THE STAFF AND THE SACRIFICE. I49 



pathy into the fellowship of love with each corresponding 

 part of the body of suffering and evil. Like a Greater 

 than Elisha, we must touch the bier with the true human 

 touch of fellow-feeling, if we would turn the shadow of 

 death into the morning. We must touch the leper, if we 

 would purify and restore him. We must become poor 

 ourselves ; part with our possessions ; give what we shall 

 miss, what will cost us much self-denial and self-sacrifice ; 

 give our very substance our vital warmth, our tears, our 

 heart's blood if we are to make others rich and happy. 

 Virtue must go out of ourselves, if we are to impart 

 virtue to others. 



There is a wide perennial moral in that old worn- 

 out classic story of Curtius. Into the gulf that opened 

 suddenly in the Roman Forum the citizens poured all 

 their richest possessions their gold and silver and 

 jewels ; but the dark gulf yawned before them as wide 

 and terrible as ever. It was not till one of Rome's 

 noblest youths threw himself into it, that the abyss 

 closed for ever and the place became solid ground. 

 And so in vain with our alms and gifts of gold and silver, 

 of food and medicine, with the labours of our societies and 

 committees, shall we seek to fill up the dreadful gulf of 

 the world's misery and sin. Not till we give ourselves 

 after the manner of our Lord shall the abyss be closed. 

 What the world needs more than anything else more 

 than theories and plans of benevolence ; more than gifts 

 of money, laws, speeches, sermons, organizations, and 

 the thousand and one panaceas which men in their des- 

 pair of solving the dreadful problem have adopted for 



