We are not here then, by the caprice of God. He has not placed
one in clover and another in a desert nor has He given one a healthy body so that he may
live at ease[pg 044]from pain and sickness, while He placed another in poor circumstances with
never a rest from pain. But what we are, we are, on account of our own diligence or
negligence, and what we shall be in the future depends upon what we will to be and not upon
Divine caprice or upon inexorable fate. No matter what the circumstances, it lies with us to
master them, or to be mastered, as we will. Sir Edwin Arnold puts the teaching most
beautifully in his “Light of Asia.”
“The Books say well, my
Brothers! each man's life
The outcome of his former living
is;
The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows
and woes
The bygone right breeds
bliss.
Each has such lordship as the loftiest
ones
Nay for with powers around, above,
below
As with all flesh and whatsoever
lives
Act maketh joy or woe.
Who toiled a slave may come anew a
prince
For gentle worthiness and merit
won;
Who ruled a king may wander earth in
rags
For
things done or undone.”
[pg 045]
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