October 16
Riches through impoverishment
“With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7:2).
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6).
Life is not enriched by selfishness, but by sacrifice. Life only becomes fruitful when it becomes sacrificial. This is true concerning our influence upon one another; it seems ordained that life has to attain a certain fervor of sacrifice before it can become contagious and multiply itself throughout the race. On the cold planes of calculation and selfishness life is unimpressive, and its products leave the general life unmoved. It is even so with a poem, a painting, a sermon, or with a courtesy. The measure of its impressiveness is just the measure of the sacrifice of which it is the shrine. What is there in it? What “virtue” has gone out of him? Just so much will be the measure of healing. Just what he lost will be our gain; he becomes fruitful where he touches sacrifice.