| Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 2 |
Page 5 |
St. Paul, who so wondrously caught the spirit of his Master, has many words which show varying phases of the truth that love’s very essential quality is unselfish helpfulness, the carrying of the life with all its rich gifts and powers in such a way that it may be a blessing to every other life it touches. “Love seeketh not its own.” Its thought and service are for others. “Ye ought to help the weak.” “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” There are those who are weak in body, and must lean on the strength of others. We ofttimes see illustrations of this in homes where the invalid of the household draws the strength of all the family to his helping. But physical weakness is not the only weakness. There are those who are spiritually weak — feeble in purpose, broken by long sinning, until almost no strength remains in them, or enfeebled by sorrow. The law of love that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak is quite as applicable in this sphere of life as in the case of physical weakness.
“Lift a little—lift a little!
Many they who need thine aid,
Many lying on the roadside
‘Neath misfortune’s dreary shade.
“Pass not by, like priest and Levite,
Heedless of thy fellow-man;
But with heart and arms extended
Be the Good Samaritan.”
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