(Job 16:4; Matthew 7:12)

In Mark Twain’s story, The Prince and the Pauper, by a strange trick of fate, the haughty, pampered young heir to Britain’s throne and a ragged, uncouth beggar lad of the streets swap places. So much alike are they in appearance that, for months the Pauper lives in the castle as the Prince, and the real Prince wanders abroad in his realm as an abused and mistreated beggar. Finally, the case of mistaken identity is straightened out — just in the nick of time, and the real Prince is crowned King. The story tells how “all the King’s short reign is tempered with the mercy and pity which in his misfortunes he so often desired and so seldom received.” The story shows that the secret of this monarch’s wise, benevolent, and glorious rule was that he had learned how actually to put himself in the other fellow’s place. So he was a whale of a success as a king.

Mark Twain’s story is a parable of life. It dramatizes this fundamental fact of human existence; we, each one, can make a success of our lives only as we learn to get out of ourselves and put ourselves in the other fellow’s place.

Jesus said: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.” The law of God and the teachings of the prophets is summed up in this golden rule of life: “Put yourself in the other fellow’s place. Imagine how you would like to be treated were you a member of an underprivileged race or group, sick, hungry, or in sorrow. Then do to and for the unfortunate ones in life what you would like to have done to and for yourself were you in similar circumstances.”

This principle lies at the root of the divine law as written in the Ten Commandments. In the book of Deuteronomy, after the recording of the 4^th Commandment with its provisions for a day of rest and worship for all men — including servants, slaves, and even animals — these words are added: “And remember that thou was’t a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord commandeth thee to keep the Sabbath day.” The appeal is to the basic humanitarian principle — “Put yourself in the other fellow’s place. Remember you were once servants yourselves in Egypt. The Lord brought you out and freed you. Now remember how it feels to be a servant — to work for the other fellow. Be considerate. Give him some free time for rest and his spiritual development. Put yourself in the other fellow’s place.”

That magnificent organization for the training and development of boys — the Boy Scout movement, whose 38^th anniversary we celebrate this week, recognizes and makes capital use of this principle in its program. Each boy pledges himself to do his good turn for someone who needs his services without expecting or accepting any pay. To each Scout this is taught in the laboratory of real experience, to put himself daily in the other fellow’s place.

The successful solution of most of our social problems would come from a sincere application of the principle. Our problem can be solved only if and when the people with white skins will put themselves in the place of the people who have black or brown skins, and then speak and act as they would like to be spoken to and treated were they colored people.

“About ten years ago, two members of the Janie Tuttle Missionary Society in Thomasville, N.C., decided to take some Sunday school and missionary literature to the parsonage of a Negro church. The pastor’s wife seemed surprised to meet them. When she was told of their errand she threw open the door wide and said: ‘The Lord sent you. We have prayed for help and now our prayers are answered.’ The pastor told them that he had been trying to start a little playground to keep the children away from some disagreeable places on the streets. When the woman related this story to their missionary societies, the societies voted to sponsor a small playground for Negro children.” (Repairers of the Breach) But this was just a beginning. There followed in rapid succession much needed repairs in church, school, and sanctuary, and the organization of Boy and Girl Scout troops. All because two women put themselves in the other fellow’s place.

The successful solution of problems in our industrial relations comes when we begin to put ourselves in the other fellow’s place. Speaking before the annual meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers recently, Charles L. Stillwell, president of Warner and Swazey Co., said: “We managers are going to have to make up for a point in which we have failed — failed to give our men the sense of importance which is the greatest driving force in the world. Because of our failure, they have looked for it and found it elsewhere — on union committees, in anti-business lecture halls, on picket lines. Let’s put ourselves in the other fellow’s place,” says Mr. Stillwell. “If you got no satisfaction out of your job as employer, if you had no pride in the sense of accomplishment, if you didn’t feel yourself a vital part of a dynamic organization, all the pay you would get would be money. Take away all those things that make up your compensation, and every one of you would demand that your pay be doubled, because money would be all that was left.”

Put yourself in the other fellow’s place — this is the way to transform our social order. But that is not all.

The successful solution for most of our personal problems, yea, our personality problems, will come only from our sincere application of this principle. We, each one, need to learn to put ourselves in the other fellow’s place, not only in order to help the other fellow, but also in order to help ourselves: to find deliverance from the horror and misery of selfishness. “A person all wrapped up in himself is a pretty small package.” “It is a law of life that one will achieve happiness in the proportion that he is able to empty himself of self.” (Olsen) Unselfishness, thinking of others, putting one’s self in the other fellow’s place, leads to happiness, while selfishness is the way to misery.

“The wife of Dr. Alexis Carel found how true this was at Lourdes. One day she lifted a patient, dying from cancer of the throat, that the dying one might breathe easier; but as the patient was gasping her last, Ms. Carel forgot herself completely in the suffering of the other patients around her. She began praying for them and, in the process of praying for others, became well herself.

“The timid public speaker is one who thinks more of himself than of his message (or of his hearers and their needs). Yet this same speaker, if he could step outside himself and think with enthusiasm, not of himself, but of his ideas (and other people’s needs), would become powerful and effective.” (Olsen — First Steps in Prayer)

Oh, the need for this gift of sympathy, of trying to put our soul in the other soul’s stead, in the less dramatic experiences, even in the most prosaic relationships of the home — the need there is desperate. I heard a woman say the other day — “I’m not at all sympathetic with my husband in his work. I stop him when he starts talking about his problems and troubles at home.”

I sought my soul,

But my soul I could not see;

I sought my God,

But my God eluded me;

I sought my brother,

And I found all three.

But so often we pervert this principle, of putting ourselves in the other fellow’s place, from a sincere sympathy to a self-righteous moralizing. The classic example of such hypocritical sympathy is, of course, Job and his comforters. Poor Job is bankrupt, bereft of all his children, dying of an incurable disease — and his friends come to see him. One of them, Eliphaz, speaks: “Now, were I in your place,” says Eliphaz, and oily complacency oozes out of the very words. “Were I in your place, I would repent of my sins and ask God’s forgiveness.”

Dr. Halford Luccock says: “The fact that Job restrained himself from a joyous, justifiable homicide is a true measure of greatness.” These words are a perfect expression of that fake imagining of oneself in another’s place for purposes of harsh, blind judgment and self-gratification. That is one of the most irritating things in the world.

“Eliphaz is the grandee of the economic world lecturing the poor on the virtues of thrift. ‘Were I in your place,’ he says, ‘I would be more industrious and saving. Look at me for instance.’” (Luccock — On Text)

Eliphaz is the fat, warm, well-housed American, responding to the pitiful appeal of Europe’s needy in this hour by saying: “Were I in your place, I would have hanged rather than helped that fellow Hitler. That’s why you are suffering now.” But the sufferers of Europe need, not a lecture, but love.

“On the other hand this phrase, ‘Were I in your place,’ may be, and millions of times has been, the expression of that most divine of all human arts, the art of dramatizing the situation of another person, of slipping the key of a sympathetic imagination into the closed door of his life and entering into his problems and perplexities. ‘Were I in your place,’ one says, and he steps into the other’s place, feeling the mangling of the harrow which does not immediately crush him.” (Luccock — On Text)

’Tis true that the sensitive soul suffers most. That’s why Jesus is called the Man of Sorrows — not just because He died on a cross, but because early in his young manhood He took up His cross of the pain and suffering and misery of the race and carried that cross, not just from Pilate’s judgment hall toward a hill outside the city wall, but daily, all the way from Nazareth to Golgotha.

And that is what Jesus calls you and me to do, to put ourselves in the other fellow’s place, the one who’s underprivileged, who suffers, who’s been beaten down in life — to actually take upon ourselves his troubles and carry his cross. And to those who will, in genuine sympathy, take up that cross and follow Him, Jesus promises, by a remarkable paradox, the peace of God to keep and guard that one’s soul.

Yes, this is the law of life, for you and me. Even now Jesus calls us, as He did the disciples of old: “Come, take up thy cross, and follow me.” Sincerely, genuinely, we must learn to get out of ourselves and into the other fellows’ place.

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

O God who hast formed us for fellowship with one another, and hast sent Thy son to teach us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and has revealed through the truth He spoke, that our neighbor is any man who needs our compassion, charity, and companionship — forgive us our sins against our brethren, our indifference to the needs of others, our selfishness which has refused to share with others the blessings Thou hast showered on us. Forgive us our passing by on the other side when we have seen in the way before us the bleeding, suffering form of our brother, struck down by cruel oppression, racial prejudice, greed and hate.

Grant that our consciences may be so aroused that we may no longer eat the bread of oppression but work together in comradeship and justice. Grant that those in authority and power over their fellows may not use their positions of privilege for selfish advantage but be guided to do justice and love mercy.

O God, who hast bound us together in this bundle of life, give us the grace to understand how our lives depend upon the courage, industry, honesty and the integrity of our fellowmen, that we may be mindful of their needs, grateful for their faithfulness and faithful to our responsibilities to them. We pray for the president of our nation. Help us all to keep open the channels of divine assistance that Thy saving health may be known among our own people and all nations.

Stir now our spirits as well as our lips to pray our Lord’s Prayer — Our Father …

• Scripture Reference: Job 16:4-0 • Secondary Scripture References: Matthew 7:1-12 • Subject : Golden Rule, The; 601 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: n/a • First Preached: 2/8/1948 • Last Preached: 6/21/1955 • Rating: 3 • Book/Author References: First Steps in Prayer, Olsen; The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain; Repairers of the Breach; on Text, Dr. Halford Luccock