p. 16 | Selfishness

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 25.

Selfishness

Selfishness. — A physician of twenty-five years' practice (Evans, “Divine Law of Cure”) says: “I am satisfied that much of what goes under the name of chronic disease, especially of a nervous type, has its root in selfishness,—at least, a purely unselfish man or woman, with consequent tranquil happiness, I never saw who was a nervous invalid. Such a state is usually the result of an over-estimate of their own importance and value in the universe, and a desire to make every one contribute to them, instead of sacrificing themselves to others, according to the Christ-principle. The best prescription for such persons is in the words of Jesus Christ, ‘Give, and it shall be given.’ To love something outside, or beside ourselves, and to be actuated by an irrepressible desire to be of use,—to do good to others,—gives a strength and tenacity of life that in some cases seems to border on the miraculous. I have known some persons whose ruling passion was to do good, who have carried with them, thru many years, an amount of suffering that would have crushed out, prematurely, many a less unselfish life. In their case their diseased condition did not subtract a single unit from ‘the days of the years of their life.’” Primarily, all disease, all sickness, all death, is the result of sin. Sometime sin will be no more, and the race will be immortal. The incorruptible characters of love will be given immortal bodies. But the character must be acquired here, and that means the elimination of selfishness.