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Page 12
No man is ever forced into any course of conduct. Character is the
resultant of many choices rather than of necessity. The moral law may be
obeyed or it may be violated. Its seat is, indeed, in the bosom of God.
It is the only guarantee of individual progress and social harmony. Its
sway is without bound and without end. To know how to live in a moral
world, and how best to use the gifts of liberty, is a subject for an
eternity of study. That this consciousness of freedom comes slowly is an
immense blessing; otherwise the soul would be dazed as, for the first
time, it looked around on the solemnities and splendors of the spiritual
universe; and be overwhelmed as it realized, at the very beginning of
its career, that it was endowed with a sovereignty as mysterious and
potent as that of God.
The next step in the upward movement of the soul is appreciation of a
moral ideal. That is a solemn and sublime moment when the newly awakened
soul realizes that it dwells in a moral order and is free to make its
own choices. But another moment is equally thrilling--that in which, in
faint and scarcely audible accents, it catches the far call of the goal
toward which, henceforward and forever, it must move. It now knows not
only that there is a difference between right and wrong, but that there
are mysterious affinities between itself and truth and right. Later the
sound of that far-away voice will become more distinct. But in its
infancy the soul is more or less confused. It hears many sounds and does
not always know how to distinguish between siren voices and those which
prophesy its destiny. It also has to learn to distinguish truth and
right. The task of making moral discriminations is not easy at any time.
Amid a babel of noises to detect the one clear call which alone can
satisfy is almost impossible. The mistakes, therefore, are many, but
even by mistakes the soul learns to distinguish the true from the false.
But how is it to be taught to appreciate that one voice only in all that
confusion of strange sounds should be heeded, and all the rest
disregarded? The same answer as before must be given. This knowledge,
also, will come in large part with the years. It seems to be the cosmic
purpose to provide fresh light with every new step of progress. No one
is ever left in total darkness. As the soul advances it learns to
distinguish between the voices which speak to it. The necessity of
growth is the angel of the Lord whose ministries and prophecies are the
hope and glory of the race. Growth may be hindered, but it can never be
banished from the universe. It moved in chaos, and never faltered in its
march, until under its beneficent leading all things were seen to be
good. It led the cosmic movement until man appeared; and now it has
taken man in hand, with all the vestiges of animalism clinging to him,
and it will never leave him as he rises toward the perfection and glory
of God. The law of growth answers most if not all of our questions. The
soul of man must grow. With its growth will come vision, strength, and
progress toward its goal.
But growth is not all. The voices to which we choose to give heed will
sound most distinctly in our ears. Here we face a fact which is often in
evidence. The earth and animalism will never cease to make appeal to our
senses, while at the same time voices from above will call from their
heights to our spirits. To distinguish between desire and duty, between
truth and tradition, between the spiritual and the animal, is a step
which has to be taken, and which is taken whether we appreciate how or
not. By the pain which follows wrong choices, or by the intuitions of
the spirit, the soul comes to realize that its obligation is always in
one direction; that its choice ought to be in favor of the morally
excellent. But how shall it discern the morally excellent? The process
of learning will be a long one, and never fully completed on the earth.
This is a realm that poets and dramatists, who are usually the
profoundest and most accurate students of life, have not often tried to
enter. Such questions can be answered only after careful and
long-continued inductive study. Moralists are usually content to stop
short of this inquiry. How the soul comes to learn that it is obligated
to truth and right we may not fully know; but that it does learn, and
that no step in all its development is more important, there is no
doubt. In His dealing with this question Jesus preserves the same
attitude as toward all subjects of speculation. I came not to explain
how life adjusts itself to its environment, He seems to say, but to give
life a richness and a beauty which it never had before; I came not to
answer questions, but to save to the best uses that which already
exists. Nevertheless, the question as to how the soul is taught to
distinguish the morally excellent is of serious importance. If we do not
recognize the sanctity of truth and right we may not give them
hospitality; and we may not appreciate their sanctity if we are ignorant
of what gives them their authority. How, then, does it learn what truth
and right are? Are there any clearly defined paths by which this
knowledge may be reached? Is not truth a matter of education? And is
there any absolute right? A Hindoo Swami, of the school of the Vedanta,
lecturing in this country, solemnly assured an intelligent audience
that there is no sin; that what is called sin is only the result of
education; that what is vice in one place may be virtue in another; and
that in the sphere of morals all is relative and nothing absolute. Then
there is no wrong, for wrong and sin are closely related; and no right
because if right is not a dream it implies the possibility of an
opposite. There is little permanent danger from such shallow theories.
The peril from confusion is greater than from denial. But even confusion
at this point is not long necessary because in every soul there is a
voice which men call conscience, which never fails to impel toward the
true and the good. Conscience may be likened to a compass whose needle
always points toward the north. When it is uninfluenced by distracting
causes conscience always shows the way toward truth and right. The
Spartans believed that lying was a virtue if it was sufficiently
obscure; and a Hindoo woman who throws her child to the god of the
Ganges does so because she is deeply religious. Are not such persons
conscientious? Yet they perform acts which are in themselves wrong? Of
what value, then, is conscience? That they are both conscientious and
religious I have no doubt. It is their misfortune to be ignorant. The
light appears to be colored by the medium through which it passes, and
yet it is not colored; and conscience seems to approve what is wrong,
and yet it never does. It always impels toward the right, but men often
make serious mistakes because of their ignorance. The needle in the
moral compass is deflected by selfishness or false teaching. The Hindoo
mother might hear and, if she dared to listen to it, would hear a deeper
voice than the one calling her to sacrifice her child--even one telling
her to spare her child. She has not yet learned that it is always safe
to trust the moral sense. Superstitions are not conscience; they are
ignorance obscuring and deadening conscience. Every man is born with a
guide within to point him to paths of virtue and truth, and one of the
most important lessons which the growing soul has to learn is that when
it is true to itself it may always trust that guide. The call of his
destiny finds every man, and, when he hears it, he asks: How may I reach
that goal? It is far away and the path is confused. Then a voice within
makes answer, and, if he heeds that, he will make no mistake. That
voice, I believe, is the result of no evolutionary process, but is the
holy God immanent in every soul, making His will known. Evolution
gradually gives to conscience a larger place, but there is no evidence
that it is produced by any physical process. It may be hindered by
physical limitations, but it can be destroyed by none. Why are we so
slow in learning that conscience, being divine, is authoritative and may
be trusted? I know no answer except this: We so often confuse ignorance
with conscience that at last we conclude that the latter is not
trustworthy. But there we mistake. It is trustworthy. It never fails
those who heed its message. That realization may now and then come
early, but it seldom comes all at once. Nevertheless it is a step to be
taken before the progress of the soul can be either swift or sure.
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