We cannot change the pages of the millions of years gone by. We can do
every little to change the pages of the millions of years to come. What
little we can do, we can only do TO-DAY. To-day is yours and mine; let's
do the best we can with our possession in act and thought and word.
The sun goes down behind the sky-line on the West as it has done for
millions of years. I lay aside my pen with a bigger view, a deeper
appreciation of the Creator, and a profounder faith in His wisdom and
works than ever.
God made. God rules. God plans. And verily, we are weaklings and foolish
who presume by selfish prayer to suggest to Him what He shall do.
Let us strive to be appreciative of Him; let us try to lift ourselves to
the sublime plane of realizing that we are part of Him and His plan, and
that failure is impossible to us, if we keep up and on, doing good,
speaking softly, dealing gently, showing kindness to-day, and living in
accordance with the big, broad, generous, charitable plan instead of in
the little, bigoted, narrow, selfish, conceited idea that we are sole
possessors of truth and that the man who differs with us in belief is in
error.
This chapter is about big things, and in it is a big moral for all who
are big enough to grasp it.
42.
"I believe in him because he is so sincere."
[Sidenote: Sincerity and Truth.]
You've heard that, haven't you? I never could understand how a sensible
person could use such logic. Sincerity is no evidence of truth. The
Hindu mother is sincere when she throws her babe to the crocodiles, but
her sincerity is no proof that by this sacrifice she is sure of her
salvation.
The Christian Scientist is sincere in the belief that medicines do not
cure diseases. The doctor is equally sincere in his belief that
medicines do cure disease.
The Theosophist is sincere, the Atheist, the Agnostic, the Christian,
the Pagan, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Sunworshipper, the
Republican, the Democrat, the Progressive, the Prohibitionist, the
Brewer, all these are sincere in their beliefs. And as these beliefs are
different, it is common sense to say that no one creed, sect, belief,
branch, dogma or system includes or embodies all truth.
[Sidenote: No Monopoly on Truth.]
It is true that every channel or avenue we meet in life's travel has
some truth, but it is not for you or me to assume that we are the sole
possessors of wisdom and the real discoverers of all truth. We must not
take the conclusions we arrive at and expect to force the world to
accept without protest our rules for conduct, our methods for living,
our practices for morals, or our beliefs for their guidance.
Converts to new doctrines, new issues, new cults, and to the old ones,
too, are made largely because the ambassadors or proselyters seem so
fervid and sincere in expounding what they claim is the definite truth.
The believers in a cult or code of ethics are auto-hypnotized; their
visions are narrowed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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