Chums and Brothers (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.1920 Excerpt: ... A LAY SERMON THE little book of morning prayers had this petition recently:, "Dear Lord, keep me from the loneliness of selfishness." The phrase has remained in my mind a month. "The loneliness of selfishness." I take it that it does not mean, "Lord, let me be selfish, but save me from the consequent loneliness." It is rather a negative beatitude, as though it read: "Cursed is the man who is selfish; he shall be lonely." Infraction of the physical laws we expect will meet with their immediate punishment; and we build in accordance with these laws in the confident expectation that if we do not, our building will tumble. But some how we expect to escape the infraction of the moral law, or at least, -we expect the punishment will be deferred to some indefinite time in the future, forgetting that the punishments for infractions of the moral law are just as sure and just as prompt as those of the physical law. The text says that this is so. There is "selfishness," the breach of the law of "brotherly kindness"; and there is the "loneliness," the lack of friends, the sure and prompt result. Perhaps none of us would be willing to tell that he was selfish, and therefore lonely; or that he was lonely because he had been selfish. But literature, if it is true to life, and no other writing is literature, is filled with illustrations of this law and its penalty. Winston Churchill in "The Inside of the Cup" creates the character of Eldon Parr, the multimillionaire. Eldon Parr has made his millions perfectly legally, and perfectly immorally. An astute lawyer has been well paid to make it possible. And Eldon Parr has built him a palace of forty-five rooms, each exquisitely furnished with all that art and money could accomplish. But as you wander with him through his sumptuo...