Now in the personal nature we find
just such a magical provision. Each time a person normally exerts
himself he makes further exertion in those normal ways more possible.
And if this is true of all personal action within our experience, what
right have we to set a limit to it anywhere? It may not be suitable to
say that I know myself infinite, but it is certainly true that I
cannot conceive myself as finite. I can readily see that this body of
mine has in it what I have called a provision for checkage. Every time
the blood moves in my veins it leaves its little deposit. Further
motion of that blood is slightly impeded. But every time a moral
purpose moves my life, it makes the next move surer. It is impossible
to draw lines of limitation in moral development.
XII
Such, then, is the vast conception with which we have been dealing.
Goodness, to be personal, must express perpetual self-development. All
the moral aims of life may be summed up in the single word, "self-
realization." Could I fully realize myself, I should have fulfilled
all righteousness, and this view is sanctioned by the Great Teacher
when he asks, "What shall a man give in exchange for his life?"--his
life, his soul, his self. If any one fully believed this, and lived as
if all his desires were fulfilled so long as he had opportunities of
self-development, he might be said to have insured himself against
every catastrophe.
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