w can we
learn what is the right and what is the wrong thing to do. If it is
agreed that we are souls, that evolution is a fact, and that perfection
is the goal of the human race, then the necessity for the law of action
and reaction is as obvious as the reason for a law of gravity.

The existence and operation of this law of cause and effect are set
forth repeatedly in the Christian scriptures. "With what measures ye
mete it to others it shall be measured to you," is certainly explicit.
In Proverbs[M] we have this definite declaration: "Whoso diggeth a pit
shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon
him." Of course the language is figurative. No writer of common sense
would assert that every time a workman digs a pit he shall tumble into
it nor that whenever anybody rolls a stone it will roll back upon him!
We dig pits in the moral world whenever we undermine the character of
another with a false story, whether we originate it or merely repeat it,
and into such a pit we shall ourselves fall, in the reaction of the law.
We have loosened and set rolling the stones of envy and hatred and they
shall return to crush us down to failure and humiliation in the reaction
that follows. We have ignorantly generated evil forces under the law
when we could have used it for our success and happiness.

"Judge not, that ye be not judged," is another statement of the law of
action and reaction. It is not an assertion that we should not judge
because we are not qualified nor because we may ignorantly wrong
another with such a judgment. It is an explicit statement that the
consequence of judging others is that we, in turn, shall be judged. If
we criticize, we shall be criticized. If we condemn others for their
faults and failures, we shall be condemned. If we are broad and tolerant
and remain silent about the frailties of others we shall be tolerantly
regarded by others.

All of us who have studied the subject find in our daily lives the
evidence of the truth of such Biblical declarations. We know perfectly
well that anger provokes anger and that conciliation wins concessions,
while retaliation keeps a feud alive. We know that retort calls out
retort, while silence restores the peace. In these little things it is
usually within the power of either party to the trouble to have peace
instead of turmoil--just a matter of self control. But in the larger
events it is not always so. They are not invariably within our