With Malice Toward None

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness for the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in. – Abraham Lincoln

 Mr. Lincoln‘s words near the end of the Civil War set a very high bar for human behavior then and now, asking us to set aside intense feelings that threaten to divide our country just as surely as they did 160 years ago. Are we up to this challenge?

How can we let go of our righteous indignation when others seem so determinedly wrong-headed? What wise, enlightened counsel can we turn to now to help us? Let’s see how the Lemurian Teachings could help us live up to Lincoln’s challenge.

“ with malice toward none . . .” Three Lemurian virtues can help us approach this high standard: Tolerance, Forbearance, and Humility. Tolerance takes us back to Christ’s admonition to “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” It begins with a mindset of unselfish, kindly and compassionate thinking about others –- their ideas, beliefs, what they say and what they do. And by the Great Law of Cause and Effect, as we extend love and kindness to others, kindness and love must eventually return to us.

Forbearance goes further, asking us not to react to provocation. It does not try to repay insult or injury, not from cowardice, unawareness or passiveness, but by a supreme effort of will.

Humility reminds us that it is not for ourselves alone that we are working, but for the good of humankind. As the founders of our country recognized long ago, united we stand, but divided we fall. So let us forget ourselves and our personal prejudices and pride, and do what we must to help all our fellow humans live and prosper.

“with charity for all . . . “ For a deeper understanding of charity, we turn to the example of Christ who, when the crowd demanded that a woman who had sinned be stoned, said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” And he stooped down and wrote with his finger in the dust of the ground. And everyone in the crowd, realizing that he, too, was not without error, went away, one by one.

When Christ lifted himself up and saw none but the woman, he said, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And He said to her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

This was Charity. Kindliness, benevolence, compassion and understanding –LOVE – are true synonyms for the virtue Charity.

Dr. Stelle wrote that “Just as dark is the absence of light, wrong is the absence of right.” Are you up to the challenge of being one of those light-bearers who, in the kindly, patient, tolerant and loving ways possible, helps to lighten our world now?

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