I Can Take Care of Myself

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1909

I Can Take Care of Myself

THIS is the favorite answer of the heady, high-minded, and reckless, who propose to disregard good counsel and follow the devices of their own hearts. A young man, when warned against strong drink, says, “I am able to take care of myself.” But it is frequently the case that before the end of his career, he needs two or three policemen, a number of sheriffs, constables, lawyers, judges, jailers, turnkeys, and sometimes a hangman, to take care of him. He is by no means as independent as he supposes.

A girl says, “I can take care of myself.” She goes from her quiet home, plunges into the whirl of some great city, spends everything she can earn for vanity and folly, perhaps starves in a garret or dies of consumption, when she might, in her quiet country home, have lived a happy and useful woman, a blessing in the world, and blessed and honored by all around her.

“I can take care of myself,” says a business man, when, riding on the tide of prosperity, he oppresses the poor and needy; but by and by financial troubles come, and he finds himself straightened and borne down into the whirlpool of bankruptcy and disaster, and all his bravado is gone.

“No man liveth to himself.”

Neither men nor women are able to defy their fellows, or to reject the friendship or disregard the sympathies of their kind. We all of us need something with which we can not supply ourselves. We are dependent on others for a thousand friendly offices, and it is well for us to acknowledge our dependency, and also to listen to the counsels of those who advise us for our good. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” He who claims that he can take care of himself is very likely to be poorly cared for, and to require much more assistance than those who are less self-confident, and more willing to accept the counsel of their friends.—The Christian.