The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-09-30
MOTIVE EVERYTHING.

MOTIVE EVERYTHING.
The pure in heart are free from hy-
pocrisy and from double mindedness.
A heart with sin, living in sin and
longing for it, can no more have a
just view of God than the eyes of the
drunkard, blind with rum, can have
of persons and things about him. Moth
ing but a sight of God by faith-a
view of His holiness and mercy-has
power to change and purify such a
heart. God must manifest himself
Pope Benedict XI, laying his hand on
his heart, said to deputies of the
Council of Constance: Here is Noah's
Ark. To this the reply was: "In
| Noah's Ark were few men and many
beasts" intimating that there were
denominations wherein he would have
them believe, were lodged all the laws
of right and religion. This is true of
all. The natural heart is satans
throne. He filleth it from corner to
corner. But those who would see God
must cleanse themselves from all FL
thiness of the flesh and perfect holi-
ness in the fear of God Purity of
heart is the condition for seeing God
yet it is the last to be accepted by
men.
Many other devices are substituted,
such as 81 am sincere" 81 can't be-
lieve," 81 am honest" 81 am no hypo-
critic" Il mean to-" my motives are
all right" Let US see.
Motives are all important as may
be seen by the following illustration:
The attendant of King William Rufus
shot an arrow at deer, but it glanced
against a tree, killing the king. Was
he murderer? Not at~all, because
he had no such intent. A man who
lays in wait to assassinate another
and pulls the trigger of his gun with
the intention of killing him, though
his gun misses fire or is discharged
and misses the man, is morally muir
derer as truly as if he had killed him.
Motive is everything, because D,r
actions take their character from the
motives from which it proceeds. No
act of the body can take place without
an action of the will preceding it. This
is true also of mental acts, if we use
the word voluntary as synonymous
with spontaneous. Our desires are
as free and spontaneous as our Volt
lions, and when it is said that every
noral act must be voluntary we use
the word in this comprehensive sense.
Our volitious receive their moral char
acter from the quality of the mo-
tlves which produce them, so that the
same volitions, i. e., the act of willing
or choosing or forming a purpose.
nay be good or bad, acco Inns to the
moral character of the motives by
which it is produced. A man fires a
gun. He must pull the trigger to do
so. 1t required volition to do that.
He may have done it for the purpose
Of killing beef, or of numbering a
man. The volition is the same in eth
er case. No matter what his motives
may have been, the volition was SIM
ply a determination to discharge the
gun and if it is done by an insane per-
son there is no morality in the Volt
ton. Suppose robber breaks into
your home and is about to kill you and
you pull the trigger of your gun to
XII him, /. e., you put forth that volt
ton in self defense-then the volition
and the act which follow sit will be
good. If, however, there is malice
in ones heart and he wants to revenge
himself, or if there is avarice and he
seeks to crafty it by possessing the
others wealth and so shoots him, the
| Volltlon prompting his act of dis
charging the gun will be wicked. You
can see that the true moral source of
actions is not traceable to volitions.
We must go further and discover
the motives. To illustrate: A man
is accused of crime; the court must
investigate it. The chief thing to be
found out is what motives actuated
him. According to their decision will
ne be Judged innocent or guilty. Hence
the true and ultimate source of the
morality of action is not found in the
VIII, but in the desires and affections.
So far as the mere act of volition is
concerned-that is determination to
do a certain act-it is always the
same, regardless sof motives. To as
certain that an action proceeds from
an act of the will only determines
that it is the act of particular agent
put 1T does not give US any knowledge
OF the true moral quality of the act
| This is'universally true. Two men give
| money to poor woman. The acts
are the same, the volitions prompting
them are the same, and we naturally
say both acts are good. Why? Sim
| ply because we cannot see the heart
when in truth both may be good or
bad, or one may be good and the other
bad: Suppose, however, that it is re-
vealed to us that one was influenced
by love of praise of men and the
other by a sincere regard for the
welfare of the poor, we should at once
make wide difference in our judy
ment as to the acts. The volitions are
the same in both cases, the only diff
ference is the motive which prompted
the act. One was a hypocrite, the
other true man and both of them are
accountable for their motives. This
is true of all of us. We are more ac-
1 70 NI - Z.