The Folly of Selfishness
By Methodist Recorder
It is strange that so many people are so foolish, always standing in their own light, and doing things to their own injury! But there are just such people. They are so selfish that their greed becomes apparent to every one, and they lose the respect of those who might otherwise promote their interests; or they entertain such exalted opinions of themselves, that their vanity becomes insufferable and subjects them to contempt; or they are so ambitious to be considered great that they become jealous of others, betraying the meanness of their spirit, and thereby defeating their object; or they are so anxious to accomplish a selfish purpose that they resort to all kinds of scheming and underhanded movements in order to succeed, that when discovered, as they always are, they are covered with confusion. Such persons should remember that there are other people in the world, and that they are entitled to some consideration as well as themselves; and they should not permit their selfishness, nor vanity, nor ambition, nor any pet scheme of their own, to make them think that it matters not who sinks, so they swim. A mean man does not care who he pulls down, so he gets up. But a man of noble soul seeks to rise and to lift up others with him. And yet so many people are so foolish as to think the only way to succeed is to be continually grabbing for self, and shutting out others from their consideration and sympathies! Poor, foolish people! The Lord don't think much of them.—Methodist Recorder.