THE BEST CONTRIBUTION.
The best contribution anyone can make is not
a gift measured by gold and silver standards.
Many give or surplus wealth, only to add humili
ation to poverty, encouragement to fraud, loss of
self-respect to misfortune, weakness to discour
agement, and develop self-conceit and self-right
eousness instead of unselfishness and loving ser
vice. It is a giving of the gift without the giver
which makes both poorer and the world less hap
py.
The best contribution we can make is that which
contributes to the happiness of the human heart
and scatters sunshine along the path where pres
ent and coming generations must travel. The man
from platform and pulpit who speaks words of
wisdom and comfort, the entertainer who brings
a smile, a lesson, an inspiration; the concert
which drives dull care away and tunes the soul to
harmonize with the Divine Chords —all these pub
lic servants contribute that which makes a better
humanity, because it makes a happier one.
The toiler in shop, office or store, faithful in
helping humanity to push its business forward;
the faithful wife, the untiring, loving mother, the
conscientious teacher in the class room—all these
moulding earthly habitations into heavenly places,
or shaping rough marble blocks into angelic forms
of life; the numbers w r ho unknown, perhaps among
the “shut ins’’, who in their silent w r ay, by some
thought that helps, some word that soothes, some
deed that cheers, or by some self-restraint that
makes them greater than he that conquers a
ing. Yes, they certainly can, and
will; and there will be special ac
commodations for them.
