HE CAN WHO THINKS HE CAN, AN IRON WILL & PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Orison Swett Marden

      CHAPTER VII.

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THE DEGREE OF "O.O."

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      When Moody first visited Ireland he was introduced by a friend to an Irish merchant who asked at once:

      "Is he an O.O.?"

      "Out and Out"--that was what "O.O." stood for.

      "Out and Out" for God--that was what this merchant meant. He indeed is but a wooden man, and a poor stick at that, who is decided in everything else, but who never knows "where he is at" in all moral relations, being religiously nowhere.

      The early books of the Hebrews have much to say about "The Valley of Decision" and the development of "Out and Out" moral character.

      Wofully lacking in a well-balanced will power is the man who stands side by side with moral evil personified, in hands with it, to serve it willingly as a tool and servant.

      Morally made in God's image, what is more sane, more wholesome, more fitting, for a man than his rising up promptly, decidedly, to make the Divine Will his own will in all moral action, to take it as the supreme guide to go by? It is the glory of the human will to coincide with the Divine Will. Doing this, a man's Iron Will, instead of being a malignant selfish power, will be useful in uplifting mankind.

      God has spoken, or he has not spoken. If he has spoken, the wise will hear.

      We search the world for truth; we cull

       The good, the pure, the beautiful,

       From graven stone and written scroll,

       From all the flower-fields of the soul:

       And, weary seekers of the best,

       We come back laden from our quest,

       To find that all the sages said

       Is in the BOOK our mother read.

      Whittier.

      O earth that blooms and birds that sing,

       O stars that shine when all is dark!

       In type and symbol thou dost bring

       The Life Divine, and bid us hark,

       That we may catch the chant sublime,

       And, rising, pass the bounds of time;

       So shall we win the goal divine,

       Our immortality.

      Carrol Norton.