feeling "down and out", he knew the game was lost. The crowd started cheering, the echo filled his heart with new determination, and as they cheered he rushed to victory. The story is old, but it illustrates my point, that an understand nod, a friendly hand shake, or a kind word, may mean everything to an individual when material things are of no avail.

Then, how may one aid in making life worthwhile? Place your hand in the heaped up heart of the weary wanderer, and smooth out the rough places. In the mad rush for ascendency or power, forget the law of "the survival of the fittest" and as you climb, lend a hand to the fellow who is struggling just below you. No one can scale the heights of success a better way than by lifting as he climbs. In traveling the roadway of life, look for the roses and trample the gravel, it is better to crush it and make it compact, a part of the earth, than to lift it and thrust it heedlessly into the eye of a chance passerby.

I am not advertising a heaven on earth. Christ did not have that when he was here. I am only expounding a theory that may influence someone in making life worthwhile for at least one person a day.