| CM SERIES HOME | CONCISE SUMMARIES | PARAPHRASED IN MODERN ENGLISH |
Charlotte Mason in Modern English
Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them freely--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio
Self-Direction
Book II of
Ourselves, Volume 4 of Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschool Series
Contents
Preface and Introduction to the Home Education Series
Introduction - pg. 1
Part I - The Conscience
Chapter 1 - The Court Of Appeal - pg. 5
Chapter 2 - Teaching the Conscience - pg. 9
Chapter 3 - Conscience's Rulings In The House Of The Body:
Moderation - pg. 12
Chapter 4 - The Rulings of Conscience in the House of the
Body: Purity (Part 1) - pg. 21
Chapter 5 - The Rulings Of the Conscience In the House Of
The Body: Purity (Part 2) - pg. 29
Chapter 6 - The Rulings of Conscience in the House of the
Body: Purity (part 3) - pg. 33
Chapter 7 - The Rulings of the Conscience in the House of
the Body: Fortitude - pg. 41
Chapter 8 - The Rulings of the Conscience in the House of
the Body: Prudence - pg. 49
Chapter 9 - Opinions in the Air - pg. 56
Chapter 10 - The Untaught Conscience - pg. 60
Chapter 11 - The Instructed Conscience - pg. 68
Chapter 12 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: Poetry, Novels
and Essays - pg. 71
Chapter 13 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: History and
Philosophy - pg. 74
Chapter 14 - Some of Conscience's Instructors: Theology -
pg. 79
Chapter 15 - Some Instructors of Conscience: Nature,
Science, Art - pg. 97
Chapter 16 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: Sociology,
Self-Knowledge - pg. 104
Chapter 17 - Conviction of Sin - pg. 109
Chapter 18 - Temptation - pg. 114
Chapter 19 - Duty and Law - pg. 121
Part II - The Will
Chapter 1 - The Will-less Life - pg. 126
Chapter 2 - The Will And Willfulness - pg. 129
Chapter 3 - The Will Itself Is Neither Moral Nor
Immoral - pg. 137
Chapter 4 - The Will and Its Friends - pg. 141
Chapter 5 - The Functions of the Will - pg. 143
Chapter 6 - The Scope of the Will - pg. 147
Chapter 7 - Self-Control, Self-Restraint, Self-Command,
Self-Denial - pg. 151
Chapter 8 - The Effort of Decision - pg. 156
Chapter 9 - Intention, Purpose, Resolution - pg. 160
Chapter 10 - A Way Of The Will - pg. 165
Chapter 11 - Freewill - pg. 170
Part III - The Soul
Chapter 1 - What The Soul is Capable Of - pg. 174
Chapter 2 - The Disabilities Of The Soul - pg. 177
Chapter 3 - The Knowledge of God - pg. 182
Chapter 4 - Prayer - pg. 188
Chapter 5 - Thanksgiving - pg. 191
Chapter 6 - Praise - pg. 194
Chapter 7 - Faith in God - pg. 197
Appendix - Discussion Questions for Book II - pg. 203
Preface
to the 'Home Education' Series
The future of education both in England and overseas is vague and
depressing. We hear various urgent pleas--science should be the focus
of education, we need to reform the way we teach foreign language or
math, we should incorporate more crafts and nature study to train the
eye and hand, students need to learn how to write English and must
therefore be familiar with history and literature. And on the other
hand, we're being pressured to make education more vocational and
utilitarian. But there's no coherent principle, no real aim. There's no
philosophy of education. A stream can't rise any higher than the lake
it flows from. In the same way, no educational work can rise above the
thought and purpose behind it. Maybe this is the reason for all the
failures and disappointments of our educational system.
Those of us who have spent many years researching the gentle, elusive
vision of education have come to understand that various approaches
have a law behind them, but we haven't yet discovered what it is. We
can make out a dim outline of it, but that's it. We know that it's
all-encompassing. There's no part of a child's home life or school work
that isn't affected by that law. It's illuminating. It shows the value
(or worthlessness) of all the thousands of various educational systems
and programs. It isn't just a light, it's also a measure. It sets the
standard by which to measure all educational work, whether small or
great. That law is impartial and gracious. It will embrace
anything that's true, honest, and respected. It sets no limits or
obstacles, except where too much would be harmful. And the educational
path that the law reveals is continuous and always advancing forward.
There is no magical transition stage, progress is steady from birth to
old age, except that, whatever habits are learned in youth will
determine what choices are made even in adulthood. When we finally see
the law for what it is, we'll find that certain German thinkers--Kant,
Herbart, Lotze, Froebel--were right when they said that it's
necessary to believe in God, so the most important thing to learn is
knowledge of God. That should be the priority of education. There's one
more way that we'll be able to recognize this perfect law that gives
educational freedom when we see it. It's been said that, 'The best
thing about absolute truth is that it works under every condition we
can think of.' And that will be true of this law. No matter what
experimental test or logical investigation we give it, it will pass.
We still haven't seen an outline or summary of this law. So, until we
have something definite, we'll have to fall back on Froebel or Herbart,
or, if we adhere to a different school of thought, Locke or Spencer.
But we aren't content. We feel dissatisfied. Is it a divine discontent?
If we found a workable, effective philosophy of education, we'd welcome
it as deliverance from our perplexity. Before we find this great
deliverance, there will probably be lots of tentative attempts. They'll
all have the characters of a philosophy, more or less. Specifically,
they'll have a central idea, a basic concept with various details
working in harmony with it. This workable, effective theory of
education could be called a system of psychology. It would have to work
well with the accepted ideas of the time. It wouldn't think of
education as an isolated, shut-off compartment, but as a natural part
of
life, like birth, growing, marriage, or work. It would create a bond
between the student and the great wide world, connected at many
different points where interest was sparked. I know that some
educational experts want to create that connection in many subjects,
but their attempts are too random. They give a saying here, an idea
there, but there's no common foundation to unify and support education
as a complete unit.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I don't want to seem
presumptuous. I hope that there will be lots of ideas submitted towards
a working philosophy of education, and that each one will bring us one
step closer to discovering the best possible education. In that spirit,
I offer my idea. The central foundational thought of my idea will sound
rather obvious: the child is a whole, complete person with all the possibilities
and capabilities already included in his personality. Some of the
implications of this idea have been exploited by educational experts,
and fragments of this idea are already pretty commonly accepted by
common sense. For instance, take the aspect that education is the science of making
relationships. That concept seems to solve the curriculum
question. It shows that the main purpose of education is putting the
child in living touch with as much of nature and thoughts as possible.
If you add a couple of skills that help the child self-educate, then
the student will go into the world after graduation with some ability
to manage and control himself, a few hobbies to enrich his leisure
time, and an interest in lots of things. I have two reasons for even
attempting to offer my educational idea, even if my idea is tentative
and will probably be replaced by an even better idea. For the last
30-40 years, I've worked unceasingly to come up with a philosophical
educational theory that works practically. Also, each of the following
educational principles is something that came about by inductive
processes, and has been proved with long and varied experiments. I
hesitate
to share my findings because I know that, in the field of education,
there are many workers more capable and more knowledgeable than I am.
Even they aren't bold enough to offer answers because the footing is so
precarious! They are like the 'angels who fear to tread.'
But, if only to encourage their effort, I offer an amended version of a
synopsis I included in the other volumes of my 'Home Education Series.'
My approach isn't methodic. It's more incidental--here a little, there
a little. That seemed like the best way to make it practical for
parents and teachers. I should add that the various essays in this book
were originally written for the Parents National Educational Union
(PNEU) to provide the society with a unified theory.
'As soon as the soul spots truth, the soul recognizes it as her first
and oldest friend.'
'The repercussions of truth are great. Therefore we must not neglect to
correctly judge what's true, and what's not.'
--Benjamin Whichcote
Whichcote said that the end result of truth is so great that we must be
careful to make sure that what we live by is, indeed, the truth.
1. Children are born persons - they are not blank slates or embryonic
oysters who have the potential of becoming persons. They already are
persons.
2. Although children are born with a sin nature, they are neither all
bad, nor all good. Children from all walks of life and backgrounds may
make choices for good or evil.
3. The concepts of authority and obedience are true for all people
whether they accept it or not. Submission to authority is necessary for
any society or group or family to run smoothly.
4. Authority is not a license to abuse children, or to play upon their
emotions or other desires, and adults are not free to limit a child's
education or use fear, love, power of suggestion, or their own
influence over a child to make a child learn.
5. The only three means a teacher may use to educate children are the
child's natural environment, the training of good habits and exposure
to living ideas and concepts. This is what CM's motto "Education is an
atmosphere, a discipline, a life" means.
6. "Education is an atmosphere" doesn't mean that we should create an
artificial environment for children, but that we use the opportunities
in the environment he already lives in to educate him. Children learn
from real things in the real world.
7. "Education is a discipline" means that we train a child to have good
habits and self-control, both in actions and in thought.
8. "Education is a life" means that education should apply to body,
soul and spirit. The mind needs ideas of all kinds, so the child's
curriculum should be varied and generous with many subjects included.
9. The child's mind is not a bucket to be filled with facts that bunch
up into thought-groups, as Herbart said.
10. The child's mind is also not a bag for holding knowledge. It is a
living thing and needs knowledge to grow. As the stomach was designed
to digest food, the mind is designed to digest knowledge and needs no
special training or exercises to make it ready to learn.
11. This is not just splitting hairs; Herbart's philosophy that the
mind is like an empty stage waiting for bits of information to be
inserted puts too much responsibility on the teacher to prepare
detailed lessons. Students taught this way have lots of knowledge
taught at them, without getting much out of it.
12. Instead, we believe that children's minds are capable of digesting
real knowledge, so we provide a rich, generous curriculum that exposes
children to many interesting, living ideas and concepts. From this
principle, we can deduce that--
13. "Education is the science of relations," which means that children
have minds capable of making their own connections with knowledge and
experiences, so we make sure the child learns about nature, science and
art, knows how to make things, reads many living books and that they
are physically fit. Our job isn't to teach everything about everything,
but to inspire interests that will help children make connections with
the world around him.
14. Children have two guides to help them in their moral and
intellectual growth--"the way of the will," and "the way of reason."
15. Children must learn the difference between "I want" and "I will."
They must learn to distract their thoughts when tempted to do what they
may want but know is not right, and think of something else, or do
something else, interesting enough to occupy their mind. After a short
diversion, their mind will be refreshed and able to will with renewed
strength.
16. Children must learn not to lean too heavily on their own reasoning.
Reasoning is good for logically demonstrating mathematical truth, but
unreliable when judging ideas because our reasoning will justify all
kinds of erroneous ideas if we really want to believe them.
17. Knowing that reason is not to be trusted as the final authority in
forming opinions, children must learn that their greatest
responsibility is choosing which ideas to accept or reject. Good habits
of behavior and lots of knowledge will provide the discipline and
experience to help them do this.
Principles 15, 16 and 17 should save children from the sort of careless
thinking that causes people to exist at a lower level of life than they
need to.
18. We teach children that all truths are God's truths, and that
secular subjects are just as divine as religious ones. Children don't
go back and forth between two worlds when they focus on God and then
their school subjects; there is unity among both because both are of
God and, whatever children study or do, God is always with them.
These books are called the 'Home
Education Series' based on the title of the first volume, not because
they deal wholly or in principle with 'home' as opposed to 'school'
education.
Preface
'Who was it who said that the appeal to 'know thyself'
came straight from heaven? They were right, it's as true as Gospel. It
came straight from God to the person who originated the saying.' ~ Life of Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Perhaps the reason we fail to pass on moral, Christian principles to
our youth is because our own understanding is sketchy and based mostly
on
appeals to the emotions through songs and stories. Those may be
inspiring, but we can't rely only on them. Emotional response is
short-lived, and the heart is dulled and hardened with too much
repetition. On the other hand, intellectual knowledge gleaned from
clear and ordered teaching seems to be long-lasting and steady.
Children and youths are as able to take in what's presented to their
minds as adults are. And, like adults, they enjoy an intellectual
appeal to their understanding when it reveals to them the basics of
human nature, which we all share.
In this volume, I've assumed that everyone has the potential for all
beautiful and noble possibilities--but that each person is also subject
to attacks and obstacles in various forms. We need to be aware of what
they are so that we can 'watch and pray.' Rules about do's and don'ts
are boring to children and adults alike, but a well-planned
presentation of the possibilities that lie in human nature and their
corresponding risks are sure to be enlightening and stimulating. This
book is intended as an appeal to students to make the most of
themselves. God's law tells them to do this and they have vast
possibilities within themselves to succeed.
Book I (Self-Knowledge) was written for students under age sixteen.
Book II (Self-Direction) might appeal to students of all ages. Young
men and women especially might welcome the opportunity to work through
some of the questions that puzzle them in their own minds. This book
can be used by parents and elementary teachers to help with formation
of character [starting with children
as young as 8 or 9]. If even six students in every school using
this book got a vision of what was possible for them, and what to aim
for, we would see some improvement in character across the entire
nation in a single generation. Our moral teaching has this in common
with our intellectual education: we focus too much on utilitarian
purposes. But something deeper than earning a wage is needed if we want
to inspire students and see profound changes. My intended audience is
boarding school students in the middle to upper forms (Forms III and
up, which correspond to grades 7-12), as well as those indicated above.
The two books have been published separately so that the appropriate
volume can be put in the hands of the students who need it. But, since
parents and teachers should study this material themselves before they
teach it to their students, both books count as one single volume
(Volume 4) in the 'Home Education' series. There are questions at the
back for more serious students. The casual ordering of students by
adults might have more meaning if it were done according to the laws of
human nature as outlined in these books. The scheme of thought seems
like common sense morality, as laid out in Scripture.
I've expanded the systems of morality that expert ethics authors
formulated. I wanted to include every possible kind of goodness that
might be lying dormant in normal human beings. I've tried to define
certain limits of reason, conscience and the will. Disregarding those
elements is a common cause for bad conduct.
The existence of God, man's capacity to relate to God, and the crippled
and incomplete character that results when man fails to relate to God
are all discussed in the book. These issues are the kind of knowledge
that relates to the purpose of man. The allusions and quotes that
enhance and illuminate the text were carefully chosen from sources that
would be familiar to everyone. The object is to hold the reader's
attention and focus it on the teaching of Sir Walter Scott, or
Plutarch, rather than to use unknown sources. Most people feel more
comfortable with what they already know something about.
AMBLESIDE, May 1905
A rather arbitrary use of terms like
'demon' has been used where it would make the point clearly.
Introduction
'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control--these are the only way
to sovereign power.' TENNYSON
A
Dual Self
The very concept of self-management and self-perception implies that we
have a duality within ourselves. There's a part of us that reverences,
and a part that is reverenced. There's a part of ourselves who knows,
and a part who is known. Part of us controls, and part is controlled.
This dual self is probably our deepest, most intimate consciousness,
yet our least-acknowledged. We're a little intimidated by metaphysics,
but even more afraid of self-consciousness, and we don't bother to
consider why we're intimidated.
It's a good thing that we're hesitant to wander into the regions of the
mind that we don't understand because we wouldn't know how to bring
back anything good from there. And it's good that we shrink from the
kind of consciousness of self that makes us aware of our individual
quirks so that we become sensitive, or embarrassed, or even proud.
We've let our fear of danger, like monsters on the right and on the
left, keep us from entering the path at all--yet this path is the way
to the haven where we want to be.
This isn't the time or place to try to give psychological explanations
of our two selves. Our task at hand is to gain a clear idea of what
we'll call our objective
self, whose behavior is controlled by our just-as-troublesome subjective self, which we're all
unpleasantly too much aware of.
The
Unlovable Self
One of the causes of misery for sensitive children and youths is a
sense of worthlessness of their poor, aspiring and all-too-prominent
self. They're painfully aware that they're irritable, awkward, rude and
hateful. How can anybody like them? If their mother does, then it must
be because she doesn't see how unlikable they really are. Vanity, which
seeks for the approval of others, is possible for anyone, even a
good-natured child. But I doubt that conceit is possible for anyone
other than unexceptional minds who are content to shape their opinions
upon what they think those around them think, even when it comes to
their own opinion of themselves.
But for the uneasy youth whose primary job in life is navigating an
unknown boat, a little bit of knowledge about what the boat can carry
and what it can do are helpful. It also helps to relieve a person from
being obsessed with the subjective self. We become aware of it on the
day we eat fruit from the tree of knowledge, and leave the bliss of
unconscious awareness as innocent children. That awakening happens to
all of us. It isn't necessarily something to feel guilty about, but it
does make many of us uneasy and causes us to doubt our worth.
The
Great Self
Any attempt to figure out where each of the selves starts and stops
baffles us. We can't tell where one starts and the other one ends. But
after convincing ourselves that we're just one person, we become aware
again of ourselves as two. Maybe we can say that one is the
unsatisfactory self, and the other is the self of great and beautiful
possibilities, which we sense is an integral part of us. That may be
the best we can do at understanding this difficult concept about our
nature. It might help to think of the human soul as a huge country
estate that we have to manage. By soul, I mean all that we are, both
inside and out: all our powers of thought, knowing, loving, making
decisions, appreciating, willing, achieving. What is a human soul
worth? There's only one authoritative estimate. When the soul is put on
a scale against the whole world, then the whole world, with all its
beauty and glory, is as if it weighed nothing in comparison. But we
miss the value of these words of Jesus because we assume He's speaking
of a relative value, not an intrinsic value. We don't realize that the
soul of a man is infinitely great, beautiful and precious. This is
partly because religion mostly teaches self-abasement and reserve, even
though that's not what Jesus taught.
Emily
Bronte
M. Maeterlinck, a wise author from Belgium, proved how great the soul
is. His proof is all the more remarkable because he doesn't approach it
from a religious perspective, but as an outside witness. He probably
hasn't added anything new to the field of psychology, but he has
reminded us of the great things about life. We need to be reminded of
this again and again, so he's done us a service. His evidence is Emily
Bronte. She was a delicate girl raised practically in isolation, in a
remote parsonage. Yet she was able to write about the depths of human
passion, feel human tragedy, and articulate fruits of human wisdom.
That shows the immeasurable range of the human soul. It's even more
surprising because she wasn't especially virtuous, nor especially
accomplished as compared to someone like Shakespeare, Isaac Newton,
Rembrandt, Dante, Darwin or Howard. When we consider them, we begin to
see how immense the soul really is, and how large God must be to be
able to measure all things, and affect all people. But we don't give
enough credit to the great men in the world because we can only measure
their greatness against our own souls. We can't even conceive of how
great they really were.
Is there any such thing as a little-minded person? Maybe not. Perhaps
all the qualities that make a person great exist in varying amounts in
all of us, but some are developed more than others. That seems to be
what Christ taught, and many poor, seemingly insignificant souls have
proven to be large enough to make room for His greatness.
But here is another example of the lesser being blessing (or cursing?)
the greater being.
Our own under-developed souls are distressfully lacking. Yet, with our
pitiful souls, we determine the eternal destiny of our greater self,
whose limits have never been discovered. It's like the relationship
between a country and its government. The country is the more important
of the two, but the country has to depend on its government, for better
or worse, to develop it.
The
Governing Powers
If the soul is like a country depending on its government to fulfill
all it can be as a person, then who's doing the governing? I can't use
any answers from psychology yet because psychology is still trying to
decide whether the spirit exists or not! Intuition tells me that our
ancient guide, philosophy, won't provide the full answer. What all
people have found to be true of human nature should help in deciding
how to conduct our inner life in the same way that what's found to be
true of the world (like, the times of the rising of the sun) helps us
plan our physical life. The way it seems is more useful for our
purposes, even if it isn't psychologically accurate.
I don't know of any book to recommend for parents to help teach their
children how to live the way I've indicated. The books I know of are
either specifically religious, or specifically about ethics. So I've
written an outline myself of the kind of teaching I have in mind. It
can be used with bright children, or youths from ages 8 or 9 and up.
How
To Use This Book
I think that, when mothers want to teach something to their children,
they should learn what they want to teach, and then talk about it, a
little at a time, perhaps as informal Sunday talks. This would help
children to have a sense that our relationship with God is something
that embraces every facet of our lives. Older students might prefer to
read the book to themselves, or with their parents. If the book is done
as a family, the more advanced teaching that's appropriate for the
older students will go over the heads of their younger siblings.
Ourselves, Volume 4 of the Charlotte Mason
Series: Book 2––Direction
pg 1
'Order
my goings.'
Introduction
In Book 1 of Ourselves, which deals with Self-knowledge, I tried to
present a panoramic view of the Kingdom of Mansoul. I'll continue using
the term 'Mansoul.' It comes from John Bunyan, and I can't think of a
better phrase that illustrates what it's like to look at a large
country estate from the outside any better than that one. In Book 1, we
pretended to look down from above, getting a bird's eye view of the
rich treasures in Mansoul and the wonderful possibilities for every
human being entering into the world as if he's born into a great
inheritance.
All of the beauty and great thoughts in the world are available to
everyone. Everyone may receive what he needs and use it to serve the
world. Everyone can climb the 'delectable mountains' within his own
nature, and from there, get
pg 2
a vision of the City of God. Yes, Mansoul has unlimited resources and
glorious possibilities. But it also has various dangers, and any one of
them risks devastation and ruin. But none of these dangers is
inevitable, because Mansoul has an established government. It might be
helpful to think of this government as divided into four Houses.
We saw how the House of the Body is kept going by the Appetites, but if
any of these appetites gains total control, it brings ruin. The five
senses are like attendants going between body and mind and serving them
both.
The House of the Mind is specially outfitted with the perfect equipment
for gathering knowledge. 'Lessons are fun, they enrich life and provide
ability,' is written above its doors. Inside is everything needed to
deal with knowledge of all kinds. Intellect is waiting to seize on all
sorts of knowledge. Imagination takes living pictures of glorious
things from the past and strange things from far away places. The
Beauty Sense loves to say, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever,' and is
always ready to take hold of any lovely thing in pictures, poems,
flowers or heavens, and save them as something to be enjoyed forever.
Reason is eager to understand causes and consequences, and to know the
'why's' of every fact that enters the mind. And, to make sure that the
Mind, with these useful assistants, doesn't become an empty place left
vacant and decaying, there are certain Desires that drive us to feed
the Mind in the same way that our Appetites spur us to feed our bodies.
Just as our bodily Appetites carry the possibility for abuse and excess
that can ruin Mansoul, each of
pg 3
the noble qualities of the Mind also has its own demons that threaten
to paralyze the part of the Mind it affects, or distort and weaken the
Mind altogether.
The House of the Heart is ruled by two kind aides, Love and Justice.
Sympathy, goodwill, empathy, thoughtfulness, graciousness,
thankfulness, bravery, faithfulness, modesty and cheerfulness are
Love's attendants. Justice also has its attendants. They are
impartiality, genuineness, clarity, integrity, honesty and accuracy.
Moderation, sobriety and purity are also members of the Household of
Justice. They help us to show Justice to our own selves. But even these
have their own demons. Getting through life safely depends on
recognizing and also on avoiding the bad tendencies that are ready to
wreak devastation on the House of the Heart. We all know how the
temptation to be fearful, mean, rude, slanderous, envious and unkind in
lots of other ways can trip us up. The dangers are great and the risks
are many. Many a fine Mansoul gets caught in the pitfalls and perishes
without ever realizing the vast wealth at his disposal. He is like a
prince
raised as a poor peasant who is totally unaware of his birthright. But
all who begin to understand the possibilities that are available
to Mansoul, and who also know how many perils are out there, will know
that they have a duty to manage themselves. All the powers they need
for this self-direction are within them every bit as much as intellect,
imagination, hunger and thirst.
The powers within us that govern Mansoul are
pg 4
the Conscience and the Will. But the Conscience, even if it's the
Conscience of a good Christian, isn't competent to make judgments about
different things in life if it hasn't been taught. It would be like
expecting an uneducated farmhand to solve a calculus equation.
The Conscience needs regularly scheduled,
incremental lessons that affect the body, heart and mind. One of the purposes of this
book is to draw attention to some of the things that the Conscience
needs to learn, and what the goals of its lessons should be. The
affairs of the heart are vitally connected to the mind and body. Much
of what we need to consider at this point is what's already
included in Book I (Self-Knowledge).
The Will is the second highest of all the powers of Mansoul, and also
needs some instruction. People tend to assume that the Will acts
automatically, but none of the powers of Mansoul acts by itself. The
Will, as Prime Minister, orders every other power in Mansoul, and a
little bit of knowledge about the way it works will help us to
understand its functions.
It's also a good idea for us to understand a little about the Soul,
which is what we're calling the part of us that knows and loves God, is
able to praise, pray and have faith, and decides whether or not to
enthrone the rightful King over Mansoul. We can be sure that God our
Creator is honored when we make an effort to understand the abilities
and dangers that go along with the human nature He has given us.
pg 5
Part I - The Conscience
SECTION I. The
Conscience In The House Of the Body
Chapter 1 - The Court Of Appeal
Conscience, the Judge, is Always in
Court
Things don't just go right in Mansoul all by themselves. We've already
seen how the various powers in the body, mind and heart are always
jostling, trying to get total control of Mansoul. Even the best
of Mansoul's government servants have their own personal demons trying
to trip them
up. But there's a safety mechanism in place to keep everything in
check, and to keep rivalry from causing problems. There's a Court of
Appeals that's always open, with the Lord Chief Justice on duty. We
call him Conscience. Let's take a minute and think about what a judge
does in a court of law. He doesn't automatically know who's right and
who's wrong in each case. He isn't expected to know. Advocates from
both
sides get up and present the facts and their best arguments to the
judge. He, as the authority who understands the law, gives the right
decision based on the information he's given.
pg 6
Everyone has a sense of duty, and Conscience is no exception. His own
duty is proclaiming what the law says, and what everyone's duty is. No
Mansoul is left alone without a sense of the right things he ought to
be doing. Everyone knows that certain things are required of him, and
that he has to answer to a Higher Authority for what he does. The
things that are due from us (duty) and what we owe others (ought) is
what Conscience tells us. We don't belong to ourselves. We belong to
God, Who made us. He has placed a Conscience within each of us to
continually remind us that we owe ourselves to Him. Conscience reminds
us that it's our duty to make sure that what we do pleases Him. He
reminds us that God is our judge, and He will deal with every offense,
surely and directly. It might not be today, but it will happen.
Conscience also lets us know that the reason for this judging is for
our good. It's to save us. It continually calls us back when we get
into wrong ways that injure and hurt us. It draws us back to right ways
of peace and happiness. Conscience asserts all these things to us,
every morning, every hour. He tells us that we're not free to do
whatever we feel like, but we need to do the things we ought.
Conscience
Can Sometimes Judge Incorrectly
But if every Mansoul has a Conscience giving judgments, then why is it
that so many people do wrong things? As we've seen already, there can
sometimes be anarchy in the government because laziness, or temper, or
pride, or envy betrays Mansoul.
I won't dwell on the fate of those who won't listen to their
Conscience. The point I want to make is that there's danger even for
those who do listen. We
sometimes hear that someone 'acted according to his lights' [i.e., he based his actions on what he
thought seemed best when he didn't have all the information].
However wrong he may have been, there are people who will excuse him
because he didn't know any better. If the person had no opportunity to
know better,
pg 7
then the excuse is valid. But we should never think that it's
acceptable to make decisions 'according to our lights' if we allow
ourselves to carry a tiny penlight when we could
light up the whole room with the flip of a switch.
Conscience
Can Be Tampered With
A judge isn't automatically familiar with the details of a case he's
going to decide. It's the same way with the judge within ourselves.
Just like a court judge, he also listens to advocates from each side.
Inclination hires Reason to plead his case in front of the judge.
Reason can be so subtle and convincing that the judge (our Conscience)
might pass the verdict in the defendant's favor. Conscience says, 'Obey
the law,' and Reason says, 'But what the defendant is doing is obeying the law.' And Conscience
allows the defendant to do it. This subtle tactic of misleading one's
own Conscience is an art that's practiced by both little children and
hardened criminals. This is one way that a person can 'act according to
his lights.' He finds a way to justify himself, his Reason finds
logical arguments to convince his Conscience that what he's doing is
right under the circumstances, and Conscience gives the okay. He
continues to cry out, 'You must do the right thing!' but he leaves his
members to define what's right for themselves.
There are lots of reasons why it's good for us to know this limitation
of our Conscience. For one thing, it helps us to understand why and how
some people and nations have done certain things throughout history.
Conscience
Needs to be Educated
We all need to know something about the make-up of Mansoul so that we
can tell who's speaking to Reason, persuading him to convince the
Conscience. It's not always apparent at first. Envy, for example, won't
come right out and say, 'I hate James because his father can afford to
buy him whatever he wants' or 'because he always does better than me,
whether in lessons
pg 8
or in sports' or 'because everybody likes him.' Instead, envy will
pretend that all he wants is what's fair for everyone. 'It's not right
that one person should always have extra money to spend while somebody
else has to scrimp and do without.' 'James just got a lucky break
because of a fluke in the scoring.' 'James will do anything to be
popular, no respectable person would do all that.' With these kinds of
arguments, Envy persuades Reason, and Reason makes a convincing case
before the Conscience, and the defendant gets off scot-free.
But once a person realizes that putting anyone else down to make
himself look better is motivated by envy rather than justice, he'll
be careful. He'll keep his tongue from evil and his thoughts from
hatred--and he'll submit to his Conscience when its unbiased judgment
reprimands him.
This kind of looking at things sincerely and directly is what Jesus
calls a 'pure' or 'single eye.' [Matt 6:22] Some people
automatically have it, so they're not easily deceived into calling
what's wrong right. But evil is tricky and always ready. It's wise for
all of us to try hard to recognize when misrepresentations are brought
before our Conscience. A Conscience that's been well-educated rarely
makes mistakes.
pg 9
Chapter
2 - Teaching the Conscience
Learning
From Books
An educated conscience knows that Moderation, Purity, Constancy and
Carefulness must have control in this House of the Body. But how do you
educate a conscience? Life itself brings us many opportunities to
learn. For instance, when we see other people do something right, our
conscience approves and learns a lesson. But when we see people doing
something wrong, our conscience condemns it. But we need a wider
variety of examples than our personal sphere of life can give us.
That's why books make the best teachers.
Every noble, beautiful thing that can be done is described in living
detail in the vast treasury of literature. History and biography do a
good job of teaching decency, but the best moral teaching comes from
literature--poetry, essays, plays and novels. Writing about real people
doesn't allow the author to truly express his insight.
Autobiographies are another way to lift the veil to another person's
thoughts, because the writer is free to say whatever he wants. The
Bible tells about the lives of people and the history of a nation
without the reserve that a lot of authors use when they write about the
bad things that heroes did, or the faults of evil people.
pg 10
Plutarch might be the only biographer who writes with as much
impartiality, although not always with the same justice.
Poets
and Essayists are our Teachers
Children get moral concepts from the fairy tales they love, in the same
way that grown ups get it from novels and poems. Matthew Arnold, who is
an excellent critic, says that poetry is an examination of life. And so
it
is, both a examination and an inspiration. Most of us carry around
little snippets of verse inside our minds that influence what we do
more than we're aware of, such lines as:
'We're often closer to wisdom when we stoop
down
Than when we soar.'
(from
Wordsworth)
'The friends who have proven themselves true,
You should attach them to your soul with steel
hooks.'
(from
Shakespeare's Hamlet)
So many wonderful thoughts that kindle flames of reflection come to us
in the form of poetry, in wings of verse. Just imagine how empty our
lives would be if we woke up and discovered that the entire book of
Psalms had vanished from the earth and even disappeared from our
memories! Proverbs, which are sayings of wise kings and wise words from
common people, come to us as if they were divine utterances. Essays
deal with how we act. They give us a lot of delicate lessons that reach
us more effectively because their style is so charming.
Novelists
and Playwrights Teach Us, Too
Novelists and playwrights have possibly done the most for us when it
come to learning. But not all novels and plays are good 'as examples of
life and teaching proper behavior.' [2
Tim 3:16] It's safest for us to stick with works that have been
around long enough to become classics. There are two reasons for this.
That fact that
pg 11
they don't die proves that the author had something timeless to say,
and in such a
way, that the world needs. Also, older stories and plays deal with
conduct, and learning what to do and how to act is the most important
thing in our lives. Modern [1900-ish]
literature deals more with emotions, and that's not the healthiest
subject for reflection. Once we find a book that has a message for us,
let's not make the mistake of saying we've already read it once. That's
like saying we've already had breakfast and don't ever need to eat
again. A book that helps us deserves to be read again and again,
because assimilation [so that the
book becomes a part of us] comes little by little.
Literature is full of valuable lessons about how to control our
physical nature, in the form of both rules and examples. I'll
give illustrations here and there to show what I mean, but I have no
doubt you'll be able to think of better lessons from my examples. And
that's fine, that's just the way teaching from literature should come
to us--a little here, a little there, casually as we read on because
we're interested in the story, or because the poem is so beautiful, or
the writing has such marvelous style.
pg 12
Chapter
3 - Conscience's Rulings In The House Of The Body: Moderation
Moderation
in Eating
Who can forget how 'the fortunes of Nigel' [by Sir Walter Scott] changed
because of
the dish that Laurie Linklater cooked to please the King? The story is
told humorously, but even all of the King's wisdom can't help us to get
over the cock-a-leekie [chicken and
leek] soup! This is how Sir Walter Scott prepares us: 'None of
these brave English cooks can satisfy the King's noble tastes with our
own Scottish recipes. So I used my skill to cook up a whole bunch of
friar's chicken for the soup, and a delicious haggis [sausage] that won everyone's
applause. Instead of being disgraced, I became a favorite.' He
approached King James with these same bold Scottish meals and
Linklater's unbelievable character becomes the person who resolves the
plot. Richie Moniplies 'reached the palace safely and demanded to see
Laurie Linklater, the under-clerk in the royal kitchen. But the cook
wouldn't be disturbed to speak to him. He was too busy cooking some
cock-a-leekie soup for the King. Moniplies said, 'Tell him that a dear
pg 13
countryman needs to talk to him about something very important; I must
speak to the king.' 'The king?' responded Linklater, being cautious. 'I
want nothing to do with this matter. But look, I've just made some
cock-a-leekie soup to be served to His majesty in his room. I won't
prevent you from leaving your letter on the table when you bring him
his soup. The king will see it when he picks up the bowl to drink the
broth.'
And the book ends with the king's last word: 'Now, my lords and nobles,
let's go to dinner, for the cock-a-leekie soup is cooling.'
What's so bad about that? Just that King James's moral integrity and
intelligence are clouded, and his dignity is sacrificed because of his
shameful failure to control himself in this and other matters. The
patriarch Isaac also let his love for savory meat open him to the
deception that divided his family. It's fine and even healthy to enjoy
our food, but to love and crave any particular dish is the nature of
immoderation. Plutarch tells us the same thing in his preface, talking
about his childhood:
'One day our schoolmaster saw that we had indulged ourselves too
luxuriously at lunch. During his afternoon lesson, he ordered his
servant to whip his own son in our presence. He said the boy was being
punished because he couldn't eat his food without condiments. All the
time, the philosopher
pg 14
was watching us, and we knew who this example was intended for.'
In
Drinking
We expect Le Balafré [Quentin
Durward, by Sir Walter Scott] to act like a drunk because of his
base nature, but it distresses us to see the generous, noble Lord
Crawford losing his dignity and control of himself over drinking wine.
The occasion is a banquet to welcome Quentin Durward's election. 'But
for now, Lord Crawford refused to take the seat assigned to him. He
told everyone to continue their fun, and stood watching the revelry
with an expression of enjoyment. 'Leave him alone,' whispered
Cunningham as Lindesay offered their noble Captain some wine. 'Leave
him alone, there's no need to rush him, let him drink on his own. In
fact, the old Lord just smiled at first and refused, setting the wine
glass in front of him without even tasting it. But soon, he began
absent-mindedly sipping a little. And then he remembered that it would
be bad luck not to drink a toast to the brave guy who had joined them
by winning the election. Of course, he had to be polite and join in the
toast. Sliding into the assigned seat without thinking what he was
doing, he made Quentin come to his side and asked him all kinds of
questions about the general state of Scotland, and the important
families there, which Quentin was well able to answer. Meanwhile, Lord
Crawford slowly emptied his wine glass, commenting that it was proper
for Scottish gentlemen to be sociable, but that young men like Quentin
should do it
pg 15
cautiously so that too much socializing didn't degenerate into excess.
And he said many excellent things about the subject, until his own
tongue, although praising temperance, began to slur from too much wine.'
Times have changed since then. Some men may still drink, but not
usually men who have Lord Crawford's dignity of character. People are
beginning to understand that simple living goes hand in hand with high
thinking. We're beginning to have more control in both eating and
drinking, and the day is coming when excess in either will be shunned.
Taking
it Easy
Maria Edgeworth's tale of Lazy
Lawrence has
become a classic illustration of laziness. [In volume 1 of The
Parent's Assistant;
Young Lawrence is too lazy
to work and will do anything for money except work - gambling, cock
fights, even theft. But little Jem is industrious and earns enough to
prevent the family from having to sell their beloved horse.]
Other more appealing
characters have the same fault. For example, here is Harry Warrington,
from The Virginians by
Thackeray:
'Harry's lace and linen were as nice as his aunt could wish. He bought
a beautiful shaving plate and some magnificent embroidered pajamas in
which he could laze around and sip hot chocolate in the mornings. He
had swords, fancy walking canes, French diamond-studded watches with
hand-painted backs, and snuffboxes exquisitely decorated by French
artists. He had a whole troop of grooms, jockeys, and tradesmen waiting
to see him. They were admitted in to see him and Parson Sampson one at
a time, by Gumbo, his head butler, while he enjoyed his hot chocolate.
There's no telling how many servants Mr. Gumbo had under him. Certainly
no single servant could have managed and maintained all of the fine
things that Mr. Warrington owned now, not to mention the horses and
carriage he had just bought. Harry also learned the arts that were
proper for
pg 16
young gentlemen of those days. During the season when he lived at
Tunbridge, he had a live-in fencing instructor and dance teacher, both
French. He spent a lot of time working with them until he could do both
with grace and skill. In just a few weeks, he could handle himself as
well as anyone. He took riding lessons on a great horse owned by a
riding instructor who came to Tunbridge, but decided that he'd rather
ride like a Virginian.'
Here we have a picture of busy idleness--and idleness usually is busy. Hogarth painted the kinds
of people that Thackeray describes who lived in the same kind of
excessive luxury and abandoned idleness. Charles II was another one.
Although he walked a lot, he shirked even the least hint of the work he
should have been doing as king. Unfortunately, both history and fiction
are full of men and women who never bother to seize opportunity when it
presents itself.
Day-Dreaming
There are more ways to be immoderate than eating too much, getting
drunk and sleeping in. In The House
of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes another type of
idleness. Hepzibah Pyncheon, the lonely spinster, lived in The House of
Seven Gables, and spent her days dreaming up odd castles in the air.
'All the time that Hepzibah was perfecting her idea for a little shop,
she had an unrecognized notion in the back of her mind that some
unforeseen bit
pf 17
of luck would come to her rescue. Perhaps her uncle, who had sailed to
India fifty years ago and never been heard from again, might return and
invite her to share his wealth in his old age, and adorn her with
pearls, diamonds, oriental shawls, hats, and make her the sole heiress
of his uncountable fortune. Or, perhaps, a member of Parliament who was
currently head of the English side of the family which hadn't been in
contact with the American side of the family for two hundred years,
might invite Hepzibah to leave the House of Seven Gables and live with
his family at Pynchion Hall. But, for her own important reasons, she
wouldn't accept his offer.'
How do you excuse a lazy person?
How is it that of all
The lusts that could enthrall
The Bible heroes to deeply fall,
Sloth hides at first, hell-frame accursed,
Where every poisonous root of sin is nursed?
To slip you you have to first of all
Tell yourself to stand up tall
And rise up straight before you fall.
But if you're prone so work is shunned
You'll have no comfort, rest or fun
For doing nothing means nothing's done.
Know
Your Job and Do It
Carlyle, who believed in hard work, had this to say about idleness in Past and Present: 'Who are you who
brags about your
pg 18
life of ease, smugly shows off your fancy modern furniture, soft
cushions, appliances to do everything including folding your hands to
go to sleep? An idle person is like a monster. The latest proclamation
in the world is to Know your job and do it. Know what you're capable of
doing, and work at steadily, like Hercules. That's a wise plan.
'It's been written, 'There's a lot of significance in work.' A man
perfects himself by working. Hideous tangled jungles are cleared away
and replaced with beautiful productive fields of crops and magnificent
cities. And man himself changes his own self from a jungle or barren
desert and becomes--a man.'
The
Principle Behind Moderation
The fact is, Conscience isn't as concerned with how immoderation is
manifested in our lives so much as the underlying principle behind
moderation. St. Paul wrote about it when he condemned people who
'worship and serve the creature more than the Creator.' It's by this
principle that we'll be justified or condemned. In light of this, we
have good reason to suspect any style of diet or exercise that
encourages us to have too much concern for our physical body, whether
it's a diet of nuts and fruit, peacock brains, or cock-a-leekie.
England is in serious danger of giving herself over to worship of the
goddess of health. But a more
elusive goddess was never revered--the more she is pursued, the more
she runs away. Yet she's ready and willing to bestow smiling favor on
the person who never even casts a thought towards her. I say truthfully
and sincerely that the pursuit of physical and mental well-being is
becoming a cult. The
pg 19
danger of this kind of cult is that it makes us focus our attention on
our own selves instead of on Christ.
We use 'faith' in our minds to create certain attitudes that make our
minds and bodies feel better, and that makes us more comfortable. And
we forget the danger of exalting the concerns of the creature above the
worship of the Creator. The essence of Christianity is passionate love
and loyalty towards a divine Person. Faith, which is the adoring regard
of the soul, is supposed to help us be more like Jesus--'meek and lowly
of heart.' Any kind of 'faith' that raises us up to some higher level
should make us suspicious that we're trying to use Christ's power to
serve
ourselves and our comfort, more than God's glory.
Carlyle was right when he said that the state or lack of our own
well-being isn't the central concern of the universe.
Excessive attention to our physical selves is one kind of immoderation.
But even worse is neglecting our spiritual nature which enables us to
do everything else. That's the root cause for the indifference of
laziness, and the excess of greed. 'Take no thought for the life,
what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink.' 'Eat whatever is set before
you.' These are the rules God gave for us to keep our bodies in
moderation, sobriety and purity. 'Take no thought,' because all sins
against the body begin in our thoughts.
We
Live in Our Times
I may seem to have gotten off the subject of the Conscience and how it
relates to moderation. But it's necessary to stay aware of the current
trends of our times, as well as keeping guard over our own appetites.
We
live
pg 20
in our times. We need to realize that Reason can justify any strange
trend, whether it's a fruit-eating colony in the Pacific, or living on
one meal a day, or fasting and not allowing ourselves to eat or drink
anything at all. Only a well-educated Conscience will safeguard us from
being persuaded to follow such trends. When we're tempted to eat like
primates or eat only nuts, let's be like Punch, and laugh some common sense
into ourselves!
pg 21
Chapter
4 - The Rulings of Conscience in the House of the Body: Purity (Part 1)
Purity
of the Soul
In this area, too, the well-educated Conscience has a broad focus.
God's Law forbids impurity of any kind, whether it's in our
imagination, what we say or what we do. Everyone knows this. But do we
understand that it's as important to preserve Love as Faith? The
well-educated Conscience knows that any excessive affection or
extravagant devotion pollutes the purity of any self-controlled person.
Any relationship, even a friendship or fondness between a mother and
child, is suspect to a clear Conscience if it becomes too absorbed and
exclusive so that one person is constantly needed by the other, and
other rightful duties and loyalties are neglected. To be a person's
'all in all' isn't really a pure desire except when it comes to
the intimate relations of marriage. Purity of the soul is like the
picture Giotto painted of being walled in with a tower. 'Do not touch'
is the appropriate rule. Relationships that are too intimate and
exclusive should be kept out.
The
Tragedy Of Edward II
The dangers of breaking this rule of a pure life is well illustrated in
the sad
pg 22
tragedy of Edward II as
written by Christopher Marlowe. Let's look at the story. One lesson
like this taken from real life is worth a lot of advice and
resolutions. Too much affection is a fault that tends to go along with
a generous temperament, and Edward was generous,
'My father has died! Come on, Gaveston,
Share the kingdom with me, your best friend.'
What an example of friendship! Edward is eager to share his entire
fortune with his friend. And Gaveston, for his part, is ready to repay
Edward's love with his own love.
'Sweet prince, I'm on my way. Your loving invitation
Is enough to induce me to swim all the way from France.'
The nobles resent their affectionate devotion because they have their
own legitimate demands on the new king's time and affection. They call
a
meeting and protest with prayers and threats of rebellion. Here is how
the king ends the meeting:
'I'll live or die with Gaveston.'
And Gaveston adds, 'I won't be separated from my lord.'
Edward: 'What, Gaveston, you're here? Welcome! Kiss my hand.
Embrace me as I give you a friendly hug.
Why should you kneel before me? Don't you know who I am?
I'm your friend, the missing part of yourself; I'm like another
Gaveston!'
Edward piles titles, land and honors on his friend generously. He even
gives him his own seal of authority.
'Save or condemn whoever you want. In our name, command whatever your
heart desires, or whatever takes your fancy.'
The nobles have another meeting to decide how to get rid of Gaveston,
the 'ill-tempered Frenchman.' And that phrase is really rather accurate
because the king's beloved favorite friend really was ill-tempered,
quickly offended and resentful.
pg 23
'So, arm in arm the king goes with him,' said Lancaster. And Warwick
added, 'And so, leaning on the king's arm, he nods and scorns and
smiles at everyone who passes.'
Even his wife, Queen Isabella herself, complains.
'But now, my lord, the King ignores me.
He dotes on the love of Gaveston.
He throws his arms around his neck,
Smiles at him, whispers in his ear.
When I come in, he frowns as if saying,
'Go somewhere else. I don't need you, I have Gaveston.'
The barons send Gaveston away to Ireland, and the king cries,
'Don't stay away long! If you do,
I'll come to join you. My love will never fade.'
They exchange pictures of each other, and King Edward says,
'Here, take my picture, and let me wear yours.
I wish I could keep you like I keep this picture.
I was so happy, but now I'm so miserable!
Speaking kindly and exchanging goodbyes makes us even sadder.
So, with a silent embrace, let's part.
Stay, Gaveston, I can't leave you like this!'
Edward threatens and pleads with Isabella until she gives in and
asks young Baron Mortimer to work on the nobles and have Gaveston's
short exile ended. Isabella brings the good news to the king and is
rewarded with affection for the moment. Edward is elated and showers
rewards and praises on his nobles.
But, when Gaveston returns, he's as unbearable as ever, and the barons
are just as intolerant. The king only cares about his friend and
prepares for civil war to punish the nobles for 'their pride.' Once more
pg 24
the barons try to convince the king that his exclusive absorption in
his friend is ruining the kingdom. The gifts, celebrations, balls and
shows he's given to Gaveston 'have drained the treasury. There is
threatened rebellion, which could result in the king's removal from the
throne. The king's armies have been beaten out of France, wild Oneyl is
making himself ruler of Ireland, the Scots are making unresisted
attacks in north England, the Danes have control of the narrow seas.'
'What country are these foreign ambassadors from?'
'Your gentle queen, Valois's only sister, 'Complains that you've
abandoned her.'
The peers don't even attend the royal court anymore. The citizens make
up scornful songs and rhymes.
Does this change the king's mind? No. The criticisms of his barons make
them traitors, as far as he's concerned. He says,
'Poor Gaveston! I'm the only friend he has!
I don't care what they think, we're staying right here in Tynemouth.
As long as I can enjoy his company within the palace,
I don't care if the Earls criticize us from every direction.'
Things go from bad to worse until finally, the barons are exasperated
and behead Gaveston. Will the kingdom now finally be rid of its
unbearable burden? No. Even while the death of the king's favorite is
still news, Edward says,
'In his place of honor and trust,
Spencer, sweet Spencer, I adopt you.'
Spencer had also liked Gaveston, but it's only the king who is
excessive in his affection. Exclusive, all-encompassing friendships are
succeeded with new friendships that are just as absorbing. It isn't
because of fickleness, but because a person who has been weakened and
undermined is no longer able
pg 25
able to exist without the philandering affections that he's gotten
used to.
The tragic tale continues with rebellion, insurrection, and civil war.
The only gleam of brightness is the young Prince Edward, who believes
in his father in spite of the things he hears.
'Just wait, I'll win the king soon.
He loves me more than a thousand Spencers.'
When King Edward finds out that his wife dishonors him and his people
are deserting him, he begins to think of his son.
'These things don't hurt me so much, but my little boy
Has to face what they do wrong.'
Nothing changes. Queen Isabella has Spencer arrested right in front of
the king.
'Spencer! Sweet Spencer! Now we have to part.'
Spencer replied, 'Oh, is he gone? Is noble Edward gone?
Is he no longer here, not to see us ever again?'
There seems to be no doubt that his friends returned the love and
devotion that this excessively attached king gave them.
Edward is imprisoned, and his final message is,
'Give my best to my son, and tell him to rule
Better than I did. Yet, what have I done wrong
Except to be too lenient?'
Each
of Us is a King in Our Own Realm
We won't follow Edward's sad tragedy to the end, but his question,
'What have I done wrong?' is a valuable lesson. His life was ruined,
his country was devastated, his wife was dishonored, his loyal subjects
were forced to become traitors and assassins--all of these things
happened as a direct result of the king's behavior. Yet he asks at the
end, 'What have I done wrong?' His uneducated
pg 26
Conscience didn't show him the fatal mistake of his life. He decided
for himself which duties he would obey, and it appears that his list of
life rules consisted of only one rule--Be
faithful to your friend. It never occurred to him that we're not
supposed to pick and choose between our duties, or that a duty we cling
to can become a fault. You might think, 'Yes, that's true if you're a
king. But, luckily, common people are free to do as they please.' But
we're not. Each of us is like a king choosing among a thousand
relationships, duties and interests that are appropriate for us. If we
decide to give ourselves over to someone else so that our own will is
paralyzed and we can't think or do anything unless they tell us to, and
we can't be happy or relaxed unless they're with us, then we're just
like Edward. We've sown disorder in our own realm. Our realm may be
smaller and not as great as Edward's, but it's the realm that we're
responsible for.
We Aren't Free to Give Ourselves Without Reserve
In general, men seem to have learned to have more restraint in their
friendships than they did in the Tudor days when Marlowe thought it was
necessary to offer this lesson to the world. Maybe in his day, men
admired their friends with a more passionate fondness. But this isn't
an issue of male/female. This affects relationships between school
boys, girls, men and women, and ladies. It just seems like there are
people who can't seem to live without a doting passion for some
beloved. Here's another example:
'Our boarding house was filled with mystery and romance,' said
Coquette, brightening. 'It was because of two young German ladies who
were there. They introduced the practice of--what shall I call
it?--exaltation. Do you know what I mean? When one girl makes another
the object of her devotion because
pg 27
of her goodness or her beauty, and worships her. She kisses her dress
when she passes her, and serves her in every way, but without speaking
to her. And the girl who is the object of this worship is supposed to
be proud and cold and show scorn for her worshiper, even if they had
always been friends. It was the young German ladies from the Bohemian
Forest who introduced it. They were tall and dark and very beautiful.
Many girls wanted to worship them, but they were always the first to
seek out one of the other girls to worship. No one was as humble and
obedient as they were. The whole boarding house was filled with it. It
became like a cult, an obsession. Some girls would even cry and kneel
on the floor to express their love and admiration for the object of
their adoration.' [from A Daughter of Heth by William Black]
Plutarch knew all about that. In his Life
of Agesilaus, Agesilaus had a personal and very sensible reason
to be uneasy about his attachment to Spithridates's son Megabates.
While
he was with him, he made a point of trying to resist his feelings of
devotion. One day Megabates came up to say hello to him, and Agesilaus
didn't return his greeting. From then on, Megabates was more distant
with him. Agesilaus regretted that he had rebuffed Megabates and
pretended he didn't know why Megabates was so cool with him. His
friends told him it was his fault for not returning Megabates's
greeting. They said, 'He would be glad to continue paying you the most
friendly respects, just be sure you never brush him off again.'
Agesilaus was silent for a while, thinking. Then he said, 'Don't
mention any of this to him. This second victory
pg 28
over myself is more valuable to me than Midas's gift of turning things
to gold.'
A generous heart approves of this kind of great affection. But a noble
Mind and well-educated Conscience need to look beyond that and preserve
the Soul's purity. We don't belong to ourselves. We have no right to
give ourselves completely away with abandoned passion.
pg 29
Chapter
5 - The Rulings Of the Conscience In the House Of The Body: Purity
(Part 2)
Ordered
Friendship
A
Sane and Generous Friendship
But, for every illustration of an excessive relationship, there are a
thousand examples of sensible, healthy and noble friendships. The
classic examples of friendship are so well-known that I don't need to
quote them. But here's one that's less familiar:
'You're my only friend, aren't you? So haven't you earned the right to
share my wealth? Tell me that, Alan Fairford. When I was taken from my
mother's lonely home and brought to the commotion of the Gaits' class
at the High School, when I was teased because of my English accent,
when they threw snow at me because I was from the south, when I was
thrown into the gutter for a Saxon pock-pudding--who defended me with
heavy arguments and even heavier punches? It was you, Alan Fairford.
Who beat me soundly when I brought my arrogance from being an only son,
and a spoiled brat, to the school's little republic? It was you, Alan.
You taught me not to pick on weak people, but to stand up to the
strong. You taught me not to repeat tales outside of school, to obey
the stern order of a pande mamun
['hold out your hand'],
pg 30
and to endure my punishments without wincing, and to determine to be a
better person for them. In other words, before I knew you, I didn't
know anything. It was the same at college. When I was hopelessly idle,
your example and encouragement roused me to try harder and showed me
how to enjoy learning. You made me like history and metaphysics. In
fact, you almost made me a defense lawyer just like yourself.' [Redgauntlet by Sir
Walter Scott]
Even though the relationship between Alan Fairford and Darsie Latimer
was sensible, it wasn't a loose, common-place friendship. Their
friendship didn't take precedence over duty when things were going
well. Alan worked hard preparing for his career and was an obedient and
affectionate son even though his father was demanding. But when his
friend is in danger, this clever Alan disregards his chances and risks
his life with wholehearted devotion. As a young lawyer, he has made his
first appearance with noted success in a difficult case. He is
delivering his speech and persuading the court when he sees the slip of
paper that tells him that Darsie is in trouble. 'He stopped short in
his speech, stared at the paper with a look of surprise and horror,
uttered an exclamation, threw down the notes he had in his hand, and
rushed out of court without even answering the questions that followed
him: 'What happened to him?' 'Did he suddenly get sick?' 'Should a
substitute be called?' He writes a note to his father: 'I hope you
won't be surprised or too displeased to hear that I'm on my way to
Dumfriesshire to do my own investigation and find out the current state
of my dear friend and give
pg 31
whatever help I'm able to. I hope it does some good. I can only say, in
further apology, that if, heaven forbid, anything bad happens to the
person who is dearest to me except yourself, I'll regret it for the
rest of eternity.'
A
Friendship That's Loyal Even in the Face of Disillusion
Elizabeth Gaskell, in the sincere and graceful style that distinguishes
her writing, tells us in Wives and
Daughters about the friendship between Molly Gibson and Cynthia
Fitzgerald. Molly is a charming English girl with a sensible heart and
mind. Cynthia, her step-sister, comes into her life like a beautiful,
bewitching vision. Of course, Molly fell in love with her--girls don't
just fall in love with men. Cynthia was just as attracted to Molly's
freshness and simplicity. They spent many pleasant hours in Mrs.
Gibson's parlor chatting and working. Both girls are kind and concerned
about what's best for the other, experiencing the natural give-and-take
of friendship. Cynthia tends to get involved with different men, and
Molly has a difficult time when she has to do some unpleasant things to
get Cynthia out of a serious dilemma. But she does them without
sacrificing her integrity, and Cynthia submits to letting her friend
help. Unfortunately, it's impossible to do justice in just a few
sentences to their natural friendship that even disillusion couldn't
shatter.
Friends
are Brought to Us by the Circumstances of our Lives
Young people often make the mistake of thinking that a friend has to be
perfect. So, as soon as they begin to notice little failings, they
think that they don't need to be loyal anymore. David Copperfield [Dickens] is a wonderful
pg 32
example of loyalty in life. The circumstances of David's life bring an
unusual assortment of friends, but he's ready and willing to accept the
friendship of all of them! With simple good-nature, he lets Mr.
Micawber call him 'the friend of my youth,' and he listens to Mrs.
Micawber's domestic secrets even though he's only a boy of ten years
old! The Micawbers turn up at all kinds of inconvenient times, but
David always welcomes them. Traddles is another friend, such a nice
person. He and David share a healthy, generous relationship. David has
a long list of friendships--Peggotty, Mr. Dick, Ham, Dr. Strong, Mrs.
Peggotty and the rest. He finds something to like about every one of
them. He honors, serves, and values each of them with complete loyalty.
But none of these friends tries to control him or demand that he love
them exclusively. He had one friend with whom he lost his individuality
because he was so fascinated by him. This was Steerforth. The way he
showed loyalty for him was by being sad about his shame rather than his
death.
It's not the friends we choose who have exclusive rights over us. The
friends who come into our lives here and there because of our
circumstances are entitled to our loyalty. We get the same things from
those friendships that David Copperfield did--kindness in return for
our kindness, service for service, loyalty for loyalty. And we get
these things in full measure, heaped up and overflowing. There's
probably no better guide to friendship than this charming story about a
life that was filled with generous, loyal friendships. It also shows us
how fine purity of the soul is, and it warns us of a great impurity.
pg 33
Chapter
6 - The Rulings of Conscience in the House of the Body: Purity (part 3)
The
Final Impurity
It all begins so innocently, yet the result is disaster from which
there's no treatment. People say it isn't fair that it should always be
the woman who suffers while the man gets off scot-free. But does he
really get away with it?
The die-hard reprobate is probably so far gone that he can't be any
more degraded. But the man who falls into the sin of impurity for the
first time loses his future as surely as the woman does, although it
may not
be as obvious. He may escape public disgrace, but he never recovers the
loss of power, purpose and integrity that result from a loss of purity.
He will be handicapped for the rest of his life, although he may not
even remember why. If he eventually does get married, his children
often repeat their father's sin.
It's worth our while to trace the history of one seduction. This is
from the book Ruth by
Elizabeth Gaskell. Ruth is a friendless orphan who is apprenticed to a
hat-maker. She is distinguished among her co-workers by her quiet,
lady-like manners and by her beauty. 'How can I help knowing how pretty
I am?' she answered simply, 'so many people have told me so.'
pg 34
She goes to the town dance with her employer, Mrs. Mason, and some of
the other apprentices for the purpose of being on hand to mend rips in
gown and things like that. One lady comes to Ruth with her
fiancé to
get a tear in her dress fixed. She is arrogant to Ruth, and the
fiancé, Mr. Bellingham, is not pleased with her rudeness. He
picks up a camellia and gives it to Ruth, saying, 'Here, allow me to
give you this flower from Miss Dunscombe as a thank you for your
skillful help.'
We admire Mr. Bellingham for his act of courtesy, and so does Ruth. She
treasures the camellia and her thoughts dwell on the polite gentleman.
She meets him again by accident under dramatic circumstances. She's
trying to rescue a drowning child and he rides up just in time and
saves the boy. This gives them a chance to speak again. He leaves his
wallet with Ruth to buy whatever is needed for the boy. So, of course,
she has to see him again to return his wallet and give an account of
what she spent. Then they see each other at church a few times, and
everything is still innocent, no wrong is intended. Next, we're
introduced to Mr. Bellingham in his home.
'He thought more about Ruth than she thought about him, even though his
appearance was a more momentous event in her life than his. He didn't
analyze the nature of his feelings for her, he just enjoyed them with
all the novelty that youth takes in experiencing any strong, new
emotion. He was an only child, and hadn't formed the characteristic
maturity that usually comes with adulthood. His discipline had been
sporadic as it often is
pg 35
with only children. He had been hindered because of over-anxiety, and
unwisely over-indulged because his parents' love had been so focused on
one object. That's what had influenced his education.' With these
words, the author gives us some insight into the situation and we begin
to suspect what's going to happen. David Copperfield's friend
Steerforth
was the only son of a proud, indulgent, heedless mother. In Adam Bede, Arthur Donnithorne is
the only son of a loving but domineering father. It seems like only
children need to be more careful in life. Maybe that's because it's
harder to sneak around in the midst of lots of brothers and sisters,
and it's the deviousness that's the problem, whether the family's large
or small. Young Mr. Bellingham finds himself fascinated, he doesn't
know quite why. He's even more intrigued because 'she seemed to have
some kind of a spell in her shyness that made her avoid and shun anyone
who admired her and wanted to get to know her. He determined not to
startle her with bold admiration or reckless, passionate words. He
resisted the strong temptation to walk alongside her on the way home
from church. Instead, he said just a few words about weather, bowed,
and then left. Ruth didn't think she should see any more of him.
Although she reproved herself for being so foolish, she felt like a
shadow had fallen over her life.' Then there comes a Sunday when Mr.
Bellingham walks home from church with her through the fields.
Later that evening she thought, 'How strange that the lovely afternoon
walk seems somehow, not exactly wrong, but not exactly right, either.'
Other walks follow on the next Sundays.
pg 36
She tells him about all the miseries she endures at Mrs. Mason's. Mr.
Bellingham asks to see her old home, Milham Grange, which is six miles
away. The next fine Sunday, they both go. He watched her admiringly as
she 'walked around luxuriant, overgrown shrubs in natural, graceful,
wavy lines.' Everything goes well until Mrs. Mason, who also happens to
be out enjoying the afternoon, sees her with a young man and kicks her
out. Mr. Bellingham, who had stepped away for a few minutes, comes back
to find Ruth crying. She tells him what just happened.
'Her eyes were so blinded by her tears that she didn't notice the
change in his expression as he watched her. Even if she had seen it,
she wouldn't have been able to interpret it. He was quiet for so long
that, even through her tears, she wondered why he didn't say something.
She would have liked to have heard his soothing words. Finally he said,
'It's too bad...' and then stopped. Then he began again. 'It's too bad
because, I didn't want to mention it before, but I have some business
and I need to go out of town tomorrow. To London, I mean. I don't know
when I'll be able to come back.' Before, he had probably just intended
to have a little fling with her, but that kind of fun is like playing
on the edge of a cliff. Elizabeth Gaskell writes delicately about that
moment of silence when Bellingham's lust turned to anger and disgust.
This same kind of moment in the life of Arthur Donnithorne, who meant
well, led to the ruin and tragedy of Hetty Sorrel. We don't know when
the exact moment was that Steerforth's passion turned to disgust,
pg 37
but it's good for every young man and young woman to realize that such
a moment
could very well be in their future, when they'll have to fight that
monster within each of us called Lust. Self-indulgence prepares the
way, flirtation presents a pretty flowered side path, and before you
know it, two lives are ruined. We won't stay safe by thinking that
we're too refined or superior for such base temptations. The only way
to deal with it is to have a strong, active life and to be able to say,
like Paul, 'I keep my body under and bring it into subjection.' The
flowered path of flirting can only lead to one end.
Bellingham brings Ruth to London, and then to North Wales. Jenny, the
landlady at the hotel where they stay, says, 'It's obvious they aren't
married.' Still, Ruth enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. Her
admiration and contentment irritated Bellingham. Ruth sighed at her
inability to amuse and satisfy the one she loved. The people at the
hotel commented about the couple. 'She's absolutely beautiful,' said
one man, 'but she can't be any older than sixteen. She looks very
modest and innocent in that white dress.' His wife answered, 'Well, I
think it's shameful that they let those kinds of people stay here.' And
other people thought the same thing. Ruth's solitary walks began to be
hampered by rude remarks and hostile looks. Then Mr. Bellingham gets
sick with a high fever. His mother is sent for to take care of him.
Poor Ruth has nobody else now but the meager kindness of the landlady.
She endures days and nights of terrible anxiety. When Bellingham is
better, he discusses Ruth with his mother. He
pg 38
has some regret, but mostly, he's sorry for himself. Without seeing
Ruth, without even saying goodbye, he says to his mother, 'Can't we
just leave tonight? I wouldn't be so annoyed by her presence if I were
somewhere else. I dread facing her and having a scene, yet I feel like
I owe her some kind of explanation.' This is how he treats her after
ruining her life, and this is his only thanks for her loving devotion.
Ruth was
so young and naive that she probably didn't fully realize the
implications that her mistake would have on her life. The story
continues. Bellingham and his mother leave in high style. He never
seeks to see Ruth or say goodbye. A badly deformed but kind man finds
her afterwards, crouching in a lonely place. She says sadly, 'He left
me--I can't believe it--he's gone and left me!' Before he could offer a
word to comfort him, she burst into the wildest, most dejected crying
imaginable. Hearing herself say the words and realizing the finality of
it cut her heart. Her sobbing and moaning wrung the man's soul, but he
knew she wouldn't hear anything he might say yet, even if he knew what
to say. So he stood beside her calmly while she wailed and sobbed out
her wretchedness. Finally, when she lay worn out and unable to cry any
more, she heard him say quietly to himself, 'Oh, Lord, for Jesus' sake,
have pity on her!' The good man and his sister nurse her through a
perilous illness and finally take her and her baby home with them to
Lancashire, where he's the minister of a small chapel. Ruth goes
through the bitter waters of repentance. A life spent making up for
sin and serving in humility add a Christian character to her natural
beauty. Her transformation was probably
pg 39
easier because her sin wasn't caused by lust, but by loneliness,
despair and oppression.
We know that David found forgiveness even for lust, but it seemed to
leave an indelible mark in his character. And that's what happens to
Mr. Bellingham. Years later, Ruth is doing a valuable service in a
position of humility when she met him again. 'He was changed, but she
didn't know why. The fact is, the ugly expression she had only seen
when he was at his worst had become permanent. He looked restless and
discontent. He thought that the lady was a lot like poor Ruth, but this
woman was even more beautiful. Poor Ruth! And, for the first time in
many years, he wondered what ever happened to her. Of course, there was
only one thing that could
have happened, and it was probably just as well that he didn't know
because the knowledge would most likely had made him uncomfortable.'
This is what Bellingham is like after all those years. Ruth, who was
sinned against, was able to act with Christian dignity and grace. But
we see Bellingham, who 'got off scot-free,' later as a middle-aged man.
He's a person drifting aimlessly, without conscience or heart. He's in
bondage to all-consuming lust.
We don't need to follow the story to its very end. It's a book worth
reading--even more so if, while you read, you ask what the apostles
ask, 'Lord, is it me?' Is this kind of misery or something worse, and
this kind of degraded character, possible for me? Is there anything in
me that's possible of bringing about such a shameful fall? You can be
sure that there is.
pg 40
Sometimes we hear dark rumors about white men in the wilds of Africa
who have broken free from the restraints of civilized society and
commit acts of unbelievable cruelty. When we hear things like this, we
should also ask ourselves, 'Lord, is it me?' Because it's a fact that,
once we break free from the bonds of duty towards God and mankind, lust
and hate run rampant within us and there's no sin we're not capable of.
But let's take courage. No final fall can overtake a person who keeps
his soul protected from the first fall. This is the person who
preserves his purity as if he's walling it within a tower of brass. He
doesn't let any image of uncleanness in to pollute his imagination, he
keeps his mind busy with worthwhile interests and healthy things to do,
he keeps his body under subjection by making himself work, and he
wisely exercises restraint and self-control in matters like eating,
drinking, relaxing and sleeping.
A person like this who knows the dangers and pitfalls that are all
around will pray faithfully every day, 'Our Father in heaven, don't
lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen.' Having said
that kind of a prayer, he doesn't think any more about it. Instead, he
goes his way without fear, rejoicing in the life he has.
'Through faith and prayer, I'll keep
A pure heart in work and will.'
pg 41
Chapter
7 - The Rulings of the Conscience in the House of the Body: Fortitude
Fortitude:
Enduring Adversity with Courage
Boticelli's painting of Fortitude
and John Ruskin's interpretation of
the painting are two things that the Conscience should memorize by
heart. In this picture, Fortitude is not some giant figure, boldly
standing strong, bristling with energy to withstand any enemy. Although
she's tall and noble, yet she's sitting down, exhausted from some kind
of effort that she's been at for a long time. She looks pensive, too,
as
if she's thinking, 'How much longer?' But even though she's resting,
she's still wary and alert. She still hasn't loosened her grip on the
unsheathed sword that's laying across her lap. She's in the thick of a
battle and the end is nowhere in sight, but she doesn't have the
advantage of being on the offensive. There's no denying that she's
weary, yet she isn't sorry for herself or self-satisfied. She only has
one thing on her mind. She's focused on the task that needs to be done,
not on herself as the one doing the task. Or, rather, she's focused on
the task that has to be endured--because Fortitude's existence is one
of
suffering.
The Bible doesn't specify Fortitude by name as one of the Christian
virtues, but it does give the best examples of Fortitude in action.
Jesus, who endured more than any of us can even put into words, said
about Himself, 'I am meek and of lowly spirit.' Perhaps that quote
gives a key to what Fortitude means. It's not so much
pg 42
a valiant virtue as a patient grace. Fortitude is distinguished more
for what she patiently suffers than for what she does.
The apostle Paul gave us an image of the fullness of Christ by using
the different aspects of Love. In the same way, Isaiah gave us an image
of Fortitude by describing the humiliations and sufferings of Christ.
Fortitude is like a delicate plant with no particular beauty or
strength. It grows up within each of us. It endures sorrows and
punishments, suffers without saying anything, doesn't strike back or
speak deceitfully, is made sad, and yet--divides the reward with the
strong. There's only one real kind of Fortitude known to men, and
that's the Fortitude of Christ. Every time we're able to endure
something cheerfully, without feeling sorry for ourselves or proud of
our patience, it's from Christ's divine Fortitude working in us.
Moses was the meekest man who ever lived. His meekness was Fortitude.
He endured the wayward people of Israel for forty years. When he
thought that the people's offenses had surely exceeded God's patience,
he prayed, 'Now, if you will, forgive their sin, If you won't, then I
pray that you would blot me out of your Book of Life, too.'
After his own share of suffering, Paul wrote, 'often I had to travel, I
was in danger in the sea, in danger from robbers, in danger from people
from my own country, in danger from heathens, in danger in the city, in
danger in remote areas, in danger at sea, in danger from false
Christians, often tired and in pain, having to be on the alert on many
occasions, hungry and thirsty, often with absolutely nothing to eat,
cold and without enough clothing or protection from the elements.' Yet
he was so concerned for his fellow Jews that he wished he might be a
under a curse if it would help them.
Maybe Fortitude always has a tender side and always endures hardships
because of love. Even a child bravely enduring a toothache cheerfully
might be motivated out of love--he doesn't want to upset his mother.
pg 43
In the Middle Ages, the tradition of having Fortitude took on the form
of chivalry, which might be considered a school whose teachers were the
various distresses that knights had to endure. Knights showed more
Fortitude than the monks and nuns who practiced discipline and
self-mortification in their monasteries. Roland, Oliver and all of the
'Champions of Christendom' suffered as many hardships as the apostles.
Paul told Timothy to 'endure hardship.' As part of their training,
knights were expected to endure hardship without wincing and without
resentment. In Sir Walter Scott's book The Talisman, Sir Kenneth shows us
a kind of knightly Fortitude that's possible even for us.
Having
Fortitude in the Midst of Poverty
'May I see your sick squire, sir?' Sir Kenneth, the Scottish knight,
hesitated and turned red. But at last he answered, 'Yes, of course,
Lord of Gilsland. But don't be surprised when you see him--remember
that nobles and knights in Scotland don't eat as well or sleep in beds
as soft or nurse their patients in buildings as magnificent as what our
southern neighbors are accustomed to. The place I'm staying in is not
very fancy, Lord Gilsland,' and he added a haughty emphasis on the
word. Somewhat unwillingly, he led the way to the place he was staying
temporarily. Sir Kenneth looked around sadly, but hid his feelings and
went into the hut, motioning for the Baron of Gilsland to follow him
in. Most of he space inside the hut was taken up with two beds. One bed
was empty. It was made of leaves and covered with an antelope skin. The
armor laying beside it and a silver crucifix carefully and reverently
placed at the head of the bed clearly indicated that this was the bed
of Sir Kenneth himself.
pg 44
The sick man was in the other bed. He was older than middle-aged,
strongly built, and had harsh features. His bed was softer than his
master's. He was wearing more courtly clothing and the soft loose robe
that knights usually wear. These and other spare articles of clothing
had obviously been used by Sir Kenneth to make his servant more
comfortable.'
This is an example of Fortitude under very difficult circumstance. Even
under desperate poverty, pity and tenderness for dependents brought out
the knight's personal dignity and courage. Any man who shows this kind
of fortitude is truly heroic. Even the strange hermit-monk of Lebanon
whose body was scarred with wounds from trying to repent of his sins,
isn't as good an example of Christian fortitude as the knight.
Fortitude
Under Distressing Troubles
We appreciate noble lessons that we can apply to everyday situations.
We understand that Mrs.
Garth also showed an act of Fortitude during an undeserved and
troubling situation.
Mrs. Garth (from George Eliot's Middlemarch)
is making pies, supervising the baking and washing, and teaching her
youngest boy and girl Lindley
Murray's grammar, all at the same time. Fred Vincy shows up to
see her husband. Then Caleb himself [her
husband] comes in.
'Mr. Garth, I have something to say that I'm afraid will give you a bad
opinion of me. I need to tell you and Mrs. Garth that I can't keep my
promise. I can't find the money to pay the bill after
pg 45
all. I've had some bad luck. All I have of the hundred and sixty pounds
I owe is these fifty pounds.'
Mrs. Garth was too astonished to say a word. She looked at her husband
for an explanation. Caleb blushed. After a little pause he said,
'Oh, I forgot to tell you, Susan--I co-signed a bill for Fred. It was
for a hundred and sixty pounds. He made sure he'd be able to pay it off
himself first.'
There was an obvious change in Mrs. Garth's expression, but it was like
a change below the surface of water that remains smooth on the surface.
She looked directly at Fred and said,
'I suppose you've already asked your father for the rest of the money
and he refused you?'
'No,' said Fred, biting his lip and speaking with more difficulty. 'I
already know it'll be useless to ask him. Unless it would be of use,
I'd rather not mention Mr. Garth's name in the matter.'
'This couldn't have happened at a worse time,' said Caleb in his
hesitating way, looking down at the money and nervously fingering the
bill. 'Christmas is coming and I'm rather hard up right now. As it is,
things are so tight that I'm like a tailor who has to cut everything
out just a little too small to have enough cloth. What can we do,
Susan? I'm going to need every penny we have in the bank. It's a
hundred and ten pounds, gone just like that!'
'I'll need to give you the ninety-two pounds I had saved for Alfred's
apprenticeship,' said Mrs. Garth solemnly and decisively, although a
sensitive ear might have noticed a slight shaking in her words as she
spoke.
'And I'm sure Mary has saved twenty pounds from her salary by now.
She'll loan us that.'
Mrs. Garth hadn't looked at Fred again and was
pg 46
not calculating at all what words she could use to hurt him most
deeply. She was an unusual woman, and was busy considering what would
need to be done. She knew the solution wouldn't be accomplished any
more effectively by venting bitter remarks or cutting rebukes. But she
had made Fred feel something like remorse for the first time in his
life all the
same.
'I promise I'll pay it--somehow, eventually,' he stammered out.
'Yes, eventually,' said Mrs. Garth. She disliked fine words in
distressing situations and she couldn't resist adding, 'But boys can't
be apprenticed eventually, they should be apprenticed at fifteen.' She
had never been less inclined to make excuses for Fred. Fred turned and
left.
'I was such a fool, Susan.'
'Yes you were,' said his wife, nodding and smiling. But I wouldn't have
let the world know it, why didn't you tell me about this earlier? You
do the same thing with your buttons. You let them burst off without
telling me, and then you go around with your sleeves unbuttoned.'
In Scenes of Clerical Life by
George Eliot, the story of Mrs. Amos Barton's life and death in the
poor parsonage house is a record of gentle and dignified fortitude.
Cheerful,
Serviceable Fortitude
We think of Mark Tapley from Dickens' Martin
Chuzzlewit with a sense of relief. He found 'no credit in being
jolly' when things were going well. But no knight-errantry can exceed
the cheerful, serviceable Fortitude he showed in the jolly way that he
made the best of things in 'Eden.' The enemies he struggled against
pg 47
were unromantic things--fever, famine, discontent, and helplessness in
every member of that poor colony. And what a gritty and unpretentious
struggle that was! Mark Tapley deserves an honored place among our
closest friends, although he might not think there was any credit for
being so jolly in such a pleasant position!
We don't need to go all the way to his colony of 'Eden' to find
Fortitude. In Bleak House, a
birthday dinner cooked (!) by her loving family gave Mrs. Bagnet the
occasion for a lot of cheerful serenity.
What a contrast she is to Our Mutual
Friend's Mrs. Wilfur, who lets the whole world know she's
enduring a trial by tying a black ribbon around her face. How many of
us do the same thing in a symbolic way, wearing the black ribbon of a
sullen mood and mournful face! Instead of gradually coming down, we've
jumped from the highest examples of noble Fortitude to common, even
absurd examples. But they fit our purpose. It might not be a bad idea
to keep a notebook for recording people and incidents that give
inspiration to conscience in the area of Fortitude.
The
List of Our Heroes
We don't have enough time to talk about Nansen, Gordon, Howard,
Livingstone, Collingwood, Raleigh, Galileo, Florence Nightingale,
Calpurnia, Mackay of Uganda, or Grace Darling. The list of people whose
Fortitude distinguished them is actually our list of heroes. If we
start a book of examples of Fortitude, it will become a book of heroes,
both of great and small things. You might object that Fortitude is a
matter of the heart and mind, not the physical body. But if the body
isn't kept in
pg 48
its proper place and trained to endure without complaining, then
Fortitude doesn't stand a chance. It's within the body that we must
endure trials, and training is done through cheerfully enduring small
trials that are too minor to list.
The Song of the Lotos-Eaters
has a message for all of us:
'All things have rest. Why should we toil alone,
Only we who are first have to toil
And moan continually
Always thrown from one sorrow to another.
We never get to fold our wings
And rest from our wanderings
Or rest our eyes in the healing balm of sleep
Or listen to the inner spirit as it sings,
'The only joy is calm!'
Why should we, the supreme beings in Creation
Be the only ones who constantly toil?'
[adapted from Tennyson]
That's why we need Fortitude. Without it, no person has ever brought
life to any purpose. 'I fight, not like someone just pounding his fists
into the air, but I keep my body under control and bring it into
subjection.'
pg 49
Chapter
8 - The Rulings of the Conscience in the House of the Body: Prudence
Good
Judgment and Common Sense
Imprudence
is Selfishness
'I am wisdom. I live with prudence and discover knowledge of witty
inventions.' That saying is worth reflecting on in this age when
Prudence is no longer fashionable. Young people confuse impulsiveness
with heart, so they look down on Prudence. Yet, of all the deceitful
and harmful forms of selfishness, Imprudence is probably the most
destructive. Prudence is one of the counselors who teaches Conscience
about the dealings of the House of the Body, because Prudence is mostly
manifested in connection with physical matters, and physical matters
all affect the body either directly or indirectly.
Prudence
in Affairs
We know how a virtuous woman is described. Virtuous is another word for
prudent. A prudent woman is the one who seeks wool and flax and works
diligently with her hands. She brings food from far away. She's the one
who gets up early in the morning and feeds her family breakfast. She
checks out a plot of land and makes an offer on it. She's careful to
keep up her health and her strength. She goes
pg 50
out of her way to help the poor, but is still able to enhance her own
family and maintain a reputation of peace and respect in the community.
Joseph was prudent. He considered the future and made plans for the
benefit of Egypt, his new home, and for the success of Pharaoh, his
boss. England's King Alfred was very prudent. Every great commander
wins his battles through Prudence as much as through bravery.
Prudence
in Selecting Friends
There was one incident where Alcibiades (from Plutarch's Lives) showed Prudence.
'He
had always been surrounded with pleasures, and many would-be friends
made it a point to say only what they thought he wanted to hear. They
would never criticize or correct him. But Alcibiades had natural
insight and recognized the value of Socrates. He rejected the rich and
popular people who clamored for his attention and attached himself to
Socrates. He soon became close friends with Socrates. He discovered
that Socrates didn't want special favors from him like everyone else
did. It was more important to him to analyze and correct Alcibiades's
faulty attitudes and to cure his worthless, foolish arrogance.
'Then his face fell and his pride was humbled.
His spirits submitted in humility.'
He considered the discipline of Socrates as a gift from heaven to
preserve and benefit the youths of the culture. Knowing his own faults,
he admired his friend, respected his virtue and loved his wisdom.
Without even realizing it, he copied the love he saw in his own heart,
allowing himself to submit under the influence of the power that, as
Plato said, attracts devotion because of its own deep love.'
pg 51
This is a great example of Prudence in the selection of friends and
mentors. If only Alcibiades had been as reliable as he was prudent.
Prudence
Doesn't Tolerate Undue Influence
Alexander (Plutarch's Lives),
in his heroic days, showed admirable Prudence. He could tell the
difference between things he came across. 'He gave his mother lots of
expensive gifts, but he wouldn't let her intelligent mind meddle in
affairs of government, or have any control over the business of state.
She complained that this was a hardship for her to deal with. He
endured her annoyance patiently. Antipater once wrote him a long letter
full of serious criticisms against his mother. Alexander read the
letter and then remarked, 'Antipater doesn't understand that one tear
of a mother can blot out a thousand of these kinds of complaints.' He
wouldn't allow his mother to interfere with his duties as ruler, yet
his love for her was very great.
And Jesus, who was even greater than Alexander, said, 'Don't you know
that I must be busy with my Father's business?' It's Prudence's special
duty to make sure that no undue influence is allowed even from those
who are nearest and dearest to us. It's our duty to think for ourselves
and to consider what's best for everyone. We can't allow ourselves to
be swayed by the private interests of anybody. Any government whose
officers can be persuaded to make any decisions for the private good of
themselves or their own interests is corrupt at its core.
Prudence chooses what's simple, and never prefers luxury. It thinks
that work is more honorable than pleasure, and trains the body to
handle severe treatment. In all of these things,
pg 52
Alexander was a good example of gentle, heroic Prudence.
Prudence
Is Always Moderate in Everything
'He discovered that his officers had no limits in their extravagance.
They enjoyed luxurious dining and all kinds of other indulgences. Agnon
of Teos even used silver nails in his shoes, Leonatus had camel-loads
of dirt delivered all the way from Egypt to rub himself with before he
went into the wrestling ring, Philotas bought netting that would
enclose an area twelve miles wide when he went hunting, and
others had expensive essences to use after bathing instead of plain
oil, and special servants to prepare their baths and make their beds.
Alexander rebuked these decadent practices like a true philosopher.
'He said that it seemed odd to him that, after experiencing so many
glorious battles, they forgot that sleep was more restful after honest
work and exercise than after lazy pampering. After they'd seen the way
the Persians lived, he was surprised that it wasn't obvious to them
that nothing was more shameful than the love of pleasure, and nothing
was more noble than a life of honest work. How can a man take care of
his own horse or put on his own sword and helmet if his hands are too
delicate to dress and bathe his own pampered body? The end of victory
isn't to succumb to living like those who were conquered, but to live
better than they did.' (from Plutarch's Life of Alexander.)
Prudent
Citizens Are a Society's Most Valuable Asset
The laws of Lycurgus (Plutarch's Lives)
resulted from noble and generous prudence. If Sparta was going to
succeed in its long conflict with Athens, it would have to do it through
pg 53
the fitness of each of its citizens. Lycurgus understood that each
individual possessed in himself the most valuable thing in Sparta--a
body prepared for work and endurance, and a mind that could recognize
the seriousness of a situation.
'He wanted to cure them of their quest for luxury and desire for
riches. So he introduced a third plan that was wise and brilliantly
designed. He set up community dining halls where everyone would eat the
same food, and the government would decide what was served. The people
were forbidden to eat at home at fancy tables and couches with gourmet
meals prepared by private butchers and cooks. No longer cold they stuff
themselves like pigs in private. Such gluttony corrupted their table
manners and made them fat and unhealthy. It encouraged all kinds of
sensuous habits, including sleeping in and lounging in warm baths, as
pampered as invalids. He made another law to discourage magnificence
and expensive living. He decreed that ceilings in the houses couldn't
be made with any tool except an axe, and doors couldn't be made with
anything beyond a saw. Because, as Epaminondas said later, you can't
hide treason under that kind of meal. And Lycurgus knew that a house
with an axe-hewn ceiling and sawn door is no place for fine splendor
and fancy furniture. It would be absurd to have a humble, plain house
and fill it with silver bedposts, purple quilts, golden cups and other
fine luxuries. A plain and simple house would motivate a person to buy
a suitable bed with sensible bedding and dishes to match.
There are things about a Spartan lifestyle that aren't appropriate for
a Christian life,
pg 54
but wise people feel strongly these days that it's in the best
interest of society to live simple lives, to avoid excesses even in
the athletic or intellectual realm, and to avoid having any more
possessions than are needed to live a simple, sensible life. There's
nothing wrong with allowing ourselves to live with furniture and tools
that are beautiful as well as practical, but we shouldn't let ourselves
accumulate unnecessary stuff that clutters our lives and requires our
time to maintain, especially if the things are valuable merely because
of how much they cost. These kinds of things get in the way of what's
really valuable: a body that does what we need, and a mind that's
alert. We need a fit body and mind to do our duty to our community and
meet our family responsibilities.
'When the money was brought to Athens, Phocion (Plutarch's Lives) asked those who brought it
why he should be singled out to receive such a gift. They said it was
because Alexander considered him the only honest and good man in
Athens. 'Then let me retain that character and really be that kind of
man,' said Phocion. Phocion brought the men to his home and they saw
how frugal a life he led. His wife baked bread, he drew water himself
and washed his own feet. That made them urge him even more to take the
money. They said it wasn't fit for the friend of such a fine prince as
Alexander to live in such a wretched manner. Just then, a poor old man
happened to walk by in rags. Phocion asked whether the men thought less
of him than
pg 55
they did the old man. They begged him not to make such a comparison,
but Phocion responded, 'That old man lives on less than I do, yet he is
happy. If you give me the money and I don't use it, it's wasted. But if
I use it to live a life of luxury, the people of Athens will resent
both me and Alexander, your king.' So they took the money back with
them. The incident was a good lesson for the Greeks. A man who doesn't
care to receive a gift of money is richer than the one who can afford
to offer such a gift.'
When it comes to Prudence, Jesus is our best example. The Bible says,
'My servant will deal prudently,' and we'll learn a lot by studying the
gospels to see how He dealt prudently with the only thing He owned--His
life. That's really the only thing of real value that any of us truly
has. If we think of Christ as our example, we'll live sensibly and not
lose our common sense to any kind of excesses.
pg 56
Section 2 - The Conscience in the House of
the Mind
Chapter
9 - Opinions in the Air
Everyone knows that what he does with his body and heart should be
directed by his Conscience. How we act to others, what we feel about
them, controlling our own bodies are all things that we agree should be
subject to the Conscience. But we tend to think that our thoughts are
our own, and that the domain of the Intellect is an area where every
man is his own master--as if the opinions we form, the mental tasks we
choose to undertake or leave undone are beyond the realm of duty.
Without even realizing it, we think that thought is an area where we're
free.
Casual
Opinions
Of all the mistakes that have tripped up people and entire societies,
this one is probably the most unfortunate. A person might pick up some
notion, call it his opinion, and spread it here and there until that
foolish notion becomes a threat to society, and people are in bondage
to
it. We're always hearing statements that remind us of the cry heard
among the Jews: 'Here are your gods, O Israel!' The Israelites might
not have even known which tent the shout came from, but it spread like
lightning over the whole Israelite camp until every man brought his
valuables
pg 57
to help make a golden calf. Why did that happen? Moses, their leader,
was gone. True, he was with God, but he was gone, and his people wasted
no time creating a shrine and worshiping it. This is typical of how an
opinion can very quickly carry away a country or a person--the leader
is out of sight, and boisterous opinions fill people's ears.
During summer vacation, when people don't have much to think about,
newspapers print all kinds of idle questions like, 'Is life worth
living?' or 'Is the institution of marriage a failure?' Of course, the
indirect message is that life isn't worth it, and marriage is a
failure. Sensible people don't take these articles seriously. But there
are lots of people who just wait around for any chance notion that
comes their way, and they can't wait to spread it.
When people like this hear the notion that the institution of marriage
is a failure, the idea spreads and leads to a proliferation of
immorality. The idea itself has become a kind of golden calf, and the
leader, Conscience, is either gone or else silenced. And the result is
that people think it's a wonderful thing to make sacrifices for their
exciting new idea of the moment. Or they might wonder aloud and go
around asking whether life is really worth living. Although it might
seem more innocent because it's just a question, it's just as serious.
There's no law on the books that a person can go to jail for being
sullen and ungrateful for sunshine and rain and food and clothing and
natural beauty and kind friends. Yet it's an ugly kind of sin that's as
contagious as the plague of Black Death. The person who allows his mind
to dwell on the question, 'Is life worth living?' has already been
infected.
pg 58
How
Fallacies Work
We've all heard stories about how killing isn't always murder--how men
who seem well-intentioned entertain the notion that killing is
sometimes justified and therefore not really murder. They're
persuaded by their own reason that the only way to secure the safety of
the masses is to get rid of the leader hindering their liberty. And
they become convinced that they've been specially called for the task
of delivering their people. So they kill the offender and, instead of
being hailed as a hero, they're hated by all thinking people and called
an assassin. How did this happen?
It happens like this: The conscience, which is supposed to cry out,
'You must not murder!' has been silenced. Opinion played the role of
director, Reason supported him, and then the wicked murder became
reality. Even the slightest hint of opinion is enough to waylay an open
(empty) mind. We see it in the news every day. Just the other day a
local newspaper featured an article about 'The Unreality of Sin.'
An empty mind hungers for any kind of deposit, so it's easy to see how
that kind of headline would be accepted into many people's minds and
then used as an excuse to sin.
When I was a girl, darning stockings was considered a valuable use of
time, and I was shocked to hear a respectable Welsh lady say that she
didn't believe in darning stockings! I found out later that 'darning'
could also mean running them; she thought I was ruining new stockings
by putting holes in the heels. But at first I thought she had hit on
some novel principle that would free me from the task of mending holes
in stockings. That's how it is with so many people--some casual remark
is heard and latched onto, often about a more serious issue than
stockings. There's always some stimulating new fallacy being talked
about that attracts thousands of people.
pg 59
Being caught up with every new opinion is a risk for anyone who isn't
aware of the danger and doesn't know how to protect himself. I
think that these are the most important rules for doing the right
thing: a) we shouldn't entertain just any notion that comes our way, b)
we
shouldn't rely on our Reason to be an infallible guide to opinions
since Reason sometimes argues in favor of what we feel like doing
instead of what the right thing to do is, c) we need to work hard to
find out as much as we can so that our opinions are based on knowledge,
and, d) we should strive to get good principles that can help us test
our opinions.
pg 60
Chapter
10 - The Untaught Conscience
An untaught Conscience can have all kinds of inconsistencies. By
focusing on the wrong thing, it's continually 'straining out the gnats
and swallowing a camel.' Even the most hardened criminal has a
Conscience that he justifies with misleading reasons and excuses. He
might claim that 'society is against him, and he never got a fair
chance.' Or, 'why should I go around hungry and in rags while some
other guy rides in a fancy car and has lots to eat?' Or, 'that man has
more than he needs, it's his responsibility to keep it safe if he wants
it. If someone else is clever enough to trick him out of some of it,
it's only fair.' This is the way that Reason and Inclination support
each other in people whose minds are like Ishmael, whose hand was
against everyone. In fact, the criminal reasons that, since every man's
hand is against him, he has a right to get what he can to make up for
it.
Conscience
is Persistent About Some Things
There are some things that slick Reason never compromises in matters of
conscience. He must be loyal to his buddies. Turning in a buddy who did
something wrong seems to him to be even worse than murder. Reason also
makes sure that he's fair in his dealings with his buddies and will
share as much as he said he would. People are almost always faithful
with their beloved cherished child, or a friend they
pg 61
sincerely care about. Every person's conscience makes demands in some
area. Every person, no matter how civilized or savage, has some issues
where he acts on conscience. The first thing most missionaries will do
is to find out on what issues the people always act on principled of
conscience. David Livingstone was able to live peaceably among the most
barbaric tribes in Africa because he had enough sympathy and knowledge
to find an area of trust with them. He was always able to find areas
where their conscience was inflexible, such as loyalty to a guest or
gratitude to someone who was kind to them. Livingstone made some
valuable discoveries about human nature. There are certain virtuous
qualities that are apparent even in the most barbaric tribes; imagine
how much of those same qualities there are in people who have been
raised in societies that value kindness. He discovered that even these
uneducated savages knew that they must not murder or steal. They knew
that they needed to obey their parents and be kind to each other, and
other things. In other words, they had the light of Conscience. And
we've heard from Captain Cook that the Otaheitans wept the first time
they saw a white man being flogged. Even though they were savages, they
knew that cruelty was wrong.
Moral
Stability
Yet, an uneducated conscience is at the mercy of every whim that tries
to persuade his conscience, and his Reason will supplement that with a
thousand logical excuses. This is true of savages, criminals, tough
schoolboys, rough country farmers, and ignorant undisciplined people in
every class of society--even those whose ignorance comes with a college
degree. Only educated consciences are stable and consistent.
We all know someone who's predictable, we always know how he'll act
in a
given situation and we can always depend on him. That's because he's
not likely to be swayed by the latest outside opinions.
pg 62
He knows enough to have developed a standard to judge opinions with,
and principles to test how moral those opinions are. He knows that
flashy new opinions have been tried in the past and didn't hold up, so
he won't fall for them. He examines each new idea with his principles,
which act like a light. And he discovers when a new idea is based on
faulty logic that leads to more faulty thinking and wrong actions. As a
result, he doesn't give it any place in his mind.
An
Entire Nation Can be Unstable
The rest of the people who haven't thought through their principles are
like fertile ground for every new idea. When some crazy notion grabs
the attention of a few people, it becomes a mania. Sir Walter Scott had
some legal habits of mind; maybe that was why he wrote Peveril of the Peak, an example
from history of a nation that went crazy over a new notion. One good
example of the power of a notion over a nation, and how a baseless idea
can spread like wildfire can be so valuable for teaching the
conscience, so I'm going to quote part of a note about the Popish Plot
from the back of Peveril of the Peak.
'The villainous character of the people who created and carried out the
pretended Popish Plot can be estimated by this account. It's from Roger
North's Examen, and North
describes Oates very vividly. He says, 'he was now fully three times
exalted. His Plot was in full force and he walked around with his
bodyguards (for fear that the Catholics would murder him). He lived in
a room at Whitehall Palace and had a yearly pension of $2100. He forced
the House of Lords to provide those things
by threatening that, if they didn't give it to him, he would
pg 63
take it himself. He put on an Episcopalian robe without the thin linen
sleeves, silk gown and garment, big hat, satin hatband and rose and the
long scarf. He blasphemously used the title of Savior of the Nation.
Any person he merely pointed at was arrested and thrown in prison. When
people saw him coming, they fled from him as if he was a huge
explosion. His very presence was like a plague. Even those who didn't
end up in prison or executed had their reputations ruined just by being
seen with him. Even the queen herself was accused at the Commons' bar.
The city was so afraid of Catholics that they put up posts and chains.
Sir Thomas Player, the Chamberlain in the Court of Alderman, said that
they did that because they were afraid of being murdered while they
slept. When people said anything, none of their conversations was
ordinary--every debate and action was grandiose and confused. All
freedom of speech was taken away. To doubt the Plot was considered
worse than being an Arab, or a Jew or an infidel.'
A
Compelling Idea
This theme seems to have fascinated Sir Walter Scott. It's the key to
more than one historical character in his books. In Old Mortality, Balfour of Burley is
a bigot. A murderous idea possesses and impels him. Yet when that idea
finally drives him to an ungodly cruel crime, even his own uninstructed
conscience can't accept the 'logical' conclusion that his Reason
presents, and causes him great mental anguish. This example of the
danger of a compelling idea is even more educational than Shakespeare's
Brutus because Scott
pg 64
takes great care to demonstrate how a dark mind naturally leads to
prejudice, gullibility, intolerance, superstition, ambition for the
wrong reasons, even murder. This is even more so when this ignorance is
joined by mental intelligence and the mind has been struck by a
tempting
idea. Scott illustrates very vividly what happens when the conscience
tests a new idea too late.
Sir Walter Scott also shows us the danger of oblivious ignorance, which
can make even the purest teaching be twisted and used for evil
purposes. In Woodstock, the
Independent, Sergeant Tomkins, who calls himself Honest Joe or Trusty
Tomkins, believed that he was saved and was therefore incapable of sin.
To him, that meant that anything that might be foul sin in others was
okay for him to do.
The
Dangers of Being Ignorant
Although we in our modern era take pride in being enlightened and
progressive, we seem to be less aware of how gross and dull and foul
ignorance is than thinkers of the Middle Ages were. We don't seem to
understand that a conscience that hasn't been educated is at the mercy
of a dark, unenlightened mind. Academically intelligent people have
been known to say foolish things like, 'I don't see any use in sending
missionaries out,' or 'Every country and tribe has the religion that's
best suited for their particular situation.' How can anything but evil
come from unenlightened places where passion, prejudice and
superstition conceal the natural light of the conscience?
It's alarming how much ignorance there is right in our own homes,
schools and universities. Ignorance is to blame for the seventy
thousand Americans that Emerson says are, 'going around looking for a
religion.' Even the very 'tolerance' that
pg 65
we're so proud of comes from ignorance that makes us unable to
recognize the difference between various things. We may not be as far
gone as that country that supplies us with so many new notions and
novel religions [does she mean
America?], but the fact that we're so
ready and willing to accept whatever new ideas come our way shows that
we're guilty of having uneducated consciences.
When it comes to politics, we put all our trust on whatever our
newspaper says--even though it only prints the biased information of
our own political party! We don't make the effort to supplement with
information from the other newspaper, or by broadening our minds with
literature or history. We get all of our political education from
lectures and summaries, but they can't possibly take the time to
provide as much detail as what comes from our own conscientious effort
to
gather information.
Painstaking
Over-Vigilance
Like the young man that Mrs. Piozzi wrote about in her Anecdotes of Johnson, we make the
mistake of being over-scrupulous in one area but too careless in
another.
Johnson said, 'For the last five weeks, someone had been coming to my
door saying that he wanted to see me, but he wouldn't leave his name or
say what he wanted to see me about. Finally we met. He said that he was
troubled by a matter of ethics. I asked him why he hadn't gone directly
to his parish priest or local clergyman, as our church rules ordain. He
paid me a few compliments and then told me that he worked as a clerk
for a well-known merchant who had warehouses that had lots of packing
materials to get things ready for shipping. He said that he was often
tempted to take wrapping paper and strapping tape for his own uses, and
had often, in fact, done so. He couldn't even remember the last time he
had paid for packing materials himself. I said, 'But it's probably
insignificant to your boss. Just ask for his permission and then go
ahead and use the materials with a clear conscience.' He answered, 'But
my boss already said I could use as much as I wanted. In fact, he was
annoyed when I bothered him to discuss it.' I was just about to say,
'Then don't waste my time about such a trivial thing if it's already
settled,' and was almost
pg 66
angry about it, when it occurred to me that the guy might be mentally
unstable. So I asked him, 'What time do you go home from your job?'
'About seven o'clock, sir.' 'And when do you go to bed?' 'At midnight.'
'Then I've learned from our new acquaintance that five unemployed hours
in a day are enough for a person to drive himself crazy. I would advise
you to study algebra if you don't already know it. Your head would get
less muddy and you'd stop tormenting your fellow man about wrapping
paper and strapping tape when the world is already bursting with sin
and heartache.'
Undue obsession with trivial matters is a sure sign of an uneducated
conscience. Maybe the man shouldn't have taken his boss's packing
materials, but wasting his own time and the time of others about such a
small matter was an even worse offense. This illustrates that only an
educated conscience is able to view things in their proper perspective
and to distinguish what really matters from what's of no consequence.
That's why a child will make such huge mistakes in his value judgments.
He'll lie, be unkind, commit cruelty, and not even realize he's done
anything wrong. Yet a trivial little act, like opening a forbidden
drawer, will trouble his conscience for months. Schoolchildren make
similar mistakes. They don't feel guilty about deceiving their teacher,
but they'll believe that it's unpardonable to turn in a schoolmate.
There's so much more that could be said about an uneducated conscience,
the subject is so broad and encompasses so much of life. But I can only
suggest a hint here, or offer an example there. One point I want to
make very clear, though. Every person is born with a conscience. But
its light is only steady and dependable in proportion to how
well-informed it is through increasing its intelligence. Also, an
uneducated
pg 67
conscience leaves a person open to bigotry, fanaticism, panic, envy,
and spite. Such a person's Reason will justify every offense because he
has very little knowledge of people and events to measure his judgments
against. Note that I'm not talking about deliberate sin. Even an
educated conscience is tempted to willfully sin! We'll talk more about
that later. For now, let's make it clear that more than half of the
mistakes and offenses committed in the world are done out of ignorance.
People think and do the wrong thing because they don't bother to
educate their conscience.
pg 68
Chapter
11 - The Instructed Conscience
Sound
Moral Judgment
I won't say that a person with an educated conscience is incapable of
doing something morally wrong. That's not true. But such a person has
the advantage of rarely being able to do or think wrong without being
aware of his error. The reliability that his enlightened conscience
gives him
sets him apart. Emerson said that it's interesting that many people
have a name, or a kind of force in the world, that seems even greater
than what they actually did or wrote. We're fascinated by economic
historian Arnold
Toynbee who worked for social housing, author John
Sterling, Arthur
Hallam,
Tennyson's poet friend, and other young men whose short lives didn't
extend far past their
college graduation. [US equivalents
might be poet John Gillespie Magee, Bobby Kennedy, Todd Beamer].
Emerson says that this kind of legendary esteem that doesn't seem
warranted by accomplishments is--character. He may very well be
correct, but maybe the specific aspect of character we value so much in
these men is the sound moral judgment they had which comes from having
an educated conscience. Goldsmith gives us a charming example of this
kind of person in The Vicar of
Wakefield's Dr. Primrose. His decisions are so wise, his
resolutions are fair, even his correction is gentle yet effective. How
can we forget that epitaph that his wife was supposed to live up to [he had made a plaque praising her
'prudence, economy, and obedience till death' and hung it in a
prominent place for her to see every day!] or the
pg 69
way he let his family have their portrait done--even though the
painting was too big to fit in any of the rooms in the house! That was
a reproof of vanity that they never forgot! He is humble when he's
doing well, and composed in times of hardship. And this is because of
reading and prayer. He didn't get to be this way through his books
alone, or through prayer alone, it was both of them working together.
Boswell shows that Dr. Johnson was the same way. We're used to having
dictionaries, so we aren't overly impressed with his skill as a great
lexicographer. Actually, when you think about it, Johnson's
achievements in both actions and writing were surprisingly small,
considering his talent. His writing style wasn't even as appealing to
us as his biographer's. Yet few men had as well-educated a conscience
for making fair and just judgments. That's why his biography is such
worthwhile reading. To have Boswell constantly asking, 'Sir?' must have
been annoying, so it's no surprise that he sometimes pretended that the
worse side was better. But his judgments were so just and righteous! No
wonder his contemporaries waited to hear his thoughts on matters. We
can all sound idealistic and discuss the morality of others, but he was
able to share what he called 'luminous' thoughts about all kinds of
things and all kinds of famous historical people. Only a person with an
educated conscience can do that. Probably everyone who makes a mark on
history that seems to transcend their accomplishments has had an
influence on the world based on their moral judgment rather than their
genius.
Moral
Judgment and Virtuous Living
Being able to form moral judgments and living
pg 70
a virtuous life aren't the same thing. But it's necessary for people
who live in a very narrow sphere to have both. Simple people may have
proper thoughts about daily work and routine duties because their
conscience has been educated by traditional wisdom that they got at
home without even realizing it. But if we want to live in the immense,
wide world and experience a broader realm of thought and deeds, then we
need to make it a priority to slowly, gradually, little by little,
learn how to form fair opinions.
How do we do this? First of all, we need to be observant and think for
ourselves. We don't want to have cute, clever things to say about what
other people are doing, discovering a low motive here, or a shrewd
practice there. People who let themselves get into such habits lose
their ability to interpret life with an educated
conscience. But if we're observant and keep our thinking gentle,
broad-minded and humble, then we'll find lots of learning opportunities
to improve ourselves in our daily family life. We'll find some good in
the things done by politicians here and overseas, and we'll recognize
wisdom in the attitudes of other nations.
But not many of us are able to observe and experience people and events
around the world. Most of us will have to rely on books to educate
ourselves. The way to educate our conscience is to read, notice, learn
and assimilate. We need to read novels, history, poetry, everything
that's classified as literature. And we need to read with a purpose of
improving ourselves rather than reading for cultural literacy. Some
people have
developed a distaste for the word 'culture.' The concept of a
'cultured' person is very narrow because it has 'self' as its goal. But
there's a better reason to become profoundly intimate with an extensive
amount of literature than self-culture. In literature we'll find wise
men's reflections about the art of living. Sometimes it's written in
history, sometimes poetry, essay or story. This is what we all need to
master--the art of living.
pg 71
Chapter
12 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: Poetry, Novels and Essays
Poetry
Poetry is probably the most penetrating, searching and intimate of all
our teachers. It's 'interesting' to know about a certain poet and his works,
in the same way that it's interesting to know about carved metal repousse design. But in order to
get any joy or productivity out of repousse,
we need to learn what the tools are and how to use them. Poetry has
tools that help us shape and model our lives. We need to figure out how
to use them ourselves. If one particular line of a poem strikes us as
we read it, and repeats itself in our mind so that we quote it out loud
during the day and murmur it at odd moments--then this is the line that
speaks directly to us to influence our daily living, even if it only
talks about,
'Old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.'
This two-line couplet doesn't seem to have any meaty substance, yet it
can instruct our conscience better than many wise proverbs. As we
internally 'chew' on this, a reverence comes to us that we aren't even
aware of. We gain a gentleness, a sense of wistful tenderness about the
past, a feeling of continuity in history, and a sense that our own part
in the march of history won't be out of step and obvious, but a
harmonious part of the whole. This is the kind of lesson that can't be
taught in school.
pg 72
It has to dawn on each of us as we discover it for ourselves.
Many people have a poet who's their favorite for a year or two, then
they have another favorite, and then another. Others find that one poet
is their favorite for a lifetime--perhaps Spenser or Wordsworth or
Browning. But, whether we have a favorite for a year or for a lifetime,
we need to observe as we read, and learn and internally digest. Digest
is a good word to describe the process. Whatever we digest is
assimilated and is taken into ourselves. It becomes a part of us that's
inseparable from who we are.
The first time we read Shakespeare, we probably read it for the story.
Then we read it again to get another look at his characters. He's
created a crowd of charming people, and he makes us feel so intimate
with them that, afterwards, whether we meet someone in a book or in
real life, we think, 'She's a lot like Jessica,' or, 'What a sweet
girl, she reminds me of Miranda,' or, 'She treats her father like
Cordelia,' or a certain historical figure might seem to be 'vulgar,
like
lago.' To be this familiar with Shakespeare is very enriching to the
mind and instructive for the conscience. Then, little by little, as we
continue reading, Shakespeare's beautiful, perceptive lines will begin
to take possession of us. They'll mold the way we judge men and things
and the great issues of life without us even realizing it.
Novels
Novels can also be like sermons to wise people, but not if we only read
them for the plot. It's a degrading waste of time to read a novel that
can be skimmed, or to peek at the last page to see how it ends. We need
to read to learn the meaning of life. By the time we finish a book, we
should know who said what, and what the circumstances were. The
characters we get to know in books become our mentors, or, in some
cases, our warning. But, either way, they're still teaching us--unless
our mind is like a colander, and everything slips through like water
that goes through the holes and own the drain.
pg 73
Of course, it would be ridiculous to waste time investing this kind of
careful reading on a book that isn't written with literary skill or has
no moral value. We should limit ourselves to the best--we should only
read novels that are worth reading again and again, enjoying each time
more than the last. It's easy to see the shallow way people read when
you realize that ninety-nine out of a hundred people who read
Thackeray's Vanity Fair come
away thinking that Amelia is an ideal woman. Very few people get the
real moral of the story--that a man can't give more to a woman than
she's worth. Even Dobbin, who was so faithful, finally found his life,
not in Amelia, but in his books and his daughter. It's wise to choose
the authors we read with the same care and discernment we use to choose
our friends. And, once we've decided that an author has something to
say that we need to hear, we should listen respectfully.
Essays
Essays are enjoyable to read, but I won't go into them much here. Like
poets, we have to find our favorites on our own. They have a special
intimacy with their readers, and every phrase that seems so casual
should be carefully considered. There may be more to it than meets the
eye. The
best essayists write because they have something personal to say to you
and
me, because their minds have some fruit of the thoughts of their lives
that they
want us to taste. So let's read to be enlightened.
pg 74
Chapter
13 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: History and Philosophy
History and biographies of historical people approach us in another
way. Currently, we're experiencing a passion for patriotism and a bond
of citizenship. That could be because we've all caught the enthusiasm
of imperialism, or maybe we're reacting against the last generation's
individualism. We should be thankful for these two forces that result
in national pride, but their strength might make us rush heedlessly
into presumptuous sins if we don't recognize where our position fits
regarding our country and city, and if we don't make an effort to
educate our conscience.
The
Informed Patriot
We should read newspapers, of course--newspapers from both sides. But a
person who bases everything he knows on newspapers is an ignorant
patriot and a narrow-minded citizen. His opinions are merely rehashed
repetitions of other men's words--like a parrot. A person should
mull over the history of his own country with responsible interest. He
should be distressed when his country does something dishonorable, and
proud when his country does something great. He should ponder the
history of some other great empires, admire the balanced justice that
governed
pg 75
its remote colonies, and reflectively examine the reasons for its fall.
Then he will gradually come to have some understanding of what the life
of a nation is. He'll be able to express an opinion that doesn't merely
parrot someone else. He'll develop his own convictions, and they will
be helpful to his country, even if the only people he shares them with
are the ones around his dinner table.
He'll learn to value Xerxes as a gardener whose goal was for every man
to have hi own little paradise. Lycurgus will be more to him than a
lawgiver; he'll recognize that Lycurgus was a hero for being able to
keep the laws he made. This kind of person is interested and a little
envious of the those small yet great republics that were skilled at war
and peace and had schools where every man learned philosophy. The best
men of those societies made philosophy the absorbing study of their
entire lives.
A person who reads history this way cares about more than cramming to
pass a test, or becoming cultured, or even being entertained, although
this kind of reading is undoubtedly enjoyable. He knows that he owes it
to his country to have some intelligent knowledge about the past, not
just of his own country, but of other cultures, too. This kind of
person is a valuable asset to his country. It's a great thing to
develop a fair, broad-minded, enlightened patriot for the service of
one's nation, even if that patriot is only oneself.
Philosophy
Philosophy is as important to us as it was for the young men of Athens.
What makes us remarkable among civilized people is our ignorance of the
things people have thought about in the world before us. We tend to
think of the thoughts of previous civilizations as worthless or routine
common knowledge. Yet philosophers have spent five thousand years
seeking a single unifying principle that explains both physical matter
pg 76
and the mind. Today, we assume that we've found this principle in
evolution. That may be true, but we let ourselves accept this as fact
without even knowing what men have thought before us. We don't even
stop to realize that, if we accept that this theory includes the
evolution of man's mind, we sacrifice the idea of an afterlife. There
can be no life or existence except this physical existence. I'm not
going to discuss this thesis, I just want to say that we shouldn't
blindly accept ideas that have such far-reaching conclusions just
because another man's reason says so. We let his logic persuade us to
come to his conclusion. Remember that Reason's job is to come up with
logical reasons to 'prove' any idea we accept into our mind.
It's our job is to choose which notions we're willing to entertain. To
make this kind of choice wisely, our conscience needs to be
well-educated. Knowing the history of what's been thought before us
will provide us with lots of examples of Reason's fallibility. Then
we'll understand that just because something 'proves' itself to be
correct doesn't guarantee that it's right.
We can be more sure by looking in two directions--to the past history
of ancient thought, and to the future as we try to foresee how issues
will play themselves out to a conclusion. We can't trust our own
reasoning, or another man's, no matter how conclusive it seems. We need
to reach our own conclusions by letting our Reason work on reliable
knowledge that we've collected from a wide range of sources. A person
who refuses to consider what's happened before, and won't trace an idea
to its logical conclusion, may claim that he's embracing the truth, but
he's really clinging to ignorant bias.
pg 77
If you remember, Columbus heard an idea that was pretty popular. It was
the possibility that there was a western passage to the Indies. After a
few failed attempts to find support, he brought his idea to Ferdinand
and Isabella. They were favorable to his idea and provided him with
ships and money. If he had only come with a notion that seemed feasible
to him, he would have been merely an adventurer. But he knew enough
about historical sea voyages to realize that a way to the Indies by his
route had never been attempted. He knew enough geographical principles
to make a plausible case for his theory. He was able to use the
knowledge he had accumulated to predict an outcome. That's why he was
able to make a case for his scheme before the Spanish king and queen
and persuade them.
There's no escaping the fact that we need knowledge, especially
knowledge of ideas. The myriad of ridiculous sham philosophies of our
day--and all other eras--come from minds that are ignorant of the past.
They don't realize that their novel, radical idea is only a patched-up
rehash of ideas that were tried before and didn't work.
A
'Message'
Many men believe that they have a message the world needs. They become
fanatics and make lots of converts, which is not difficult to do. But
not
every radical idea is a divine message. Divine messages don't come to
just anyone, they come to minds that are 'already prepared by a Power
higher than nature itself to receive such messages,' as Coleridge said.
Preparation means having knowledge, insight, foresight, wisdom that's
humble, and the gentleness of a teachable spirit. These are the signs
that help each of us to discern whether we have a message, and--and
this is also a mission--
pg 78
whether we're prepared to take our message and carry it forward to the
world. There are lots and lots of messages and messengers. Yet few
things get in the way of improving the world so much as stubbornly
adopting fanatical notions because they sound appealing and seem
logical to our own faulty reasoning. When it comes to philosophy and
even practical matters in life, the safest thing is to realize that
we're not above being convinced of anything, no matter how wrong or
foolish, unless we have an educated conscience and use it when
considering whether a notion is acceptable or not.
pg 79
Chapter
14 - Some of Conscience's Instructors: Theology
Theology
Theology, divinity, knowledge of God, or whatever we call it, is an
area that needs the control of an educated conscience more than any
other. We tend to think as children do--that God requires us to be
good, and punishes us when we're bad, and that's all we need to know
about religion. We totally neglect one fact that Jesus Himself
confirmed--that God is 'eternal life.'
Maybe it's because the word 'eternal' brings to mind the far-off
future, which is something we don't like to think too much about. We
don't understand that eternity has already started--it includes future,
past and present. Life--full,
rich, abundant life--means
knowing God now. Without that
knowledge of God, we can't experience any free, joyful activity. We
can't have the fulfilled glow of feelings, happy living free from
worry, eyes that are alert to appreciate all beauty, a heart that's
open to all goodness, a responsive mind, tender heart, and aspiring
soul. All of these help to make a complete, full life experience. Most
people have poor, crippled lives. They survive as if they were dragging
their limbs around because they're dead and useless, just a burden to
pg 80
carry around. They don't even realize that their minds are dull and
their hearts are heavy because they don't have the knowledge of God
that is life itself.
The
Divine Method
We tend to believe that knowledge about spiritual things comes by
feelings. We're critical of ourselves if we don't feel as much emotion
as we think we should. Yet if we examine the teachings of Christ, we
find very little about feelings, and a lot about knowing. Jesus's
teachings appeal to the intelligence, not emotional sentiment. 'He
never spoke to them without using parables.' Why not? So that 'even
though they heard, they wouldn't really hear, and even though they saw,
they wouldn't really see, therefore they wouldn't understand.'
That method goes against every normal method of teaching. Generally,
teachers work hard to make sure that even the slowest student clearly
understands what he's saying. And we get impatient or annoyed at a poem
or allegory that isn't obvious at first glance. In other words, we've
decided that the responsibility for learning should all be on the
teacher and none on the student.
But whatever comes too easy is soon lost--easy come, easy go. Knowledge
is only retained if we invest some mental labor of our own. Especially
when it comes to knowing about our religion, we need to read and
mentally digest. We only grow on what we take in and assimilate so that
it becomes a part of us. Jesus knew this. That's why He never gave easy
sayings to teach people. Even His disciples didn't understand. Let's
put ourselves in their shoes and listen to the Master's 'hard'
teachings--hard intellectually as well as morally--and see what we'd
get from them at the first hearing. Paul's detailed, involved arguments
are
pg 81
much plainer. Even the vague prophecies of the Old Testament, or the
Apocalypse itself, are easier to understand--at least, the parts that
God has allowed to be revealed--than the 'simple' sayings of Christ.
But this just proves the value of our Lord's way of teaching us that
life comes of knowledge, the knowledge of God.
The
Bible Contains a Revelation of God
Where should we look for our knowledge of God? After all, we can only
think if we have material to give us food for thought. Our first and
last resource is the Bible, which is God's revelation to us. Knowledge
of God only comes by revelation. We can only know God as He declares
and shows Himself to us. That doesn't mean that there aren't 'few,
feeble and faint' rays of revelation in eastern books that some people
consider holy. That's to be expected, because God is the God of all people. He doesn't leave
Himself without a witness anywhere. But those dim, weak rays aren't the
knowledge that leads to God, not even by those who have those rays.
They aren't looking for knowledge of God; they don't even realize that
such a thing exists. Those people will just have to live in spiritual
darkness, like they have since the beginning. They'll have to live
there until they receive the light.
Higher
Criticism
Higher criticism can be a threat to those of us who seek divine
knowledge. It's good that there are scholars scrutinizing every jot and
tittle of the Scriptures. The threat isn't that they might claim that
the Bible isn't the word of God, but merely cultural Hebrew literature.
If we don't focus on the minute literary criticism, but instead look
for a gradual revelation of God Himself in all His beauty, which only
comes from
pg 82
the Bible and nowhere else, then the truth of the Bible will confirm
itself to us. Then we'll know, without needing academic proof, that,
'You can't prove the Nameless
Any more than you can prove the world you move around in,
Because nothing worth proving can be proved
Or disproved.'
[The Myths of Plato by Professor
Stewart]
Plato has given the last word on this matter both for his generation
and ours. The threat I'm talking about is that, while we're focused on
the questions of criticism, we might neglect the very knowledge that
only comes with diligent work. We might not take the time to earnestly
and devoutly study the Bible, yet that's the one and only way we can
get a progressive knowledge of God.
We're already reaping the results of ignorance. Little books that
take short Bible scriptures out of context and fabricate
elaborate arguments to prove a philosophy of life that the Bible
doesn't support are everywhere, and being touted as some wonderful new
gospel. We hear about new developments in Christianity--but Biblical
Christianity as revealed in Scripture already offers unlimited
comprehensiveness about the beauty of holiness and knowledge of our
limitless God. Everywhere we hear about all kinds of religions--some
with Christ, some without. We hear some people teach that 'God in the
flesh' means nothing more than a divine spark within ourselves, and
that every power Jesus used to perform miracles is at our disposal to
use as we wish.
What we have is a smug religiosity--a religion where we ourselves are
our own standard. It might be called 'Christianity on a Higher Plane,'
or Buddhism, or mystic Theosophy. Or it might take the form of the
Russian Dukhobors, who refuse to obey any human law and believe that
they're under the direct authority of
pg 83
God alone. One poor little community in Lancashire claim that 'there's
no law but God's law,' and they've come to the absurd inference that
all human laws are therefore sin. All of these signs mean one thing:
we're declining because we're leaving our knowledge of God.
Indecision
There's another result of ignorance that we're reaping. There's a
paralyzing spirit of hesitancy and uncertainty upon us. We
tolerate all beliefs--because we have no belief of our own. We say
things like, 'I just don't know,' and, 'I'm not really sure' about what
we believe. Or we'll say, 'What right do we have to think that someone
else's creed isn't as true as our own?' Even our newspapers pose
questions like, 'Is Christianity corrupt?' and then we indulge the
notion by discussing and debating it! Or, if nothing else, it doesn't
bother us to listen calmly while people toss around the one question
that's our very life. Count on it--the only question that really
matters is, 'What do you think of Christ?' We can't avoid the issue by
claiming that, 'We don't think about Jesus, we just focus on the
Father.' The truth is, 'No man comes to the Father but by Me.'
We can't live without this vital knowledge. We need it here and now,
not some day in the future. Without it, a slow paralysis creeps over
us. But how do we get this illuminating
knowledge? There's only one source: the Bible itself. It's true that
there's a divine spark of
light in every person's soul; you can't light a lamp if there's no lamp
to be lit. It seems like the Holy Spirit's method is to teach us by
giving us an enlightening revelation of some phrase in the Bible from
time to time. So we need to make it our business to familiarize
ourselves with the text.
Studying
the Bible
How, then, should we study
pg 84
our Bible, if we're not supposed to focus on textual criticism or even
textual knowledge? The focus on our study needs to be Knowledge of God Himself.
We rely too much on other people's interpretations. We depend on
commentaries, essays, sermons, poems, critiques, and we let them do our
thinking for us. It would be better for us to, first of all, make our
own effort at interpreting. When we get stuck or confused, that's the
time to compare our thoughts with other people's. In choosing help, we
need to look for people who have faithful, reverent minds and scholarly
experience. The best method is an orderly plan of self-study with the
occasional use of a trustworthy commentary as needed. Using 'good
books' for spiritual stimulation ends up deadening a healthy appetite
for truth. The same goes for little books with comments designed to
stimulate certain character virtues, or states of mind. These tools are
supposed to help our private devotion (public worship is another
issue). But their problem is that they tend to put the focus on
ourselves and our situation, while creating no thirst in us for the
best knowledge. I'd guess that even our most pathetic efforts to read
and understand for ourselves do more for our spiritual growth than even
the best
teaching. But a prepared heart and mind are required. We need to pray
for deliverance from preconceived ideas and biases, and then wait on
God in the same way that parched earth waits for rain.
In the Old Testament, it's good to read the life of one person all the
way through, breaking it up if necessary. But keep in mind that the
author is not like a tape recorder. He writes as himself, not as a
machine. He may have been uninformed about some things, or had his own
prejudices that come out in his writing. We can
pg 85
discern the author's personality in his books in the same way that any
author's personality flavors his writing. The difference between the
Bible and other books is that the men who wrote scripture were charged
with the revelation of God and the way He deals with humans. They
reveal something about humanity, too, revealing that mankind shares a
certain childlike simplicity, and shows what we must look like to
God. These narratives are written without excuse or justification, but
with a strong emphasis on our simplicity. It's pretty clear that the
Bible portrays people the way God sees us. Even good people do things
that offend God, are punished and forgiven, just like children in a
family.
In the same way that Abraham left Ur, we all leave our homes to seek
our fortune. But in the Biblical story, we see more of what's going on.
We're shown that it was really God who called him away, led him along,
guided him through the learning process of his life, with results that
culminated at a later time. Lives of Bible characters are 'types.' They
show us the inner meaning of our own lives. We see things in their
stories that we experience in our own lives--the restraining force of
God that we're all aware of, the inspired whisper in our ear that comes
to us at defining moments, the 'fixing of our boundaries' that is part
of God's control and plan for our lives.
Biblical
'Revelation' is Unique
Don't make the mistake of thinking that because so many books talk
about 'the Lord God, merciful and gracious, who will by no means clear
the guilty,' that this truth is universally known. Every hint we get
about God's Being is derived from the Bible, whether we consciously
realize it or not, in the same way that the light of a candle is derived
pg 86
from the sun's light. What about the freethinker who doesn't believe in
any God, yet talks about the love of man? Although he may think that
idea is independent from God, the only concepts about the brotherhood
and sonship of mankind that exist at all came through divine revelation
from God delivered to us through certain people that He chose.
Existing concepts that have already been revealed might be
illuminated to us by the inner light that all of us have, but that's
something different from the very first revelation of a totally
original concept.
When humans have mastered everything there is to learn about God from
what's been progressively revealed in the Bible, then maybe God will
grant further revelation to men in the same gradual way.
No
Revelation is Repeated
As far as we can tell about God's law for how things are revealed, it
seems like, once God has revealed something, He doesn't repeat the
revelation. Also, God has already revealed and recorded under His
authority as much about Himself as we can handle. It seems like, in our
day, the Holy Spirit's work is to illuminate a meaning here and there
for each of us, so that our education in the knowledge of God is
gradually progressing as long as we have a listening ear and an
understanding heart.
In this respect, poets write and artists paint under divine inspiration
when they write or paint things that reveal spiritual truth. In the
same way, we can believe what the Medieval Christians believed--that
things are still being revealed that weren't previously known. For
example, great mysteries of nature seem to be revealed to people whose
minds are prepared for them. One recent new discovery is that matter is
made of ions and electrons. This kind of truth is as divinely of God as
spiritual knowledge, and I believe it's
pg 87
a truth that God reveals when the world is ready to receive it.
But even here the same two laws seem to apply. Revelation is never
repeated--the law of gravity or the circulation of blood can't be
re-revealed once it's known. And there's never too many of these kinds
of discoveries to keep up with. We don't get a new revelation until
we've mastered, assimilated and 'owned' what's already been given to
us.
This is probably why all there is to know about God is in the Bible. We
know so little about Him, and we're so far from mastering the Biblical
concepts of beauty and goodness, that we're not ready for additional
revelation. Keep in mind that, when God gives new revelation to an
individual, it's always for the benefit of the world. No man is given
knowledge just for his own private self. If the world, represented by
its best and most thoughtful people, is too ignorant to be ready for
new revelation, then the revelation is withheld until the world is
ready for it. That's why the person with an educated conscience doesn't
rush off every time he hears, 'Lo, here!' about some novel spiritual
happening. We need to be careful about responding to private
interpretations of Scripture that supposedly escaped notice by the
Church until now. When it comes to our great first duty, we need to
stay true to 'sober walking in true gospel ways.' [from Ninth Sunday After
Trinity by John Keble]
Interpretation
When it comes to knowing which parts of the Bible are merely human and
which are inspired, the answer isn't found in critical studies and
destructive criticism. It takes gradually absorbing the concept of
pg 88
God as He is unfolded to us in the preparation of the Old Testament,
and then in the glorious manifestation of the Gospels, and then the way
it all applies to the life of the Church in the Acts and Epistles. If
we study diligently and carefully, and if our hearts are quick to love,
then we'll be able to tell which words aren't God's. For instance, it's
obvious that 'break their teeth in their jaws' isn't something God
would say. It's a remark originating from a violent human heart. It is
allowed to pass without comment, just like most of what's recorded of
men's ways and actions in the Bible.
If we study diligently, we'll be rewarded with the ability to tell when
a popular interpretation isn't correct because it doesn't have any
divine revelation or simple portrayal of humans. And we'll be
knowledgeable enough to realize that, just because a Bible incident
isn't something we see everyday in real life, that doesn't mean it's
not inspired by God. Such incidents are not essential; they're
peripheral, and don't help us understand God any better. We don't
understand how it is that essential truth can be revealed to us through
Biblical history or records. But we all know that we've heard a voice
tempting us to sin, as Eve heard the serpent. We've all given in to the
sin, as Eve did when she ate the fruit, and we've all become miserably
self-conscious, as Eve was after she ate the fruit. And, just like Eve
having to leave the garden, we've had to leave the paradise of our
innocence. But we have hope, as Eve did. We can even believe that the
difficult story about the sun stopping in its course was inspired
by God. Haven't we all had times when the sun hasn't gone down on us
before our deliverance was completed, or we've escaped from a danger,
or finished a task? It seems like God's Spirit teaches essential
pg 89
truths. Those are the truths we base our lives on, and they're
appropriate for all people. Yet we need to be cautious when we
use this method of interpretation. God undoubtedly uses impressions
sometimes to speak to His children, but He also uses facts. When the
most straight-forward fact has an obvious interpretation, we should
beware about seeking an alternative meaning.
Sentimental
Humanity
There's something else we need to be careful about. We shouldn't try to
interpret Scripture with the kind of sentimental affection that seems
to be the most popular gospel these days. We read that thousands died
in the wilderness because they complained or rebelled, that the ground
opened and swallowed up some proud tribal leaders, or that death was
the penalty for men who committed the sin of irreverence. These
incidents don't prove that the Bible isn't true. There may be some
inaccuracies in some of the specific statements that men made. Verbal
inspiration, where the writer is simply taking dictation, would
eliminate the human aspect that seems to be necessary in all of God's
communications with people. It shouldn't make us too quick to accuse
the
Bible of being nothing but worthless fables.
When a ship sinks with everybody on board, when thousands die in a
flood or fire, when famine or disease is rampant, godly people in the
olden days would have said it was an act of God. That's how the Bible
describes these kinds of events. With our modern knowledge, we blame
bad drainage, unsanitary conditions, negligence, faulty construction,
flooding or storms, but we're merely identifying an intermediary step.
Those things are mistakes that men made, and God visits them and uses
wind and storm to fulfill His promise [to
punish sin].
The mystery we see in the Old Testament is one we see in life itself,
too.
Jesus shed some light on it when he commented on the
pg 90
Galilean Tower [Luke 13]. But
it's possible that the full answer might be that, to God, who knows
what comes next, death is a less fateful event than it seems to us, who
don't know what's on the other side. When Jesus wept, He wasn't sad for
Lazarus. He was sad for the grief that all people have to suffer, as
Lazarus's sisters did. Maybe He was thinking, 'If they only knew!'
Superstition
I've gone over some of the biases and misconceptions that tend to
hinder us as we read the Bible. It's these kinds of things we need to
get rid of so that we'll always be ready to read with an open mind and
a willing heart, until we gradually learn the way God acts with people,
and something about divine purity, mercy, love and justice. Even if we
hear another account of a world-wide flood, or a story just like Joseph
being sold into Egypt, or laws similar to Moses', or any other story
that
appears in pagan cultures, we won't be surprised. God is the God of all people, and surely He's had
some kind of dealing with all of the nations in the world. The
difference is that Israel knew God. Because Israel knew God, and,
because of their distinct spiritual insight, they were permitted to
share what they learned with the rest of the world, God revealed a bit
of what it
meant to have Him dealing with humans in a way that nations who didn't
know God knew nothing about. Those nations were pathetically and
cruelly
ignorant about Him. The mind that doesn't know God can't help but to be
a victim of superstition. Just recently, in an area of India
suffering from plague, some boxes containing paperwork for a public
examination arrived. Soon there was a rumor that plague was inside the
boxes and it would be unleashed in the town when the sahib opened the
boxes. Even Israel itself, as an example for us, relapsed
pg 91
into ignorance of God. Then they began to sacrifice their own children
to Molech. They ended up trying to pay for the sins of their souls with
the fruit of their body.
A
Permissive God
One dangerous teaching these days is the constantly taught concept of
God as a permissive parent. The Bible portrays Him as a Father who
'punishes those He loves, and chastises every son He accepts.' Even His
only begotten Son, whom He called, 'My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased' was christened and afflicted. Too much attention to our own
aches and complaints might interfere with what God's trying to teach us.
Christ
is Presented in the Gospels
The main purpose of the Gospels is to show us what Christ is like. In
the Gospels, we see him as he spoke, as he worked, and as he died.
There's no other person in history that we can learn to know so
completely as Jesus. Our goal in reading shouldn't be as much to find
comfort and advice for ourselves, but to understand Jesus with our
minds and receive His image with our hearts. Knowing Him is life, and
is all of life. Every detail about Jesus walking in the cornfields,
or tired and sitting by the well, mixing with crowds of people or
praying
in remote areas, gazing out at the crowd, taking the little girl by the
hand--every one of these images that shows us Jesus real and living is life to us. In the same way that
seemingly casual strokes of the artist's brush gradually make the
painting look more and more like the real thing, every seemingly
trivial and casual incident about Jesus will
pg 92
gradually come together to form a living vision of the Master. Then we
will cherish more than any other beauty on earth or in heaven,
'Jesus, sitting by the Samarian well,
Or teaching some poor fishermen on the shore.'
[from Trench's Sonnets]
Miracles
If we want to see a clear image of Jesus, then we need to stay focused,
not letting ourselves be clouded by too many opinions from others. One
of the more recent popular opinions is that 'miracles don't really
happen,' except for the kind that every man makes happen for himself!
The vast amount of discussion on this topic is enough to make anybody
doubt. But if we're careful to teach our conscience a couple of things,
we won't be blinded by this obstruction built out of destructive
criticism. For
one thing, it's possible that miracles aren't the great, unusual things
we think they are. When John wrote about what we'd define miracles, he
called them signs. Maybe in our day and age, we have (or, should have!)
the substance and entire faith in Christ so that we no longer require
signs for proof. As far as the incredible miracles in the Gospels that
are such precious and appropriate evidences of Christ's mind, the most
damaging thing that scientists have been able to come up with in
challenging miracles like the water turned to wine is that they've
never seen it happen themselves. They can't even definitively say that
it would be impossible, or even contrary to the laws of nature. The
latest scientific discoveries have humbled scientific men. They now
realize that they don't understand the laws of nature as well as they
thought they did. All they're really acquainted with
pg 93
are a few of the ways nature works. So they have to admit that nothing
is impossible.
Or, people think they can have it both ways. They think they can
believe in God and Jesus and call themselves Christians, and yet scoff
as if miracles were some leftover from the dark ages. But such people
have forgotten how important faith is. Their focus is on specific
incidents, and they lose sight of the realization that the Christian
life itself is a miracle. The very fact that God should converse with
humans, that we can pray and know without a doubt that He hears and
answers, that the hearts of princes can be restrained at our word, that
whatever desires of our hearts that are suitable and right will be
fulfilled, although usually in a simple, natural-appearing way--these
things are like signs for us. They're miracles in themselves. Thy imply
that our God is involved with our lives immediately and personally. He
doesn't just act in your life, or mine. He acts in behalf of all the
creatures that He takes care of.
The
Words of Christ
The most amazing part of the Gospel story besides Jesus' death on the
cross isn't any of the miracles. It's the words of the Temple servant
who was sent to capture Jesus, but instead he defined Christ's unique
distinction, 'No man before ever spoke like this Man.' What man would
dare stand up and volunteer Himself to the world with words like, 'I am
the bread of life,' 'I am the light of the world,' 'I am the truth,'
'Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest.' The
foundation of Christianity is Christ Himself verifying the truth of
these and other sayings. All Christians everywhere from all ages have
known
pg 94
that these things are true; they know that because they've experienced
it. That's the knowledge that is life. When we begin to have this kind
of knowledge, the miracles that Jesus did only matter in the sense that
they show us Jesus' mind, his kindness and compassion, and how
his pity compelled Him to do acts of mercy.
The
Incarnation and the Resurrection
Another modern tendency is to deny the Incarnation and the Resurrection
and assume that He was born like any other baby, and died and was
buried like anybody else, except that He was better than other men and
thus an example for us.
Scientific men are quick to admit their profound ignorance about the
causes of birth and life and death. They know the physical processes,
but the causes and principles elude them. Science is just as limited by
mysteries as religion is. No one knows enough to prove that the
Incarnation is an impossibility, or the Resurrection, either. But if
these didn't happen the way the Bible says, then Paul is right--we are
without hope, and Christ doesn't exist. If He was a man like any other
man,
then the Jews would have been correct in labeling Him a blasphemer. We
could have no inspiration from His life, no peace from His death, and
no hope from His resurrection.
Trivial
Doubts
The conscience needs to be educated regarding the serious kinds of
doubts that are casually discussed in magazines, newspapers, and
popular books. We can't attend to our first duty if our mind is
divided. We've been taught that the first commandment is,
pg 95
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your
mind, and all your strength.' But how can we love Him if we don't know
Him? And how can we know Him if we have so many doubts about Him that
we aren't sure about? Don't forget the danger of a doubt. Once we
entertain it in our mind, it's there for good. It becomes a part of us,
and might reappear at any time. Like a sickness that gets into the
bloodstream, it will resurface later. We tend to think that there's
some
intellectual mark of distinction in being skeptical, and being doubtful
is academic. But doubt can exist even in a slower mind, which can
doubt human things as well as spiritual ones. A greater mind is one
that can cut away the dross and find the heart of the issue, and
present it so clearly that no room is left for doubt. It has been
wisely said that, 'to an alert, positive mind, difficulties and
confusions seem like dross that keeps floating to the surface and dims
the splendor of the truth. But he skims it off and gets rid of it again
and again until only the pure truth remains. But a negative, doubting
mind is like lead. When all the dross is finally skimmed off, there's
nothing left.' [Coventry Patmore]
An educated conscience would say, 'Loyalty won't allow that,' when he's
tempted to entertain negative thoughts about Christ that dishonor God.
Only an educated conscience realizes how much is implied in a single
skeptical idea. Only an educated conscience understands that our faith
is built from living stones, not from dead opinions and intellectual
doctrine. It's like a living body. One wound can make it bleed.
pg 96
On the other hand, an uneducated conscience is convinced that 'Truth'
is so all-important that its job is to over-analyze, hyper-scrutinize
and cling to every objection that challenges it. We need to remember
that objection is negative, not positive. Truth is built up by
affirming it, not by seeking ways to tear it down. If we focus on the
affirmative part of the truth, the negative dissipates like fog in the
sunshine. We have no right to tamper with destructive challenges to
Truth before we've worked to assure ourselves of knowledge.
pg 97
Chapter
15 - Some Instructors of Conscience: Nature, Science, Art
Nature--The
Debts of Recognition, Appreciation, and Preservation
The Conscience has other teachers it needs to learn from besides the
ones I've already named. People are starting to realize that it's
shamefully ignorant to live in this rich, beautiful world without even
knowing the names of the things around us. When people inherit precious
collections, they feel that it's their duty to know and to know
something about
the things in the collection. To not even bother to find out would
be rudely ignorant. This is something we're all obligated to do,
because we've all inherited the heavens and the earth, the flowers of
the field and the birds of the air. We all have a right to these things
and nobody can take them away from us. But if we don't know the first
thing about them, not even enough to know what they're called, then
Nature will be a cause of irritation and depression to us instead of a
source of
joy.
One thing is certain--ignorance is a fault that never goes unpunished.
'The loud,
obnoxious laugh that displays an empty mind,'
and startles us as we're enjoying the peaceful quiet of some natural
pg 98
beauty, doesn't just display a vacant mind. It also shows the
resentment and annoyance that go along with ignorance. We have a
responsibility to things as well as people. The responsibility we owe
to nature is recognition, appreciation and preservation.
Nature's
Lessons
When it comes to learning about Nature, we don't just have a
responsibility to it, but to ourselves, too, because,
'Nature has
never betrayed a heart that loved her.'
In return for our selective, ardent observation, Nature repays us with
the joy of a beautiful intimacy that delights us. We'll get a thrill of
pleasure when we greet familiar birds or stars, like old friends, in
the fields, bushes and skies. Every new acquaintance will be
delightfully exciting.
But that's not all Nature does for us. She also gives us certain mental
attitudes that we can't get anywhere else. These dispositions are what
help us to get life into perspective, learning to tell the difference
between important matters and trivial ones. In the perspective of
Nature, we come to realize that we're really not very important. The
world is big and wide, the things in it are good. People are good, too.
In fact, we begin to sense that we're surrounded by an atmosphere of
goodness. And so we are. It's the air of heaven coming down to us from
God. We become aware of all of this in 'the silence and serenity of
things
that can't talk or reason.' Our hearts begin to feel full of love and
worship. Nature's quiet lessons teach us to walk softly, and to do our
duty towards God and our fellow man.
Our
Duty Towards God
When it comes to man's most important duty--his duty towards
God--Nature is a perfect teacher. There's a story of a young servant [Brother
Lawrence] who was discouraged because he was so clumsy. But then he
pg 99
was on an errand and a tree whose leaves hadn't yet budded made him
stop and reflect. The
fact that the tree would soon grow lots of leaves amazed him. He was
suddenly aware of how harmonious and beautiful God's order is. The
leafless tree changed the way he'd been thinking, and he almost
instantly became well-known as a saint who was distinguished for his
beautiful humility and simplicity of life.
Another sweet lesson is told by missionary Mungo Park:
'I saw myself in the middle of a remote wilderness during the worst
part of the rainy season. I was exposed and alone, surrounded by wild,
savage animals, and by natives who were even more savage. I was 500
miles away from the nearest European settlement. All of those factors
rushed into my mind at the same time, and I have to confess, my spirit
failed me. Just at that moment, in the midst of my scary thoughts, my
eye caught sight of the extraordinary beauty of a fruit-bearing moss. I
mention this to show how the mind can derive comfort from the most
trifling circumstances. Even though the entire plant was no bigger than
my fingertip, I couldn't help admiring the delicate arrangement of its
roots, leaves and membrane. God planted, watered, and grew to
perfection this tiny, insignificant plant in an obscure corner of the
world. Would He look with unconcern on the situation and crisis of me,
a creature formed in His own image? Surely not! Reflections like this
kept me from total despair. Disregarding my hunger and weariness, I
started up and kept moving forwards. I felt assured that relief would
come soon, and it did.'
Nature
Teaches us to be Thankful
Regarding our duty to God, Nature doesn't only help us in our own
spiritual life. Some people have been blessed with the grace of being
tenderly and reverently thankful to men who write great books, or paint
great pictures, and grateful in a less reverent way to people who
discover
pg 100
great inventions. How much more we should thank God, the Maker, who
designed the beauty, glory and harmony above us, at our feet, and all
around us, from the 'flower in the crannied wall' to the 'glorious
firmament on high,' and everything else in Nature that proclaims
without ceasing, 'Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God
Almighty.'
The recent progress of science and men's preoccupation with the
technical structural details of things in nature have acted like a
thick fog that hides the Creator. We've been content to think that the
beauty we delight in and the orderly effectiveness that astonishes us
are something we produced or figured out ourselves. Science is acting
like a child who's so obsessed with a new toy, that he's forgotten who
made the toy and gave it to him in the first place. He's annoyed and
irritated when someone tries to remind him. He doesn't deny that the
toy was given to him by the one who made it, but the toy is all he
cares about. Science's preoccupation, which has benefited us by adding
to our knowledge about the world, is starting to pass away. Scientific
minds are becoming more and more aware that there's a power even higher
than Nature herself, and this power is what's behind all the workings
of Nature.
With this recognition will come gratitude. A thankful heart is a happy
heart. It's truly joyful and pleasant to be thankful!
Science
Science's role is to reveal to us what we call the Laws of Nature. As
the conscience seeks its lessons, it must wait upon this teacher,
Science,
diligently. A person with no scientific training can make rash
conclusions and reckless statements that cause trouble in society. It
can lead to superstition and prejudice.
pg 101
Scientific training isn't the same as information about specific
scientific subjects. In this day and age, it's impossible to avoid
hearing random information about radiation, wireless communication,
genetics, and lots of other topics. But facts like these do nothing to
train the mind to make accurate observations, record unbiased data,
wait with humble expectation in an attitude of patience, reverence, and
humility, knowing that any tiny natural specimen might be hiding
profound
secrets. Those secrets could be the key to helping us discover laws
that we still only have a vague awareness of.
The
Difference Between Science and Information
Proper scientific training should give us an attitude that makes us
behave ourselves quietly, think fairly and justly, and walk humbly with
God. But we should never confuse casual knowledge of scientific
text-books with the kind of patient investigation of even one kind of
natural object that we do for ourselves. This is the kind of
investigation in one field or another that each of us should do. It's
true that our own personal observation can only cover a drop in the
vast ocean of Science knowledge, but the frame of mind we get from our
own small bit of first-hand observation helps us to understand what's
being done in other fields. It makes it impossible for us to go around
this amazing world full of wonders like gaping country bumpkins at a
county fair.
Patient
Observation
I'll say it again--patient nature observation isn't something we can
take or leave as we wish, it's our duty. Let's take some time every day
to diligently and consistently watch the doings of birds, spiders,
flowers, clouds, or wind, and record what we've seen first-hand. We can
correct our data later as we learn to be more accurate. We should be
careful not to jump to hasty conclusions. Everything we discover may be
old news that's already been written about in books,
pg 102
but it will mean more to us because we saw it ourselves, and it's our
own personal discovery. It's a little bit of the
world's real work, and we tried it and did it. No matter how little we
actually
discover this way, it helps us by increasing our ability to appreciate
beauty as well as harmony, adaptability and natural processes. We
become more reverent and awed, and we enter into a truer relationship
with God, the Great Worker, Creator and Designer.
Art
The world has received a great promise--God will always leave us a few
great teachers. There will always be a select few who God will
whisper to in their ear so that they can bring His direct message to
the rest of us. Some of these messengers are the great painters who
interpret some of the meanings of life to us. Being able to comprehend
what they're saying correctly is our responsibility. But, like other
good gifts, this gift doesn't just come naturally. It's the reward for
humbly and patiently studying. We won't discern Fra Angelico's message
about the beauty of holiness in a day or a year, or Giotto's
interpretation of the meaning of life, or the simplicity and dignity of
the honest labor of the soil that Millet saw, or the sweet humanity
that
Rembrandt saw in common faces.
The artist,
'Stretching
himself so that God might refresh and refill him
Above and
through his art,'
has lessons to teach us that we need to learn. He might communicate
them with a brush and paint, or architecture, or as a cathedral of
sound, like the symphony that organist Abt Vogler improvised. The
outward, visible form of the message isn't as important as the inner
spiritual grace.
pg 103
We
Need to Learn to Appreciate and Discriminate
In order to be in the right frame of mind to receive the grace of these
kinds of lessons from great art, we need to appreciate and
discriminate. We need to learn how to tell the synthetic from the
essential, and to tell technical skill that allows the artist to
express
himself, from what's being expressed, even if the thing is only the
grace and majesty of a tree. Once again, this kind of appreciation
isn't something we have if we feel like it. We owe it as an obligation.
We fulfill this obligation by patiently and humbly studying. And, just
like
any other work that the conscience does to educate itself, we'll be
enriched for our efforts. But our goal can't be our own self-culture.
We need
to look at it as a humble attempt to pay a debt we owe in appreciation.
Then we'll avoid becoming a superior, high-class snob!
pg 104
Chapter
16 - Some of Conscience's Teachers: Sociology, Self-Knowledge
Sociology:
How Other People Live
'Expend as much effort as you can to get understanding,' says Solomon
[Prov 4]. No one is too young
or too overworked or too preoccupied to
fulfill their duty of understanding how other people live. What kinds
of things do other people
need? What things would help them, and what would do them harm? It's
good for all of us to think about housing for the homeless, alcoholism,
medical
care for the poor, how to deal with crime, education and literacy of
individuals and countries.
Jesus said, 'When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was naked, you
clothed me, when I was sick and in prison, you visited me.' These words
of Christ's have probably touched the hearts of all Christians with
more intensity of meaning than anything else He said. Few of us can
avoid feeling self-condemnation when we hear them. It isn't that we're
hard-hearted or unfeeling or merciless. In fact, it's the opposite. An
appeal on the news brings an overwhelming and even detrimental amount
of help. Panhandlers are able to get rich from handouts. We're eager to
help in any case of need that we hear about, as
pg 105
much to ease our conscience because of Jesus's words as to ease the
suffering of another person.
Conditions
of Helpfulness
But these kinds of casual attempts to help can frustrate people who
work
steadily and faithfully to help their fellow brothers and sisters who
have needs. These workers know what kind of harm is done by superficial
charity, so a lot of people decide that it's safest just to not give
anything to anyone. They're afraid of doing more harm than good, so
they pick a few highly visible charities to donate yearly to, and leave
it at that. This is a mistake caused by an uneducated conscience. It's
wise for all of us to set out to learn as much as we can by reading,
asking questions, thinking, looking for effective, proactive ways to
help, holding to our faith that,
'Circumstance is like a divine message
Speaking God's direction to faithful souls.'
Usually there's a ministry that needs our help right in front of us. We
rarely have to go out of our way to find a divinely appointed way to
help our fellow man.
The key is to keep our eyes and ears open. The right thing to do is
never pushy, and we might overlook it without even noticing it. We need
to keep three things in mind. We need to develop wide knowledge of
needs and concern for them. We need to do our homework and then commit
ourselves to one specific effort to help. And, in all of our efforts,
we need to remember Jesus's words: 'What do you want Me to do for you?'
Any of our efforts that don't minister to a person in a way that truly
helps him, isn't really love. And without love, we have no right to
serve others. It's important to keep this in mind now more than ever,
because these days we don't often deal with individuals
pg 106
and we have to do our work through organizations. Organizations often
fail because they forget that help is only helpful if it's the kind of
help that needy people want. Our responsibility isn't to appease our
own guilt, but to discriminate and select between all of the needs, and
then act in true love.
Knowing
Ourselves in Wisdom
It's hard to find one word that covers what we are and what we can
become. We'll use the word philosophy,
because knowing ourselves is
wisdom. We all like getting what we call knowledge about
ourselves--we get scalp readings from phrenologists, analyses of our
handwriting, and we love to hear polite comments that acquaintances
make about us. But that's the kind of knowledge that 'puffs us up'
because it's usually flattering and not true. We might very well
deserve praise for some of the things we're praised for, but false
flattery fills us with the notion that we have this or that charming
quality--and then we start to believe that those who see another side
of us are unkind or unfair.
This is so obvious to some cautious people that they decide not to give
even a
thought about what qualities they have or don't have, whether good or
bad, unless a serious fault is brought to their attention. If life was
as simple and free as they make it out to be, this would be a good
plan. But we're all human. We're born into a great inheritance--woods,
cornfields, meadows, fishponds, etc. In fact, what we're born into is a
kingdom, the one I wrote about before called the kingdom of Mansoul.
Knowledge
of Ourselves is Impersonal
In this kingdom, just like any other kingdom, a casual, careless
manager ruins his lands, lets fields run to waste and weeds, and allows
so much disorder that the land can't be restored in a generation.
pg 107
We do need knowledge of ourselves, yet it isn't proper to think of
ourselves personally. Jesus said correctly, 'If I bear witness of
myself, my witness isn't true.' If that was true of Jesus, our Master,
then it's even more true of us. We're generally polite enough not to
give our own estimation of ourselves out loud, we know better than to
announce how brave and generous we are, or how intelligent or kind. But
we probably bear witness of ourselves to ourselves, privately patting
ourselves on the back for some worthy quality or good deed. When we do
that, our witness isn't true. Whatever virtue we may be priding
ourselves for isn't ours. Even a good deed loses its virtue when our
own prideful praise removes the good from it.
Greatness
of Human Nature
This makes it sound like the people are right who say that it's best
not to ever think of ourselves at all. But 'ourselves' can mean two
things. It can mean the things we say and do and feel, which are
pathetic and trivial, or it can mean the glorious human nature full of
unlimited potential that all humans share with great heroes, wise
philosophers, and even Jesus Himself.
It's profane to excuse greed, laziness, sin, all kinds of depravity by
saying, 'It's just human nature.' After all, human nature can do all
sorts of godly things, too. Jesus, the Son of Man, came and showed us
all
what we can become if we accept the indwelling Holy Spirit. The more
we realize how wonderful and full of possibilities human nature is, the
more we'll understand how one soul can be worth more than the whole
world. Jesus always spoke seriously and truthfully. His estimation of a
single soul is no exaggeration. I don't think He means that every soul
is so valuable to God. It means that every soul or person is so very
pg 108
great just because it's human, that its worth can't be measured. This
is why the infinite loving God isn't willing for even one to perish. We
shouldn't focus on our particular individual quirks that we think make
us special, but we should recognize what makes us all valuable as
human beings. Don't forget that a person may own something, but it's
worthless to him if he doesn't even know he owns it.
Only when we grasp how great even the most insignificant soul is can we
truly have the kind of zealous compassion for our fellow man that
helps us follow through in doing our small part to save the world. God
has called all of us to serve, not just for His sake, but for the sake
of people who need our help. The purpose of this book is for any
readers who don't realize how much they're worth, to be introduced to
themselves. I don't need to explain why we should know ourselves, or in
what way we should know ourselves at this point. I'd like to clarify
one thing, though. Knowing ourselves isn't a bother, and the knowledge
won't make us feel a weight of responsibility. We just need to learn
what we have. Once we know, it's no trouble trying to remember that we
need to feed our imagination, practice using our reason, educate our
conscience, etc. With this kind of knowledge about ourselves, as with
so many other things, we just need to get things started and the rest
seems to take care of itself.
'Begin it,
and it will get completed.'
God, in His mercy, made us so that managing and controlling ourselves
becomes automatic and unconscious when we commit to it as our duty.
It's the careless, casual people who find themselves in sticky
situations or in serious trouble.
pg 109
SECTION III - The Function of the Conscience
Chapter
17 - Conviction of Sin
The
Conscience Convicts Us of Sin
Conscience seems to have only one job: to convince us that something is
a sin, or transgression. Bible teachers in the past used to talk a lot
about an 'approving conscience,' but such a conscience doesn't really
approve. It's just silent. After all, self-approval itself is wrong, as
we've already mentioned. So then, you might wonder,are we fine as long
as our conscience doesn't say anything? Not at all. The conscience's
verdict is only as accurate as our knowledge and what we allow by habit.
People who have traveled among uncivilized tribes say that all people
know in their conscience that it's wrong to murder, steal, slander,
dishonor parents, and commit certain other offenses. Everybody's
conscience knows to be hospitable to strangers and faithful to friends.
Even the most debased people seem to have a sense of honor and worship
due to God, although their concept of a god may be crude. Even a baby
who's too little to run knows that it's 'naughty' to disobey.
pg 110
We each have a mentor inside us that condemns us when we do wrong. But
this internal judge can only base his judgments on what he knows. As
we've already discussed, Conscience needs education in many various
areas.
Ignorance
Not even religion can substitute for an educated conscience. That would
be as ridiculous as expecting God's love to teach an unschooled person
how to read. All of us have been born with a conscience, but we need to
provide its education ourselves. It's important to remember this fact
as we read history, as we make judgments about current events, as we
form opinions about people we know and famous persons, and, most of
all, what is acceptable to do and think ourselves.
Reflecting on this makes us more able to fine-tune our morals. We won't
try to justify the things said or done by good men that don't seem
right. We'll understand that even good people have areas where their
consciences haven't been fully informed. We won't change our minds and
say, 'He's a bad man,' because he did this or that thing that wasn't
gentle or fair. Instead, we'll say, 'He's wrong in this because he
hasn't bothered to inform himself.' And when we realize that even the
best and wisest people are prone to make mistakes through moral
ignorance, we'll be even more careful to remain teachable ourselves so
we might avoid making mistakes.
Making
Allowances
It isn't just ignorance that limits the conscience. Allowances can also
blind the conscience from making proper judgments. We might see
offenses in others and call them by a more palatable name. We might
allow ourselves to habitually do things that we know we shouldn't, or
think what we know isn't right. And those things blind our conscience
so that he stops speaking and no longer tells us when something is
wrong.
pg 111
Prejudice
There's another way we cripple the conscience, and we need to be on
guard against it with diligent care, because this sin can seem to be
righteous. I'm talking about letting the mind be absorbed by a single
idea. This is what's responsible for most wars and all persecutions,
family feuds, jealousies, envy, resentment against friends, and half of
the conflict and unhappiness of life. The danger is that
well-intentioned people can get so focused on one particular offense
that they lose their sense of proportion. It's like a dime-sized spot
on a window blocking out the view of the sun.
When we remember that ignorance, making allowances, and prejudice makes
the conscience useless to its owner, we aren't so dismayed by the
appalling vision of the Church of Alexandria that Charles Kingsley gave
us in Hypatia. It doesn't make us
lose faith in Christianity itself. We understand that the monks of
Nitria, headed by Cyril, sinned because of their own moral ignorance,
because of the hardness of heart that resulted from making allowances,
and because of the madness of being obsessed with one idea. Because
their consciences were full of offence, they shamed the very
Christianity
they professed to love.
When we consider these things, we won't miss the lessons we read from
history, or from life, that we get from the strife of differing
opinions about good men and great movements. We'll be able to see the
moral blind spot that could have been removed and enlightened some
wonderful leaders, and yet we'll still be able to think of them as
great and good. We'll discern the danger of a compelling idea in a
popular movement before it's played itself out.
Nothing is more encouraging to a history enthusiast than a sense that
people's consciences are continually increasing in enlightenment. From
age to age and year to year,
pg 112
we become aware of more subtle offenses and more obscure debts because
God is dealing with us and teaching us. When men and nations seek for
the wisdom that comes from above, God rewards them with continual
increasing progress in moral enlightenment. They get even more ability
to see what's right in great and minor issues.
Sin
'Conscience makes cowards of all of us,' said Shakespeare, and he knew
what was in people better than anyone else, except God. We tend to
soften the phrase so that it loses its force. we read it as, Conscience
makes cowards of all who do wrong, or maybe, all of us when we do wrong. And thus we
create a loophole that allows us to avoid condemnation most days. We
hear people say that a sense of sin isn't something that everybody
experiences anymore. People can't confess anymore with conviction that
they've, 'left undone what should have been done, and done the things
they shouldn't have done.' When this is true, it's because the
conscience has been drugged or tricked.
Uneasiness
of Conscience
It's still a glowing truth that conscience makes us all cowards. We
wake up in the morning with a sense of fear, uneasiness, anxiety.
There's no cause for it, as far as we can tell. But there it is, the
horrible fear that something bad is going to happen to us because we
deserve it. Scientists blame it on stress, and that's very likely,
although even healthy, strong people know this dread as well as the
weak, stressed person does. But calling it 'stress,' or 'hypochondria,'
or 'the blues,' or 'migraines,' or 'depression' just labels the symptom
without identifying the cause. The cowardice of conscience troubles all
of us, whether old, young, rich, or poor, and it doesn't matter whether
it takes the form of physical symptoms or
pg 113
workaholism or compulsive shopping. We take on activities just to pass
the time and get us through the day so that we'll hopefully be tired
enough to escape into sleep at night. But even the busiest, most
cheerful people have moments of vague fear when the terrors of their
conscience crowd in on them. Many people attempt to reason it away with
logic. They convince themselves that they live as decently as anyone
else. They're kind, respectable, even religious. Why should their
conscience cause them to fear?
Sins
of Omission
During the times when the inescapable accusation comes to us with
startling force, 'I was hungry and you didn't feed Me,' it seems like
our sins of neglect and casual omissions are the full story of our
lives. How can we ever make up and catch up on all the little things
that we never did? We feel like we're cast into the outer darkness of
dismay, and we feel like cowards in front of our conscience. In a
general way, we tend to confuse sin with crime--since we haven't
committed murder or robbery or done any of the other things that
society says is illegal, we think we're innocent. We're like the rich
young ruler who said about the commandments, 'I've obeyed all of them
since the time I was young.' Then, just like him, we're shown all the
good things that we could do, and might have done, and suddenly we're
ashamed and aware of the sin in our lives.
'There's nothing well about me!' we cry sincerely from a broken heart.
'I'm such a miserable thing,' or 'such a worthless person,' or, 'I was
so foolish and ignorant that I was like an animal to You.' These are
the cries of the simple conscience when it catches a glimpse every now
and then of the vast
pg 114
possibilities it has in life, and the ten or ten thousand talents that
come with it.
'Who is sufficient for these things?' we cry. And the anxious
conscience has no peace or rest until it's able to say, 'My sufficiency
is in God.'
Conscience's
Rebuke
We're told that it's the Holy Spirit's job to convince the world of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. As we witness the constant way
that God's spirit works on men's spirits, we see the secret of how
we're made aware of sin we didn't even know we were guilty of, and how
we start craving a righteousness that's greater than we have, and where
the sense of a judgment in the future comes from that wakes us up many
mornings and troubles us as we go to bed when we don't know of any
particular wrong thing we've done.
Since these vague convictions come from God, we don't try to drown them
with entertainment and activity, and we don't sit down to a pity party
and create stress-induced symptoms in ourselves. There's a better, more
excellent way.
When we count our blessings, let's not overlook the continual
rebuke of our conscience. A wise man once said that, if there were no
other proof of God, the conscience of man would be proof enough. Let's
accept the struggles we have with our conscience with this perspective,
and be glad.
Chapter
18 - Temptation
Sudden
Temptation
Our guilt from what we neglect to do may be what troubles us most in
our quiet moments, but they aren't the greatest trouble of our
lives by any means! We have to struggle against floods just like St.
Christopher did, no matter how quiet and uneventful the circumstances
of our lives may appear. All it takes is some minor aggravation or
irritation over a trivial matter, or a slight annoyance against a
friend, or some unforeseen circumstance that complicates our plans, and
we become like cuttlefish, who blacken the water all around themselves.
Suddenly, without warning, we find ourselves in a flood of anger,
resentment, manipulation, and maybe even fantasies of revenge. It's as
if we're swept off our feet and can't get back up. We flounder and claw
frantically at the waves until we're exhausted before we finally fight
our way back to decency and peace. We don't intend these sudden lapses.
We don't will them. We don't even see them coming. It's as if we become
possessed and have no ability on our own to struggle out of the flood
of hostility, pride, impurity, greed, envy, or whatever other evil has
overwhelmed us.
The fact that we don't even see them coming indicates that these falls
must be caused by something outside of ourselves. They're caused by
those powers and principalities in high places that struggle to gain
pg 116
dominion over us, as the Bible tells us. And our own familiar, pitiful
experience confirms it.
Temptation
Comes from Without and Within
It's called Temptation. Sometimes it reaches us from obvious outside
sources. But it seems like, more often, it gets to us through the
activity of some kind of spirit that has access to our own spirit. If
we're like the Sadducees of old who are still around today and claim
that there's no such thing as spiritual beings, no Holy Spirit, no evil
spirit, no spirit of man, then there's nothing more to say. But if
we're aware of the activity of our own spiritual life, and if we
observe that those around us have a spiritual life, and if we've
noticed how good and evil come like a flood on the earth or on an
individual, then we'll have to admit that there exists a source of
temptation outside of ourselves, in the same way that there's a source
of strength and blessing outside of ourselves. We'll understand that
'we aren't struggling against flesh and blood, but with spiritual
wickedness in high places.' We'll be even more diligent to educate
ourselves about the laws and conditions of temptation, and we'll
eagerly look for ways of escape.
Literature is full of stories about temptation being yielded to,
struggled against or conquered. Sometimes temptation finds us ripe and
ready to fall, and there's no struggle at all. This was the case with
Tito Melema in Romola,
sometimes there's a struggle, as was the case with Maggie Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss, and
sometimes there's victory, as in the story of Joseph in Genesis.
The Bible is where we find the most intimate accounts of temptation. We
still wonder to this day how Peter, on a sudden temptation, could deny
his Lord, and how Judas, after gradually collecting his anxious,
impatient thoughts, could betray Him. We don't understand how the
disciples,
pg 117
in a sudden panic of fear, could forsake Him and run away. When we
consider falls like these, we ask ourselves the awful question, 'Lord,
is it me?' 'Would I have done the same thing if I'd been in his place?'
Even news about crimes and wrongdoing give us the same fear--if we'd
been in the same situation, faced with the same temptation, we might
have done the same thing. A sense of how inevitable temptation is, and
how close sin is, hits us every now and then like a terror. It's good
that we recognize that temptation is a fact of life. It's a fact that
has to be faced. And we might as well recognize, too, that we'll most
often be attacked where we're the weakest. We'll always be tempted in
those sins that we have a tendency towards. It's good and a comfort to
remember the assurance that, 'No temptation has overtaken you that
isn't common to all people.' And it's good to know that, 'Along with
the temptation, God will provide a way of escape so that you'll be able
to bear it.' Also, 'Blessed is the person who endures temptation,' and,
'Resist the devil and he'll flee from you.'
Don't
Enter into Temptation
If we want the key to the whole matter, we need to go to our master
Jesus, who was 'tempted in all points just like we are, yet he didn't
sin.' It's because He knows what's within people that He could say,
'See that you don't enter into temptation.' This is the secret of those
heroes who spend their lives in conflict with circumstances rather than
temptations: they don't even enter
into temptation. All of the things
that Jesus said come from his deep understanding of how man's mind
works. He knew that, once an idea or imagining of such things as envy
or resentment is even entertained and toyed with in the mind, it takes
possession of us. We can't get rid of it, and we're rushed into
pg 118
some related action or speech before we even realize it. And this is
the fine line between temptation and sin. Offensive ideas come to us
from outside of ourselves, and that's not sin. But it's our fault if we
open the gate to our thoughts and let the notion come into our mind.
Even then, it's not too late to conquer in the end through the grace of
Christ our Savior and our own conflict, tears and painful trial. But
this kind of fight against temptation is a fearful ordeal to any
Christian. This is a battlefield where it pays to run away and live to
fight another day.
Training
a Reliable Spirit
Fortunate are those who endure temptations from outside of themselves,
who endure oppressive poverty without becoming hard-hearted or greedy,
who endure unpleasant people without becoming bitter, who endure
difficult circumstances without complaining, who remain patient when
everything seems to be against them. These are the kinds of temptations
that we can't escape from, and they're part of the education of a
reliable spirit. But they can only be educational if we make an effort
to resist the temptations that come from within us--the temptation to
give in to sinful thoughts when we're facing difficult circumstances.
Make no mistake, all sin and even all crime results from our thoughts.
Words and actions are the fruit of the seeds that are the thoughts we
receive and allow. For each one of us, our battle of life is
continually repeating what seems like a trivial action: rejecting
certain thoughts that come to us as soon as they appear. This is the
way we keep our soul protected as if it's in a fortress. That's why our
Master tells us to pray every day, 'Our Father in Heaven, don't lead us
into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the
pg 119
kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' He is constantly
aware of us, and He knows how evil thoughts flood the soul and darken
the eye once they're admitted.
We have a Father who knows and cares. We have a Savior who saves his people from their sins.
We aren't left alone to fend for ourselves. We have a King who governs
us. His power supports us. Every little effort that we make to not
enter temptation glorifies Him.
In the beginning stages, it's pretty easy to resist before we enter. The way we do that
is by turning our eyes away from even looking at evil, whether it's
evil in another person, or an evil suggestion in our own mind. This
isn't done by reasoning with ourselves and talking ourselves through
it. It's done simply by thinking of something else. It might be some
other pleasant or interesting thing going on in our lives. We've been
designed so that, with every temptation, we have an easy, natural,
built-in way of escape. It's good for us to be aware of this because,
when it comes to things of the spirit, God truly does help those who
help themselves. If we pray, 'Lead us not into temptation,' and then
don't bother to take the simple way of escape that God has already
provided by thinking of something else, then it's as if we're asking
God to treat us like pawns on a chessboard instead of as people with
free will. People who are free to do what they will give honor to God
by using their will to flee from temptation. They're taking the step of
reaching out their hand for His saving help, instead of doing nothing.
Remorse,
Repentance, and Restitution
Many lives are ruined by the thing that the church used to call a main
Christian grace. A penitent person was a distressful figure in the
early church. Penitent sinners were supposed to spend days, months,
even entire lifetimes in self-mortification. When there are no
church-sanctioned penitence routines, contrite people live their lives
in remorse
pg 120
for sins they committed in their past or their present. All of us know
of people who can't forgive themselves. They cry and make themselves
miserable because they're guilty of some wrong word or action. They
feel like their sorrowful gloom is what they owe God and man because of
what they did.
The
Forgiveness of Sins
And yet, these same people are often the very ones who regularly claim
to believe in the forgiveness of sins. They don't understand that
forgiveness means instant, immediate, complete restoration to enjoying
God's favor. Forgiveness from Christians is just as instantaneous, or
else it isn't really forgiveness at all. Once the single painful,
sorrowful confession that 'I have sinned' is made, there are no more
tears that need to be shed, no bad memories that need to be enshrined.
From that moment on, we can hold our heads high as free people, no
longer dragging the chain that prisoners wear. Yes, we repent. We turn
away from sin, we don't enter into temptation, and we cling to the
grace of our God. But then we restore. As the tax collector said, 'If I
have stolen anything from anyone, I promise to restore him four times
as much.' The repentant soul restores four times the love, gentleness
and service to God and man. But that's because he's so happy, and the
joy of his heart compels him. There's no room in his glad heart for
proud, sullen tears and regrets. The father who ran to meet his returning prodigal
son fell on his neck and received his son with honor and celebration.
This image is too sweet for a man to have conceived of, but Jesus tells
it with authority [implying that it's
the true story of a real prodigal?] Let this amazing
illustration of how God deals with us stay with us all the time to
light up the dark places in our own lives.
pg 121
Chapter
19 - Duty and Law
Right
and Wrong
Sin, temptation and repentance all stem from some larger root
principle. Why is it wrong to do wrong? And what is wrong, anyway? Throughout the
ages, people have answered these questions in various ways. Some say
that wrong means neglecting or harming our fellow man. Therefore, it's
good to care for and consider others. Self-absorbed people say that
they have the right to do whatever they want. If they feel like doing
something, then it must be right, and if someone else hurts or offends
them, then they whine and complain that it's wrong. Others are
persuaded that Nature is always right, and, since greed, laziness,
impurity, and selfishness come naturally, they must be acceptable.
After all, 'it's only human nature.' While we're on the subject, I'll
say again, it's a serious misrepresentation to blame anything that's
vulgar, lazy or unworthy on human nature. Human nature is whatever we
decide to make it. We know only too well that our nature is capable of
corrupt behavior, but it's just as capable of nobility and generosity.
But most people
pg 122
who talk about Nature being the standard are trying to justify the base
side of human nature.
We
All Know the Law
These attempts at analyzing so we can figure out the nature of what's
truly right and wrong are really forms of self-deception.
Everyone knows that sin means transgressing the law. Every living soul
is aware that there's a law. People might not be able to put it into
words, and they often blunder and make wild mistakes in trying to
interpret what the law is, but everyone recognizes that a law exists.
Even the most ignorant savage is as aware of the existence of a law as
the Psalmist who wrote, 'Your commandment is extremely extensive.' But
a savage might be too ignorant and corrupt to recognize the beauty in
the law or understand that its purpose is to bless us. His conscience
is uneducated and has only a dim awareness of the law. He gropes to
understand its meaning like a blind man groping in the dark.
A savage also recognizes that obedience to this mysterious law is due
from him. He has a vague awareness that this law is everywhere, that--
If he does or says something, or even thinks a thought,
That it will cause something to happen.
His actions and thoughts set a sequence of events into action.
His uneasiness troubles him. He tries to satisfy his troubled
conscience with sacrifices. He tries to find answers to his unanswered
questions of life with superstition, making his god a being who's just
like him.
Compare this restless uneasiness of a soul living in darkness with the
assured peace of the enlightened Christian conscience. A Christian is
also aware of the law that's all around him, closer than the air he
breathes. It defines how he treats everyone and everything. It arranges
his affections and thoughts. Yet this law doesn't
pg 123
provoke him. He can agree with the Psalmist, 'How I love your law!'
He's glad to do his share of work in the world. He knows that it's part
of his duty in fulfilling the law, and he's happy to acknowledge his
duty.
In the same way that planets obey their law by revolving around the
sun, he revolves in the orbit of his life. His duty is his most
profound joy. But that doesn't mean that he always succeeds in
fulfilling the law that's inside his heart. He's just like the planet
he lives on--constantly pulling away from his own law, but always
recovering his orbit so that he ends up finishing his course.
Law
and Will
The reason why seeing the law brings joy, and why fulfilling even
a small bit of that law brings us such unspeakable happiness is that we
recognize that the law expresses God's perfect will. It exists by
itself and for itself and has no will of its own or desire or need.
That's an intimidating thing to think about. It can seem unsettling and
discourage our efforts because there's no comforting element of love in
it, or reasonable conviction. But it's comforting and good to know
that, behind everything, God is there. He wants all of His creatures in
the world to do what's good and right. He enables all of us so that we
can do what's right so that His law, which makes all things work
together for good, is fulfilled. When we think about the great things
in the world, our own lives don't seem so trivial and pathetic. Each of
our lives is a necessary, integral part of the whole, and each life is
ordered under His law, fulfills His will, and sings like the morning
stars at being obedient.
Submission
Sometimes there's a possibility that a glittering star might veer off
on an erratic course and break away into space to be quenched and
dissipate into
pg 124
dark oblivion. Knowing that this possibility exists should make us even
more fervent and determined to do our duty. We can't feel constrained
by a straight-jacket when we say, 'I rejoice to do your will, my God.
Yes, your law is in my heart.' And this spring of joyful obedience in
our hearts helps us to get up and stay standing because it sustains
every weak, halting step. When we pause for a rest, we're strengthened
and encouraged. Although we know what pathetic creatures we are, the
path we're following is the path of justice, and it shines brighter and
brighter all the way to the day when all things will be perfect.
The voice of God's stern daughter
Is Duty, tough and strong.
Her light can guide, her rod can hit
To punish what is wrong.
Duty makes men follow through
When fear might make them quit,
Or when they'd rather take their ease
Or need to calm a bit.
Although I'm in no great distress
I'm in no urgent bind,
Yet I request some help from you
Within my inner mind.
There's too much freedom in my thoughts
Chance whims are tempting me.
I hope in many novel things
But peace I never see.
You seem so stern, but yet you are
A truly blessed grace
There isn't anything more fine
Than your kind smiling face.
The flowers even wait for you
With perfume for your feet,
You keep the stars from going wrong
So heaven's fresh and sweet.
pg 125
But, Duty, my needs aren't so great;
I'm just a puny man.
I'm weak and need your guiding strength.
Please help me if you can.
A spirit of self-sacrifice
Is what I really need,
And understanding for my mind
So I can live indeed!
[Based on
Wordsworth's Ode to Duty]
pg 126
PART II - The Will
Chapter
1 - The Will-less Life
It sometimes seems like human nature is as great a riddle as the
Sphinx. The more we
try to figure ourselves out, the more baffled we are. It's true, man is
a puzzle, but that doesn't mean that 'leaving the puzzle alone' is a
good idea. The baffling question of human nature needs to be on our
minds all our lives. Human nature consists of our talents and gifts,
and we need to answer to God for the way we used our talents.
Anarchy
in Mansoul
Thus far, we've established that the Heart, with its affectionate love
and justice, and the Intellect, with its reason and imagination, and
even the Conscience itself, act pretty much like the other organs of
the body--brains, lungs, heart, etc. If they get their proper
nutrition, exercise, rest and air. then they'll be equipped and able to
do their work by themselves. It hardly seems like it's us who's
imagining, or loving, or whatever. All of us aren't consciously
dominated by ideas, but every writer has experienced something that
seems to write itself almost without his intention. Everyone knows how
pg 127
the affections act--how Love, as lord of the heart, plays all kinds of
troublesome pranks with no accountability so that the poor person often
has a miserable time. Blind Cupid playing mischievous tricks isn't just
a cute fanciful image. It actually presents a fairly accurate picture
of how Love acts if left to itself!
Even Conscience, in spite of the dignity and seriousness that we attach
to it, can be as illogical and aggravating as any blind god if left to
himself. We all know at least one person with a rigid conscience who's
fussy about some trivial detail like packing tape, while totally
neglecting real relationships and responsibilities.
And consider how passionate and intense the imagination can get when
it's always feeding (usually on garbage), never doing any work, never
getting enough rest, and never getting a breath of fresh air by
stepping out into reality from time to time. A person who lets his
imagination run away with him like a horse bolting away from its rider
can get some very distorted views, twisted principles and strange
behaviors. He might get involved with drugs or alcohol, or get hooked
on trashy novels to stimulate his disillusioned mind, because he has to
keep on going somehow. He doesn't know any other way to live. Such a
person is like a man with a team of unbroken, wild horses, each
wanting to go in a different direction and trying to drag the poor man
along after it. What can such a person do? Who is able to get his
affairs under control?
It is The Will, that power inside each of us, who saves Mansoul from
this kind of anarchy. We don't know how, but the Will is able to manage
the rest.
An
Easy Life
It's been said that the Will is 'the only practical faculty that man
has.' We recognize the truth of this in our common speech. When
something is done with the Will's consent, we call it voluntary. When something is done
without the Will's consent, we say that it's involuntary. As we've already
mentioned, people are able to reason, imagine, love, or make judgments
pg 128
without any involvement from the conscious Will at all. In fact, life
has been made conveniently easy for us with society's conventional
habits and the customary traditions of socio-economic groups. Many poor
souls grow to adulthood and live into old age without ever calling on
their Will to consciously choose between this or that. They think what
everyone else thinks, do what everyone else is doing, feel what's
expected, and never rely on their own true selves, which is where the
Will is. It's easy enough to live this way, but people who do this are
limited and cheated in every way. They haven't nourished or exercised
or learned to control any of the abilities that God gave them. To these
kinds of people, life is a series of events, some good, some bad, but
they always happen. Without any deliberate purpose or resolution of
their own, they can't possibly understand that these seemingly
unrelated events are part of God's plan. As a result, their religion is
reduced to popular sayings and superstitions.
This is the most common result of a Will-less life, distinguished by a
weakening of abilities and lack of purpose. The only thing they can
even conceive of is being like everyone else, doing what everyone else
is doing. Even a patient in an insane asylum can reason with clever
logic, feel valid emotions and act in good conscience (as Mr. Dick did,
fighting valiantly against 'that head of Charles I' in David Copperfield) But he's totally
lost because he has no Will-power to manage the members within his own
heart and mind. It's the same with a young man who is his own worst
enemy. He's swept off his feet by every stray suggestion that sounds
fun or exciting.
It's good for us to consider what it would be like to live without our
Will. Then we can decide how we want to live. Do we want an aimless,
drifting life? Or do we want to take up the responsibility of living,
and make deliberate choices of our Will?
pg 129
Chapter
II - The Will And Willfulness
Willful
People Can Have Various Dispositions
What about the person who's always trying to get his own way with
either stormy tempers, manipulation, sneaky evasion or determined
persistence? An obstinate or furious person is commonly said to have a
strong will. A sneaky or manipulative person isn't as obvious, so it
isn't as easy to label him. But the fact is, all four of these people
might manage to get their own way without exerting any more of their
Will than the casual person who lets things slide. When we abandon
ourselves to greed, vanity, ambition or lust, we go on without any
restraint from our Will, and we get what we want in blatant or
devious ways, depending on our personality. Robber barons in the Middle
Ages were violent, merciless, and insolent. Their actions were often
the result of impulsive outbursts. Such men were supposedly strong
willed. Examples are the Wild Boar of the Ardennes [from Sir Walter
Scott's Quentin Durward],
Charles of Burgundy [from Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein] and even
England's own Richard the Lion-Hearted [from Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman]. These heroes of
pg 130
'strong will' have their good qualities--they're generous and
unstinting in bestowing gifts, as quick to give as they are to take.
They will always have devoted followers whose instinct is to loyally
follow a leader. Those who get their way with more subtle, devious ways
aren't as appealing. King John [Shakespeare] and Becky Sharp [from
Thackeray's Vanity Fair]
don't have any loyal followers. We tend to prefer someone like Joab to
Achitopel, and we find Esau to be a more winning personality than
Jacob.
With Esau and Jacob, we can easily compare a Man of Will to a willful
creature. Apparently, the difference isn't that one pursues his desires
in a forthright way with generosity, and the other sometimes uses sound
logic to get his way, and sometimes uses clever tricks. No, the
difference lies deeper.
A
Willful Person Has One Goal
A willful person is at the mercy of his appetites and the whims of his
desires. Esau felt that he had to have the red stew, he had to hunt, he
had to have a wife, or do whatever his desires compelled him to do at
the moment. Compelling desire is what drives the scheming gambler, the
closet alcoholic, the lazy soul, the person who's obsessed with reading
novels, or anyone who thinks that life means nothing but pleasure. All
of
these people are only consistent about one thing, and they always need
to have their way, but their way is like an elusive carrot that leads
them every which way. Wherever they think they'll find gratification,
there they'll go--whether it's gratification for their vanity, or
gourmet tastes, or charming society, or ambition, or drive to be first.
This is a willful person. He has no power to control which way his
nature leads him because he has no goal except gratifying some physical
desire, appetite or affection. J.M. Barrie's Sentimental
Tommy is a good example of
pg 131
a willful person and worth analyzing. Tommy has always found a way to
get what he set out for, and there isn't usually anything wrong with
what he wants in and of itself. But Tommy is insincere. He does lots
of generous things and he's a bit of a genius, but everything he does
is motivated by the whims of his vanity. At all costs, he must impress
everyone around him. He always gets his way--yet his life falls apart
in the end because he's dominated by vanity instead of by a determined
Will.
Jacob also often gets his way by subtle means, although every one of
his deceitful tricks is punished. But he isn't seeking what he wants
for
its own sake. All of his whims come second to a higher priority. For
him, that higher priority was establishing the kingdom that God had
promised. He used both good and bad methods to realize his goal. His
punishments were so severe that, at the end of his life, he complained,
'The days of my life have been few and evil.' Yet he always worked
steadily with a will towards a goal outside of himself.
Lord Beaconsfield's career is an interesting study. It shows two phases
of willfulness and Will. In the beginning, all he has is the rather
dazzling willfulness of ambition that young men often have. He's
determined to succeed, and determined to make himself heard in the
House, and he does it. But that's the end of it, there's nothing more,
and the country draws the conclusion that he's driven by impulsive
whims. But after a while, his Will manifests itself, and he develops
the Will of a great politician. His personal desires take a back seat
or disappear in the presence of the ruling Will. And so he becomes a
man suited to serve his country. We don't have any record in history
that Wellington ever had a time in his life when he was willful. He
always
had an iron will. That iron will didn't just keep those under him in
line, it also kept any instability of his own body or spirit in line.
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of
pg 132
Germany also had this kind of steadfast will that was focused on
accomplishing an end goal
A
Successful Career Doesn't Require Any Exercise of Will
But it's possible to awe the world even without that kind of strong,
determined Will. Napoleon, for example, came upon Europe like a bad
omen, but he was driven along the path of least resistance by his
nature, which was made of genius, great courage, conceit and excessive
ambition. Yet he never achieved the status that men do when they aim
for a goal that's outside of themselves. Napoleon never exerted any
determined will on anything outside of himself. He was wildly generous,
like a child. He was also fretful and stubborn, like a child. He must
have had a child's instability, too. How else could he have endured the
shame of fleeing from Russia ahead of his troops?
We can't assume that success in life results from a resolved Will. A
person is as strong as his Will. Many people have become rich or famous
without ever exerting any force of Will because fame and fortune came
as a result of their easy nature and the force of their whims, while
others who have exercised their Will faithfully live in obscurity,
unknown to the world. Yet it's these people who have a constant Will
who are of value to the world, and who should be recognized for the
treasure they are.
There's a difference between rich, successful men. Some set out to make
money, and others, such as certain merchants,
manufacturers, shopkeepers and lots of others, fell into wealth and
success almost by accident. They didn't set out to be rich and
successful, they were simply doing their duty and keeping focused on
some greater goal outside of themselves. These are the kind of people
that are recognized and valued for their character.
There's nothing likeable about Redgauntlet [by Sir Walter Scott], but
he gains our sympathy because he was a man
pg 133
with a strong Will. He was able to look beyond himself and build his
life on a great purpose. Sir Walter Scott, as a great novelist, has
lots of examples of this kind of person. He had some legal sense that
made him accurate at discerning character. His books may have some
errors in historical details, but not as many as we might think. A man
who could deal with the case of 'Poor Peter Peebles' [Redgauntlet] knew how to sift
through documentary evidence. Earlier, I quoted passages from his
characters William de la Marck and Charles of Burgundy. King Louis XI. [Quentin Durward] might have been
mean and unappealing, but at least he was concerned about matters
outside of himself, even if he was only a little concerned about them.
And we get a great study of Will and Willfulness in the Crusader's camp
in The Talisman! Each of the
princes who was there was concerned about the stubborn pursuit of his
own self-interests, each fighting for his own control. Meanwhile,
Saladin looked on with a noble mind and generous heart because he was a
man with a determined Will focused on a goal that was more than
himself. I can't think of a better moral education than reading Sir
Walter Scott and Shakespeare. Scott is easier and more obvious, but
both of them recognize that a man is only as much as his Will. As far
as Shakespeare, I think the day will come when universities will have a
Shakespeare wing, not dedicated to its literary value, but focused on
ethology--the study of character.
A
Dividing Line
Both Shakespeare and Scott used what we might think of as a dividing
line. On one side they put willful, wayward, weak and forceful people.
On the
other side were people who had a resolved Will.
pg 134
Faust, Lady Macbeth, King Lear, Edward Waverley, Charles II., King
John, Marlborough, and all kinds of unlikely people are on the side
where Will isn't in command. On the other side are also unlikely
people--Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Laud, Mahomet, Henry V. of England,
and
Henry IV. of France. Mary Queen of England and Mary Queen of Scots fall
to either side of the line.
If I tried to make even a partial list of characters who illustrate
this, it would cover too much history and literature. But I'll repeat
that this kind of study is what will make our reading beneficial. It
will help us get to know people and prepare us better for life. Modern
psychological novels are hardly ever useful as 'life examples or for
teaching manners.' They have too much of a tendency to accept people as
they are, as if they can't help what they are. They avoid the issue of
Will and instead analyze thousands of little traits manifested by
characters with or without their will. Modern novels try to catch
characters and put them under a fishbowl for observation.
A man in the midst of the ranks of soldiers can't drill his company. In
the same way, the restless citizens of Mansoul can't be controlled by
someone down on their level. They need a Will who's at the front,
aiming for something outside of itself. From the front, it's easier to
see
where Mansoul is going and keep its members in order.
'Will'
Can Be a National Attribute
At this very moment (1904), we Britons are in the midst of a
large-scale object lesson being presented to us by Japan, an
extraordinarily strong-willed nation. Yes, nations can have determined
Wills, too, not just individuals. It seems like every individual in
Japan has an impersonal goal. He has a resolved Will to serve his
country with every fiber of his being,
pg 135
so that, in comparison, his own preferences, whims, desires and rewards
don't matter a bit. The Japanese seem to show with the way they
sacrifice for their country with their goal, method, planning, every
reasonable device, and unlimited skill that 'he who loses his life will
save it.'
This isn't the first time that the Japanese have been an example of
will-power that's exemplary in history. Thirty years ago [1868?] they worked out a revolution
unlike any the world had seen before. The people didn't rise up with
weapons and force their rulers to step down. The rulers [shoguns?] maintained the country
and their authority like feudal princes. They realized on their own
that the people couldn't progress and keep up with the world under this
kind of feudal rule, so they took it upon themselves to cease ruling
and owning land. They chose to leave their wealth and dignity and
become ordinary citizens. They even served as soldiers in the army and
workers in the police force. They 'lost their life' as superior rulers
to 'save it' in helping revive their country.
In contrast, their neighbor empire, China, is an odd demonstration of
chaos and useless labor. Yet China also has taste, literature,
cleverness, its own art, morals that are probably better than we
suppose, the honor of a long, long history. And yet, even with all of
this, China still acts like a cranky, obstinate, temperamental child
with the rest of the world. Why? We westerners might be quick to blame
race and color, but maybe recent events will teach us better. Great
things have come from the eastern world in the past. Perhaps more great
things are still to come in the future.
The truth is probably that China and Japan are each on different sides
of that imaginary line.
pg 136
Meanwhile, we western nations have weakened ourselves by falling for a
philosophy whose first principle is that, under no circumstances,
should we lose our life.
Publicly, we claim that our first priority is whatever will mean the
greatest happiness for the most people. Individually, comfort at any
cost is what we desire. Secretly, or maybe not so secretly, most of us
follow the rule of 'Every man for himself.'
We don't need to be alarmed or fear the deterioration of our nation or
anything like that, and we don't need to compare ourselves unfavorably
to any other nation. The fault is in the teaching we've allowed and
spread. This teaching urges people to choose the path of least
resistance to their natures.
But if we chose a goal outside of ourselves, we'd be as capable of
great things as any nation, past or present. If all we could manage to
set our sights on was nothing more than Skepsey's cry, like a cuckoo,
of 'England' [One of Our Conquerors
by George Meredith], then we'd be restored and able to resolve our Will
again. That's only possible when we're removed from focusing on
ourselves. We'll be capable and effective in doing this, according to
how
much we resolve our Will.
Jesus's teaching seems to have been intended to awaken the Jews from
the laziness of their national superstitions and their individual
goals. He wanted to give them the power to Will. After all, it's only when a
man Wills that he's really a
man in the full sense. 'What do you want Me to do to you?' 'Oh,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have liked to gather your
children together in the same way that a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings. But you wouldn't let me!'
'If any man wills to do God's
will, then he'll understand where the doctrine is from.' [John 7:17]
pg 137
Chapter
III - The Will Itself Is Neither Moral Nor Immoral
'Willing'
Isn't Necessarily the Same as 'Being Good'
Maybe what we've said about the Will makes it sound like a child's
understanding of 'being good, and our imaginary line might seem like
all the good people should be on one side, and all the bad people on
the other. But a man who has a resolved Will might have mixed motives
and use both ethical and unethical methods to achieve his goal. Louis
XI., for example, had France in mind in everything he did. He was loyal
to his own concept of his role as king. But he was not a good man. He
used dishonorable methods, and his immediate motives were unworthy and
inferior. Anarchists and rebels might conceive of a goal outside of
themselves and steadfastly stay focused on that goal until it's
accomplished. They might use immoral and even illegal methods, but you
can't say that such a person ha a weak Will. There are even people
whose
sole purpose in life is to advance some doctrine designed to eliminate
social restraints and moral convictions. They deliberately want to harm
society, but they call it a good thing. They say that the freedom to do
whatever we want is the highest good for mankind. And this is the goal
they work towards with such sacrificial enthusiasm. Their very focus on
a goal outside of themselves is what
pg 138
convinces so many people to follow them. When people confuse Will with virtue, they're easy to
convert to any and every radical form of 'free-thinking.'
That's why it's good for us to know that, even though volatile,
obstinate people aren't ruled by Will but by the impulsive passions of
their own desires, it's still possible to have a steady, resolved Will,
but to use it for an unworthy or even evil goal. It's even possible to
have a good goal in mind, but to achieve that goal with unworthy
methods. Rebecca's only wish was for God's will to be done. In fact,
she determined to bring it about herself. She would make sure that the
younger chosen son would be the one to inherit the blessing, just as
God had promised. And she set herself to scheming in order to bring
about what she thought was good. She's an example for every age,
especially our own!
The Lord calls a simple, amended Will 'the single eye,' and it seems to
be the one thing we need if we're going to live right and be prepared
to serve.
'Will'
Isn't the Same Thing as 'an Ideal'
It might seem like 'Will' means the same thing as an 'Ideal' because an
ideal, whether good or bad, is the motivating power that determines
what we do. This concept sounds familiar to us because most of us have
an ideal hidden somewhere within ourselves, even if our ideal is only
'a decent guy' or 'a nice girl.' We've seen for ourselves how much
influence the Bushido has in
Japan. That seems to be their ideal of chivalry. But it isn't really
the ideal that's so effective. It's the force of Will-power. We all
know that cherishing sentimental fantasy ideals, no matter how
beautiful they might be, is a source of weakness. And we know that some
people practically worship great ideals. They enjoy
pg 139
experiencing exquisite emotions surrounded by an elegant location
as they reflect and idealize the life of St Francis. Self-culture is
considered an acceptable ideal, but when we understand that
self-culture is centered in Self with no goal beyond that, then we see
the gentle youth holding a lily with his head posed to the side a bit
differently. That youth isn't a man of Will as we thought, because the
first condition of Will, whether good or bad, is that it has to be
focused on something outside of itself. Browning asks an interesting
question--Is it better to have resolved Will for the wrong goal and
accomplish it, or to persist in a steady course of wrongly wanting,
thinking and feeling, but never having the Will to follow through and
put it into action? Most people who read The Statue and the Bust will agree
with Browning that working for the wrong thing but failing because of a
lack of Will, is just as bad as accomplishing the wrong thing. If the
Will can't be called good, then it should at least be called virtue in the linguistic sense of
the word. It's the same as manliness.
Another thing to be aware of is that even a constant Will can have
times of ebb and flow. Later, we'll discuss one of the secrets of
living--how to ride through the tide of our failures when our
Will-power slips.
We've already said that one of the secrets to the art of living is
being able to pass tempting side trails and keep moving straight
forward. A traveler who knows this art will be able to escape many
dangers. I'll invite you to consider the way the Will works later.
Not many subjects are more confusing and vague than the subject of the
Will. But it's everyone's responsibility to understand a little bit
about how the Will that leads us acts. Little by little, we'll see that
the Will isn't just an illusion, like a will-o'the-wisp leading to
destruction. It's a real power working in cooperation with the other
powers in Mansoul. It has its own job description and is bound to keep
its own rules.
pg 140
So far we have seen that, in the same way that ruling well
distinguishes a king, the Will distinguishes the quality of a person. A
king isn't a king unless he rules, and a man isn't a man unless he
resolves his Will.
We've also seen that we have the choice whether or not to use our Will.
It's even possible to go through an entire lifetime without ever using
our Will. If everything we do or think, in spite of ourselves, is
subject to the impulses of our nature, then we're not using our Will.
Will itself isn't good or bad, but a constant Will needs to have some
goal outside of itself, and that goal can be good or bad. The Will has
times when it's stronger than at other times. During the Will's weak
times is when we're in the most danger.
pg 141
Chapter
4 - The Will and Its Friends
The
Will is Subject to Appeals
It's pretty easy to picture the Will standing in front of Mansoul's
forces saying 'Go' to one of them, 'Come' to another one, and 'Do
this,' and he does it. The Will has to listen to propositions all
around it in the form of 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye
and the pride of life.' We've seen how every demon of Mansoul
tries to get the Prime Minister's attention [See Self-Knowledge, Book I of volume 4].
Each one tries to persuade the Prime Minister that he alone, all by
himself, can provide everything that the government wants. Whether it's
the greed of eating too much, or ruthless ambition which has been
called 'the final disease of noble minds,' every one of the forces in
Mansoul will take over if it's allowed to, and will become an
instrument of misrule. But have courage, lord Will! Then all the forces
will fall into line and obey the word of command.
We've already seen how a firm Reason, an enlightened Imagination,
well-controlled Affections and an educated Conscience are always ready
to offer counsel every time the Will wants to act.
The
Will Doesn't Act Alone
It takes the whole person to Will. A person can only Will as fairly and
pg 142
wisely as his abilities are trained and educated. It's good to know
this, and to be absolutely persuaded that we can't afford to let any of
our members remain ignorant or untrained. We dare not entertain the
notion that whichever members are capable can be counted on to do the
best thing.
There's more to living than events of one day melding into the next. We
need to understand that so we can exercise our conscious Will. 'Why is
it that you won't understand?' is what the Lord asked the Jews. They
would only see the obvious. They wouldn't reflect or even try to
interpret the signs of the times. That's the way most of us are: we won't understand. When we're young,
we think there's nothing particular in our lives to resolve our Will
about, but that there will be when we're older and out in the world.
But it's the same truth: defining moments aren't confined to any
specific period of our lives. They come in the form of the little
matters we deal with in our routine day. We need to be aware of this.
The great sphere of influence for our Will is within us. Our priority
in life should be to make sure we're prepared. The extent in which
we're prepared will determine which occasions come our way and how
we'll be used. Will's mission isn't to try to control the outside
world, but to keep Mansoul from wasting its resources and to keep every
province in Mansoul well-managed.
pg 143
Chapter 5 - The
Functions of the Will
As we've seen, the Kingdom of Mansoul only has one power that's totally
at its disposal, a free agent who can do whatever he wants, and that
one power is the Will. Yet the only thing that the Will really does is
to make one choice over another. In everything we do every day of our
lives, the command to 'Choose this day' comes before us. The Will's job
is to make that choice.
The
Effort of Choosing
We're usually game about making choices between things, although there
are some people who shirk even that responsibility. They try on two
dresses and can't decide between them. In fact, the success of
advertising rests on the fact that we prefer to let somebody else, even
if it's the salesperson, make up our minds for us. There's a clever
story about a girl who couldn't decide between two guys. So one of them
made it easy for her by falsifying his death! Now the girl no longer
had to feel pressured about making a choice.
Doing What Everyone
Else is Doing
Lots of people minimize their effort in life by following fashion when
it comes to clothes, decorating, books, entertainment, art and even who
they'll have as friends.
pg 144
We're all glad to have this kind of help because one choice is as good
as another in some of life's trivial issues. But fashion itself is a
fluctuating thing, and sometimes we can't avoid having to make a
choice. The Joneses put off making a decision until the last minute.
They asked for opinions from friends and consulted travel guide books
and considered many options. But the more information they got, the
more difficult it became to make a decision about where to spend their
summer vacation. So they went to the train station and trusted to
last-minute inspiration. But, as it turned out, Margate ended up being
the decision!
The inability to make a decision seems to be a growing trend in
England, or maybe all over the world. Perhaps that's because we're
hesitant about making a choice for ourselves, even though we're
enthusiastic
about pressuring others. We know which furniture is right for them,
which career, what they should like, who they should hang out with--and
we pressure them into what we think is for their own good. Perhaps
it's true that one dress is more flattering, or that a person is suited
for a particular career. But every time we make a choice for someone
else, we do them an injury. We've taken away an opportunity for them to
fulfill their main priority in life, which is making choices.
We harm ourselves even more when we dress ourselves the way someone
else says we should, or adopt someone else's opinions, because every
time we give up the opportunity to make our own choice with our own
Will, we're acting more like a machine than a person. We aren't
fulfilling our purpose in life any better than artificial plants used
in tacky decorations. Any person who isn't continually making conscious
choices on the basis of a balanced Will is like a puppet, pulled by the
strings of other people's opinions.
pg 145
Choice
and Obedience
But you might ask, 'What about obedience, then? We owe obedience first
to our parents, then to our government and church, and always to God's
will. If a person is only truly an independent being when he's making
conscious choices, then doesn't obedience destroy personality?' No. On
the contrary, obedience is the ultimate test and sustainer of our
personality, but only if the obedience is by free choice. Since making
a decision takes so much mental effort, children should be saved the
labor by being trained to have a habit of obedience. Every gallant boy
and noble girl has learned to choose
to obey their parents, pastor, and Master, and anyone else in authority
over them. This kind of obedience is the essence of chivalry, and
chivalry is the exact opposite attitude of mind as self-seeking. A
chivalrous person is a person of constant Will, because, as we've
already seen, the Will can't be steadily maintained merely for personal
gain. But obedience must be given simply because it's the right thing
to do.
You might think that life will become too much of an effort if every
one of our choices matters, and every decision has to be made
first-hand. But I'm reminded of a fable about a clock pendulum that
went on strike and caused the clock to stop because it had counted how
many ticks it would have to give every day, in a year, and in many
years. The number of ticks was overwhelming, so the pendulum stopped.
The clock face asked what was going on and the pendulum told him the
amount of ticks he would have to make. The clock face said, 'Indulge me
by ticking just once.' And the pendulum did. 'Was that difficult?' 'No,
not at all. But I'm not complaining about one single tick. I'm
complaining about millions of ticks.' The clock face said, 'But you're
only required to give one tick at a time, and there's always a second
of time for you to tick in.' And it's the same way with our Will.
pg 146
Yes, there are lots of decisions to be made, but they come one at a
time, and there's always time provided to make the choice.
Choosing
Between Ideas
Still, it's good to know what it is we're choosing between. Things are
only symbols representing ideas.
Several times a day, we'll find that two ideas are before us and we'll
have to make a decision based on reasonable grounds, and on what's
right. The specific things may not matter much in themselves, but
our choice matters. Every time we exercise our conscious Will, our
personality grows stronger. But every time we shirk an opportunity to
decide for ourselves, we get weaker.
pg 147
Chapter
6 - The Scope of the Will
Allowance
Often Passes for Choice
We've determined that the Will's job is to choose--not primarily
between things, people, and courses of action, but between the two
ideas that these things represent. Every choice we make implies a
rejection of one or many ideas represented by that choice.
Even if we allow our Will to rest passively, things and issues will
still continue to come before us, but we'll be allowing instead of making a
conscious choice. A suggestion from the outside that appeals to our
nature will decide for us. There might not seem to be much difference
between the two paths, but most ruined lives and broken families are
the result of settling for making allowances instead of doing the duty
of making conscious choices with the Will.
I don't mean that a person has to go through the effort of making a
decision about every little thing. A man shopping for a suit may have
already made a choice. He decided a long time ago that the class of
people he mingles with have good taste and common sense, and what they
tend to wear is a sufficient guide when it comes to clothes. He
remembers what Lord Chesterfield said, so he won't be the first person
to adopt a certain trend, and he won't be the last person to discard
it. Those parameters provide a limit to his options, and the available
selection
of suits sees to the rest. But, you might protest, he hasn't made any
conscious choice at all!
pg 148
Yes, he has. With good sense, he modestly chose to follow the lead of
the other men in his social circle.
But another young man who is more pretentious comes to look for a suit.
The salesperson shows him the latest arrival, a style that will be all
the rage in a few months. He asks lots of questions, deliberates for a
long time, and finally allows the salesperson to say, 'It's just
perfect for you! Mr. Foley bought the very same suit just last week.'
And that does it. The trendy new suit is paid for, bagged up and
carried home. The young man is satisfied that he's made his choice. But
he hasn't. The salesperson has taken advantage of his vanity, and the
man's purchase was really an allowance he made, not a real
choice. He acted just like Malvolio after all. Another man also
goes looking for a suit. The salesperson measures him in more ways than
one. The man isn't frivolously vain, but he's proud. He won't be
pressured by fashion to wear the latest thing. He considers himself
above that sort of shallowness. 'I never wear that,' he says and talks
about what he 'prefers.' The salesperson humors him, and his final
purchase is also a matter of allowance instead of conscious choice.
Still another man is so conceited that he defies convention and likes
to startle the world by making unexpected choices, wearing checkered
jackets when everyone else is wearing stripes. He prides himself on
being an independent thinker. And yet he's merely obeying the dictates
of the conceit he formed about himself. His bold and daring fashion
purchases come from allowances, not real choice. We won't follow a
woman in the mall shopping for a dress--the considerations would be
far too complicated! But even in her case, the final purchase either
comes from a deliberate choice based on reasoned principles that
determine the boundaries of style and cost, or from allowance, perhaps the allure of a
dress on a display model, or hints from a saleswoman about what's
stylish and what's flattering.
pg 149
Once we figure out our principles about these kinds of matters, the
individual occasions take care of themselves. Making a conscious choice
implies some previous experience with judgment and conscience, some
knowledge of the subject, and, usually, a little taste and imagination.
We don't pick out a particular dress because we resolve our Will to buy
it, that would be extreme. It's that our Will is acting on information
and previous reflection. The question of a lady shopping for a dress is
just a side-issue, but it's still worth considering. Unfortunately, the
shopping scene at the mall is too familiar. It also stresses and
discourages the shopper as well as the salespeople she deals with.
Cheap
Items
The notion that we're supposed to get the best there is at the cheapest
price is a source of wasted time, needless spending and stress.
Scrutinizing sales flyers, driving from one store to the next, calling
around town collecting prices on items and other offenses could be
avoided if we determined to let certain principles guide our actions.
One such principle might be that, instead of pursuing the best at the
lowest cost, we'll be satisfied to have what meets our needs at the
price
we can afford.
The mad hunt for the best, the most impressive, and the cheapest isn't limited only to
clothes, accessories, household items and furnishings. We're just as
likely to chase after opinions and ideas in the same restless,
uncertain way. When we dash off to some sale, we're deceiving ourselves
with the silly notion that we're going to get something at a 'bargain,'
for less than it's actually worth. yet, all this time, it's ideas that
we're really chasing.
pg 150
It's good to keep in mind that in all of the many relationships of
life, whether it's our books, our friends, our politics, or our
religion, the one action that our Will is capable of, the act of
choosing, always needs to be exercised in a conscious choice of one
idea over another. It isn't that ideas symbolize things, but that
things symbolize ideas. We need to analyze the deeper significance and
ask ourselves what we're really after when we allow this or that,
choosing one thing over another. Are we looking for the most novel, or
the cheapest in morals and religion? Are we picking up our concepts
from the latest magazines, or small talk with acquaintances? Those are
easy to come by, but, in the end, will prove to be a poor bargain.
That's merely sacrificing the one thing that makes us valuable--our
individuality--for something that's worthless. Our personality, which
is distinguished by our deliberate resolve of the Will, is wasted, not
by over-use, but by mis-use, in proportion to our lack of exercising
it. We need to base our opinions on widely varied reading, thoughtful
reflection, conscience and sound judgment, even if we're only forming
an opinion on a novel or a sermon. If we're considering how to spend
our day, then we also need to consider our principles.
'Whoever sweeps a room as unto the Lord
Makes both the room as well as the act itself an excellent thing'
[from The
Elixir by George Herbert]
is a general principle. An action is only excellent if it's reaching
for a principle that's greater than itself. Whatever ideas we allow
into our minds will become our opinions. The opinions we act on become
our principles. Whatever opinions and principles we hold are who we
are, they define our character and make up the part of ourselves that
we're responsible for.
There's just one idea that's truly ours to freely decide, one
consummate choice of the Will that's available for all of us to decide.
We're obligated to wait for circumstances and opportunities to come our
way, but those who put off making that one big decision
pg 151
will find that they aren't ready when circumstances or opportunity do
come to them. What is that one resolve of the Will, that one choice of
life that we all have to decide on? Whether or not to make our
particular Mansoul--that is, our own self--ready for service using
the tools of knowledge, love and deliberate effort. We can determine to
do that much, but the opportunities that come or don't come our way
aren't
our responsibility any more than a soldier can help whether he gets
guard duty, or is sent to the front lines.
Chapter
7 - Self-Control, Self-Restraint, Self-Command, Self-Denial
Moral
Self-Improvement
The four kinds of behavior we're going to look at now aren't pretty. We
have some kind of instinct--maybe a true instinct--that makes all
words that have 'self' in them seem distasteful. When a goal of
self-improvement is presented as something we should strive for, we
shrug it off and say, 'What's the use?' and even our Will winces. It
refuses to be swayed to do anything for long that comes from
self-centered motives. Yes, it's true that many self-originated motives
stemming from vanity and pride such as self-esteem and self-respect can
prompt us to action, but that prompting isn't against our Will, it's without it. Even self-discipline,
which is rightly encouraged from
our earliest childhood, and self-control, can be practiced and done
well merely for the sake of our prized Self, because we believe that
serenity will be rewarded, that self-esteem makes us feel good and that
self-satisfaction makes us happy. This kind of moral self-improvement
pays. So then, Self feels justified in making such improvements. They
even make the lives of everyone around us more comfortable. They result
in peace and pleasant relationships.
pg 153
Self-Absorption
But I'm not so sure. Moral self-improvement that's only done for its
own sake can tend to make a person oddly detached. They lose some sense
of spontaneity and develop a hint of being on a higher level than
everyone else, curbing the natural sympathy that most people have. In
fact, that sympathy is the only real gift we have for each other. Any
obsessive absorption has this effect. Nobody expects much from a person
newly in love, or a poet, or a student studying for mid-terms. But at
least the person in love is only going through a phase, and the
student's mid-terms will be over soon. The poet may be obsessed, but,
if he's a good poet, at least his work benefits the world. But if a
person is absorbed with himself, there's no benefit except to himself.
That was the only goal. People don't usually like to be helped by those
who seem to live on a superior level. Even Jesus came down to reach us
at our own level. He was 'tempted in all points, just like we are.'
I remember once at a large party, I met a woman who confused me. She
was impressive-looking and pretty and very friendly. Whatever was going
on at the party--acting, reciting, games, chatter--she was leading
it, and doing better at it than anyone else. She was nice, too. When
there was any kind of problem or someone got hurt, she was right there
to help. She intrigued me because, even though so many things about her
were charming, she had a certain distance that was offensive. I
wondered if she had some kind of history that made her that way, but
nobody seemed to know much about her. Finally, her kind wish revealed
the reason for her aloofness. If a person was to stretch out in bed and
say, 'I'm very happy, there's nothing wrong with me,' for a certain
amount of time every day, they would have perfect peace of body and
mind.
pg 154
Then I saw what it was that made this woman so out of touch with those
around her. She was involved in her own personal cult, a cult that
revolved around her own well-being. In spite of her many kindnesses,
that seemed to be like a wall surrounded by broken glass to everyone
else--we couldn't approach her. Even though she performed the various
actions I mentioned, and others, too, it made no difference to everyone
else.
A
Better Way
It's a wonderful thing to have self-discipline in our appetites,
self-control about expressing our passions and emotions, self-command
of our temper, and self-denial to be able to do without the things we
really want. But there's an even better way.
When the Will focuses on something outside of itself that's greater
than the self, the appetites cease being so urgent, the emotions aren't
so overpowering, and the temper isn't so rebellious (except for quick,
impulsive instants that are regretted and recovered). As far as
self-denial, love doesn't do without the things it really wants; it
isn't even aware of personal wants. A mother feeding her child the last
crust of bread, or dressing it in the last rags available, isn't
denying herself. She's loving. We probably do more harm than good to
ourselves and others by exercising what we think of as self-denial. 'I
don't want you saving your dirty soul on me,' said one Irish woman to a
visitor to her area. What she said expressed a law of life: it isn't
possible to be good to others, or even good to ourselves, just for the
sake of being good. Love and serving in love are the only things that
count.
If the Will is provided with something outside of itself to focus on,
it will
pg 155
be eager to serve, even when the service is as difficult as controlling
its own forces of Mansoul. The failures in self-discipline,
self-control, and self-denial that plague us and that we recognize as
sin by the very misery they cause to us and others, and the way they
put a wall between our heart and others, aren't overcome in a grand,
monumental one-time heroic act. It takes many deliberate efforts of the
Will. It's not a matter of striving to manage ourselves better. It
takes something outside of ourselves to make us forget ourselves, and a
certain valiant effort of the Will. That's the way to cure the faults
that frustrate us.
But someone might say, Hasn't Jesus commanded us to deny ourselves?
Yes, but He wants the kind of self-denial that comes from a disciple
who has so much love for his Master that he no longer focuses on
himself--as if he has no Self.
pg 156
Chapter
8 - The Effort of Decision
We
Avoid Decisions
I've tried to demonstrate how the Will is moved to action by the touch
of an inspiring thought. It does sometimes work through vanity or greed
or some other lesser motive, but when it does, it's more like a
supporting actor. Natural tendencies are strong enough to accomplish
their goal without any effort of the Will. All it takes is making
allowances, it doesn't require any effort of deliberate decision. And
yet, every day brings many tiresome little decisions, and it seems like
overkill to bring in the strong power of the Will for every one of
them, as if a steam hammer
was being brought in to crack a nut open. So, instead of making a
deliberate decision, we question ourselves, 'What will Mrs. Jones say?'
'I wonder which side Holford will take,' and so on. We try to avoid the
effort of making decisions by imaging what others would do. This is a
burdensome process because we know so many people and their decisions
are so varied. Even if we rely on the judgment of one person as our
guide, we're still not confident because circumstances are never
exactly the same for two different people. We're forced to think for
ourselves. And there are so many little considerations pressing in on
us that we start to feel harried like a person who's spent all day at
the mall and finally decides on the last thing he sees only because
it's right in from of him and he's tired.
pg 157
Indecision might be a symptom of our age, and it's not necessarily a
bad sign. It could just be the result of having so much more
information, opinions, practices, and different principles to choose
from. Sir Richard de Coverley might be like our patron saint, to be
invoked on all occasions. He said there's so much sense on both sides
that it's impossible to make up our minds. So finally we just pick
any old thing blindly and, as a result, find ourselves in a place we
never meant to
be.
'Tolerance'
We admire this mindset in ourselves and call it Tolerance. It's a sort of creed
that can summed up this way: 'There's a certain amount of good in
everything and anybody, and a certain amount of bad in everything and
anybody. Nothing or nobody is better than anyone or anything else, so
one choice is as good as another.' And that results in, 'What
difference does it make?' And that attitude prevails about going to
church, or bothering to vote, or troubling about political issues, or
bringing truth to the ignorant. 'What is truth,' as Pilate jested, and
we lift our eyebrows and repeat, 'Every person's principles and
opinions are undoubtedly what's best for him, and why should we
interfere? We have to worry about our own affairs!'
Even when it comes to our own affairs, many people don't take much
trouble. Some people rely on 'luck,' and some people rely on
'providence' to make all of their important decisions. This is the kind
of vague, indistinct thinking that goes on in many people's minds these
days. They wear themselves out with trivial decisions while walking
blindfolded into decisions that really matter.
'Providence'
and Choice
But someone might say, doesn't Providence decide the boundaries of
where
we live, and guide us in what we do? This is a blessing and restful
truth that gives every Christian
pg 158
soul a sense of peace, but Providence isn't supposed to save us from
the effort of making our own decisions. It's the decision-making
process that shapes our character. The Father who brings up His
children is in heaven. In the
same way that wise parents make sure that their children get enough
exercise, we can safely assume that Providence strengthens people by
giving each of them some opportunities to expend their own effort,
especially the
effort of decision. The Will grows strong when it expends effort, and
the Will defines the person's character.
There's a charming picture by Ludwig Richter called Unser Vater that illustrates 'Give
us this day our daily bread.' A mother is spoon feeding two precious
chubby babies who are sitting before her with their mouths open. Behind
them, their big brother has a slice of German black bread, a sower is
sowing in the next field, and a bird follows him to eat some of the
seed. This is a great picture of how Providence works. The sower sows,
the mother feeds, and God gives the increase. But nobody is sitting
around waiting for a hand-out. They're working with open eyes and busy
hands, and the good life that results comes along the lines of their
own effort.
Opinions
and Principles
Making decisions is part of the work we're meant to do, along with the
'sweat of our brow by which we earn our daily bread.' But
decision-making shouldn't cause worry, stress, anxiety and fatigue over
such things as buying a yard of ribbon, or decorating a house, or
choosing a career. If it is, then we're on the wrong track--our Will
is negligent and we're being torn to pieces by conflicting desires and
affections.
The decisions that the Will makes are always simple because, for better
or worse, they have an end goal focused on something outside of
pg 159
the Self. We've seen how no part of us operates in isolation. All our
lives, the Will has been busy getting input from the Imagination,
Reason, Conscience, and the Affections. Little by little, it's been
forming those major decisions that are the foundation for what we do,
which we call Principles, and
the major decisions that are foundational to what we think, which are
called Opinions. Once formed,
our principles and opinions are always ready to serve in big or little
occasions. Our job is to make sure that we aren't distracted by the
many different aspects of Self. Then our decisions will be prompt and
final. We won't be anxious, second guessing whether we made a mistake,
or if we should have chosen something else instead.
If we've done the best we could do with all we had within us, and added
prayer if there was still any uncertainty, then we can rest as assured
as the sower that Providence is on our side, although there are no
guarantees how rich or poor the immediate harvest will be. In either
case, we benefit because we
grow with each decision we make so that there's more strength of
character within us for the next time of action. So, we can go on our
way with that much more strength and peace.
This isn't an easy way to a quiet life, but in all work there's some
gain. Without work, there's no gain in either heart matters or material
things.
pg 160
Chapter
9 - Intention, Purpose, Resolution
The
Story of a Resolution
A man was strolling along the shore in the south lake with his wife,
who was an invalid. He noticed a greater black-backed gull that had
fallen dead on the sand. Other sea things caught his interest, and
before long, he had begun an impressive collection of sea artifacts.
His collection continued to grow, and his knowledge increased along
with it. Finally he had such a large collection and he had it arranged
so neatly, that the idea of opening a big county museum came to him. He
loved the idea and committed himself to that project. Any obstacles in
his way merely strengthened his resolve to face all the long hours of
collecting and classifying.
This is the way the mental process works in all people who accomplish
things. First, something attracts their attention: the man walking
along the shore might not have considered the dead bird an idea, but
what captured his attention was an idea all the same. Perhaps the idea
was aroused and piqued by his interest and admiration in the delicate
beauty of the bird's feathers when seen up close.
Then came the obsession of the mind on natural objects from the sea,
which led to the
pg 161
intent to learn more about
them. The intention might have been a bit vague and general, but it was
strong enough to motivate him to do something about it. He found more
things, and did more research. Then the intention became more definite.
He had a goal in mind that he was determined to carry out--a purpose. And, in the face of
difficulties, that grew into strong resolution.
The
Progress of an Idea
Perhaps another man read a book about Francis Drake as a boy. From
that, he got a certain sense of spaciousness, and of the kind of
adventure that risks everything for love of queen and country. Although
Drake, as a hero, isn't always admirable for his goodness, his manly
devotion to a cause appeals to the boy. He finds that he feels
perfectly at home in 'the spacious days of great Queen Elizabeth,' and
that's the kind of reading he enjoys for many years. He learns about
the Elizabethan dramatists, politicians, seamen, and poets. His
thoughts begin to be colored by his reading. There's a certain
largeness in his opinions and the way he acts that has an uplifting
effect on those around him. He helps them to see issues from a
perspective other than their own personal or traditional way. He
himself may not have taken up any greater adventure than that of a
doctor or businessman, but he brings a breeze of adventure with him,
and his friends are all the better for it. One of his sons joins the
navy, one is stationed in India, and the third is in South Africa, all
of them carrying the spacious thoughts and impersonal goals that they
got from their father. The man himself seems to be left at the birth of
the Elizabethan thought that first captivated him when he read the book
about Drake. The engaging of his mind and intention came with the
steady pursuit of reading Elizabethan
pg 162
literature. It's not as easy to follow the stages of purpose and
resolution, but they are there. That's evident because the fruit of
that first thought, like a seed, grew and perfected itself in his
mind, and it continued to bear fruit in the lives of his sons.
If the idea that struck him had come from the narrow, self-involved
days of Queen Anne, he might have become a connoisseur collector of
Chelsea teapots and Chippendale tables. He would still have influenced
his friends since we can't help having an influence on those around us,
but his
influence would have been in the small graces of life rather than in
the larger issues.
Personal
Influence Must Not Be Deliberate
The whole issue of influence is very interesting. The old artists
painted saints with a halo, an aura of glory emanating from them, and
that visual seems to illustrate what's true for all of us. Each of us
moves around and lives within the radiance of our own
personality. This emanation of our personality influences everyone we
come in contact with. We might say that generosity emanates from a
generous person, and unkindness emanates from a mean person. Those who
come in contact with the generous person pick up some of his
generosity, and the hostility of the mean person rubs off on those he
comes in contact with.
We can't help this kind of influence. We're not even conscious that
we're affecting people this way, it's just our nature, who we are. We
shouldn't try to manipulate the natural way we influence others. At the
same time, we have no right to
deliberately attempt to influence others.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't give and receive correction,
advice, or instructions when needed. But that's not the same as
influence, because those things are straightforward and sincere. The
other person is fully aware of what's going on. Our job is to be the
best we can be, and
pg 163
then to let our influence take care of itself. And we should be careful
not to allow ourselves to be in a position where we're being influenced
and compromised by an unworthy person.
None of us can totally insulate ourselves from the influences of the
people we associate with. But, in both books and people, we can
seek out the best, most elevating influences. We all know of somebody
whose company makes us a better person, even if the only thing we talk
about is fishing or scrapbooking. I doubt that anyone is helped by
legalistic pious talk, what some people call 'holier-than-thou,' but
everyone is uplifted and better after coming in contact with a sweet,
pure, confident soul whose nature is not just within himself, but
emanates and surrounds him and is taken in like the air by those around
them.
Sources
of Ideas
It's smart to get the kind of ideas that lead us to resolve to some
action from these kinds of people. Maybe the concept will come to
somebody reading this book, the idea that will take hold of his mind,
become a deliberate intention, focus into a purpose, and strengthen
into a resolution--the concept that, even if it's the only thing good
he can do in the world, he'll strive to be a Mansoul who has only pure
influence emanating from him, and nothing corrupt. Maybe other things
will come up for us to do, maybe great philanthropic projects will come
our way. Actually, any sincere work that helps somehow is
philanthropic, whether it's writing a book, working for a local church,
or helping to make laws in the Senate. But nobody needs to feel left
out because his work seems to be for no greater purpose than earning
their living. Even that can be a great goal, if he does it with a will and single-minded focus. And
such a person doesn't need
pg 164
to feel bad about having no influence, because everyone has influence.
Influence isn't something that comes from how much opportunity a person
has, or even how hard they try. Influence is what a person has with
their own personality. Mansoul truly is a kingdom whose treasures and
opportunities are there for anyone with the will to use them.
Will
is The Tool That Helps Us Make Use of Ideas
But there are people who never even entertain the ideas that present
themselves. Therefore, they don't form any intention, purpose, or
resolution on it. These are people who never use their Will. And some
people deliberately choose to entertain corrupt or abusive ideas. The
thoughts of those kinds of people are continually evil, and their
purposes and resolutions are always towards evil objectives.
These different acts of the Will--intention, purpose and
resolution--are not only possible for all of us, they're required of us. In fact, the Will
is the tool that enables us to make use of the good, inspiring thoughts
that come our way. When we grasp that kind of idea with deliberate
intent, act upon it with a purpose, and struggle against obstacles with
determined resolve, that's when we develop character and become useful
to the world.
pg 165
Chapter
10 - A Way Of The Will
The
Way of the Will is a Slow Way
We've already discussed a bit about the way the Will works. We know
that the Will acts on ideas, which are presented to the mind in various
ways--in books, talking, the Holy Spirit's influence. If we simply
allow ourselves to act on mere suggestion, then we're not exercising
the Will, we're just making allowances. An act of the Will isn't caused
by any single ability of Mansoul. It's an impulse that collects
strength from Reason, Conscience, and Affection. Little by little, it
slowly comes to a head, and then its progress is regular and successive
as it goes through the stages of intention, purpose and resolution.
Then, any time we need to use our Will to decide on minor matters such
as where we should go or what we should buy, we simply act on those
principles and opinions that our Will has slowly accumulated to help
guide us.
We all know that what we say and do isn't as important as what we
determine with our Will because the Will defines the person, and it's
what we do as a result of our Will that results in our character and
our personality.
The
Will is Opposed
Someone might say, 'That all sounds great, and I'd be happy to place
myself
pg 166
among people of good-will, but I know that in a crisis, I'll be
overwhelmed. That's how it always is--anger, greed, mean thoughts, the
desire to be popular or impress, confusion, or fear come upon me so
strongly that I have no power to Will or to do. All I can do is just
drift.'
Those sudden overwhelming feelings that flood our spirit, and the slow
assault of outside influences, are something we're all familiar with.
We call them temptations, and
we pray that we won't enter into them. But we tend to forget that God's
command includes the mandate to 'watch
and pray.' Perhaps seventy five percent of the times that good people
succumb to temptation are because they don't know or don't take time to
think about which area they need to be watching. They struggle over
their most troublesome sin issue and focus their attempts there so that
they can resist it. And, in doing so, they set themselves up by being
preoccupied with the wrong thing. Their familiar story has become a
proverb: 'Hell is paved with good intentions.'
The
Gate That Needs to Be Guarded
The place we need to keep on our guard isn't where we're always prone
to sin. We need to be watching at the very small, narrow little gate
where ideas present themselves for our examination. Our failures are
always due to the sudden arrival of ideas that are against what the
gate-keepers, Judgment and Conscience, have already approved.
These new ideas rush in. We've read how fair and just Othello was
instantly overwhelmed by the idea of jealousy when Iago deviously
suggested it. We can think of a thousand times in our own lives when
some unworthy idea has forced its way in, persuaded Reason to side with
it, come up with some justification to
pg 167
placate Conscience, and carried us headlong down some silly or evil
path.
Knowing that Reason and Conscience aren't reliable, once an idea has
been admitted after offering solid logic at the entrance, what we need
to
ask is how to deal with enemy ideas that pressure us to let them in.
Most Christian teachers will advise us to fight them. The medieval
church has a long history of fights with whips and lashes, stiff
shirts, fasting, and painful self-denials that block out all the
sweetness from life. Dramatic battles with evil, such as the incident
with Martin Luther's ink bottle, can't always be avoided once certain
destructive ideas have gotten in. But Jesus's advice to 'Watch
and pray,' saves us. If we have the Will, there is a means at our
disposal. It's as simple and unimpressive as David's sling and stone
seemed against the giant. But it's just as effective. The spiritual
world is like the physical world: the best ways are always simple.
Whenever a new idea shows up in a newspaper article or during a
discussion with our friends, or just suddenly pops up in our own minds,
we examine it with a quick action of a trained Reason and
educated Conscience. We do it without even being conscious of it, it
becomes a habit when the Will is trained (and the way to train a Will
is with exercise!) to subject every random concept that comes our way
to this kind of inspection before allowing it admittance and making it
our own.
What if the idea doesn't pass muster with the two gate-keepers, Reason
and Conscience, that make our judgments? Then what? Here is the
brilliantly simple way that the Will works.
pg 168
We don't have to struggle against or argue with or say bad things about
the trespasser. Instead, we consciously determine with a will to simply
think of something else immediately--not something holy and lofty, but
something interesting or entertaining. Perhaps we might imagine what
we'd like to do on our next vacation, or what will happen next in the
book we're reading, or we might think about a friend we haven't seen in
a while, or even a fly we see crawling across the ceiling. Anything
will do because anything that occupies the mind's attention will take
its
focus away from the treacherous idea that we want to get rid of. And no
idea has any power over us until we willingly
let it in and entertain it.
When life become stressful and we let down our guard, that's when we're
in danger. Ideas that appeal to our vanity or temper or whatever
assault us, and then our only salvation is a quick prayer--'Oh God,
hurry and save us! Lord, quick, help us!' and then, as quick as
thought, we need to turn our focus away from the frustrating
circumstance and think of something entertaining or interesting. The
weather, and what to wear for it, is always available as a topic!
We all pretty much recognize that our own moral Armageddon has to be
fought against an army of enemy ideas. But we may not be aware of the
simple, effective weapon that we have at our fingertips. Another thing
we might not be aware of is that intellectual
enemy ideas have to be dealt with in the same way as moral enemy ideas
that are within us. We aren't at liberty to think whatever we feel
like, any more than we're allowed to do
whatever we feel like. In fact, thinking is the real act. Our opinions
about God, other people, our church, the government, books and events
are as much under the jurisdiction of the Will as our moral judgments
are. In the same way, we must not casually entertain them. In our
thoughts and opinions, we need to watch and pray against the
irresponsible
pg 169
flight of opinions that are always fluttering around. Every opinion
needs to be examined at the gate. No matter how appealing it sounds, if
it doesn't pass the required tests, it needs to be pushed away and some
familiar diverting thought needs to take its place. It isn't a case
where we need to determine beforehand to reject a whole class of
intellectual concepts. But it's our duty and responsibility to examine
each idea that we meet by subjecting it to the tests of Reason and
Conscience. If it doesn't pass the tests, then we need to simply think
of something else that's enjoyable and engaging.
Once an idea gains admittance, it becomes our master, not our servant.
There are ideas, both good and evil, either moral or intellectual, that
captivate us, take hold of us, carry us away, absorb our whole being,
so
that, for better or worse, we can come to live as if we were the
instrument of a single idea. That's why it's so necessary for us to
keep watch at the gate where ideas come in. We need to become expert in
the simple way of repelling ideas that we don't want to willingly entertain.
If we carefully study the Gospels, we'll see how vitally important the
ideas of the Intellect are. We call them opinions and assume that
'every person has a right to form them for himself.' And he does, he
has a right and a responsibility, and he needs to face the risks.
The Gospels are full of Jesus in the middle of controversies about
fallacies. Fallacies are misleading opinions that have been approved by
the Reason and allowed to pass by the Conscience because the Will let
them in. It's a dangerous fact that Reason and Conscience themselves
are at the mercy of any idea that they haven't been asked to examine before it was allowed in.
pg 170
Chapter
11 - Freewill
Summary
of the Points We've Covered So Far
We've seen that the job of managing of Mansoul and coordinating its
abilities appropriately belongs to the Will. We've seen how the Will by
itself is neither moral nor immoral. We've seen that the Will's job is
to make choices, but the choices aren't between things, circumstances
or people. The Will chooses between ideas.
We've seen that, when the Will acts, that action has evolved from a
long time of preparation under the guidance of the Intelligence, the
Affections and the Conscience. The Will works through a process of slow
evolution going through these stages at the very least: intent, purpose
and resolution. Even when the Will acts immediately, not seeming to go
through any process of evolution in preparation or operation, that
action is actually based on principles and opinions that, themselves,
were previous actions that the Will had chosen through a slow process
of evolution and judgment.
We've also seen that, although man's job is to exercise his Will,
many people shirk that duty. Instead they drift along, making
allowances that determine their course of action, or following the
changing whims that are specific to their particular temperament.
Intellectual opinions and moral principles are both areas
pg 171
that are under the Will's jurisdiction. We understand that the Will
humbly accepts and does its job for Mansoul, but that it finds itself
constantly plagued with dangers, impulses on the one side, and
suggestions on the other side. But the Will's workplace isn't as
immense as it seems. It only has to keep watch at the gate where ideas
enter. This is especially necessary because, although Reason is a
reliable guide when it comes to ideas that the Will has rejected, it
becomes a convincing pleader for an idea once that idea has been
granted entrance. It's so persuasive that there's no crime or foolish
action that man's Reason hasn't justified with logical-sounding
arguments that can't be refuted. Even Conscience, the other judge of
our actions, can be persuaded by Reason. If Mansoul is to be safe from
anarchy, the Will has to be constantly vigilant at watching the gate
where ideas enter. We also saw how hindrances that arise from strong
impulses and powerful suggestions have a simple solution. The Will
doesn't need to struggle and insist on resisting. The only way it needs
to assert itself is to divert the thoughts as often as the impulse or
suggestion returns. Every recurrence of temptation will be weaker than
the last because the Will gains strength during pauses while the
thoughts are thinking about something else.
This is what we've been able to gather about the functions and actions
of the Will, although it's all a little vague. It's good for us to know
everything we can about this one practical aspect of man because we've
been given the task of working out our salvation from the foundational
habits
of our physical body, the scattered habits of our mind, excessive
emotions, and corrupt and conventional moral judgments. The Will is the
only tool we have to work with.
pg 172
The
Will and Mainstream Culture
Our Will is what has to keep us from getting caught up in the
intellectual and moral fallacies that our culture is full of. Our Will
is what saves us from the status quo kind of respectability that's
afraid to rock the boat and does everything according to convention.
This kind of mainstream respectability doesn't make a deliberate
thought-out
decision to conform, it just does what everyone else is doing out of
laziness. This kind of attitude might look like good-will, but it
saddens people who really care about others because these kinds of
people live for themselves and miss the real point of life and even
life itself. They live to be successful and prosper so that they can
have more luxury or culture or pleasure. This kind of life that's lived
for Self and one's own interests and comfort is what Jesus condemned
when He said, 'He who saves his life will lose it.'
That's why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners and saved his
worst accusations for the 'respectable' classes of people. The sinners
still had a Will that might be inspired to rise, even if only weakly,
if exposed to a great idea, to a call to a life focused on something
outside of themselves. But the men who considered themselves above
reproach were so wrapped up in themselves that they were incapable of
exercising their Will enough to even 'Choose ye this day whom ye will
serve.'
There are only two kinds of service that man can choose between: a life
that has Self at its center and as its end goal, and a life that has
God and serving God's children as its object.
It's possible to choose to serve God unconsciously when we think that
we only have a passionate desire to help people. But there's no
possible way to drift into serving God when our goal is our own
personal success, not even if that success includes the ultimate
highest good of saving
pg 173
our own soul. It's been said that selfishness doesn't improve when it's
eternal selfishness.
If Jesus were to walk among us today, maybe He would cry out in our
streets, 'Woe to the land that holds up the standard of its own success
as the goal for every person!' We can't live our lives any higher than
what we aim for. Our Will needs to be focused on something other than
itself, whether that something is good or bad. Maybe that's why there's
more hope for some sinners than there is for some 'respectable' people.
We can discern a little of what the Will's job is, and how it acts. If
we try to look closer and analyze so we can define it, it eludes us
like all the other great mysteries of life, death and personality. But
we can discern this much: in a person of good-will, the Will is totally
free. As a matter of fact, the only kind of Will is a free will. That's
why a conventional mainstream person who never thinks through choices
doesn't have any free will. He's without a Will. The Will, or free
will, needs to have some object outside of itself. Tennyson said it as
well as anyone:
'Our Wills are ours, we don't know how.
They're ours so we can choose to be Yours.'
pg 174
PART III - The Soul
Chapter
1 - What The Soul is Capable Of
We've been trying to gather together the little bit of knowledge that's
available to us step by step about the Body, Mind and Heart [see Volume
4, Book I, Self-Knowledge], and the Will and Conscience. We've seen
that there isn't a clear definition of Will and Conscience, and there's
no clear boundary between them. Mansoul has many abilities, but Mansoul
is one unified being. By carefully analyzing each one, we can
gather hints about
what each one does, and those hints help us to discover the laws of our
nature that will help us to manage ourselves.
Now we're going to leave the outer courts of Mind and Body, and the
Holy Places of the Affections and the Will. We're going to enter the
Holy of Holies where the person performs his priestly duties. After
all, every person is a priest who's responsible to do his job in his
Most Holy Place.
The temple that's dedicated to serving the living God in each Mansoul
is called our Soul. The Soul of man is so wonderful! We often talk
about ourselves as finite beings, but anyone who has experienced the
thrill of the Soul when it comes upon a great idea must doubt
pg 175
that we're finite creatures. Maybe it's because we have a connection
with the infinite that we have capacity for God.
What baffles the understanding of a person? Is anything out of the
range of what he thinks about, or out of the reach of what he aspires
to? Yes, he is baffled every way he looks by his own ignorance. Even
the wisest men have unlimited ignorance. But ignorance isn't the same
as incapacity. The wings of our souls beat impatiently against the bars
of our ignorance. If we could, we'd escape and fly out into the
universe of infinite thought and infinite possibilities. How can man's
Soul be satisfied? Ruling kings have given up their kingdoms because
they wanted something greater than dominions. Profound scholars
are frustrated with the limitations that confine them to the outer
edges of the limitless ocean of knowledge. No great love is ever fully
satisfied by loving. Man's Soul can find no real satisfaction because
everything around him is finite, able to be measured, incomplete. But
his reach is beyond his grasp. He has an urgent, persistent need for
the infinite.
Even we common people who aren't kings, poets or scholars are eager and
content while we're pursuing, but we know that once we have attained
our goal, whether it's position, power, love or money, that old
insatiable hunger will be upon us again. We'll want something more, but
we
don't know what!
St. Augustine knew what our hunger was for. He said that the Soul of
man was made for God and would never be satisfied until it found Him.
But our religious thinking has become so poor and ordinary, so
self-concerned, that we interpret St. Augustine's words to mean that we
won't be satisfied until we find everything
pg 176
good that we attach to the concept of salvation. We deceive and
belittle ourselves with this idea because it's not anything for
ourselves that we crave. The dry breadcrumbs we throw to our Souls in
the form of one success or another don't quench our hunger.
'I want, I'm made for, I must have a God.' Within us, we have an
infinite capacity for love, loyalty and service. But we're hindered and
stopped everywhere we turn by imitation in whatever it is we love and
serve. Only to God can we give everything we have, and only He can give
us the love we really need. The love He gives us is like the air--it's
something we live in, and without it, we gasp for breath and die. Who
else, except God, who made heaven and earth, holds the key to all
knowledge? Where else, except in God who has all the power, can we find
the secret of dominion? Our need and search for goodness and beauty are
frustrated by one thing, disappointed somewhere else because it's only
in God that we can find the whole. The Soul was made for God, and God
is what the Soul needs in the same way that an eye was made for light
and light is what the eye needs. When we see that the Souls of even the
poorest and most uneducated people have a capacity for God and can't be
content without Him, can we honestly believe that man is a finite
being? But even words themselves are frustrating. We're not even
totally sure what we mean by finite and infinite.
We like to say that there's no royal road to learning. But the highest
thing that man can attain is available and approachable to even the
simple and needy. It can be reached by a path that any traveler, no
matter how foolish, can't miss. In that very fact, we see a glimpse of
the infinite that we hunger for. It seems strange to our finite
understanding that everything we need is offered and attainable even to
the simplest and the lowest people!
pg 177
Chapter
2 - The Disabilities Of The Soul
The Soul has its share of persistent obstacles and deep-rooted
diseases, just like the Mind and Heart do. Although we all have an
overwhelming need for God and a great capacity to receive Him, very few
people ever actually attain anything close to a constant 'fruition of
Your glorious Godhead.' Many of us have momentary glimpses of it. But
most of us aren't even aware of its existence. There are three main
reasons why we're so dead to spiritual things: laziness, preoccupation
and repulsion.
Laziness
We've already discussed how a certain kind of lethargy of the Mind
keeps us from entering into the rich inheritance that's available to
our intelligence. In a similar way, the Soul is dead and not even aware
of the hunger and thirst that only God can satisfy. The Conscience may
be alert and demanding things of us such as church attendance, personal
prayer, and reading good books. Or it might be dulled and neglect these
things. In either case, it's possible to have little or no dread of
God. It might not even want to fear God, because a lazy Soul avoids
anything that might shake it out of its comfortable life. A lazy Soul
wants others to
pg 178
applaud him for doing no harm, and it wants to take pride in 'doing my
duty' when it comes to doing what's expected.
The inner Soul isn't dead, it's just sleeping. It could be awakened if
the person's Will would respond to God's kindness, but it's sluggish.
Even the urgent cry to 'Wake up! Wake up!' doesn't penetrate its sleepy
ears.
A person with a lazy Soul has wickedness in Him because 'God isn't in
all his thoughts.' He's able to live hour to hour, day to day, even
year to year without ever turning his face to God in the same way that
a flower turns to the sun, like any living Soul would do. It isn't that
he never thinks about God. Every person has probably said at one time
or another, 'God, help me!' and most people sometimes say, 'Thank God!'
But an occasional, rare cry to God is very different from having God in
all his thoughts.
The only hope for a lazy Soul, whether it's a regular church member or
a wild, careless person, is that some random living idea about God
might strike his Mind and inspire his Will to desire, to intend and to
resolve. This is called conversion,
and this is what God does every day with His dull, heartless children.
All of us have experienced this kind of conversion in a greater or
lesser degree many times in our lives. And sometimes a major conversion
happens to a generous person, or to a hardened sinner, and, from that
moment, all of the intents of his heart and the ways of his life are
forever changed.
Preoccupation
A lazy Soul who won't wake up to God's presence is in fatal danger. And
so is a Mind or Heart that's so preoccupied that
pg 179
it has no room for the dominating, absorbing thought of God. 'My duty
to God is to love Him with all my heart and mind' as well as 'my soul
and strength.' No ability of Mansoul works in isolation. The Mind and
Heart have to unite with the worshipful Soul.
It's possible and only far too common for us to be so obsessed with one
idea or absorbed with lots of ideas that we don't realize we need
God--we might even miss the fact that He exists at all! Whatever we're
wrapped up in might be fine in itself--it could be a noble project,
family affection, or a passionate pursuit for knowledge. All of those
things are worthy and honorable. But any of them can so fully absorb a
person that he doesn't care about God. There's no room for God in his
thoughts. The mere thought of God might seem like an intrusion because
he would rather be thinking about something else. It's not that he's
what we would consider a wicked person, but he's living his life
without God. He doesn't realize it, but he's suffering from a huge
deprivation. It's as if the best part of him is crippled or his highest
function is damaged. He has to creep through life like some poor
wretched soul who spends his life in a dark room without ever knowing
what's it's like to take a deep breath in an open field under a wide
blue sky. Such a person usually means well. Imagine the joy he would
have to suddenly find the knowledge of God, whether it's here or in the
hereafter!
Involuntary
Aversion
There's another kind of disability that a soul can have that's even
more strange and astonishing than any we've already looked at. In human
nature, there's an aversion
to God. It might be like
pg 180
Article 9 [of the Anglican Church's
39 Articles of Religion], part of the 'original sin which
naturally corrupts every person who is born of Adam's race,' or it
might be our freewill's involuntary aversion to authority. It doesn't
matter; either way, human nature has a natural stubborn aversion to God
as well as a profound craving for Him.
A toddler doesn't want to say his prayers, and a mature Christian
senses his own unwillingness and wandering away from God, even though
he knows that all of his joy is in God. This involuntary turning away
from God is the cross we all have to bear with the discipline of a soul
pursuing God. Whatever the cause may be, it does seem to be in the
nature of things. If our hearts were drawn to God as inevitably as
raindrops fall to the ground, then we wouldn't have the independent
choice of freewill, and there'd be no sense of victory when we're
faithfully loyal.
Voluntary
Aversion
But, besides this natural involuntary aversion that we're ashamed of,
there's
voluntary aversion. This is the animosity and hostility towards God of
a rebellious, sinful Soul. This is the kind of Soul that's so full of
pride or blatant evil that he can't tolerate even the thought of God.
He makes fun of God's Word, defies His laws, rejects His Will and
blasphemes His name. We're shocked when we see someone do this
aggressively, but when it's done with a cool superiority and good
nature with the power of intellectualism, it's enough to sway any of
us, even for a minute, and make us wonder if the scoffer knows
something that we don't. That's because we all have the seeds of
pg 181
natural aversion to God in our hearts. But a scoffer has nurtured and
fertilized those seeds into a full-grown fruit-bearing tree.
'Let the person who stands be careful not to fall.' We need to hold
tight to our loyalty. We know that making a deliberate choice for God
with our Will is the only thing we have to offer to God. And we're
comforted to know that involuntary aversion isn't a sin, it's just an
opportunity to exercise our free choice. When we choose to turn away
from God, our sin doesn't remove us from God's mercy, but it's still a
very great sin.
pg 182
Chapter
3 - The Knowledge of God
When we recognize how much a person's soul is hampered from grasping
God by laziness, preoccupation and aversion, we suddenly realize the
important job that the Will has to do, and, sparked by a great,
uplifting
thought, the Will rises to the occasion. But our Will can't sustain us
if our perception of God is that it's merely religion and, therefore,
optional to take or leave according to our preference, or if we wait
around passively for a strong enough impulse or something compelling
enough
to goad us into doing what should be our first priority. We don't only
have the world, our flesh and the devil to struggle against--we also
have conflicting moods and tendencies within ourselves. In desiring
God, we've chosen an ambitious goal that will require all the courage
and persistence we have, and our Will will take on that mission and
muster its forces to stand on God's side. Even though there might be
lots of times of falling away and repenting after that one major act of
the Will when we're converted, we can still hold on to the hope that
our Soul has made an
eternal decision to side with good. When a soldier is fined and thrown
into the brig for misbehaving, he doesn't cease being a soldier. When
it's time to go to battle, he doesn't desert like a rebel.
We meets lots of people in the world that we
pg 183
never get to know very well. Some are in social circles above or below
us, some are too superior to do the things we enjoy or they're into
things we
consider unworthy, and there are some who seem like we'd love getting
to know but they're not approachable, and others seem so simple-minded
or narrow that we consider them unworthy to open up our deepest
thoughts to.
But there's one close friendship available to all of us, whether we're
lonely because we feel like everyone around us is inferior, or because
we feel unworthy of anyone else's notice. We're amazed to think that
such a valuable intimacy is available to every humble soul. Jesus said,
'Eternal life is to know You, the only true God, and Jesus, who You
sent,' Knowing the exalted God intimately is something that's available
to all of us. There's only one condition--we have to choose it. When
we feel like we're not good enough or intelligent enough to be friends
with some people, and we're too good or too smart for some crowds, it
can seem astonishing that such a supreme friendship can belong to
anyone who wants it, because every Soul has the capacity to know God.
Not all people are able to understand math, or science, or politics,
but the knowledge of God, which floods the Soul like a huge ocean
floods a
fish, isn't beyond the reach of anyone. Professor W. K. Clifford wrote
about an agonizing time when he lost his faith in God and came to the
conclusion that 'the great Companion was dead.' But the 'great
Companion' never dies. 'He knows when we sit down, and when we get up.
He understands our thoughts long before we grasp them.' He is
intimately involved in everything we do and everything we intend to do.
He cheers up our dull times, gives us rest when we're worn out,
consoles us when we're grieving, adds to our happiness,
pg 184
warns, reprimands and punishes our sin, and gives us what those of us
who have ever loved someone generously recognize as the best, most
perfect joy, in continually growing amounts: He gradually reveals
Himself to us. Like the blind man who received his sight, we can't see
anything at all to begin with, then we can see men as if we're seeing
tree trunks walking around, and then our eyes are fully opened so that
we can see a vision of our God.
There are a number of ways that the knowledge of God can come to us. We
might be drawn by the words, actions or looks of people we know and
learn a very convincing lesson. A little piece of moss or a bare tree
in the winter might suddenly awaken us to a knowledge of God. Or we
might feel a strange longing in our own heart, or experience a nudging
for repentance and love, or receive sweet answers to our meager and
selfish prayers, or sense tokens of friendships that we can't
definitely pin down. All of these are steps towards that most important
knowledge.
The
Bible Teaches the Knowledge of God
In the same way that a person listens closely to the voice of a beloved
friend and reads his letters again and again, a person who loves God
will search the Bible to know God more fully like he craves. It makes
no
difference to him if one book repeats the sentiments of another, or
whether certain passages are attributed to a different author than the
title indicates, or that myths and legends may have been recorded as
well as Jewish historical events, or that the latest scientific
knowledge contradicts some passages and history contradicts some
stories [many of the contradictions that alarmed Christians in CM's
time have been corrected by later discoveries]. These things may or may
not be true. The person who truly wants to know God appreciates
scientists and scholars for doing their work, and he acknowledges that
the Bible shouldn't be exempt from textual criticism. But he also knows
that there are a lot of reasons to be cautious and not to be too quick
to accept
pg 185
the latest pronouncement from the critics. He remembers an article in
the newspaper about the King of Servia who had to take off his crown
twice during his coronation because it was too heavy for him, and how
the royal flag fell as it was carried in procession to the cathedral.
These omens made the people there uneasy. Yet, in the future,
historians might claim that these incidents were merely legends, and,
according to their proper procedure, remove them from history texts
because they want their books to only contain scientifically proven
history.
Little things like this make a student of the Bible stop and think. He
respects truth reverently, and he welcomes investigation into the
truth. But he also knows that the latest critics aren't infallible. But
even this is beside the point. As far as he's concerned, even if false
statements, books credited to the wrong author, and other
inconsistencies were found on every page and proved to be inaccuracies
of the text, he still believes that the Bible is the one and only place
to find revealed knowledge about God.
The poems, histories and sacred writings of Greece, Rome, India, Persia
and China all unwittingly affirm that it isn't possible for man to
understand God by searching. A lovely gleam of divine inspiration
touches one wise person in one place, and another person somewhere
else, and another in a different place, but every time they tried to
combine these stray inspired gleams into a complete concept of what the
Deity is like, they produced a legion of gods, or a monstrous deity.
The
insight and wisdom of past thinkers has given us all of the philosophy
about human life that we have, and every kind of knowledge there
is--except
knowledge about God.
How are we better than those great ancient civilizations who knew so
much and accomplished so much? Only in inheriting a treasure of
knowledge that was passed on to the world by the Jewish nation whose
spiritual insight
pg 186
made them suited to receive it. As a result, we have something that
ancient cultures didn't--a revelation of God that completely satisfies
man's Soul, and guides all of his Soul's aspirations.
Consider just one amazing revelation--that God is love:
'God Himself! Can you imagine, Abib?
So the All-Powerful is All-Loving, too!
His thunderous voice has some humanity
And says, Created person, I have a heart as you do.
Your face and hands reflect my own.
You have no power, and you have no idea how much power I have.
But I gave you love, and gave you Myself to love.
And you must love Me, who died for you.'
[adapted from Browning]
This is a bit of knowledge that men in previous times didn't even dare
to dream about, except as revealed in the Bible. But, unbelievably,
some people act like someone who finds a gold nugget and tosses it
aside because it's imbedded in a piece of iron and he doesn't want to
bother separating it. In fact, his eye can't even pick out the
difference between the two. This seems insane to the diligent miner.
And that's how it is with the Bible. The Soul is capable of grasping
God, and when it grasps God, it finds life, freedom and satisfaction.
When the Soul knows God, it lives in its proper environment and is
complete, free and as joyful as a bird in flight. But without that
knowledge, 'the heavy, weary weight of the entire confusing world'
feels like it's crushing our life.
But, although it's proper and necessary for us to know our God, it
isn't inevitable. As we've already seen, the Soul is very stubborn and
tries to evade the very knowledge that makes it healthy. We need to
start with a determined, steadfast act of the Will, a deliberate
choice. And then we have to work to get what's best for us, having
confidence that when we ask for it,
pg 187
we'll receive it, when we search, we'll find, and when we knock, the
door will be opened for us. But our searching needs to be single-minded
and purposeful. We can't sincerely be diligent about seeking a thing
that we consider worthless, whether it's something in the Bible,
something in the way the world operates, or something in our own life.
We need to expect to find grains of gold. And, as we gather a
collection of it, we'll be walking and living in continual intimacy
with Divine Love, and we'll be constantly worshiping Divine Beauty with
freedom because the Truth has made us free.
pg 188
Chapter
4 - Prayer
Spontaneous
Prayer
It's hard to separate and isolate the different functions of the Soul
because they all work together. But in order to have fullness of life,
we need to continually talk with God and continually hear His
responses, although the Soul is humbled by the wonderfully sweet hope
that God will answer. These things are necessary if we're going to have
the intimate union with God that we were made for. A hundred times a
day, our thoughts turn to God, sometimes to repent, sometimes to
request something, sometimes because we're afraid or have aspirations,
and sometimes, most wonderfully of all, in shared understanding with
God. Our hearts thrill with delight when we see the beautiful blue of a
flowering herb, or a glorious star in the sky, or when we experience
the grace of hearing some good news. And then we lift our hearts to
God, even though we may not say a word, and our impulse is a feeling of
mutual joy, because we know that God also delights in beauty and
goodness.
Response
These continuous impulses of the Soul towards God hardly seem like
prayer to us, but they get a response. We cry out in fear, and a word
of hope comes to us. We confess a sin, and we sense a feeling of peace.
We express delight in God's work, and we grow in love. These are
answers that God, our 'Heavenly Lover,' gives in response to the
clumsy,
erratic impulses of our pathetic hearts. We've all experienced how
pg 189
we pray for definite things and, so many times, answers have come that
we were able to recognize as God's hand. Even our willful prayers that
don't end with, 'Your will be done' get an answer. Our restless heart
becomes calm. We learn to see things from God's perspective, and that
quiets us.
I think that most people who are seeking to know God would say that
they never in a long life of praying had a prayer that didn't get
answered. In every case, they've recognized the answer.
Perhaps they had an experience where the walls of Jericho fell before
them, or the Jordan River parted, or their enemies were destroyed on
the battlefield. Perhaps these things happened in natural ways that
weren't obvious, with no interference from nature. But that doesn't
mean they weren't supernatural, since they happened in spite of nature,
ordered by God who 'holds back the spirit of princes,' and who 'rules
and governs the hearts of kings.'
Habitual
Prayer
Even though there's continual communication between God and our Soul,
the habit of praying needs to be reinforced by establishing routine
times, places and occasions to pray. We need to give ourselves time to
pray, and set aside regular times for prayer. First thing in the
morning when we get out of bed, we need to seek God and lay our day and
all its anxieties, hopes and desires out before Him with a reverent
attitude and attentive mind. We need to bring those we love before God
for His blessing. We need to ask God to help people who are sorrowing,
have needs, are sick or in trouble. As the habit of praying becomes
established, we'll begin to feel compelled to go out and provide help
for those we pray for even before we finish our prayer.
Every time we hear about war, hunger, ignorance, crime,
pg 190
or misery, we'll be quick to pray. As we pray, our love for all people
will grow, and we'll think of many ways to help. We'll remember Jesus's
caution against praying with too many words, for 'God is in heaven and
we're on the earth.' So, before we begin our prayer, we'll reflect on
what we want to say.
'You are coming before a King
Large requests you may bring.'
But we need to remember that our requests should be thought out with
purpose, and they should be combined with a strong desire on our part.
It's true that,
'Prayer is the breathing of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The glancing upward of an eye
When none but God is near.'
But that doesn't mean we can neglect planned and purposeful meetings
with God that make our Soul feel free like a bird stretching its wings.
'Watch and pray.'
pg 191
Chapter
5 - Thanksgiving
Where
Are The Other Nine?
God said, 'Whoever offers Me thanks and praise, he honors Me.' We're
taken aback to realize that it's up to us to add honor to the
Supreme God--yet we often don't put our praise and thanks into words.
'Weren't there ten healed? Where are the other nine?' Sadly, we're
often just like those nine poor, pitiful men who received so much and
gave nothing in return, not even a thank you. We should take note that
'the ungrateful and evil' are paired together in the list of lost souls
that we find in the book of Revelation. We do have moments when we're
thankful and we say,
'When my soul rises, My God,
And sees all Your tender mercies,
I'm transported by the thought, and lost
In wonder, love and praise.'
But our mistake and great failure is that we don't take stock of the
blessings in our lives that make us grateful and 'transport us' with
wonder, love and praise. We neglect praising God partly because we're
too preoccupied with some stress or problem of the moment, and partly
because of the stubborn way we turn away from God
pg 192
that puts us in danger. We need to set aside time to take stock of our
lives and count our blessings, even if it's only on Sundays, or, even
less often, even if it's only during the major holidays.
'My
Soul Rises and Sees'
Life is so good, it's so joyous to be outside, even if it's in the
streets of a city! It's wonderful to see the sun! It's good to enjoy
health, even if we're not well and can only enjoy the small bit of
health we have. All the sweet aspects of family life, the love of
family members, the kindness of our neighbors, the love of our friends
is so good and warm. It's good to be part of a great country and to
share in all her interests and concerns. It's good to belong to the
world of humanity and to recognize that anything that concerns others,
also concerns us. How wonderful to have books, art and music! How
enjoyable knowledge is! How delicious our food is! How comfortable our
clothes are! How refreshing our sleep is, and how joyful to wake up!
The Soul that considers all these things, and a thousand other good
things in its routine life, is indeed a 'Soul that rises and sees,'
rising to God the Father, who 'knows that we need these things,' and
the heart overflows with love, forcing the Soul to express thanks and
praise. Even an occasional act of thanksgiving like this can make our
life seem sweeter. Spontaneous thanksgiving rises up out of us every
day and every hour. We might say a prayer of thanks for a kind look we
received, or a beautiful poem, or an enjoyable book, as naturally as we
might give thanks for a good dinner. In fact, more so, because 'man
doesn't live by bread alone.'
We
Honor God by Thanking Him
But we tend to think so little of ourselves. It doesn't seem to us like
it matters whether we thank God or not for all of the surprising sweet
gifts and blessings that He gives us.
pg 193
In fact, we never would have known that it mattered at all, except that
God, using the sympathetic grace that most earthly parents don't
show, told us that He's honored
by our thanks! It seems impossible that we could add anything to God,
much less add to His honor! This is a great opportunity--let's give
thanks!
Most of us probably fall on our knees to thank God for special requests
that we've begged God to provide for us as a loving Father--perhaps
the healing of a loved one who was sick, or to have some stressful
problem taken care of, or to open up an opportunity that we longed for.
When God blesses us with these kinds of graces, we're generous and
unreserved in our thanks. But the habit of continually being grateful
is more than that.
'I don't want to be thankful just when I feel like it,
As if Your blessings had days to spare.
I want a heart that beats with
Praise for You.'
[from Herbert]
pg 194
Chapter
6 - Praise
Our dull souls can be slow to think--but they're even slower to praise,
because praise demands an ability to appreciate with discrimination,
reflection and thankfulness.
We all know how distressed painters and musicians get when they get
compliments from people who don't understand their work, but they're
thrilled to get a word of discriminating praise from someone who knows
what they're talking about. They're honored. And that's the kind of
honor that God wants from us.
The Church has always sung, 'We praise Thee, Oh, God.' Prophets,
persecuted Christians and martyrs have praised God with their lives,
and,
in some cases, by their deaths. Even today, there are people who devote
themselves to lives full of pain and risk to honor God and serve their
fellow man. We recognize that they're also living lives of praise to
God. Some poets have been given inspiration to write some necessary
message, some painters have illustrated 'The Light of the World' for
us, or other images of Jesus, like Russian Ivan
Kramskoi's picture of Jesus
seated in the wilderness. We know that these artists praise God,
but they're few and far between. Honest, down-to-earth people who
tolerate trials with patience
pg 195
or live their appointed lives with a conscious sense that their lives
are appointed also praise God. We recognize and revere all of these
ways of praising God, but we incompetent common people seem to fail at
it ourselves. We're no angels; we have no harps or halos.
But the responsibility of praising isn't only for occasional events or
rare circumstances. The responsibility is waiting at our doorstep every
day. We never would have dared to presume that the Great Craftsman,
like every skilled artist, loves it when others recognize the beauty,
perfection and harmony of the work He creates. It's so good to know
this about God. It draws Him nearer to us by making us as humans more
able to relate to Him. The Psalms says, 'The merciful and gracious God
has made His wonderful works to be remembered.' [Psa 111:4] He never got
tired of telling how 'the heavens declare the glory of God, and the
skies show His handiwork' [Psa 19:1] and 'He feeds the
young ravens when they cry out to Him' [Psa 147:9] and 'All the
trees of the field clap their hands.' [Isaiah 55:12] We see all of
these things, but David did more than see them. These things sang in
his heart
to a continual hymn of praise. He knew how to honor God with praise,
and the Bible says that he was man after God's own heart.
Discoverers
Give Us New Reasons to Praise
Every era seems to have its own prophets. They might be painters,
poets, or whatever, whose task is to lead their culture in praise.
Perhaps in our day, it's scientists who have been promoted to this high
honor. And they reveal so much for us to praise! We are correct in
calling
those kinds of men discoverers
because their scientific findings were already there. they didn't create
pg 196
them, but they were allowed to discover them and then share them with
the rest of us. Every day there's some new reason for us to wonder,
admire, and praise because some previously unknown great concept has
been revealed. These new discoveries are mighty displays of God's
power, and scientists today understand that divine power is behind all
the workings of nature.
Imagine ships in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that can communicate
without any visible cables or wires to the land a thousand miles away!
And the potential and laws that make this possible have always been
there, known by God, but only recently have been discovered by a man
who was prepared. What other secrets might still be hidden, just
waiting
for us to be ready to discover them? So many amazing discoveries have
been opened up to us just in the last few years! A sense of God's
existence permeates all of nature. 'How excellent Your works are, Oh
God! You have made them all in Your wisdom. The earth is full of Your
treasures!' 'The person who gives thanks and praise is the one who
honors Me.' Let's not neglect to lift our offering of praise to our God
every day.
pg 197
Chapter
7 - Faith in God
'Just
Believe'
'My duty towards God is to believe in Him.' That's our main duty, the
priority of our lives. Without that, the other duties don't seem to
count much.
As a girl, I was told, much to my great annoyance and sadness, 'just
believe.' If I'd been told, 'Just fly,' I might not have been able to
fly, but at least I would have known exactly what was expected of me.
But 'just believe' is meaningless. Of course
I believed, in the same way that I believe something like, yesterday
was Wednesday Oct 5, or there was a Queen Elizabeth, or Pharaoh ruled
in Egypt. These things, and a thousand other things, weren't things I
ever bothered to doubt. I believed them as a matter of course. But--to
believe in God?
Of course I believed that God existed, but what difference could that
make? I had the awareness that belief of that kind wasn't part of my
life, but I didn't know any other way to believe.
Confusion of this kind undoubtedly troubles many people who are
persuaded that their duty is to believe in God. It's my duty towards
God,
and I have to do it for myself. No one can do it for me and
pg 198
nobody can give me any real help in doing it. No one can give me faith.
But it's possible for some people to give me some guidance. We're told
that 'faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God.' In
other words, faith in God comes in the same way that faith in a friend
does--with knowledge. We trust our friend because we know him. Because
we know him, we believe in him. Faith, trust, confidence and belief are
all the same thing.
Faith
in People
If we said that we believed in a person we hardly knew anything about,
like the Emperor of Korea, we'd sound like a fool. Yet sometimes we do
say that we believe in a particular politician or preacher or whatever.
In fact, the entire government and finance are all carried out on a
huge system of trust and mutual belief. We might say, 'as safe as the
Bank of America,' but even the Bank of America operates on a system of
credit. We send members to the House of Representatives based on our
belief in them. Members of families believe in each other, and, if
jealousy or mistrust develops between parents and children or husband
and wife, it's an exception to the norm--a disgraceful exception to the
general law of family trust.
The same is true of dishonesty and corruption in routine sales
transactions and public trust. Sometimes it happens, but they're
shameful exceptions. In general, we live by having faith in each other.
The common trust we share comes from common knowledge. Experiencing the
world and life itself teaches us faith. Only bitter, bad-tempered
people base their judgments on the exceptions, agreeing with the
Psalmist in his darkest mood that 'all people are liars.'
There are two kinds of faith that we exercise towards others--a general
faith we give to people
pg 199
and institutions which comes from general knowledge and experiences,
and
the kind of intimate, specific faith we put in people we think we know
very well. That faith is love. In the same way, there are two kinds of
faith we can have in God. There's a general faith that trusts that God
is in control, everything is for the best in His plan, God will
provide, and that He will have mercy on us.
We can analyze the kind of faith we have by asking ourselves honestly
if our faith is the same as love. Does our heart feel a thrill of joy
when we even think about God, crying out, 'I will arise and go to my
Father' in the same way that our heart springs up and wants to be with
a person we love and believe in? If we don't really love God, then we
don't believe, because faith doesn't happen to us by accident, or even
naturally. When we trust our friends, we're recognizing whatever
nobility and beauty there is within them. This is the kind of faith we
owe to God. From our knowledge, we recognize that He is Love and Truth
and Light and the One our heart cries out to, saying, 'Who do I have in
heaven except You? There's no one on earth that I want as much as You.'
(From the Prayer Book version of the Psalms.)
Faith
is an Act of the Will
We've already discussed the way to get to know God. Faith is the action
of the Will that we use to choose Him once we've learned to know Him.
Love develops from faith, and service is the result of that love. It's
hardly possible to define the different ways in which a Christian heart
expresses its desire for God. 'Like the deer desires water from the
brook, that's the way my soul longs for You, God.' (from the Prayer
Book version of the Psalms.) There we find knowledge, faith and love.
pg 200
This
is Not Optional
What I want to emphasize is that this attitude of the Soul isn't an
option. It's required of us, an obligation of duty that we owe. We
can't claim that we don't know, because it's been revealed to us in the
Bible. And we can hardly say that we don't believe that revelation. Its
truth maintains the ultimate test--it reveals to us the God that our
souls need, and find complete satisfaction in. 'His ways are all
pleasant, and His paths are all peace.' To say we don't believe is
nothing less than an act of blatant insubordination, and an act of
disloyalty. It's worse than being unfaithful in a human relationship
because God means more to us and is closer to us than anyone else.
People satisfy their consciences and feel like they've met all of their
Christian responsibility when they do their duty towards their
neighbor. But we don't have the right to pick and choose one part of
the law to do, doing the one that's less important and neglecting
what's more important--our responsibility to personally know God, and
to have faith in Him, love Him and serve Him. We're supposed to do
these things directly, not indirectly by serving our fellow man. We're
supposed to take care of both responsibilities. It's my duty, and my
duty towards God is my first priority.
I don't have space in a small book like this to discuss all the aspects
of the Christian faith, even if I were to use something concise like
the Apostles'
Creed.
We talk about 'the Creed' casually and assume that we understand
it--until one of its Articles is challenged by skeptics, and then
another one is disputed by critics. And then we have no answer, so we
secretly write off one clause after another and plan to hold onto
what's left. It might help to know that none of the articles of the
Creed is supposed to appeal to our Reason. We know as little
pg 201
about the Creation as we do about the Incarnation, and as little about
forgiveness of sins as the resurrection of the body. It's all a
mystery, something that's impossible for a human heart to comprehend
without divine revelation.
'The mystery of Godliness is great. God became a man, was proved to be
genuine in the spirit, seen by angels, preached to the Gentiles,
believed in the world, and then was received up into glory.' [1 Tim 3:16] What a desolate, dreary
place we'd be in if our spirits were limited to only what they could
understand! But we shouldn't assume that mystery is limited to
religion, and that everything else is obvious and within our
understanding. The great things in life, birth, death, hope, love,
patriotism, what makes a leaf green, why birds have feathers--all of
these kinds of things are mysteries. It's only when we're able to
accept things we can't understand, and know that certain things are
true even if we can't prove them, and when we can tell the difference
between a brilliant mystery and a mystifying superstition, that we'll
be able to live the full life that God created us for.
There's one thing we need to be sure we grasp, and that's a clear
concept of what Christianity is. Christianity doesn't mean 'being good'
or serving our fellow man. There are lots of people who do those things
even better than we do, and still don't accept the Lordship of Jesus. A
Christian has an awareness that Jesus is a Savior Who's always there,
nearby whenever we're in danger or in need. A Christian is aware that
Jesus is the King, and that we belong to Him, and a Christian is happy
to serve Him. Christ rules our destiny and appoints the duties we needs
to do. It's a wonderful thing to be owned, and Jesus Christ owns us. He
is our Chief, and we love to honor and serve Him. He's our Savior, the
One Who
pg 202
delivers us. He's our Friend and He treasures us. He's our King and He
blesses us with His reign. Christianity only seems possible for those
who fully recognize that Jesus is God.
Let's cry out with St. Augustine,
'Take my heart, because I'm unable to give it to You!
Keep my heart, because I'm not capable of keeping it for You.'
____________________________________________
Appendix
Discussion Questions
BOOK II
Introduction
1. How is the body kept healthy, and how is it ruined?
2. What abilities does the mind have to deal with knowledge?
3. What functions serve the same purpose for the mind that the
appetites serve for the body?
4. Name some of the virtues related to love, and some of the virtues
related to justice.
5. Which virtues are related to the justice that we owe to our own
bodies?
6. Why do the body, heart, and mind need governing?
7. What are the governing powers?
Part I - The Conscience
Chapter 1 - The Court Of Appeal
1. In what ways is conscience like a judge in a court of law?
2. Conscience continually bears witness of what two or three facts?
3. Why is it possible for conscience to give wrong judgments?
4. Which ability is used to tamper with conscience?
5. Why is it necessary for the conscience to be educated?
Chapter 2 - Teaching the Conscience
1. What teachers does the conscience depend on to teach it?
2. What's the educational value of history and biography?
3. What's the educational value of the Bible in teaching morals?
4. How does poetry teach us?
5. Why is the teaching of older novels and plays to be preferred?
Chapter 3 - Conscience's Rulings In
The House Of The Body: Moderation
1. Give two or three examples from literature of immoderation in eating.
2. Give two or three examples from literature of immoderation in
drinking.
3. Give two or three examples from literature of immoderation in
relaxing.
4. Give two or three examples from literature of immoderation in
day-dreaming.
5. What is Carlyle's advice about work?
6. What principle is moderation based on?
7. Why shouldn't we be careless about our health?
8. Explain how neglecting our health is a form of immoderation.
9. Give a few rules for the managng of our physical health.
10. Why do we need clear principles about our duty regarding our health?
Chapter 4 - The Rulings of Conscience
in the House of the Body: Purity (Part 1)
1. How do overly attached friendships affect the purity of our soul?
2. 'Yet what have I done wrong?' What lesson can we learn from this
question of King Edward II.'s?
3. Why aren't we free to give ourselves with unlimited abandon?
Chapter 5 - The Rulings Of the
Conscience In the House Of The Body: Purity (Part 2)
1. Give some examples of sensible and sincere friendships.
2. What rules for self-management are illustrated in each of them?
3. What two kinds of friends have a right to our loyalty?
Chapter 6 - The Rulings of Conscience
in the House of the Body: Purity (part 3)
1. Show the effect of devious flirtations.
2. What habit prepares the way?
3. Which monster of our nature do we not want to be in a death-grapple
with?
4. How can we keep ourselves safe from this?
5. How can we keep 'a pure heart in work and will'?
Chapter 7 - The Rulings of the
Conscience in the House of the Body: Fortitude
1. Describe Botticelli's 'Fortitude.'
2. How did Isaiah give us an image of fortitude?
3. Use two or three examplesto show that there is an element of
kindness in fortitude.
4. Explain how Sir Kenneth in The
Talisman illustrates an example of fortitude.
5. Give an example of fortitude under distressing troubles.
6. Give an example of cheerful, serviceable fortitude.
7. What about wearing a 'black ribbon' when things go wrong?
8. Show that fortitude is a physical virtue.
9. What did the Apostle Paul say regarding fortitude?
Chapter 8 - The Rulings of the
Conscience in the House of the Body: Prudence
1. Show why imprudence is the same selfishness.
2. Why do we need prudence in everything we do?
3. Why do we need prudence in the choice of our friends?
4. How does prudence deal with undue influence?
5. Explain how prudence prefers simplicity to luxury.
6. Explain why prudent citizens are a society's most valuable asset.
7. How does prudence the way we furnish our surroundings?
8. How was the Scripture, 'My servant will deal prudently,' fulfilled?
Chapter 9 - Opinions in the Air
1. What part of our lives do we tend to think is exempt from the
judgment of conscience?
2. Show the danger of casual opinions.
3. How does a fallacy work?
4. Give four rules that should help us in the matter of opinions.
Chapter 10 - The Untaught Conscience
1. Show that, in everyone, conscience is persistent about some issues.
2. What causes moral instability? Who tends to be morally unstable?
3. Show, by example, how an entire nation can be unstable.
4. Illustrate the danger of a compelling idea.
5. What are some of the dangers of moral ignorance?
6. Show that painstaking over-vigilance is a result of ignorance.
7. What moral advantage does an instructed conscience have over an
uninstructed conscience?
Chapter 11 - The Instructed Conscience
1. Give some examples to show that sensible moral judgment is a
valuable asset.
2. What's the difference between the ability to form moral judgments,
and the ability to live a virtuous life?
3. How can we to get the ability to form moral judgments?
Chapter 12 - Some of Conscience's
Teachers: Poetry, Novels and Essays
1. Show that the ability of poetry to educate the conscience does not
depend on its direct teaching.
2. Explain the gradual way in which Shakespeare influences us.
3. For what purpose should we read novels, and what sort of novels
should we read?
4. Why are essays useful for teaching us?
Chapter 13 - Some of Conscience's
Teachers: History and Philosophy
1. Why is history important to us now more than ever?
2. What's the difference between an informed and an ignorant patriot?
3. Show why we need to know some philosophy.
4. How should we reach our convictions?
5. Illustrate that using Columbus as an example.
6. How may we tell the difference between a true 'message' and a
fanatical notion?
7. How can we safeguard ourselves regarding philosophy?
Chapter 14 - Some of Conscience's
Instructors: Theology
1. Why do most people live poor, crippled lives?
2. Contrast Jesus's method of teaching with most other methods.
3. Why are our Lord's sayings 'hard' intellectually, as well as morally?
4. 'They sit in darkness.' Who sits in darkness, and why?
5. What harm is there in entertaining questions of criticism?
6. Do we have any indications that we are declining from the knowledge
of God?
7. What is the one question that really matters for all of us?
8. When are the little devotional books we use for spiritual
stimulation unhealthy?
9. What should we bear in mind regarding the authors of the Scriptures?
10. What should we look for in the lives of men as told in the Bible?
11. How is the revelation contained in the Bible unique?
12. What two laws seem to apply to the revelations that God gives to
the world?
13. What should we keep in mind to safeguard us from the 'Lo, here!' of
each novel spiritual happening?
14. How will be come to know the difference between the merely human
and the inspired elements in the Bible?
15. How can we discern the essential truth in Scripture?
16. How the loss of life that shocks us in some Bible stories
paralleled in our own day?
17. How can we explain the mystery of why God allows so many people to
die?
18. Why do we need to set aside our prejudices and misconceptions
regarding the Bible?
19. What is the penalty for ignorance about God?
20. Explain why the tendency to think of God as a 'permissive' Parent
is wrong.
21. Why is every little detail of Jesus that's recorded in the Gospels
precious to us?
22. Use any argument you can think of to respond to the statement that
'miracles don't happen.'
23. Show that the words of Jesus are more amazing than the miracles of
the Gospels.
24. Why shouldn't we accept the modern tendency to question
Resurrection and the Incarnation?
25. What danger is concealed in trivial doubts?
26. How can you explain an attitude that over-analyzes,
hyper-scrutinizes
and clings to every challenge to the Bible?
Chapter 15 - Some Instructors of
Conscience: Nature, Science, Art
1. Show that there is no excuse for ignorance about the things of
nature.
2. In what two ways does nature approach us?
3. Explain how nature teaches us our duty towards God.
4. Explain how nature moves us to gratitude.
5. How has our modern preoccupation of mind shut out this teaching from
us?
6. What does science teach the conscience?
7. What is the difference between science and scientific information?
8. What duty is laid upon our conscience regarding science?
9. What duty is laid upon our conscience regarding art?
10. What frame of mind should we have when we consider art?
Chapter 16 - Some of Conscience's
Teachers: Sociology, Self-Knowledge
1. Why do we need to understand how other people live?
2. Why is casual help usually a hindrance?
3. What are the conditions of helpfulness?
4. What kind of knowledge about ourselves is wisdom?
5. What's so great about human nature?
Chapter 17 - Conviction of Sin
1. What is the conscience's job?
2. What convictions seem to be common to all men?
3. Explain how religion is no substitute for an educated conscience.
4. Name three mental habits that can limit the conscience.
5. Explain how uneasiness of conscience proves that sin is wrong.
6. How do our sins of omission affect us?
7. Explain why the conscience's rebuke is something to be thankful for.
Chapter 18 - Temptation
1. How does temptation come upon us?
2. Where does temptation come from?
3. What is the secret of heroic lives?
4. How is a reliable spirit trained?
5. What is our role in not entering into temptation?
6. Is it possible for penitence to become an obstacle?
7. What is the proper role of penitence?
8. What does, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins' mean?
Chapter 19 - Duty and Law
1. Why is it wrong to do wrong?
2. What is 'wrong'?
3. In what different ways have people answered these questions?
4. May we excuse wrong-doing because it's 'human nature'?
5. Compare the assured peace of an enlightened Christian conscience
with the uneasiness of superstition.
6. Why is it a delight to understand and to fulfil the law?
Part II - The Will
Chapter 1 - The Will-less Life
1. Explain how conscience, love, intellect, reason, can sometimes
behave foolishly and unworthily.
2. What abolity within us has the job of managing the rest?
3. Show that it is possible to live without ever exercising the will.
Chapter 2 - The Will And Willfulness
1. Explain how willful people can have various dispositions.
2. What is the common characteristic of willful people? Give examples.
3. What is the difference between wilfulness and of will?
4. Give some examples from Sir Walter Scott of will-power and
wilfulness.
5. Classify some people from literature or history on each side of a
dividing line--on one side, the wilful people; on the other, people who
use their will.
6. Classify some nations that fall on either side of such a line, and
explain why they're on one side or the other.
7. What teaching has weakened the will-power of Western nations?
8. What is Jesus's teaching about the Will?
Chapter 3 - The Will Itself Is Neither
Moral Nor Immoral
1. Show that will can be used for good or evil ends.
2. Show that a person of will can use evil means for good ends.
3. What's the difference between 'will' and 'an ideal?'
4. What interesting question does Browning raise about the Will?
5. What distinguishes the quality of a person?
6. What six points were discussed concerning the Will?
Chapter 4 - The Will and Its Friends
1. Explain how the will is subject to appeals.
2. Explain how the Will doesn't act alone.
3. What does the Will need to do?
4. When is the Will exercised, and upon what?
Chapter 5 - The Functions of the Will
1. What is the only power that Mansoul has as a free agent?
2. What is the one thing that the Will is able to do?
3. Why is it increasingly difficult for us to make decisions?
4. What is the danger of ready-made clothes and ready-made opinions?
5. Why may we choose only for ourselves, and not for others?
6. How can you reconcile choice and obedience?
7. What's the difference between obedience that's become a habit, and
obedience that's a choice.
8. What is it that we're supposed to choose between?
Chapter 6 - The Scope of the Will
1. Show how allowance often passes for deliberate choosing.
2. Compare the difference between Will and allowance in some
circumstance, such as when buying clothes.
3. Do we need to make a deliberate choice of Will for every small
occasion?
4. How does the fallacy behind having to have the 'newest and cheapest'
lead us astray?
5. What one consummate idea is ours to freely decide?
Chapter 7 - Self-Control,
Self-Restraint, Self-Command, Self-Denial
1. What can we say about moral self-improvement for its own sake?
2. How does any
obsessive absorption affect others?
3. What's the difference between absorption for a phase, or for a
purpose, and self-absorption?
4. Describe a better way than moral self-improvement.
5. Show that what we call 'self-denial' makes it impossible to really
love.
6. What kind of self-denial does Jesus require from us?
Chapter 8 - The Effort of Decision
1. How do we try to avoid the effort of making decisions?
2. Sum up the sort of creed that's behind 'Tolerance.'
3. Describe a picture of Ludwig Richter's that shows how 'Providence'
and 'freewill' co-operate.
4. How can we tell the difference between a decision of the Will from
one of 'making allowances'?
5. A person who uses his Will gathers what two assets during the course
of his life?
6. How these serve him in big or little occasions?
Chapter 9 - Intention, Purpose,
Resolution
1. Give two or three examples of the sequence ofa resolution.
2. What truth is illustrated by the halos of pictured saints?
3. When does 'influence' become harmful?
4. What sort of influence do we need to safeguard ourselves against?
5. Influence isn't something that comes from how much opportunity a
person
has, or even how hard they try. Where does our influence stem from?
6. What different acts of the Will are required of us ?
Chapter 10 - A Way Of The Will
1. Sum up what we know about the Will from our reading so far.
2. What advice is there for good-intentioned people who dread
temptation?
3. Which gate needs to be guarded?
4. Who are the gate-keepers on guard?
5. Should we fight or run away?
6. What can the will do in times of temptation?
7. Show that the same weapon (what weapon?) applies to intellectual and
moral enemy idea.
8. Show how Jesus's condemnation of fallacies proves that opinions
should be selected on the basis of moral considerations.
Chapter 11 - Freewill
1. Why is it important to know as much as we can about the behavior of
the Will?
2. Sum up the sixteen, or so, points we have tried to make so far.
3. Tell the difference between a person of determined Will and a
conventional/mainstream person.
4. What are the only two services that man can choose between?
5. What can we discern about a person of good-will?
6. What did Tennyson say about our Wills?
Part III - The Soul
Chapter 1 - What The Soul is Capable Of
1. 'Sometimes we doubt whether we're finite creatures.' Give four or
five reasons why.
2. Explain how our religious thinking has become so poor and ordinary
that it colors the way we interpret religion.
3. How are our Soul's needs satisfied by God alone?
Chapter 2 - The Disabilities Of The
Soul
1. What are some of the persistent obstacles and deep-rooted
diseases of the Soul?
2. How can we tell if our Soul is lazy?
3. What is the cure for this laziness?
4. How does preoccupation affect our relationship with God?
5. Show how our involuntary aversion to God can actually be useful to
us.
6. What's the difference between voluntary and involuntary aversion?
7. What the important deliberate choice we make with our Will?
Chapter 3 - The Knowledge of God
1. Under what condition can we have the one satisfying intimacy?
2. Who is this intimacy available to?
3. What are some ways that this divine friendship touches us?
4. Name some of the first ways that we sometimes gain knowledge of God.
5. Explain why the Bible is the immediate source of this kind of
knowledge.
6. How is the Bible different from other great ancient writings?
7. Show how proper and necessary the knowledge of God is to the Soul of
man.
8. Is this knowledge inevitable?
Chapter 4 - Prayer
1. Describe some of the expressions of spontaneous prayer.
2. What are some of our responses to these?
3. What two requirements of the soul are thus met?
4. What are some of the times and occasions for habitual prayer?
5. How can we serve the world with our habitual prayers?
Chapter 5 - Thanksgiving
1. What things make us hesitate to express the gratitude we owe?
2. 'My Soul rises and sees' what reasons to be thankful?
3. For what, besides our food, should we express thanks?
4. Why does it matter whether we thank God?
Chapter 6 - Praise
1. Explain how praise implies more than thanksgiving.
2. Who do we tend think of as being endowed with the right to praise
God?
3. Explain why praise is our duty just as much as theirs.
4. Name some reasons that the Psalmist found to praise.
5. Who today especially gives us new reasons to praise?
Chapter 7 - Faith in God
1. Why do we find it frustrating to be told we need to 'just believe'
in God?
2. How does faith come?
3. Explain how people have faith in each other.
4. What are the two sorts of faith that people can have?
5. Explain why we owe both kinds of faith to God.
6. How can we know if we have the faith of love?
7. Explain how faith is an act of will.
8. Show that believing in God is a duty that's required of us.
9. Is this duty fulfilled by serving our fellow man?
10. Explain how no article of the Apostles' Creed is supposed to appeal
to our Reason.
11. Explain how all the great things of life also are mysteries.
12. Explain how Christianity means a relationship with Jesus.
Paraphrased by L. N. Laurio
Please direct any comments or questions to me by emailing me at cmseries-owner at yahoogroups dot com.
|
CM SERIES HOME | CONCISE SUMMARIES
| PARAPHRASED IN MODERN
ENGLISH |