Article December 15, 1928 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from George H. Morrison, Arnold N. Hoath, Walter John Sherman, Amos R. Wells

[Editorial in the Bronx Home News, New York, New York]

Giving is a happy law ..., and enriches the giver even more than the one who receives the gift, whether it be material or spiritual. It is the gains we make by which we grow, and our gains come mostly from giving. Getting back should not be expected to be the natural process following giving. Truly great women have given to the fullest measure of devotion with no thought of any return to themselves. They only wanted to better things for some fellow human.

Those who have done most to make others happy, those whose passing hours have been crowded full, are the ones whose beauty of character shines like a bright ray, serene in a troubled world. A strange fact about these busy lives is that they seem so effortless and full of ease. For giving seems to teach the spirit to understand that through unselfish striving the real soul thrives and petty things cease to trouble. In a mind that is anxious to speed another on the road to success there is no thought of return from that effort. The fact that the other succeeds in part because of proffered assistance is sufficient reward. And yet, it has been said that bread cast upon the water returns a thousandfold after many days. To give freely of the comfort, sympathy, and friendship that lie in every human heart is to make lives grow beautiful and the world a finer place. And, perchance, the returns may come; but whether they are sensed or not, the life of the one who has learned to give freely, easily, naturally, is blessed and those about her have been made happy.

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