Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Story
October 21, 1905
Passaic City Record
Passaic, Passaic County, New Jersey
What is this article about?
Phillips Brooks' sermon on the beauty of selfless service, drawing from Jesus' prayer of sanctification for his disciples, emphasizing that true help to others comes through personal moral excellence and unselfish living.
Clipping
OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
Beauty of a Life of Service.
No. indeed. there is no wonder that God loved the world. There is no wonder that Christ, the Son of God, at any sacrifice. undertook to save the world. The wonder would have been if God, sitting in His heaven-the wonder would have been if Jesus, ready to come here to the earth, and seeing how it was possible to save man from sin by suffering, had not suffered. Do you wonder at the mother when she gives her life without hesitation or a cry. for her child, counting it her privilege?
There is one word of Jesus which always comes back to me as about the noblest thing that human lips have ever said upon our earth. When He was sitting with His disciples at the last supper. how He lifted up His voice and prayed. and in the midst of His prayer there came the wondrous words: "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." The whole of a human life is there. Shall a man cultivate himself? No. not primarily. Shall a man serve the world; strive to increase the kingdom of God in the world? Yes. indeed he shall. How shall he do it? By cultivating himself. and instantly he is thrown back upon his own life. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." I am my best, not simply for myself, but for the world. That is the law of my existence.
You can help your fellow-men: you must help your fellow-men; but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be. I watch the workman build upon the building which. by and by. is to soar into the skies. to toss its pinnacle up to the heavens, and I can see him looking up and wondering where those pinnacles are to be, thinking how high they are to be. measuring the feet. wondering how they are to be built. and all the time he is cramming a rotten stone into the building just where he has set to work. Let him forget the pinnacles if he will, or hold only the floating image of them in his imagination for his inspiration, but the thing he must do is to put a brave, strong soul, an honest and substantial life. into the building just where he is now at work.
Let yourselves free into your religion and be unselfish. Claim your freedom in service.-Phillips Brooks.
No. indeed. there is no wonder that God loved the world. There is no wonder that Christ, the Son of God, at any sacrifice. undertook to save the world. The wonder would have been if God, sitting in His heaven-the wonder would have been if Jesus, ready to come here to the earth, and seeing how it was possible to save man from sin by suffering, had not suffered. Do you wonder at the mother when she gives her life without hesitation or a cry. for her child, counting it her privilege?
There is one word of Jesus which always comes back to me as about the noblest thing that human lips have ever said upon our earth. When He was sitting with His disciples at the last supper. how He lifted up His voice and prayed. and in the midst of His prayer there came the wondrous words: "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." The whole of a human life is there. Shall a man cultivate himself? No. not primarily. Shall a man serve the world; strive to increase the kingdom of God in the world? Yes. indeed he shall. How shall he do it? By cultivating himself. and instantly he is thrown back upon his own life. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." I am my best, not simply for myself, but for the world. That is the law of my existence.
You can help your fellow-men: you must help your fellow-men; but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be. I watch the workman build upon the building which. by and by. is to soar into the skies. to toss its pinnacle up to the heavens, and I can see him looking up and wondering where those pinnacles are to be, thinking how high they are to be. measuring the feet. wondering how they are to be built. and all the time he is cramming a rotten stone into the building just where he has set to work. Let him forget the pinnacles if he will, or hold only the floating image of them in his imagination for his inspiration, but the thing he must do is to put a brave, strong soul, an honest and substantial life. into the building just where he is now at work.
Let yourselves free into your religion and be unselfish. Claim your freedom in service.-Phillips Brooks.
What sub-type of article is it?
Biography
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
Providence Divine
What keywords are associated?
Life Of Service
Sanctification
Selfless Sacrifice
Moral Duty
Personal Nobility
What entities or persons were involved?
Jesus
Phillips Brooks
Story Details
Key Persons
Jesus
Phillips Brooks
Story Details
Phillips Brooks reflects on the beauty of selfless service, inspired by Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper: 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified.' He urges cultivating one's noblest self to serve others, using analogies of a mother's sacrifice and a workman's honest labor.