Little Sermons for To-Day (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST It is not always the fit that survive, but those that are fit TO survive. Jesus said the way to find and save your life is to give it away. The effort should be not to live, but to be fit to live. Not many have believed him, and we have gone on striving to survive, forgetting to estimate our fitness. Nations have not believed him. They have said that whoever would save his life must be careful of his own interests. He must hug tight his privileges. He must keep his grip on power. Now who is right? Look to Europe and see. There they have been keen in competition. Every nation has saved its position, its money, its pride. And to what end? That it might be as Jesus said, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it " And America? Our choice is before us. We must choose to be selfish or helpful. It cannot be that the whole world bleed and we sit in comfortable peace. We cannot imagine that out of the world's misery America can reap money and prosperity, and hold it to a selfish heart. We too must be spent. And unless we spend our money and ourselves now for the cause of humanity, we will some time spill blood on the battle-field. Unless America gives her life she, too, will lose it. The fitness that will save us is the heart and will to be worth saving. Unless we demonstrate our worthiness to survive as the greatest nation, we will find that in the struggle for existence no selfish grasping can avail. Peoples who do not fight for the help of others and for the advancement of righteousness eventually fight for their self-preservation. America, pure and giving herself to humanitarian activities, will never be caught in the maelstrom of greedy, bloody war. But America, rotten and indolent, will some time fight to the spilling...