A Worthy Motto

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1909

WHEN I was in Scotland, I stayed at the house of one of Scotland’s noble sons, a gentleman indeed, honored and loved by everybody. He told me his life motto had been learned from a young man dying of consumption. A fire had broken out in the village, and there were no fire brigades in those days. The men formed a line from the pond to the conflagration, and handed on the buckets rapidly. Down in the pond, to his waist in water, stood the young consumptive, bailing as fast as the buckets were brought him. Some one recognized him, and cried in consternation: “Eh mon, you’ll catch your death there.” Sweet and calm came the answer: “Somebody must do it, why not I?” and, said my friend, “I made that the motto of my life. When anything difficult or dangerous or irksome or distasteful had to be done, I know, ‘Some one must do it, why not I?’”—Selected.