The cry goes up for an end to hatred and violence, for a greater respect for law, for a heightened sense of equality and social justice. Everyone will not agree how these goals may best be achieved. Nor will all individuals exhibit the same degree of personal involvement in movements for reform. But the very least one can consistently do is to strive earnestly to rid his own consciousness of those tendencies he deplores in society. One cannot hope to help significantly in healing the thought of the world until he has made some progress in purifying his own thinking.
Then, whether he becomes an activist in public causes or simply continues to pray for the world in the quiet of his own home, he can with assurance claim for others the God-given freedom that he is demonstrating for himself. He can accord every other individual the true status that he claims for himself—spiritual selfhood in the likeness of God.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus stressed the need for correcting one's own thought and actions before aspiring to higher service. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar," said he, "and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Matt. 5:23, 24;
