“The Bible enjoins it.  We have already quoted Paul’s words to the Ephesians, in which he says that our work is to be done, ’Not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.’  That is all I ask for.

“It is enjoined by the doctrine of brotherly love.  I cannot understand how any one can suppose, for a moment, that he is living a life acceptable to God unless he is striving, with all his might, to fulfil the Divine command, ’Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’  Your master, or whoever has a claim upon your service, must be included in the term ‘neighbour’; and to comply with the command of the Saviour, you must work for that master, or mistress, as the case may be, from the voluntary principle of love rather than the earthly and selfish principle of gain.

“Is not the disinterested method I am urging upon you in keeping with the loftiest ideals the world possesses with respect to work?  About whom does it write its poetry?  Whom does it laud to the heavens in the pulpit, on the platform, and in the Press?  Whose names does it describe the highest in its Temples of Fame, or hand down to posterity as examples for rich and poor, old and young alike, to follow?  Is it the man who makes his own ease and enrichment his only aim in life, and who toils and spins for nothing higher than his own gratification?  Nothing of the kind.  It is the generous, self-sacrificing, disinterested being who uses himself up for the benefit of his fellows.

“Nay, at whom does that same world ceaselessly sneer, and whom does it most pitilessly despise?  Is it not the mean and narrow spirit whose conduct is governed by selfish greed and sensual indulgences?  Whatever may be its practice, in this respect, the sentiment of the world is in the right direction.  It asks for benevolence evidenced by unselfish labour, and admires it when it finds it.

“A paragraph went the round of the newspaper world, a little time back, describing how an American millionaire had decided to spend the rest of his days on a Leper Island in the Pacific Ocean, in order to labour for the amelioration of the miseries of its unfortunate inhabitants.  Wonder and admiration everywhere greeted the announcement.

“Shall we go back on all this spirit of self-sacrifice?  Shall this kind of thing die out, or only have an existence in poetry books, platform quotations, or anecdote collections?  Shall we change over to the ‘pound-of-flesh’ principle, and hire out the work of our hands, the thoughts of our minds, and the burning passions of our souls, for the largest amount of filthy lucre, and the greatest measure of earthly comfort, that we can obtain for them; so justifying the lying libel on humanity, long since spoken, and still often sneeringly quoted, that every man has his price?