Generosity
ave you ever observed how
invari-
ably your "last dollar" is restored
to you, with additions, when you
have given it for some worthy pur-
pose?
Even if the purpose did not
prove to be a worthy one, yet if you thought it
so, and gave your last dollar with spontaneous
sympathy and good will, you were not long left
penniless.
Money is much like a man. If you do not
hold it too jealously it returns to you the more
readily.
Never hesitate to give aid where you feel
there is sore and pressing need, for fear you will
be left in want yourself. You will not be.
This does not mean that indiscriminate char-
ity is commendable. It does not mean that you
should lend money to everyone who asks, or lift
and carry the burdens of everyone who is ready
to lean upon you.
It is as wrong to encourage the man addicted
to the vice of borrowing, as the one with the
vice of alcohol or drugs.
One depends upon his acquaintances to tide
him over hard places, instead of upon his own
strength of character, and the other depends
upon stimulants for the same purpose. The too
ready leader is almost as great as evil to human-
ity as rum or opium, since he too helps a man to
kill his own better nature and destroy his self-
respect.
If you were able and willing to pay rents of
all the poor people you know, and clothe their
children, you would soon produce a condition of
settled pauperism among them. Large and fre-
quent favors of a financial nature are an injury
to anyone, even if it is your son or brother.
Let no man lean on anyone save God and his
own divine self.
But little helps, when they are unexpected,
arouse hope and awaken new faith and new
ambition in a discouraged soul.
Look about you for such souls, the worn and
weary father of a brood of hungry children, the
widow struggling with adverse fate in an effort
to clothe and educate a child, the tired shop girl
who uses all her earnings to sustain her parents,
the ambitious boy or girl eager for a chance in
life, and the poor couple or invalid seeking
health. You will find them all about you. Do
not be afraid to use a dollar here or there to
give these worthy ones a happy surprise, no
matter how poor you are.
It is an insult to the Opulent Creator to sup-
pose you will suffer want and poverty if you help
those who are in temporary misfortune.
You will not.
Ofttimes we read and hear of the open-handed
generous man who "helped everybody," and who
"never refused to aid a needy brother," and who
ended his life in penury because of his generosity.
Never believe these tales until you investigate
them. Invariably you will find not generosity
but extravagance and utter lack of forethought,
caused the man's financial ruin.
I recall a gifted young woman who gave freely
to all who asked her assistance and who died a
lingering death as a charity patient in a a hospital.
Yet this young woman had expended ten dol-
lars on foolish and rapid living where she gave
one in charity; it was her wasteful extravagance,
not her open heart of sympathy, which made her
a pauper.
It has been my observation that dollars
planted in the soil of benevolence grow into har-
vests of prosperity. The man who is not afraid
to use his small means to assist others need
not fear poverty.
The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Chicago : The Psychic Research Company, c1902.
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