Yet Paul does not summon us to give up our rights. Love strikes
much deeper. It would have us not seek them at all, ignore them,
eliminate the personal element altogether from our calculations.

It is not hard to give up our rights. They are often eternal. The
difficult thing is to give up OURSELVES. The more difficult thing
still is not to seek things for ourselves at all. After we have
sought them, bought them, won them, deserved them, we have taken
the cream off them for ourselves already. Little cross then to
give them up. But not to seek them, to look every man not on his
own things, but on the things of others--that is the difficulty.
"Seekest thou great things for thyself?" said the prophet; "SEEK
THEM NOT." Why? Because there is no greatness in THINGS. Things
cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even
self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a
great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste.

It is more difficult, I have said, not to seek our own at all
than, having sought it, to give it up. I must take that back. It
is only true of a partly selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship to
Love, and nothing is hard. I believe that Christ's "yoke" is easy.
Christ's yoke is just His way of taking life. And I believe it is
an easier way than any other. I believe it is a happier way than
any other. The most obvious lesson in Christ's teaching is that
there is no happiness in having and getting anything, but only in
giving. I repeat, THERE IS NO HAPPINESS IN HAVING OR IN GETTING,
BUT ONLY IN GIVING. Half the world is on the wrong scent in the
pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting,
and in being served by others. It consists in giving, and in