Is The Bible Worth Reading, and Other EssaysWashburn, L. K. (Lemuel Kelley)
Religion
Is The Bible Worth Reading, and Other Essays
Washburn, L. K. (Lemuel Kelley)
Free thought
But there are other ways of assisting the world, and while we admit all
the good that can be done with money, men and women need to-day to be
helped with truth, helped with justice. Mankind are suffering from
falsehoods, from wrongs as well as from ignorance, from want and poverty.
Those who are unjust to their fellows should help them by dealing justly
by them. Those who are keeping the world in darkness should help it by
telling the truth. Truth and justice are every man’s right, and every
man’s due. You can help the world by being just to it, by using your
fellow-beings honestly, squarely, justly. You can help it by telling the
truth and by concealing nothing that is true.
Man needs an education in unselfishness. He must learn to work for himself
without working against others. The advantage which a man gains to-day is
too often at the disadvantage of his brother or sister. It is a poor
victory which inflicts suffering. The true measure of man’s success is the
joy his life confers upon the world.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
The man who wants to be an angel is never in a hurry to begin.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
The man who gets on his knees has not learned the right use of his legs.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Ignorance is all that saves some people: if they knew more they would do
worse.
ON THE CROSS
Christianity teaches that Jesus was divine. To admit that he was not
divine is to give up Christianity. In the light of this teaching let us
look at Jesus on the cross. After a brief, but rather peaceful career,
Jesus is arrested, tried and convicted as a blasphemer, and sentenced to
be put to death. It is said that he died on a cross. How did he die? It is
said by Christians “like a God.”
There have been brave deaths on the gallows and at the stake. Men have
died sublimely whom society has condemned as criminals. In our day there
has been as lofty heroism evinced in the face of the most terrible of
deaths as ever martyr of old manifested when dying for his faith. We know
that men have walked into the arms of an ignominious death without a
tremor, and with magnificent courage shining in their faces.
Brave dying proves less than brave living. The sacrifice of a lifetime
shows the courage that commands our deepest admiration. Some mother, some
sister, or daughter who has offered herself for years upon the hidden
altar of duty has performed a deed beside which a moment’s suffering is as
naught. But the average mind fails to discern heroism, except where the
suffering is apparent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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