The Power of Truth: Individual Problems and PossibilitiesJordan, William George
Philosophy
The Power of Truth: Individual Problems and Possibilities
Jordan, William George
Conduct of life
Truth is the oldest of all the virtues; it antedated man, it lived
before there was man to perceive it or to accept it. It is the
unchangeable, the constant. Law is the eternal truth of Nature—the
unity that always produces identical results under identical
conditions. When a man discovers a great truth in Nature he has the key
to the understanding of a million phenomena; when he grasps a great
truth in morals he has in it the key to his spiritual re-creation. For
the individual, there is no such thing as theoretic truth; a great
truth that is not absorbed by our whole mind and life, and has not
become an inseparable part of our living, is not a real truth to us. If
we know the truth and do not live it, our life is—a lie.
In speech, the man who makes Truth his watchword is careful in his
words, he seeks to be accurate, neither understating nor over-coloring.
He never states as a fact that of which he is not sure. What he says
has the ring of sincerity, the hallmark of pure gold. If he praises
you, you accept his statement as "net," you do not have to work out
a problem in mental arithmetic on the side to see what discount you
ought to make before you accept his judgment. His promise counts for
something, you accept it as being as good as his bond, you know that no
matter how much it may cost him to verify and fulfil his word by his
deed, he will do it. His honesty is not policy. The man who is honest
merely because it is "the best policy," is not really honest, he is
only politic. Usually such a man would forsake his seeming loyalty to
truth and would work overtime for the devil—if he could get better
terms.
Truth means "that which one troweth or believes." It is living simply
and squarely by our belief; it is the externalizing of a faith in a
series of actions. Truth is ever strong, courageous, virile, though
kindly, gentle, calm, and restful. There is a vital difference between
error and untruthfulness. A man may be in error and yet live bravely by
it; he who is untruthful in his life knows the truth but denies it. The
one is loyal to what he believes, the other is traitor to what he knows.
"What is Truth?" Pilate's great question, asked of Christ nearly two
thousand years ago, has echoed unanswered through the ages. We get
constant revelations of parts of it, glimpses of constantly new phases,
but never complete, final definition. If we but live up to the truth
that we know, and seek ever to know more, we have put ourselves into
the spiritual attitude of receptiveness to know Truth in the fullness
of its power. Truth is the sun of morality, and like that lesser sun
in the heavens, we can walk by its light, live in its warmth and life,
even if we see but a small part of it and receive but a microscopic
fraction of its rays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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