Speaker 1: Light on adherence to principle. The man of truth never
departs from the divine principles which he has expoused. He
may be threatened with sickness, poverty, pain, loss of friends
and position, yea, even with immediate death, yet he does
not desert the principles which he knows to be eternally
true to him. There is one thing more grievous, more
to be feared and shunned than all the above evils
put together, and that is the desertion of principle, to
turn coward in the hour of trial, to deny conscience,
to join the rabble of passions, desires, and fears, in
turning upon, accusing, and crucifying the eternal Christ of divine principle,
because that principle has not given him personal health, affluence,
and ease. This, to the man of truth, is the
evil of evils, the sin of sins. We cannot escape
sickness and death, though we may avoid them for a
long time. In the end they will overtake us. But
we can avoid wrongdoing. We can avoid fear and cowardice.
When we habitually avoid wrongdoing and cast out fear, the
evils of life will not subdue us when they overtake us,
for we shall have mastered them. Instead of avoiding them
for a season, We shall have conquered them on their
own ground. There are those that teach that it is
right to do wrong when the wrong is to protect another.
That it is good, for instance, to tell a lie
when its object is the well being of another. That is,
that it is right to desert a principle of truthfulness
under severe trial. Such teaching has never emanated from the
lips of the great teachers. It has not been uttered
even by those lesser yet superbly noble men, the prophets,
saints and martyrs, For those divinely illuminated men knew full
well that no circumstance can make a wrong a aright,
and that a lie has no saving and protective power.
Wrongdoing is a greater evil than pain, and a lie
is more deadly and destructive than death. Jesus rebuked Peter
for trying to shield his master's life by wrongdoing, and
no right minded person would accept life at the expense
of the moral character of another when it appeared possible
to do so. All men admire and revere the martyrs,
those steadfast men and women who feared wrong, cowardice, and lying,
But who did not fear pain and death. Those who
were steadfast and calm in their adherents to principle, even
when it brought to the utmost extremity of trial. Yea,
even when the taunts and jeers of enemies assailed them,
and the tears and agonies of loved ones appealed to them,
they flinched turned back, knowing that the future good and
salvation of the whole world depended upon their firmness in
that supreme hour. For this they stand through all time
as monuments of virtue, centers of saving and uplifting power
for all humankind. But he who lied to save himself
or for the sake of the two or three beings
whom he personally loved, is rarely heard of, for in
the hour of desertion of principle, his power was gone.
If he is heard of, he is not love for
that lie. He has always looked upon as one who
fell when the test was applied as an example of
the highest virtue. He is rejected by all men in
all times. Had all men believe that an untruth was
right under extreme circumstances, we should have no martyrs and saints,
the moral fiber of humanity would have been undermined, and
the world left to grope in ever deepening darkness. The
attitude which regards wrongdoing for the sake of others as
the right thing to do is based on the assumption
that wrong and untruth are inferior evils to unhappiness, pain,
and death. But the man of moral insight knows that
wrong and untruth are the greater evils, and so he
never commits them, even though his own life or the
lives of others appear to be at stake. It is
easy for a man in the flowery time of ease
or the heyday of prosperity to persuade himself that he
is staunchly adhering to principle. But when pain overtakes him,
when the darkness of misfortune begins to settle down upon him,
and the pressure of circumstances hems him in, then he
is on his own trial and has come to the
testing time. In that season, it will be brought to
light whether he clings to self or adheres to truth.
Principles are for our salvation in the hour of need.
If we desert them in that hour how can we
be saved from the snares and pains of self? If
a man does wrong to his conscience, thinking thereby to
avoid some immediate or pressing pain, he does not but
increase pain and evil. The good man is less anxious
to avoid pain than wrong doing. There is neither wisdom
nor safety in deserting permanent and protective principles when our
happiness seems to be at stake. If we desert the
true for the pleasant, we shall lose both the pleasant
and the true. But if we desert the pleasant for
the true, the peace of the Truth will soothe away
our sorrow. If we barter the higher for the lower,
emptiness and anguish will overtake us, and then, having abandoned
the eternal, where is our rock of refuge? But if
we yield up the lower for the higher, the strength
and satisfaction of the Higher will remain with us. Fullness
of joy will overtake us, and we shall find in
truth a rock of refuge from the evils and sorrows
of life. To find the permanent amid all the changes
of life, and having found it, adhere to it under
all circumstances, this only is true happiness. This only is
salvation and lasting peace.