Article November 6, 1909 Issue

SELF-LOVE OVERTHROWN

HARRY FRANKLIN PORTER.

NOT to proclaim but to do; not to relate but to meditate; not to perceive greatness but to aspire to goodness; not to seek fame but a better faith; not to assume anything but to hope all things—this is the humble spirit that gaineth all things. To prate of past glories, to predict future ones; to discourse constantly of personal prowess, to search out new ways for self-glorification—this is to invite disorder, dismay, and defeat. It is the vanity of vanities, of which cometh naught.

The true spirit—that which loses sight of self in the pure effulgence of the common good—goeth ever on to greater and more glorious destinies. Seeking neither notoriety nor reputation, and caring for neither praise nor condemnation, desiring only and wholly the approval of his own inner counsel—to such a soul, simple and inornate, gravitates all the goodness and beauty in the universe.

O BIBLE, ever open wide
That men of every race may read
How Jesus, dying, death defied
And rose to meet the wide world's need—
Were all the ponderous tomes of earth
Incased in gold and given to me,
Their lore would be as nothing worth
Beside salvation's history!

Faith Hearn.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

SELF-LOVE OVERTHROWN

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access