bowed and aching hearts, yet did not touch it with a finger!
"Never incur a responsibility that can be avoided!" What a selfish, heartless declaration! What a shallow resolution! Cold and narrow and of fossil hardness is the life of those who keep their palms clean, not of evil and its consequences, but of responsibility and its risks. Such beings take but the one talent from the hand of their Lord, which is bounteously opened to bestow ten, because, forsooth, the ten would involve greater responsibility. Nay, they hide even that one in the earth, to escape the poor responsibility of putting it out to usury.
Truly, with what measure we mete it shall be measured to us; good measure, shaken together, pressed down and running over, if such we give; but we have no power to bestow without incurring responsibility. The bountiful measure of good gifts, present and future, is for those who, nothing doubting, assume great and holy responsibilities, and discharge them with steadfast confidence. True, the more responsibilities we are content to accept, the larger the number that will flow in upon us, as though they were endowed with a self-increasing principle; but each one faithfully discharged brings its compensating joy, and if the responsibilities sometimes seem endless, the happiness they purchase will also prove inexhaustible.
Blessed are those hands to whom much is con-
