Suppose a man passes by a house with its door open. He notices the door ajar but continues on his way. Soon a second man passes by. He responds to the open door by entering the house surreptitiously. Soon he emerges with a sack of stolen goods and disappears. Five minutes later a third man approaches. He too sees the open door. Hearing a cry for help from within, he knocks and enters to aid the distressed owner.
Since all three men saw the house could be entered, what caused them to act differently? Motive. That essential force which moves one along a particular line of action. Their motives played a decisive role in determining the rightness or wrongness of their actions in the community.
To strengthen our society's moral and ethical condition, you and I must improve our motives—more clearly distinguish, through scientific Christianity, right ones from wrong ones, the true from the false, then choose the former and abandon the latter.
