“All things that ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
This rule is called Golden, because it is so precious. I know a book that is called “The Golden Treasury,” because it is made up of the best poems in the English language.
When Saint John saw the City of God in a vision, it seemed to him that every street was paved with pure gold.
If you learn to keep this rule of life, you will grow up to know what it means to walk in those golden streets.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Golden Rule, and there is no one who ever lived who kept it like He did. If He ever saw anyone in trouble, He put Himself in his place and helped him out of it, just as He would have liked others to do for Him.
If we could get the Golden Rule carried out, there would be an end to everything that is bad. The other day there was a man who tied up a cow to the stall, and then thrashed her cruelly. But when they brought a rope and a big stick to do the same to him, he objected. There would be an end of all unkind treatment of dumb animals, if men kept the Golden Rule. There would be no more thieving, because no one would steal from another, unless he wanted the other to steal from him.
It is a simple rule for us to understand. All we have to ask ourselves is, what should we like someone else to do to us? We don’t like pain; well, don’t give it. We do like things that give us pleasure; well, do them.
Two boys were playing on the heath. The bigger boy put the other one’s shoe into the pond. The little chap pulled it out. To give more annoyance, the other lad pushed the shoe further in. Then a man interfered, and rescued it. But the poor little youngster went home crying because his shoe was soaked. I don’t call that fun, I call it silliness and unkindness.
Abraham Lincoln, when he was a boy, was serving in a shop. He sold a woman eight shillings’ worth of goods. He took her money, and gave her change. When she had gone, he found that he had given her sixpence too little. It was evening time, so he locked up the shop, trudged two miles to the place where she lived, and gave it back to her. That was what he would have liked her to do for him, so he did it for her.
We should make people kind, and we should make them honest, if we could get them to keep the Golden Rule.
There were two boys in a school who proved themselves the best swimmers in a lot of races. So they had to swim a final race for the prize. One of them came forward with a request that the race be put off for a quarter of an hour. There was no reason given, but the request was granted. Then the judge thought he would like to find out the reason. He was told that the second boy had been seized with cramp, and that his rival had been generous enough to ask for more time, so that he could have a chance to get over it. And the generous lad was discovered in one of the tents rubbing his rival down so as to make him as vigorous as possible for the race. That was what he would have liked the other to do for him, if he had had the cramp.
Ah! if only we could get this beautiful rule carried out, what a different world it would be! Truly, it is the Golden Rule.
I see good things painted sometimes over doors and over mantel-pieces. This ought to be painted in golden letters. Paint it how you like on the tablets of your heart. Only, do not forget it.