32
THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
than the life that you enjoy here, if the old way sometimes seems dis-
as eful enrich it all with joy of service; count it a privilege to give to
\our father s people the best that has come to you. Your lives will
grow strong and noble if you live the life of service and find joy in
sacrifice; they will grow narrow and base if you live in rebellion and
think only of your selfish inter sts.
All that is good in the world has come from sacrifice and service, and
the manger in Bethlehem has been the cradle of it all. Human life was
cheap and mean before Jesus Christ came to teach how divine it was
He put a new value upon it and gave us new conceptions of its possi
bilities Before he came the Roman armies went to war just to capture
men and women to sell as slaves; and they found it a profitable busi
ness. The slaves were sold on the battlefield to the highest bidder for
an at erage price of about $75. Caesar, after one battle, sold 53 000
men and women. After the victories of Lucullus in Pontus the pris
oners were so numerous that the market was over supplied, and the
price topped to 80c a head. We cannot estimate the debt we owe ta
Jesus Christ We can begin to pay it only by giving ourselves to him
and letting him enrich our lives with the same spirit of service.
A few years ago, before the use of anti-toxin for diptheria, the Lon
don Spectator printed the following news item and comment- "The
medical world has reason to be proud of one of its members who died
tins week in consequence of a really heroic act performed in the course
of his professional duty. Dr. Samuel Robert!,, a young man of 27
years of age, found on Friday that a child, four years of age, in the
Royal tre e Hospital, must die of diptlieria unless the suffocating mem
branes were sucked away through the tube. And he risked and lost
his own life through diptheria in the attempt to save the child’s, which
he did not succeed in saving after all. The risk is not one which pro
fessional etiquette m any way required him to run, but he ran it in his
of theT hT a,"df'°,Ve ° f Ser' iCe' and he ° Ught to be m em bered as one
oi the noblest of the martyrs of duty ”
rack ;hn7 e a r l ’ ° ° tl"'eesurgeonsof the A-neriean army, in the bar-
ack 10. miles from Havana, were trying to combat the ravages of yel
low fever. Soldiers were sick and dying, and they were then to find
ev-erveCretS ‘ v " “ ,d'SeaSe tha‘ W3S earryin8 off thousands of people
very year. Now they were trying to learn whether the bite of the
mosquito carried the disease from the sick to the well. The insects
were to be watched within screened rooms, and after biting a fever pa
tient were allowed to bite a we" man. Before they could ask for vol
unteers for such a dangerous experiment the doctors themselves must
witit'D, l’1'
J,anleS Carr°‘ a"°"'ed ° ne bite '’¡nt. was stricken
with the disease and recovered. While he was sick Dr. Lagear sat by