1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



853 



always be. " Yon are as tj'ood as T," and not, " I am 

 as good as you."* 



Now, with regard to these false standards of 

 greatness we may well observe: 



1. That they ai-e generally attained only at the ex- 

 pense of others, and sometimes only through con- 

 tention and strife. As we have just remarked, 

 every one can not (in the popular sense) be great; 

 some must, therefore, remain unconsidered. Dar- 

 win's principle of the survival of the fittest applies 

 exactly here. In the etfort for fame or wealth, the 

 weak go to the wall-. In an ideal state of society 

 this should not be so; but as it now is, we hear the 

 cry continually, that, as the rich grow richer the 

 poor grow poorer, i- The capable ones clamber o\er 

 the shoulders of the incai)able, and groans from the 

 laboring classes are the natural result. And until 

 divine law thoroughly permeates society this can 

 not be otherwise, for we are in a limited world. Each 

 man has not an infinite stretch of opportunity be- 

 fore him. Tf in a family of moderate means there 

 is a child whom the parents wish to thoroughly ed- 

 ucate, there must at once begin a system of stern 

 self-denial on the part of all the rest. If in school 

 that child wins distinction it is because he has 

 marched right up the line past his fellows. For it is 

 not because he has won a good mark, but because 

 he has proved himself better than his comrades, that 

 he becomes in a sense great. Surely this state of 

 things is any thing but refining. There may be an 

 element of greatness in it; but, oh what misery it 

 leaves in its track ! The winning of worldly distinc- 

 tion is all on very much the same principle that 

 Napoleon practiced when part of his army was 

 forced into the ditch that the rest might march 

 over them to victory;* but what victory I Ah! this 

 is not the divine ideal of greatness, surely. Jesus 

 was not the author of contention. 



2. And, again, it may be remarked that men with 

 these false ideas of greatness often seek for what 

 they would not wish if they could see into the fu- 

 ture. When James and John asked for the seats 

 on the right and left of Jesus in glory, Jesus told 

 them that they knew not what they asked. And 

 when, a few days after, tliey found that the glory 

 of Jesus was crucifixion, and that the right and 

 left of that would have meant hanging in terrible 

 pain in the places occupied by the two thieves, they 

 saw how foolish their request had been. And so 

 has it ever been, except that men have often been 

 permitted to partially realize their desires only to 

 see them fade into shadow in the end. If Napo- 

 leon had at the beginning of his career been allow- 



* May God bless our young friend for the 

 thought herein expressed. Just think, dear reader, 

 how funny it would sound, when neighbors are 

 feeling harsh toward each other, to say, " You are 

 as good as I," instead of " 1 am as good as you." 

 May God help me to remember this when I am vex- 

 ed. 



+ Dear reader, is this true in your vicinity and 

 neighborhood? If it is, then it is because Christ 

 Jesus has departed from your midst and from your 

 homes instead of growing into the hearts of men 

 and women. Help us, O Lord, that this may never 

 truthfully express the progressive sentiment of 

 any neighborhood. 



:i: Is it really true, that such an event in history 

 did actually happen? From what I have read of 

 Napoleon I can readily believe such a course might 

 be a part of his march to victory; but may God 

 grant that no age of the world may evermore see 

 the time when men shall crowd on to victory over 

 the suffering bodies of their fellow-men. 



ed to see himself stripped of glory and pining away 

 in exile at St. Helena, it would have robbed him of 

 much of his ambition. If the youth just start- 

 ing in the selfish pursuit of wealth could look 

 through fifty years and see with certain eye that 

 his soul would be shriveled and bound to mammon, 

 for ever shutting him away from a righteous inher- 

 itance in the kingdom of heaven, he would seek its 

 lilandishments less eagerly, and put out his foot 

 more carefully. If the God-fearing student who has 

 begun to imbibe the " scientific spirit of the age," 

 and to dabble in false philosophies, could pierce the 

 future and see at the end of half a century that he 

 had reasoned away his God; had, to his mind, 

 proved the Bible a farce, and thus destroyed all the 

 nobler sentiments of his nature, and blasted his 

 hope of eternal life, he would care less for any 

 worldly renown that such a one-sided learning might 

 bestow upon him. Alas, the risks that attend these 

 carnal strivings! There is many an aged man who 

 lias gained some measure of distinction, to the 

 great detriment of eternal and deeper interests. A 

 carnal ambition for greatness has eaten out the 

 very core of his soul. Alas, that opportunity and 

 innocence should come to such an end! But Jesus 

 never sowed the seed of an ambition which brings 

 ruin, or of a greatness which, like the apples of So- 

 dom, turns to ashes at the touch. 



3. But, once more be It observed that so-called 

 greatness brings dissatisfaction. Strange as it may 

 seem, it is nevertheless the truth, that those men 

 who have won the greatest renown have generally 

 died disappointed with life. And this results from 

 having set up an unattainable standard, and from 

 having violated conscience and all the higher laws 

 of being in the vain endeavor to attain it. Look at 

 Solomon in all his glory, having obtained all wis- 

 dom and wealth, yet at the last moaning out, "All 

 life is vanity and vexation of spirit." And Solomon 

 is a good index to humanity. Life and literature 

 are continually pouring into our ears tales of dis- 

 appointment and vexation. Literature, art, music, 

 wealth, all lack that deep principle which alone can 

 breathe satisfaction and peace into a soul. For 

 this principle we must look away from earthly 

 ideas to heavenly ; and this suggests the next ob- 

 servation— 



That Christ's idea of genuine greatness is directly 

 opposed to all these mentioned. Christ came to 

 earth and found society all out of order. No man 

 seemed to have the least idea of true nobleness of 

 conduct. He found the train off the track, and 

 pounding over the ties in its mad rush to destruc- 

 tion. He found men's lives growing up in the form 

 of a pyramid well grounded on earth, but running 

 to a point in the air.S These he righted; he laid 

 down principles in life which were revolutionarj'- 

 The train, he placed on smooth-running rails; he 

 told men to turn over their lives— to place the pyr- 

 amid on its apex, and then, as they grew in height 

 of years, the}- would grow broader, and take in 

 finally the whole sweep of God's plans. II He took a 

 little child and placed it beside the grandest mon- 

 arch, and the monarch was only as a morning cloud 



S Dear reader, is your life drawing narrower and 

 narrower as old age creeps upon you? God forbid. 



II Let us all reverse that pyramid, if we have not 

 done so already; and instead of ha\ing our lives 

 taper toward a point, as in the figure, let them grow 

 broader and wider until we can in very truth take 

 in the whole wide world as Uur Neighlxn-s. 



