Gold Nugget 262 - Anchorage of Goodness

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      Daring men who are determined to “follow the devices and desires of their own hearts,” will bravely say, “Evil, be thou my good.”  But the process of deterioration is usually slower and more subtle.

      We want to do wrong, and we begin to wish that it were not wrong.  Then comes the doubt whether it is wrong.  Then we begin to imagine that it is wrong only under particular circumstances.  Then we find that our case does not come into the bad list.  And the way is open to do the wrong under the shadow of our self-delusion that it is really good.

      There are family delusions that lead us to call evil good; society delusions; sectarian delusions; and personal delusions.  These last are the most serious.  A man can easily persuade himself that the pleasant is the right; and he may only mean the pleasant to the body. …

      There is no hope for a man when he loses his sensitiveness to good, for with it goest his sensitiveness to God.  A man is never lost while he can believe in goodness.  There is anchorage in that. … Evil and good are contraries.  Hope for humanity lies in their never getting confused. 

The Pulpit Commentary, Malachi p. 33, Malachi 2:17, (R. Tuck)

Gold Nugget 262

Anchorage of Goodness

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