Signs of the Times

[Editorial in the Frederick Leader, Oklahoma]

We are learning more about neighborliness just now than we did during the days when prosperity was at high tide. When we are prosperous we get the idea that we are sufficient unto ourselves — and we do not feel the need of neighborly helpfulness. If our neighbors are prosperous, also, we see no occasion for exerting ourselves on their behalf. One of the compensations for periods of general distress is that they cause selfishness to be submerged in consideration for others. They teach us to be kind, because we need that others shall be kind to us. They make the Golden Rule seem very desirable in our lives, because we need that others shall apply it to us.

Most people in a Christian country are theoretically kind and charitable. Many of them depend on organized societies to give expression to their desire to conform to the recognized duty to do something for others. These are necessary and ennobling. But the sort of kindness and charity which makes us really compassionate is that which we exercise ourselves — with our own hands, by our own word of mouth, from the depths of our own hearts.

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October 10, 1931
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