The Book of Courage Part 10

Of course more had to be done after that. Soon half the plants were enlisted for the country. Surely nothing more could be asked than that he should go fifty-fifty, half for the country and half for himself.

The remainder of the story can be imagined--in one form it was lived out in the experience of millions. "Why don't you have done with that half-way patriotism?" came a voice that he could not silence.

The battle between Patriotism and Private Profits was decided gloriously--in the only possible manner. Away with fifty per cent.

patriotism! Every one of the plants was put on Government orders.

Naturally there were those who asked, "Was such a sacrifice necessary?"

But the reply was convincing.

That is the question that has been asked of Christians ever since the day when Christ said to Peter and Andrew, "Follow me." Our hearts are stirred by the simple record of what followed: "Straightway they left their nets,"--their livelihood, their a.s.sociates, their families, their position in the world, everything--"and followed Him." The question was put to Prince Gallitzin when he renounced t.i.tle and fortune and went to the mountains of Pennsylvania to make a home for some of his oppressed Russian countrymen. The words were hurled at the son of a wealthy English brewer, because he decided that if he would obey Christ fully he must renounce the source of his wealth as well as the money that had been made in an unrighteous business. The inquiry was heard many times by Matthias W. Baldwin, the builder of Old Ironsides and founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, when he gave up the making of jewelry because he thought that, as a Christian man, he ought to make his talents count for something more worth-while, and later on when he insisted on borrowing from the banks in time of financial panic to pay his pledges to Christian work.

Still the query persists, as it will persist long as the world stands.

You have heard it yourself, if you, like Caleb of old, are trying to follow G.o.d wholly. "Was the sacrifice necessary?"

Beware of the question, for it is a temptation to slack service, though often spoken by one who would show himself a friend. Necessary? Of course. Isn't it involved in courageous following of Christ?

CHAPTER SIX

_GOLDEN RULE COURAGE_

"There is so much good in the worst of us, And so much bad in the best of us, That it hardly becomes any of us To talk about the rest of us."

THAT popular rhyme hits the nail squarely on the head. We are not to judge others. The world would be a pleasanter dwelling place if we would lay aside our critical att.i.tude, and look on the best side of the men and women about us. Instead, however, it sometimes seems as if we were determined to forget all the good, and remember only the evil. Our additions to the comments of others are not praise, but blame. We do not seek to correct an unfavorable comment by saying, "But think of the good there is in his life"; we insist on drowning merited praise by saying, "But think how selfish he is; how careless of the comfort of others!"

That is the cowardly thing to do. And life calls for courage.

The worst thing about the maker of such comments is that the readier he is to see--or imagine--faults in another, the more blind he is apt to become to faults in himself. This inability to see his own shortcomings would be ludicrous if it were not so pitiful. Yet these shortcomings are apparent to all who know him. Jesus, who knew human nature, said, "Judge not, that ye be not judged ... first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

The courageous task of reforming ourselves seems prodigious when we think what good opinions we have of ourselves and what poor opinions we have of others, but the task is not impossible, for G.o.d has promised to give us the help we need, and He will never disappoint us. An earthly father knows how to give good things to his children; shall not the Heavenly Father do as much and more?

Since we have such a Father, it is the least we can do to learn of Him the true philosophy of life. Listen while He tells us what it is:

"All things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them."

Impossible and impracticable? Let us see.

I

LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS

The president of a big manufacturing concern, who is also its active operating head, is quoted as saying that he finds a growing tendency among young men to go after business by sharp practice when they cannot get it any other way. They will "cut the corners of a square deal to land an order." In applying for positions, he goes on to say, some young fellows have tried to recommend themselves by telling how they got orders for former employers by some neat trick.

"I have had to tell them, square and plain," he adds, "that there wasn't any recommendation in that kind of talk with me. I have made up my mind that I am going to write out some plain talks on righteousness and post them up around the offices and shops where everybody will have a chance to read them. I have explained my plan about these bulletins to a number of other manufacturers, and I think several of them are going to do the same thing. Besides the moral reasons for the policy, it's the only policy to build up a sound business on. Take even the men who would be willing to make profit for themselves by shady deals, and they all want to buy goods for themselves of a firm that they can depend on. I think our history this past year has proved the wisdom of it; business has been rolling in from points that we never had an idea of getting anything from. The Golden Rule works."

Nathan Strauss was once asked what contributed most to his remarkable success. "I always looked out for the man at the other end of the bargain," he said.

In 1901 the State of Wisconsin struck a beautiful bronze medal in honor of Professor Stephen Moulton Babc.o.c.k, the inventor of the milk test machine. Professor Babc.o.c.k, so one admirer says, "knew its value to farmer and dairyman. He also knew its possibilities of fortune for himself. This invention has 'increased the wealth of nations by many millions of dollars and made continual new developments possible in b.u.t.ter and cheesemaking.' All this Professor Babc.o.c.k knew it would do when he announced his discovery in a little bulletin to the farmers of Wisconsin. But at the bottom of that bulletin he added the brief and unselfish sentence, 'this test is not patented.' With that sentence he cheerfully let a fortune go. He wanted his invention to help other people, rather than make himself rich."

What a difference it would make if everyone should take the Golden Rule as the motto for each day, asking Christ's help in living in accordance with it! What a difference it would make in every home if father and mother and all the sons and daughters should resolve to make theirs a Golden-Rule household! The first thing necessary in bringing about such a change in the home is for one member to make the resolution and to do his best to live up to it. Others will follow inevitably when they note his careful, unselfish life and helpful acts.

There is a Jewish tradition that a Gentile came to Hillel asking to be taught the law, in a few words, while he stood on one foot. The answer was given, "Whatsoever thou wouldst that men should not do to thee, that do not thou to them." This was good, as far as it went, but there was nothing positive about it. Christ's teaching supplies the lack, showing what we are to do as well as what we are to leave undone. Christ always gives the touch required to make old teachings glow with life.

II

SUCCEEDING BY COURAGEOUS SERVICE

When John E. Clough was a student working his way through college, he was employed in a menial capacity at a hotel in a western town. His employer was absent for a season and the student was compelled to take charge of the hotel. He was successful, for he learned how to handle men of many sorts, how to provide for their comfort, how to make them feel that he was doing his best for them.

Years later, when he was a missionary in India, it became necessary for him to plan for the temporary entertainment of the men and women who came to the mission station by hundreds, and even by thousands, seeking Christian baptism. For days it was necessary to provide for their comfort. Many men would have been dismayed by the task, but to Dr.

Clough the problem presented was simple; he had only to do on a large scale the very things which made his boyhood efforts at hotel-keeping such a p.r.o.nounced success.

Experience in a hotel is a good course of preparation for any young man, whether he plans to be a missionary or to serve in any of the home callings that demand the Christian's time and thought. However, it is not possible for more than a very small proportion of young people to serve a period in a hotel; so it will be helpful to them to read some of the suggestions that have been made by a successful hotel proprietor.

Those who heed these suggestions are apt to be successful in dealing with men and women anywhere.

It is worth while to note some of these rules:

"The hotel is operated primarily for the benefit and convenience of its guests.

"Any member of our force who lacks the intelligence to interpret the feeling of good will that this hotel holds toward its guests, cannot stay here very long.

"Snap judgments of men often are faulty. The unpretentious man with the soft voice may possess the wealth of Croesus.

"You cannot afford to be superior or sullen with any patron of the hotel.

"At rare intervals some perverse member of our force disagrees with a guest as to the rightness of this or that.... Either may be right.... In all discussions between hotel employees and guests, the employee is dead wrong from the guest's standpoint, and from ours....

"Each member of our force is valuable only in proportion to his ability to serve our guests.

"Every item of extra courtesy contributes towards a better pleased guest, and every pleased guest contributes toward a better, bigger hotel...."

Yet a young man should not have to go to a hotel to learn these lessons.

They were taught in the Book that every one of us should know better than any other book in our library. Listen to these messages of the Book, and compare them with the rules of the hotel:

"Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others....

"Be tenderly affectioned one to another, in honor preferring one another....

"Judge not that ye be not judged.... The rich and the poor meet together: Jehovah is the maker of them all....

"Better it is to be of a lowly spirit....

"He that is slow in anger appeaseth strife....