Both theories as ultimate beliefs are wrong, yet each has some truth in
its conclusion.
By taking the words "Eternity" and "Present" and saying that both mean
everything, we avoid extremes and form a truth that is rational, and
harmonious to good reason.
The man who says that the present is all, does so because he is an
utilitarian. He reasons from the definite and the seeable, and refuses
to believe in the abstract. Anything that is outside the sphere of his
vision and action is of little concern to him.
The man who says eternity is all, wastes a golden opportunity and warps
himself into a miserable hermit.
Life is irrevocable. Every act in our life is placed, set, and fixed.
Every act goes in the record book of yesterday, and it cannot be
changed.
Acts that hurt others will rebound and hurt us. Deeds that help others
will rebound and help us. This much is certain.
There is a future, I believe that. There is a God, I believe that.
Just what the future is, and just what God is, I do not know in perfect
detail.
Reward for good and punishment for evil is part of God's plan, and I am
conscious of this truth.
I know that justice prevails in this life, and this life is what I am
living now.
[Sidenote: The Good That Lies at Hand.]
If I live and act to-day in accordance with what I sincerely believe is
in tune with God's purpose, I shall, in my future estate, benefit by
those acts. If I live and act to-day in disregard of all around me,
selfishly catering to my personal desires and believing that eternity is
everything and the present nothing, I am neglecting the opportunity to
do good now in the hope of a future personal reward, the very nature of
which is unknowable. I shall therefore strive to do, and to be,
right--to be kind, helpful, cheery and smiling now, for the reward such
acts bring now.
And I shall doubtless have as good a record and passport to the future
as the man who suffers now and lives only upon his selfish hope of the
future.
His is the faith of fear, mine the faith of reason in the all-wise,
all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing Ruler of the universe, who gave me
my life, my brain, my reason, which I am trying to use, as well as my
limitations will permit, in helping myself and helping others to smile,
to be happy, to be serene, to be confident, to be competent, to be
useful.
Everything lives and dies in accordance with the plan of the Creator of
the Universe, and you are an atom and I am an atom in that Universe,
which is governed by a power too big and too great for us to
comprehend.
Verily we presume when we say: "We have all the truth; think as we do or
you are lost."
The old world has not told its full story. The Universe of which this
world is a part is still a deep, unfathomable mystery.
We shall not know all truth until the great revealing time.
[Sidenote: The Use of To-day.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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