MAN KING OF MIND/PART 7
7.
Conquest: not resignation
He who has undertaken the sublime task of overcoming
himself, does not resign himself to anything that is evil; he subjects himself
only to that which is good. Resignation to evil is the lowest weakness; obedience
to good is the highest power. To resign oneself to sin and sorrow, to ignorance
and suffering, is to say in effect, “I give up; I am defeated; life is evil,
and I submit.” Such resignation to evil is the reverse of religion. It is a
direct denial of good; it elevates evil to the position of supreme power in the
universe. Such submission to evil shows itself in a selfish and sorrowful life;
a life alike devoid of strength against temptation, and of that joy and calm
which are the manifestation of a mind that is dominated by good.
Man is not framed for perpetual resignation and sorrow,
but for final victory and joy. All the spiritual laws of the universe are with
the good man, for good preserves and shields. There are no laws of evil. Its
nature is destruction and desolation.
The conscious modification of the character away from
evil and towards good, forms, at present, no part in the common course of
education. Even our religious teachers have lost this knowledge and practice,
and cannot, therefore, instruct concerning it. Moral growth is, so far, in the
great mass of mankind, unconscious, and is brought about by the stress and
struggle of life. The time will come, however, when the conscious formation of
character will form an important part in the education of youth, and when no
man will be able to fill the position of preacher unless he be a man of
habitual self-control, unblemished integrity, and exalted purity, so as to be
able to give sound instruction in the making of character, which will then be
the main feature of religion.
The doctrine herein set forth by the author is the
doctrine of conquest over evil; the annihilation of sin; and necessarily the
permanent establishment of man in the knowledge of good, and in the enjoyment
of perpetual peace. This is the teaching of the Masters of religion in all
ages. Howsoever it may have been disguised and distorted by the unenlightened,
if is the doctrine of all the perfect ones that were, and will be the doctrine
of all the perfect ones that are to come. It is the doctrine of Truth.
And the conquest is not of an evil without; not of evil
men, or evil spirits, or evil things; but of the evil within; of evil thoughts,
evil desires, evil deeds; for when every man has destroyed the evil within his
own heart, to where in the whole vast universe will any one be able to point,
and say, “There is evil?” In that great day when all men have become good
within, all traces of evil will have vanished from the earth; sin and sorrow
will be unknown; and there will be universal joy for evermore.
END
OF THIS BOOK.
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