The Higher Powers of Mind and SpiritTrine, Ralph Waldo
Religion
The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit
Trine, Ralph Waldo
Mind and body; New Thought
For the safety therefore of the better life of the world, for the very
safety and welfare of the Society of Nations, those nations that combine
strength with goodness, strength with good-will, strength with an
ever-growing sense of mutuality, which is the only law of a happy,
orderly, and advancing human life, must combine to check the power of
any people or nation still devoid of the knowledge of this law, lest
goodness, truth and all the higher instincts and potentialities of life,
even freedom itself perish from the earth. This can be done and must be
done not through malice or hatred, but through a sense of right and
duty.
There is no more diabolical, no more damnable ambition on the part of
individuals, organizations or nations than to rule, to gain domination
over the minds and the lives of others either for the sake of power and
domination or for the material gain that can be made to flow therefrom.
As a rule, however, it is both. There is nothing more destructive to
the higher moral and ethical life of the individual or the organization
controlled by this desire, nothing so destructive to the life of the one
or ones so dominated, and as a consequence to the life of society itself
as this evil and prostituting desire and purpose.
Where this has become the clearly controlling motive, malignant and
deep-seated, if in the case of a nation, then it is the duty of those
nations that combine strength with character, strength with goodness, to
combine to check the evil wrought by such a nation. If by persuasion and
good-will, well and good. If not, then through the exercise of a
restraining force. This is not contrary to the law of love, for the love
of the good is the controlling motive. It is only thus that the higher
moral law which for its growth and consummation is dependent upon
individuals, can grow and gain supremacy in the world.
Intellectual independence and acumen, combined with a love of truth,
goodness, righteousness, love and service for others, is the greatest
aid there can be in carrying out the Divine plan and purpose in the
world. The sword of love therefore becomes the sword of righteousness
that cuts out the cancerous growth that is given from to by malignant
ill will; the sword of righteousness that strikes down slavery and
oppression; the sword of righteousness therefore that becomes the sword
of civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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