What Jesus Taught

by Osborne J. P. Widtsoe

The fable of the body and its members.

In the ancient book of wisdom ascribed to Aesop, there may be found the following fable with its moral: "The Members of the Body once rebelled against him. They said he led an idle, lazy life at their expense. The Hands declared that they would not again lift a crust even to keep him from starving, the Mouth that it would not take a bit more food, the Legs that they would carry him about no longer, and so on with the others.

"The Body quietly allowed them to follow their own courses, well knowing that they would all soon come to their senses, as indeed they did, when, for want of the blood and nourishment supplied from the stomach, they found themselves fast becoming mere skin and bone.

"No one can live to himself."

The time of Aesop.

Aesop lived in the long ago. Tradition declares that he was born five hundred and fifty years before the time of Jesus. But already in that remote age men had learned to appreciate the value of organizing themselves into communities and churches and governments. Already, men had discovered that to live to oneself was to fight alone a losing fight against all the forces of the world.

The growth of society.

From the time that Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, and their children began to settle two and two in the land to till it and to cultivate it, man has understood the advantages of friendly association. First it was the family. The family has always been, and is still the actual basis of society. The members of the family clung together, and each one worked for the interest of the whole. Then, when the families increased they became associated in clans and tribes. Then, with the increase of population, came the organization of communities, religious association, governments. For protection, for worship, for education, for commerce and trade, for civilization, men have banded themselves together, and have worked for larger units, of which the individuals were but members. Only by such banding together can a community become socially efficient.

A football squad.

Now, we may easily understand what this means if we apply the principle to the organization of a football squad. There are eleven men, you know, in the "team." One of them is the captain. When the squad is in action, playing hard against an opposing team, no single man can hope alone to win the game. The strength of the squad depends upon its team work. While each individual must put forth the best that is in him, whether in bucking the line or in playing the open field, that best must be so directed as to add to the sum total of the strength and efficiency of the united eleven. No member of that team may live or play to himself. And the orders of the captain must be obeyed. Some player in the line may think the orders poor—wholly wrong in fact—yet he must obey those orders. If he does not, he will go down to ruin himself, and he may possibly drag his team with him to shame and disaster. For, as is clearly evident, when he neglects to follow the command of the captain, he stands alone; the other ten obey orders. Alone he can accomplish nothing. Nor is that the worst; by disobeying orders, he may spoil the premeditated play and lose the game. The football man is required to learn, therefore, that he is only a member of a body; that he must act with the body; that if he attempts to act in opposition to the body calamity is sure to follow; that success can come only through concerted effort. The football squad is an organization of society for efficiency.