The Washington herald., 1915-02-16

aspect: Every is to be trusted. 1t all de-
ponds. VIC arc all weak and all strong. In
! us strength and weakness always contcndng.
! The people called bad have their good moments.
The people called good have their moments when,
! it they not actually bad, they arc capable OF
being bad. when, il just the right temptation comes
under just the right conditions. they arc likely to
yield
Where VIC go astray is in assuming, after our
careless habit, that human being is definitely
ono kind or another kind He is all kinds. We
have in us, every OF us. mighty potcntiaties.
Under the influence OF certain forces act
As ii VIC were angels out OF heaven. Under the
Influence OF other forces we can act if VIC were
devils OF hell.
But a. we arc all secretly aware. the matter
goes deeper. Actions lie the surface. They
feet only part OF us. In tho depths OF conscious
ness lies reality and few OF us care to reveal what
at moments for long intervals. goes there.
1t is there that ally ourselves with the sinners
OF the world. Imprisoned there the wrongs
and the shamcs, the btternesscs and the hates, the
rcvcngcs and the gratutous niquities, all the hor
rorS that mirror to us weakness and that
US to beware For most OF training, circum-
stances fear understanding. perhaps mere can
nncss. as well, keep in control. But how can
we be sure that the instant may not come when
our dcfenscs will break down and shall find
ourselves among the condemned?
Then consider the things actually do, the
things that wrong. Suppose it does happen
that our ofenscs don't come within the range OF
the law. Are they necessarily any the less Of
lenses: Look into the lives OF the most sincere and
ardent reformers. You will find wrong-doing
there too, often OF what an unbiased judgment
might call extreme gravity. Some OF that wrong
doing masqueradcs right-dong and is publicly
exploited admirable. something to be initiated
For example, men go about denouncng other men
as monsters though those other men arc not and
cannot be monsters. being exactly like the de-
mixtures OF good and bad. They spread
and cxaggeraton. To establish
their points they will sometimes to dcliber
ate lies. And those lies they will justify them
selves on the ground that ii those particular things
arc not true, other things bad true.
They arouse cnmity and hate and fear and the
desire for vengeance. incidentally. by their daily
cxactionS on those around thcm by their moral
severity by their austerc detachment. their lack |
OF sympathy. they may go offending and caus-
ing misery every day OF their lives
Tho >o-called bad people understand perfectly !
we'll 1t is for this reason when OF the highly
respectable gets into trouble they arc tempted to
rel occ and to mock. They can hardly be blamed.
Too often have they felt the lash of virtue WELD
ed by tho hands OF the rcspcctablcs and too often
have they been made to feel that their weakness,
instead of being only aspect OF them, was
all they had, and the cause OF their being
driven into tho bywayS OF life, where indgnitcs
awaited them and despair.
When the good go wrong. those supposed
10 be good. there ought to be neither waiting
nor rejoicing. They have not ceased to be good
What is good in them persists. 1t may become
even a finer kind OF good, through humility and
he business of the rest OF the world not to do
anything that will harm that good, not to take
advantage in the OF righteousness. But
here is even finer opportunity in the situa-
ion; 1t asks us to remember relation
o it and to all the offenders in the world the
cast and the greatest. They are all close to US.
N very literal sense they are ourselves. The
orces that made them out of common human
material might have made us to be exactly like
hem. And the forces that developed the quail
les we pride ourselves on possessing and display
ng might have saved them and might save them
till
Here is the real comfort of the situation. No
me is hopeless but the utterly depraved and the
Utterly irresponsible. The utterly depraved don't
xist. They are myths, created by the highly re-
pectable. The irresponsible are obviously insane
nd should be cared for as such. Holding UP our
lands in horror is hypocrisy and waste But there
saving and there is reason and there is useful
less in helping people who stumble and in helping
hem all the more enthusiastically because we
now that we ourselves are given to stumbling
nd that ourselves ought to be grateful because
We haven't as yet had serious fall.