Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-02-16
OUR TEST OF HONESTY.
Conscience is Always an Infallible
Guide

Conscience is Always an Infallible
Guide.
No person has ever been accidental
ly dishonest. The distinction between
honesty and dishonesty Is one that
cannot be governed by accident. There
are no occasions in life when we are
truly in doubt as to whether an act Is
right or wrong. We may profess a
sentiment of uncertainty. We may
even go 80 far as to seek advice from
others, but seldom, II ever, are we
honestly in doubt.
OF course, I do not mean to say
that occasions never arise when there
is scarcely more than the proverbial
hairsbreadth between right and wrong,
but, were the line Of demarcation- in
finitely finer we could distinguish the
right course unaided by decisions Of
other people. Within each heart there
Is monitor that Is capable Of de-
termining the most intricate problems
in an instant, and when we appeal to
others instead Of turning to our own
best adviser 1t Is because we are hop
ing that an excuse may be given that
will enable us to go contrary to our
own best judgment.
The question Of right and wrong
the problem Of honesty and dishonesty
need never bother us. There Is one
rule-one criterion-that will meet ev-
cry emergency. No matter how eager
ly self-interest may argue to the con-
trary, we have merely to ask ourselves
If the act we contemplate would be
one that we should wish others to
enact toward us, and In our reply we
have the answer to all our question
ings.
No code of conduct that man has
ever devised meets every condition as
perfectly as the Golden Rule. Thous-
ands Of volumes have been written
brother-we have books enough on
political economy and sociology to fill
Ia library-yet were you to boil them
all down to their last essence Of truth
you would have nothing more or less
than the Golden Rule. Nothing that
man can conceive will solve life's diff
culties so effectually and 80 quickly.
It Is by the Golden Rule, therefore,
that the man who desires to be hon.
est must govern his life. 1t matters
not what selfish interests may die
tate, this code of morals can keep us
from going wrong. With this code to
guide us, failure to keep to the
straight path of integrity Is impossi-
BILE. A thing is either just or unjust
there Is no middle course. Even were
all the judges and juries in the land
to decide differently they could not
change the application Of this law.
Their failure to find a verdict in ac-
cordance with its conditions would be
due to Misunderstanding Of the case,
and this could not alter the judgment
of our own conscience, even though
the verdict were in our favor. In our
own hearts we should know that the
question had been decided without re-
gard to the facts-that had the judges
known the facts we had concealed they
would have decided differently.
There Is no escape from this condi-
tion. The monitor has taken up his
station In each human breast and he
speaks decisively, however persistently
we may decline to listen to his warn
ing voice No, people do not do wrong
by accident-they are not accidentally
dishonest. We may make this our
plea, but we know in our hearts that
the excuse Is not justified.-Graham
Hood.