SELF-SACRIFICE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1879

ONE day six boys, ranging in age from six to ten years, were playing in a gravel-pit. Suddenly a high bank above them fell, and covered them up. Some men who were near saw the bank fall. They had just before seen the boys, and concluding that they must be buried under the ground ran quickly to help them out. They soon uncovered the head and neck of one little fellow six years old, and were going on to help him clear out, when he exclaimed, “Here are more boys under the ground. I can stand it now until you help them out.”

And so the little fellow pointed with a gesture of his head, and telling where the other boys were, bravely remained in his prison of earth until his companions were rescued from death.

If that boy lives to become a man, and acts as he did when a boy, he will be brave and generous. Instead of whining about his own wants and discomforts, he will look to see if there are not others in a worse situation, and will try to relieve them. This single boy is worth a whole army of selfish fellows who cry out, “I look out for Number One first.”—Selected.