I have always been very impatient of processes and
institutions which said that their purpose was to put every man in the
way of developing his character. My advice is: Do not think about your
character. If you will think about what you ought to do for other
people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a
by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his
own case will become a selfish prig. The only way your powers can become
great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow,
special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Christianity.
Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no
man is a true Christian who does not think constantly of how he can lift
his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind,
how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he
lives. An association merely of young men might be an association that
had its energies put forth in every direction, but an association of
Christian young men is an association meant to put its shoulders under
the world and lift it, so that other men may feel that they have
companions in bearing the weight and heat of the day; that other men may
know that there are those who care for them, who would go into places of
difficulty and danger to rescue them, who regard themselves as their
brother's keeper.
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