The Reward of Loving
The following passage is adapted from a sermon given in 1871 in Brooklyn, NY, called "The Reward of Loving." Henry Ward Beecher was the most famous preacher in America and throughout Europe at this point in time.
Adapted and Edited by Matthew Hernandez, Independent Journalist
History is never done depicting those men who could live in deprivation- who could live hungry, thirsty, and needy. Men who could live persecuted and outcast. Men who were greater than the age in which they lived. We need such men now. Men strong enough to make necessary sacrifices now, even though that effort may not deliver benefits for a decade. In this sacrifice and fortitude, we have raised our conception of manhood upon the very possibility of patient struggle, and finding a positive frame of mind in the midst of suffering.
We do not bring up our children to the idea that a truly happy life is a life in which they are not obliged to learn anything. What do you think of children to whom it is said, every day, “Your father is rich; why do you study a profession? If I were in your place, I would not trouble myself to prepare for any pursuit. I would take life easy. I would not bear any burdens.” Everybody knows that he who listens to such counsel is foolish. He is a candidate for destruction if he does not feel the necessity, or understand the wisdom, of doing something useful.
The idea of secular and social development should be that a man in order to prosper should be able to bear something, to endure something, to achieve something, to deny himself, and to live with control over his lower nature in favor of his higher nature. Self control should be one of lowest conceptions in education towards mastering oneself; but it ought not to stop there. Before the child goes out in life he is disciplined more or less in the family; but the moment he is broken off from the parent tree, and stands by his own root, every ambitious and energetic young person longs for the chance to try his endurance. See how men will go, and gladly go, to China, and India; see how they will swelter through a score of years, bearing fevers, and annoyances, and absence from home, and heart-sickness; see how they will work during all this time, and in the midst of all these sufferings—and for what? That at the end of these years they may be able to return home victorious.
How do we find men rising early, toiling late, and sacrificing all the ease of life, for the sake of the future? They are building up that which they desire to attain in their imagination and so long as they have hope of reaching it, they are willing to go twenty years or more, dressing poorly, eating plainly, and toiling severely. If men have hope they shall have rest, or that they shall accomplish the purpose at which they aim, and they will cheerfully take hardship, and self-denial, and even pain.
We are content with hoping for future pleasures or benefits. For the sake of that which we see in the lower life, we are willing to deny ourselves and to endure, if we only have a reasonable hope of gaining it at last.
Honesty, sincerity, affectionate, kindness toward one another, truthfulness, industry, frugality—these qualities have, from the beginning of the world, averaged more happiness than any other qualities, although revolutions have struck through them becoming subject to great exceptions apparently.
We still see that bad men have all that heart could wish. Their eyes stand out with fatness. There are no bonds in their life or death. They are unrestrained and lawless both in living and dying. They are proud and snobbish. But we see on the other hand, that their career comes to an end very suddenly.
If a man wants to live only for himself; then truth is more precious to him than all other things. Upon examining his heart, you shall find that his life is not easy to him; that ambition and aspiration in all facets, no matter what, things are continually bringing him into conflict with his surroundings, with himself, with his fellows; and that his life is perpetually clouded, and watered by his own tears.
It is to those who have true love for others, that all things should work together for good. They do not regard all their good as secular. A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. His good lies in his affections. In the household, the soul's riches give only that which everlastingly the soul desires; peace, happiness, and the confidence which love breeds.
It is only in truly loving their fellow man, that they know what the whole world-life is worth. After all, love is the wine of existence. When you have taken that, you have taken the most precious drop that there is in the cluster. When one has risen to the experience of love, and then learned how to abide in it, why can he not very calmly say, ‘I care not what happens: I have the only thing which makes life itself of any value in my soul, as a life and as a power.’
This is the love which makes the darkest places bright, and out of its own reverberating happiness comes back again to the source from whence it sprang.
We are like dumb beasts that come from the mines bearing precious ores and stones of priceless value but do not know what they carry. Teach us to rise above the selfishness of our own personality. May we not seek everything for ourselves, for all things are ours in the greater sphere. Grant that we may so live that every day we shall have thy presence cheering us, and saying to us, "All things shall work together for good to them that love God." Take something from this, whatever it means to you and feverishly work to achieve what you wish to see in the world.