Living the Radiant Life: A Personal NarrativeJames, George Wharton
Religion
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative
James, George Wharton
Conduct of life
One of his rules for the making of a true poet was that he should "give
alms to all who ask," and that he should "stand up for the stupid and
crazy." I have a friend in Chicago who seeks absolutely to live these
two rules in his daily life. Even though he may often give to the
unworthy, he feels he can better afford to do that than to miss once
giving to a really needy person lest he might be giving to some one who
was neither needy nor worthy.
A poet, whom I am very fond of quoting, once wrote:
In men whom men condemn as ill,
I find so much of goodness still;
In men whom men account divine,
I find so much of sin and blot;
I hesitate to draw the line between the two;
Where God has not.
It is impossible properly and wisely to differentiate, and because a man
is unworthy is all the more reason that his fellows should seek to help
him into a state of worthiness.
How I wish I could imbue all with the spirit that moves Charles
Montgomery, the prisoner's friend of San Francisco. He goes to the state
penitentiaries at San Quentin and Folsom, and arranges to give help to
the prisoners as soon as they are released. Nay, he provides places for
them and then goes before the board of parole and secures their release.
He takes a true brother's interest in the men and seeks to win them to a
nobler life. Doubtless he is often deceived, but in scores of cases he
starts the men on the up-grade. What is one failure or ten, to one
success or ten? If it were _my_ son that was saved I should be most
grateful even though he saved but one. It would make his work glorious
and blessed to me. Then try to feel what it must be for some other
father or mother to learn that his, or her, son is saved from the life
of hell, to the life of heaven, here and now, and do as much for that
son as you would for your own.
I doubt not that some of the boys Judge Lindsay seeks to save in Denver,
are not all they ought to be, and that sometimes he is disappointed in
the results. But does this make him lose heart, or cease to work for the
new cases that come? By no means! It makes him more determined than ever
to reach their hearts. He is more tender, more long-suffering, more
patient, more sympathetic, more loving. The greater the need the greater
the endeavor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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