EMERSON once wrote: "Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun." How true it must always be that so soon as one turns from self-seeking to unselfed love for others, he has begun to rise out of all that is sordid and mean into that spiritual atmosphere where good reigns supreme and its pure beneficence alone can appear! Most men have occasionally experienced the bliss which results from unselfish consideration of others. And still they seem slow to ride always in sun-kissed chariots. Instead, they cling to those earthy vehicles which lumber along with wheels all mire-weighted, and then perhaps wonder why their road does not lie through delectable and satisfying avenues.
Our Master, Christ Jesus, was ever calling the attention of his followers to the happiness that would accrue to those who learned to seek their neighbor's good rather than their own. Indeed, he went so far as to say that the only way to be great is to be a servant, "even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Christian Science emphasizes this same teaching, and continually calls the attention of its students to the desirability of leaving all selfishness for the heavenly method of seeking one's own in his neighbor's good.
And how simple a method it is! And how easily practiced if we will but turn ourselves in its direction! To be sure, its course is exactly opposite to the one human nature is inclined to follow; for self-seeking is ever earthward in all its tendencies, while unselfishness leads heavenward all the way. Consequently, one need not imagine he will rise to spiritual heights with great rapidity if he allow himself to fluctuate between selfishness and unselfishness. On the contrary, he must choose the path of unselfish love, and walk steadily therein, if he is to advance spiritually.
