SELF-DEDICATION 153

whom there is a spark of His own Divine Fire.
The idea is grotesque. Sacrifice is giving. Is
not giving the greatest pleasure in life ? The
greater the gift, the greater the pleasure. If
then we give ourselves, how great the joy ! And
what greater joy than to pour oneself out in
service for the good of humanity.

Maeterlinck's book, The Bee, gives us a
beautiful thought. The bee sacrifices its life
in preparing for the new life that is to be
brought forth. We see this constantly in
nature. A plant gives out its entire life to
produce seed, in preparing for the new life
which is to come. In a sense sacrifice is of
this nature, for sacrifice in any form gives new
life. It is the death of some thing that some
thing may live. Death stripped of all its horror
in the joy of birth that is to be. Self-dedication
is of this nature. It is the beginning of self-
sacrifice, elimination of the self, that the Self,
the immortal part of us, may be realised. To
those who are awakened to the glory of sacri-
fice let not a day pass, there is no time to be lost,
for in the purpose of the world's evolution all
hands are needed. The world at the moment is
in the throes of a new birth, an opportunity for
all to help, if in the new birth we are to have a