Editorial August 12, 1944 Issue

Individual Responsibility

Evelyn F. Heywood

Every day, every hour of every day, the individual is responsible for what he thinks, how he acts. Either he is seeking the divine model, conscious of his indisputable, indestructible selfhood; or he is thinking of himself as a mortal, surrounded and influenced by other mortals. He is either knowing himself responsible to God, obedient to the divine will, directed by divine wisdom, or he is believing himself responsible to himself as a mortal, and to other mortals, dependent upon their decisions, opinions, favors.

The only real because the only spiritual satisfaction comes as the result of our perceiving and so fulfilling our responsibilities as representatives of God. This was the lesson which in the sixth chapter of his epistle Paul sought to bring home to the Galatians in the words, "Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another."

The quality of our work is not determined by the success or failure of any particular undertaking. It is not to be judged by the passing praise, indifference, or condemnation it evokes. Its real accomplishment lies in a steadfastness undisturbed by the ups and downs of human experience, ever radiating in individual unfoldment, and manifest in its example to others of confidence, of courage, and of high purpose.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

In Every Direction of Thought