BOTH GOOD AND BAD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 8

BOTH GOOD AND BAD

THE ROAD TO VICTORY. “Man is both good and bad. Love, restraint, altruism, noble ambition, resignation and unselfishness, as well as evil qualities, are inherent in human nature. Francis of Assisi and John Bunyan were just as human after their change of heart and life as before. The old Latin tag, Humana est errare, is only one side of the truth.

It is as natural to fight against error or to yield to it. Rousseau and others stressed the intrinsic goodness of man. Theologians, for many centuries, dwelt on his depravity. No one can strike an exact balance between these extremes. We are born with both good and evil tendencies, not only varying in degree in different persons, but in the same person at different times. The power to weigh and consider, and then to choose and to will, is essential .to humanity. We are mere animals or robots if we yield to

unworthy thoughts and suggestions, excusing ourselves with the fatalistic idea that our human nature, which is mainly evil, does not change. And this idea tends to discourage all efforts for betterment. Faith in the possibility of progress leads to the will to progress, and gives us courage to persevere. And faith with courage spells victory.”—George Frederick Wates, in his book, “From World Force to World Fellowship.”