Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/227

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

Social Service

THE SOCIAL SERVANT

What are those qualifications? I imagine I could almost repeat to you the qualifications that I described this morning to the students in the Y. M. C. A. Hall, because they are of universal application, and they are necessary for any class of work, and much more so in social service at this time of that day in our national life, in our dear country. It seems to me that we do require truth in the one hand and fearlessness in the other hand. Unless we carry the torchlight of truth we shall not see the state in front, and unless we carry the quality of fearlessness we shall not be able to give the message that we might want to give on proper occasions, when the occasion for testing us comes, and such occasions do not occur so often as they might imagine they come but rarely. They are special privileges, and unless we have this fearlessness, I feel sure that when that supreme final test comes we shall be found wanting; and then I ask, and I ask you to ask yourselves, whether those of you, who are engaged in this service and those of you, who want hereafter to engage in this service, have these two qualities. But let me remind you

107