already incurred. But, after all, that on which we finally decide has
not sprung from our own wishes. It subjects those wishes to itself.
Standing over against us, it summons us to do its bidding, and allows
us no more to be our own self-directed masters.



XII

Summing up, then, the jarring characteristics of self-sacrifice,--its
frequency, rationality, assertiveness, nearness to self--culture; yes,
and its darker traits of risk, immeasurability, and authoritativeness,
--does it not begin to appear that I have been calling it by a wrong
name? Self-sacrifice is a negative term. It lays stress on the thought
that I set myself aside, become in some way less than I was before. And
no doubt through all this intricate discussion certain belittlements
have been acknowledged, though these have also been shown to lie along
the path of largeness. There are, therefore, in self-sacrifice both
negative and positive elements. But why select its name from the
subordinate part? Why turn to the front its incidental negations? This
is topsy-turvy nomenclature. Better blot the word self-sacrifice from
our dictionaries. Devotion, service, love, dedication to a cause,
--these words mark its real nature and are the only descriptions of it
which its practicers will recognize. That damage to the abstract self
which chiefly impresses the outsider is something of which the
sacrificer is hardly aware. How exquisitely astonished are the men in
the parable when called to receive reward for their generous gifts!
"Lord, when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or thirsty and gave
thee drink? When saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee?"
They thought they had only been following their own desires.