• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 3 20 1918
• Tags:
• advice

GIVE HELP WHERE NEEDED

It seems as though some men never have to fight the battles of coming to their own. Things work their way with a regularity that is surprising. They have the same difficulties to meet as some of their less fortunate brothers, but somehow they win out with apparent ease—never seem to question their right to be in command.

Then again there are others who begin as children, but somehow they seem to lose faith in themselves almost at the outset. As they advance in life, things continue to go from bad to worse, until life seems a failure, and they give up hope of seeing a rift in the clouds that lower with a persistency that is disheartening.

There must be something wrong somewhere when such a condition exists; but just where, is a perplexing question. It may be one of many little things that has started a man on the wrong road, and inability to retrace his course to the point of error had led him deeper into the field of forlorn hope. It is a fact to be regretted that there are many such cases to be found in our travels, and one cannot help feeling a desire to lighten the burden of the unfortunate.

Whether a little lift here and there woula bring about a better prospect—a more hopeful attitude of mind for the other fellow—is somewhat problematical, but at any rate, the least one can do in such cases is to en- gender a spirit of cheer and courage in our ‘‘brother of sorrows,” and let him not think that all the world is against him.

To be sure, this is not asking much of any one. A simple duty to a weaker brother whose labor has been productive of little gain. Our part is to restore a constructive attitude of mind; drive away the thoughts of defeat or failure. This may entail a little labor on our side, but if we do the best we can to lighten another’s burden it will soon show for itself. And the moment it does, the clouds will begin to break away, and, as we look back at it, like the sun shining on a mountain peak, it will reflect its life giving warmth far and wide. And we can never tell how much the kindly word may help ‘‘the weak to courage and the faint to hope.”