| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 12 |
Page 4 |
Another practical application of this lesson is to the way we do the common deeds of love in our everyday life. We should seek to obliterate self altogether, and every thought of what is to come to us from the thing we do. The faintest trace of a mercenary spirit in any service we may be rendering to another leaves a blot upon the deed and spoils its beauty. The true reward of kindness or self denial is that which comes from the act itself, the joy of helping another, of relieving distress, of making the heart a little braver and stronger for the toil or struggle which we cannot make easier. Mrs. Browning puts it well in the familiar lines:
“The sweetest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds, both great and small,
Are close knit strands of an unbroken thread
Where love ennobles all.
The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells,
The book of Life the shining record tells.
Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own life working. A child’s kiss
Set on thy singing lips shall make thee glad;
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.
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