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yesterday, be
the cause of this terrible evil which has befallen him? - and he
slides completely over the real cause. And keeps on repeating it. Self-righteousness,
by blinding your eyes to the truth, is the direct cause of the
most gigantic and the most subtle miseries of the world. These awfully
good people who fully realize how hard they have always tried to do
right, are the unhappiest people in the world - unless I except Tom,
Dick, Harry and Fan, the victims of these self-righteous reformers. No,
I can't even except these; for they at least generally succeed in
having their own way in spite of the would-be reformer. But what so
utterly disheartening as continued lack of success? And the self-righteous
one never succeeds. It is hard, hard, to be so wise and willing, with
such high ideals (the self-righteous one in» strong on ideals), and
never to succeed in making Tom, Dick and Harry conform to them. Do you
see why Jesus said so often, "Woe comes to the Pharisee" - the self-righteous? And why he called them
hypocrites? Of course they are
unconscious of their hypocrisy - self-righteousness blinds them to the truth;
they think others are to blame for most of the self-righteous
one's own hard conditions. The
self-righteous one is doomed to a tread-mill of petty failures. He goes round and
round his own little personal point of view and learns
nothing. It is by
getting at the other fellow's point of view that we learn things - about
him and ourselves, too. When the self-righteous one wakes up to the fact
that the world is full of people whose points of view are just
exactly as right and wise and ideal as his own; and begins to feel with, and
PULL WITH these other people, instead of against them; when he does
this he will find himself out of the treadmill to stay. As he shows a
disposition to consider other people's ideals and help others in the
line they want to go, he will find the whole world eager to help him in
the way he wants to go. The self-righteous one works alone and
meets defeat. The one who, recognizing his own righteousness in intent, yet
forgets not that others are even as he, is the true friend and
be-friended, of all the world. Now don't let
this homily slip off your shoulders. We are all self-righteous
in spots, and none of us is so very wise that he cannot by
self-examination and readjustment learn a lot more. Each soul in
its place is wisest and best. Don't you try to get into the pilot
house and steer things for Tom, Dick, or Harry. Stay in your own and steer
clear of the rocks of anger, malice, revenge, resentment, re-sistance,
INTERFERENCE and immoderation.
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