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VIRTUOUS LIVING - FOR THAT SPRING OF LIFE
leaving so much less for future use; and so, when it is a question of sharing the physical things, men calculate and say: 'I have only enough for myself, for my wife, for my child. How can I give any away?' All that is matter is consumed in the using; but that is not true of the higher things, the things of the intelligence, of the heart, and of the spirit. If I know something, I do not lose it when I teach it. Nay! It becomes more truly mine because I have shared it with one more ignorant than myself; so that you have two people enriched by knowledge, by the sharing of a store that increases, instead of diminishing, as it is shared. And so with all that is worth having. You need not fear to lessen your own possession by throwing them broadcast to your hungry follow-men. Give your knowledge, your strength, your love; empty yourself utterly, and when for a moment you think you are empty, then from the inexhaustible fount of love, and beauty, and power more flows down to fill the empty vessel, making it fuller, and not emptier than it was before.
The lives of all great Teachers illustrate this principle of giving. According to the Bible, Jesus taught his disciples:
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give.
- Matthew, x. 8
One true function of life is to radiate virtue all round, unceasingly. Health, bodily and mental, peace and joy are the result of this free radiation of life. This silent, steady work, in a spirit of goodwill and love, transmutes enemies into friends, evil into good, disease and sickness into health, and poverty into wealth. The man who is selfish, who loves only himself, who is cruel, vicious or intemperate, interferes with the free radiation of virtue from his being. When such evil thoughts are persisted in for a number of years, the mind and body lose their virility in consequence of the poison of evil, and a process similar to that of winding up of a going concern takes place. Life begins to shut up
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