THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH
HOW SHALL WE AVOID THROWING OURSELVES INTO ALTRUISTIC WORK IF WE ARE SURROUNDED BY POVERTY, IGNORANCE, SUFFERING, AND EVERY APPEARANCE OF MISERY AS VERY MANY PEOPLE ARE? THOSE WHO LIVE WHERE THE WITHERED HAND OF WANT IS THRUST UPON THEM FROM EVERY SIDE APPEALINGLY FOR AID MUST FIND IT HARD TO REFRAIN FROM CONTINUOUS GIVING, HOWEVER, THERE ARE SOCIAL AND OTHER IRREGULARIES AND INJUSTICES DONE TO THE WEAK, WHICH FIRE GENEROUS SOULS WITH AN ALMOST IRRESISTIBLE DESIRE TO SET THINGS RIGHT. WE WANT TO START A CRUSADE. WE FEEL THAT THE WRONGS WILL NEVER BE RIGHTED UNTIL WE GIVE OURSELVES WHOLLY TO THE TASK. IN ALL THIS WE MUST FALL BACK UPON THE POINT OF VIEW. WE MUT REMEMBER THAT THIS IS NOT A BAD WORLD BUT A GOOD WORLD IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING.
BEYOND ALL DOUBT THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THERE WAS NO LIFE UPON THIS EARTH. THE TESTIMONY OF GEOLOGY TO THE FACT THAT THE GLOBE WAS ONCE A BALL OF BURNINGS GAS AND MOLTEN ROCK, CLOTHED ABOUT WITH BOILING VAPORS, IS INDISPUTABLE, THAT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. GEOLOGY TELLS US THAT LATER ON A CRUST FORMED, THE GLOBE COOLED AND HARDENED, THE VAPORS CONDENSED AND BECAME MIST OR FELL IN RAIN, THE COOLED SURFACE CRUMBLED INTO SOIL, MOISTURE ACCUMULATED, PONDS AND SEAS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER, AND AT LAST SOMEWHERE IN THE WATER OR ON THE LAND APPEARED SOMETHING THAT WAS ALIVE.
IT IS REASONABLE TO SUPPOSE THAT THIS FIRST LIFE WAS IN SINGLE CELLED ORGANISM, BUT BEHIND THESE CELLS WAS THE INSISTENT URGE OF SPIRIT, THE GREAT ONE LIFE SEEKING EXPRESSION. AND SOON ORGANISMS HAVING TOO MUCH LIFE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES WITH ONE CELL HAD TWO CELLS AND THEN MANY, AND STILL MORE LIFE WAS POURED INTO THEM. MULTIPLE - CELLS ORGANISMS WERE FORMED PLANTS, TREES, VERTEBRATES, AND MAMMALS, MANY OF THEM WITH STRAGE SHAPE BUT ALL WERE PERFECT AFTER THEIR KINDS AS EVERYTHING IS THAT GOD MAKES, NO DOUBT THERE WERE CRUDE AND ALMOST MONSTROUS FORMS OF BOTH ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE, BUT EVERYTHING FILLED ITS PURPOSE IN ITS DAY AND IT WAS ALL VERY GOOD. THEN ANOTHER DAY CAME, THE GREAD DAY OF THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS- THE HUMAN BEING, THE OBJECT AIMED AT FROM THE BEGINNING, HAD APPEARED UPON THED SCENE - AN APE - LIKE BEING, LITTEL DIFFERENT FROM THE BEASTS IN APPEARANCE NUT INFINITELY DIFFERENT IN THE CAPACITY FOR GROWTH AND THOUGHT, ART AND BEAUTY, ARCHITECTURE ADN SONG, POETRY AND MUSIC, ALL THESE WERE UNREALIZED POSSIBILITIES IN THE HUMAN SOUL.
FROM THE DAY THE FIRST HUMAN APPEARED GOD BEGAN TO PUT MORE AND MORE OF HIMSELF INTO EACH SUCCEEDING GENERATION, URGING THEM ON TO LARGER ACHIEVEMENTS AND TO BETTER CONDITION, SOCIAL, GOVERNMENT, AND DOMESTIC. THOSE LOOKING BACK INTO ANCIENT HISTORY SEE THE AWFUL CONDITIONS THAT EXISTED - BARBARITIES, IDOLATRIES, AND SUFFERINGS, READING ABOUT GOD IN CONNECTION WITH THESE THINGS, THEY MAY BE DISPOSED TO FEEL THAT HE WAS CRUEL AND UNJUST TO HUMANKIND. THEY SHOULD PAUSE TO THINK. FROM THE EARLIEST HUMAN CREATURE THE RACE HAS CONTINUED TO RISE. THIS COULD ONLY BE ACCOMPLISHED BY THE SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE VARIOUS POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES LATENT IN THE HUMAN BRAIN. NATURALLY THE CRUDER AND MORE ANIMAL-LIKE PARTS OF HUMANKIND CAME TO ITS FULL DEVELOPMENT FIRST, FOR AGES PEOPL WERE BRUTAL, THEIR GOVERMENTS WERE BRUTAL, THEIR RELIGIONS WERE BRUTAL, THEIR DOMESTIC INSTITUTIONS WERE BRUTAL, AND WHAT APPEARS TO BE AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SUFFERING RESULTED FROM THIS BRUTALITY. BUT GOD NEVER DELIGHTED IN SUFFERING, AND IN EVERY AGE. HE HAS GIVEN US A MESSAGE, TELLING US HOW TO AVOID IT. AND ALL THE WHILE THE URGE OF LIFE, INSISTENT, POWERFUL, COMPELLING, MADE RACE KEEP MOVING FORWARD LEADING TO A LITTLE LESS BRUTALITY IN EACH AGE AND A LITTLE MORE SPIRITUALLITY IN EACH AGE.
IN EVERY AGE THERE HAVE BEEN SOME INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE IN ADVANCE OF THE MASS AND WHO HEARD AND UNDERSTOOD GOD BETTER THAN THEIR PEERS. UPON THESE THE INSPIRING HAND OF SPIRIT WAS LAID AND THEY WERE COMPLELLED TO BECOME INTERPRETERS. THERE WERE THE PROPHETS AND SEERS, SOMETIMES THE PRICES AND KINGS, AND OFTENER STILL THEY WERE MARTYRS DRIVER TO THE STAKE, THE BLOCK, OR THE CROSS. IT IS TO THESE WHO HAVE HEARD GOD, SPOKEN HIS WORD, AND DEMONSTRATED HIS TRUTH IN THEIR LIVES THAT ALL PROGRESS IS REALLY DUE.
IN CONCLUDING THIS VISION OF EVOLUTION WE MIGHT ASK WHY IT WAS ALL DONE, WHAT IS IT FOR? THIS QUESTION SHOULD BE EASY FOR THE THOUGHTFUL MIND TO ANSWER. GOD DESIRED TO EXPRESS HIMSELF, TO LIVE IN FORM, AND NOT ONLY THAT, BUT TO LIVE IN A FORM THROUGH WHICH HE COULD EXPRESS HIMSELF ON THE HIGHEST MORAL AND SPIRITUAL PLANE. GOD WANTED TO EVOLVE A FORM IN WHICH HE COULD LIVE AS A GOD AND MANIFEST HIMSELF AS A GOD. THIS WAS THE AIM OF THE EVOLUTIONARY FORCE. THE AGES OF WARFARE, BLOODSHED, SUFFERING, INJUSTICE, AND CRUELTY WERE TEMPERED IN MANY WAYS WITH LOVE AND JUSTICE AS TIME ADVANCED. AND THIS WAS DEVELOPING THE BRAIN OF HUMANKIND TO A POINT WHERE IT SHOULD BE CAPABLE OF GIVING FULL EXPRESSION TO THE LOVE AND JUSTICE OF GOD. THE END IS NOT YET. GOD AIMS NOT AT THE PERFECTION OF A FEW CHOICE SPECIMENS FOR EXHIBITION LIKE THE LARGE BERRIES AT THE TOP OF THE BOX, BUT AT THE GLORIFICATION OF THE ESTABLISHED ON EARTH, WHEN THERE SHALL BE NO MORE PAIN, FOR THE FORMER THINGS ARE ALL PASSED AWAY, AND THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE.
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