SELFISHNESS IN DISGUISE.
By G.
SELFISHNESS is so interwoven in the human web that it often becomes a part of what we had thought to be the very best of motive. This fact is so well known that it needs only to be stated in order to be recognized. Every one may not be able at first glance to see it in himself, but he has always been able to see it in others. Many illustrations might be cited, but that which will come home with force to people of to-day is the confession of the woman who has been idolized more than any other of modern times. In one of her able annual addresses (of which she delivered so many), Frances E. Willard gave expression to these words: Our very love of one another, and delights in each other's achievements and success, has also become a delusion and a snare. Men had long and often said that women did not much admire each other. For one, I meant to prove our power of mutual admiration boundless. But a higher outlook has been given me in these last days. Confession is a good thing for the soul, and I confess with sorrow, yet in hope, that a sense of self-hood, a purpose of self-recognition and the flattering unction of self-gratulation, had grown upon me far beyond my recognition. Then she gave acknowledgment to the fact that some evangelists in her home town (Evanston, Ill.) became the instrument of God to teach her “what true self-surrender is, and how in newness of life we may become habitations of God through the Spirit.” And, later on in her remarks, we find this commendable utterance: Now, then, I have, by God's grace, written my last laudatory paragraph in the Union Signal, or anywhere else, and I sincerely trust that my name will never again be seen in that paper, or any other, accompanied by words of praise. Beloved sisters, let us blot out the whole vocabulary of familiar adulatory adjectives, and go straight to our work in gladness and singleness of heart. Readers of the Signal, and of other W. C. T. U. papers, will bear witness that Miss Willard's idea has not been carried out, but rather ignored. It is a good thing that “the dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5) else Miss Willard would surely be grieved at the continual sounding of her praise, in almost idolatrous strains, by her former co-workers and present admirers. Her own public confession, and her express resolution and desire in this connection, is her greatest manifestation of Christian heroism, and certainly ought to be respected by her friends. We have no more insidious enemy than self, and there is no evil to which even Christian men are more susceptible than the service of self-interest. There is no sinister trait of character to which we are more prone to close the eyes and give a blind encouragement. Therefore there is no leaven that finds such ready admission to the heart, that can cause us to so unwittingly mar the work to which we have supposedly attached our greatest interest and given our best efforts. The remedy is in unwavering faith in Christ, and rigid self-denial. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. . . . This do and thou shalt live.”