River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-06-29
The Universal
Creed
By DIR. Frank Crane

In the one universal church to which
all good men belong, composed OF
those oe all faiths who honestly live
up to the best they know, whether
Christian or Pagan, Jew or Gentle.
Catholic or Protestant, there is GER
tain fundamental creed. This, the
greatest common divisor of all creeds,
may be thus stated:
/. The good man sees, acknowi-
edges, and believes in, first of all, tho
difference between right and wrong.
When the word ought disappears from
ones VOCABULARY he may be sure OF
moral decay. The one man abomina-
BILE to any decent society is the man
who thinks nothing matters. We can
tolerate one, even. who doubts there is
a God; but II one believes there is no
line between right and wrong, then,
as DIR. Johnson said, 'let US count our
spoons when he leaves"
2. The good man believes that hap
piness will como to him, permanently,
and as a law, only as he practices do
ing right. Joy. peace, and bliss are
not to be cozened nor juggled from
God or nature, but are the sure por-
ton of them that persistently do what
they think right. Doing right, of
course, does not always bring money
or fame or other external desired
things, but it brings peace and poise
to the soul, as surely as three times
five makes fifteen. There are no more
exception to this rule than to law OF
physics or of geometry. Tie cosmic
accuracy runs in spiritual as well as
in material things.
g. The good mars duty Tin which he
find happiness) is first of all to de-
velop his personality. God made him
for purpose; his joy will consist in
finding and fulfilling that purpose. He
is not to be some one else, not to
copy; but, using all masters, to be-
come more and more himself.
4. 1t is his duty to be strong. He
can be of use to others only as he has
force in himself. He therefore shuns
all things that tend to weaken his arm,
his brain, or his heart.
5. His duty is to be clean. This
item of the creed is Oldest and new
est; oldest, in that cleansings were
part Of every early religion, the COM
mands of Moses, for instance, abound
ing in many lustral rites; newest, in
that the one lesson of modern science
is the power and safety of the anti
septic life. The devils name as far as
bodily health and mental clearness
and spiritual vigor is concerned, is
dirt. Dirt is the one enemy to be
hated with all ones soul and to be
fought unto ones last breath.
6. His duty is to be brave. The basic
sin of all sins is cowardice. The high
er the realm of life in which we move
the more dangerous is any kind of
is the fear of the truth, or the fear for
the truth. Any man or institution that
fights to preserve himself or itself, for
the sake of "expediency," that is to
say, for fear the truth might do harm,
any man or institution, in the words of
Zangwill, that proposes to live and die
in IAN autocasm without facts" is
doomed.
T. His duty is to love. Although, &C.
cording to the foregoing points in the
creed, he is to develop self and be
clean, brave, and strong, yet he is to
find his motive for all this and the
end for which he does all this, outside
and not inside of himself.
It is at this point that he rises, like
an aeroplane leaving the runway on
the ground and soaring aloft; here the
man leaves the company and simili-
tude of all other creatures. In his
power to be actuated by unselfish mo-
to the beasts.
He lives for his wife, his children,
his friends, his country, his race; so,
in widening waves his radio-dynamic
flows. The good man therefore hates
no living creature. He despises no
human being.
In him is centrifugal power out
flowing to inundate the universe.
s. From this love arise all graces
and virtues as naturally as peaches
grow from peach trees. Loving all he
cannot soil soul, nor wrong fellow
being, nor hurt wantonly, nor usurp,
nor push for precedence, nor be I'M
kind, nor in any way drift into the
low, poison life of egoism.
9. His one aim, last of all, is to
serve. Strong in himself, fearless and
loving, he arises at length to the plat
form where stands he who was called
''the first born among many brethren"
He is the masters companion and also
can put away all cheap success, all
luxuries of greed and dominance, and
repeat his masters words:
Let him who would be greatest
among you be servant of all. l, too,
come not to be ministered unto, but to
minister"
The Yielded Life.
No. NV ,.ek