Music Talks With Children

<h2 id="id00242" style="margin-top: 4em">CHAPTER XI.</h2> <h5 id="id00243">THE LIGHT ON THE PATH.</h5> <p id="id00244" style="margin-top: 2em"> "Let us seek service and be helpers of one another."</p> <p id="id00245">"Master," said the little child, "I am unhappy. Though I have companions and games, they do not content me. Even the music which I love above all the rest is not truly in my heart; nor is it the pleasure to me which it should be. What am I to do?"</p> <p id="id00246">And the master replied:</p> <p id="id00247">"There is a task, the greatest and severest of all. But a child must learn it. Thou must know <i>from the first days</i>, that all thou doest and sayest, whither thou goest, what thou seekest; these, all these, come from within. All that is seen of thee is of thy inner life. All thy doings, thy goings and comings, thy ways and thy desires, these are from within. And when all these things <i>are for thyself</i> there is misery.</p> <p id="id00248">"Now there are many things which may not be had by directly seeking them; of these the greatest are two. The one is that which already has given thee sadness in the heart,—the Light of the Face. And the other is happiness.</p> <p id="id00249">"But there is a way in which these are to be found. Dost thou not know that often, even with much trouble, thou canst not please thyself? But always, <i>with little trouble or none</i>, thou canst please another.</p> <p id="id00250">"And the way is Service.</p> <p id="id00251">"Thou poor little one! Thou hast come with thy complaint of unhappiness; and yet thou hast all that is bright and rare; companions, and music, and a dear home. Dost thou know that there are in the world uncounted poor ones, children like thyself, who have not their daily bread? And yet there are many of them who never fail to say: 'Lead us not into temptation.' And they say this <i>without having tasted</i> of the daily bread for which they have been taught to pray.</p> <p id="id00252">"And thou? Thou art unhappy. And thy daily bread is set before thee with music and with sunshine.</p> <p id="id00253">"Yet there are little ones, like thyself, who are hungry in the darkness.</p> <p id="id00254">"And thou? Thou art unhappy."</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />