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BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS 41

inquired into or understood. He is seeking happiness, and does those things which he believes will
bring him most enjoyment, but he acts in entire ignorance of the hidden and inevitable
consequences which attach to his actions.
Said a man to me once who was the victim of a bad habit: “I know the habit is a bad one, and
that it does me more harm than good” I said: “ If you know that what you are doing is bad and
harmful why do you continue to do it?” And he replied: “Because it is pleasant, and I like it.
This man, of course, did not really know that his habit was bad. He had been told that it was,
and he thought he knew or believed it was, but in reality he thought it was good, that it was
conducive to his happiness and well-being, and therefore he continue to practise it. When a man
knows by experience that a thing is bad, and that every time he does it he injuries body or mind, or
both; when his knowledge of that thing is so complete that he is acquainted with its hole train of

baneful effects, then he cannot only not do it any longer, he cannot even desire to do it, and even
the pleasure that was formerly in that thing becomes painful. No man would put a venomous
snake in his pocket because it is prettily coloured. He knows that a deadly sting lurks in those
beautiful markings. Nor, when a man knows the unavoidable pain and hurt which lie hidden in
wrong thoughts and acts, does he continue to think and commit them. Even the immediate
pleasure which formerly he greedily sought is gone from them; their surface attractiveness has
vanished; he is no longer ignorant concerning their true nature; he sees them as they are.
I knew a young man who was in business, and although a member of a church, and occupying
the position of voluntary religious instructor, he told me that it was absolutely necessary to
practise lying and deception in business, otherwise sure and certain ruin would follow. He said he
knew lying was wrong, but while he remained in business he must continue to do it. Upon
questioning him I found, of course, that he had never tried truth and honesty in his business, had
not even thought of trying the better way, so firmly convinced was he that it was not possible for
him to know whether or not it would be productive or ruin. Now, did this young man know that
lying was wrong? There was a preceptial sense only in which he knew, but there was a deeper and
more real sense in which he did not know. He had been taught to regard lying as wrong, and his
conscience bore out that teaching, but he believed that it brought to him profit, prosperity and
happiness, and that honesty would bring him loss, poverty, and misery — in a word, he regarded
lying, deep in his heart, as the right thing to do, and honesty as the wrong practice. He had no
knowledge whatever of the real nature of the act of lying: how it is, on the instant of its committal,
loss of character, loss of self-respect, loss of power, usefulness, and influence, and loss of
blessedness; and how it unerringly leads to loss of reputation and loss of material profit and
prosperity. Only when such a man begins to consider happiness of others, prefers to embrace the
loss which he fears rather than clutch at the gain which he desires, will he obtain that real
knowledge which lofty moral conduct alone can reveal; and then, experiencing the greater
blessedness, he will see how, all along, he has been deceiving and defrauding himself rather than
others, has been living in darkest ignorance and self-delusion.
These two common instances of wrong-doing will serve to illustrate and make plainer, to those
of my readers who, while searching for Truth, are as yet doubtful, uncertain, and confused, the