| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 12 |
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It is told of Edward Eggleston that in his boyhood he and his companions were forming a literary society. The membership they determined should include only the best boys and young men of the place. None who were undesirable should be admitted. There was one boy in the neighbourhood who was mentally deficient, who greatly desired to join the society, that he might learn to “speak pieces,” he said. Most of the boy s laughed at the suggestion that he should be admitted. But young Eggleston, with a manly earnestness, favoured receiving him. “We have no right,” he said, “to keep all our good things to ourselves. This poor boy will do us no harm, and it will please him and it may do him good.” He pleaded for the boy so earnestly that he was admitted. It made him very happy, and he became fairly bright.
This was a Christly thing to do. Jesus would have treated the boy just as Edward Eggleston did. He never broke even a bruised reed, so loving was he toward the weak. We should seek to get the lesson into all our conduct. If there is a bashful girl in the neighbourhood, or a shy, retiring boy, these are the ones to whom Jesus would have the young people show the greatest attention in their social life. Those for whom most persons do not care are the ones for whom Jesus would care the most tenderly, if her were here. Those who need the most help are the ones Jesus himself helps the most.
“‘All honour to him who wins the prize!’
The world has cried for a hundred years;
But to him who tries and fails and dies,
I give great glory and honour and tears.”
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