Reading from Ourselves has been a bit sporadic lately, but I’m trying to buckle down and finish it by the end of the year. Then perhaps I can finally read Formation of Character in 2019.
I appreciate how these words on helping others from Book II, Part I, Chapter XVI respect the personhood of both the giver and the receiver:
In this matter, as in so many others, we err through the lack of an instructed conscience. It behoves each of us to lay ourselves out for instruction, to read, inquire, think, to look about us for a way of acting, believing –
That Circumstance, a sacred oracle,
Speaks with the voice of God to faithful souls;and it is usually in our way, and not by going out of our way, that we shall find the particular piece of brotherly work appointed for us to do.
But we must keep our eyes open: the right thing is never obtrusive, and we may pass it by without observation. We must bear three things in mind. We must get a wide care and knowledge concerning the needs of men; we must devote ourselves, with understanding, to some particular effort for the needy; and, in all our endeavours, we must bear in mind our Master’s way: What wouldst thou that I should do unto thee? he asked; and let us believe that charitable efforts, which go against the grain of the persons benefited, miss that principle of love which alone gives us a right to do service to others.
