The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-02-26

way-the results of previous causes. 1t
is well too to look to the acts of to,
day, they are the seeds frem which
a norrow's fruitage will be gathered
Now how does this fit in with des-
tiny? Every man has behind him a
vast series of lives, lives that have
built him up from the state of some
thing lower than savagery. as we know
it now, to what he is today: some men
have worked for evil in past lives.
some for good; but mostly men have
done both evil and good in their past
lives, and have done it in many vari-
Gus ways We can we'll believe this
when we look around MS today and see
how very different are the ways in
which people are cultivating them
selves. Many are leading Ives of mix,
ed good and evil, but they are very
different in type and all are build ne
for themselves very different futures.
So it is surely more rational to sup.
pose that the many different kinds of
lives We see around us now are ths
results of equally varied lines of ac-
ton in the past, than to suppose then
TO be the result of injustice on Gods
part The thoughts, motives and de,
sires of man in one life build his
character in the next, and his actions
decide his future environment.
What s wanted is that man shah
evolve. that he shall himself become
perfect. For man who has failed
in many ways, it would be of no ad-
vantage TO him that his debts should
4 be paid by another as is sometimes
taught, he would lose much by this.
for he learns to stand firm by repeat.
ed trials; he develops by means of his
own exertions
A better analogy than the payment
OF a debt is that of a man training
physically, let us say in order to swim.
! He can only learn by doing it himself,
and not by letting another practice for
him. So in evolution man is reaching
Lon and on towards perfection.
life after life learning from
experiences and drawing nearer
to the state of the perfect man. On
the way much help may be given by
the strong TO the weak, by the teachei
to the pupil, but though the Teacher
be the Christ, he says to his disciple,
BE We perfect" not, wait for some>
one else to do your work, to pay yous
| debts"
This surely is a hopeful doctrine
since il gives us an unchangng law
to which we can always appeal; law
we can calculate upon, law We can
Understand and therefore make use
of. So far as the past is concerned
that is unaiterable, but the present ano
1.-THE future are ours to do what We VIII
with. according to our means anu
capacities. We may work for tins
building of our characters, for the
achievements of our aims. Never mino
if death interrupts some task we have
set ourselves, such as the building o.
sonlevirtue into our characters, what W.
have done at the end of each life re-
mains, and we begin again where W.
left off. Nothing is lost.
Many people, when working to ge
rid of an evil quality and not seems
an immediate result, believe their Ell
, forts wasted. Those who do SO make
great mistake, for there is, and cal
be. no loss of energy. If we nave
, steam engine, and put so much emerge
into it in the form of coal, we expec
, to get a certain proportion of eners.
r out of it in the shape of work sup
lpose this does not happen. We do no
linen say there is no law of conserva
! ton of energy, but we coneiuoe ina
, some are not so rational, and oouD
, the law of eternal justice.
If evil comes to US let us look 10
the flaws in ourselves, and not TO
q failure of divine justice.