Chapter 64—Unselfish Service
Those who, so far as it is possible, engage in the work of doing
good to others by giving practical demonstration of their interest in
them, are not only relieving the ills of human life in helping them bear
their burdens, but are at the same time contributing largely to their
own health of soul and body. Doing good is a work that benefits both
giver and receiver. If you forget self in your interest for others, you
gain a victory over your infirmities. The satisfaction you will realize
in doing good will aid you greatly in the recovery of the healthy tone
of the imagination.
The pleasure of doing good animates the mind and vibrates through
the whole body. While the faces of benevolent men are lighted up with
cheerfulness, and their countenances express the moral elevation of the
mind, those of selfish, stingy men are dejected, cast down, and gloomy.
Their moral defects are seen in their countenances. Selfishness and
self-love stamp their own image upon the outward man.
That person who is actuated by true disinterested benevolence is a
partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust; while the selfish and avaricious have cherished
their selfishness until it has withered their social sympathies, and their
countenances reflect the image of the fallen foe rather than that of
purity and holiness.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:534
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