BE GENEROUS WHILE ALIVE.
By George William Childs
I HAVE felt that it is a great mistake to put off being generous till after you are dead. In the first place you lose the pleasure of witnessing the good that you may do; and, again, no one can administer your gifts for you as well as you can do it yourself. It is a great pleasure to be brought into personal relations of that kind, and to make people feel that you are not a philanthropist in the abstract, but that you are interested in them personally and care for their welfare. In that way you benefit them not merely in a natural way, but you make them feel that men are really brothers, and that they were made to help one another. That feeling is not only agreeable in itself, but it will be apt to prompt them to carry out the principle themselves. Put yourself into all you do, and let others feel that you are there. Do not only contribute to a charitable fund, but go yourself and help. It may seem an inconvenience at first, but soon you will come to consider it worth any inconvenience.—G. W. Childs.