Motives and Destinies (Part I)

 What do they talk about in the halls of evil? It happens that we are visiting there as two devils meet outside the Cham­ber of Malevolence. The older is speak­ing:

"Ha, my young friend!"

"Sire!"

"We have some time before the next conference session. Let us spend it in talk."

"Well said, but let it be around the tempter's ever-pressing task."

"And how better could time be spent? They seat themselves.] How goes the work with you, my son?"

"I look for a satisfactory harvest," re­plies the young devil. "You may know that I have been posted to educational in­stitutions."

The older devil eyes the other keenly and asks: "What is your central idea; your basic temptation?"

"My objective is atheism by way of ra­tionalism," is the reply, "Men will think their way into unbelief in our great En­emy. Ignorant of Him, they must remain ours to the last."

"My son," the older devil replies, "I fear for you. I must warn you that teach­ing men to think in any real fashion is bound to lead to the opposite of atheism. The real thinking man will discover that if minds are not created by Mind, then they are left to the caprice of pure chance and must be without sense, design, or pur­pose. You may tinker with many things, but I must warn you against allowing man the indulgence of thinking."

The younger opens his mouth, appar­ently with the intention of defending his plan, but he is stayed as the old devil claps a heavy hand on his shoulder to em­phasize his next word.

Get, Not Give

"Listen! I wear not this badge as cap­tain of a legion for nothing. Here is a plan more subtle and at the same time more simple. I have been assigned to a group that would make the chiefest of us quake at making out his monthly report —a churchful of Christians who actually attend church.

"And what is my plan? Simply to urge this group to get."

"To get?" queries the younger.

"Yes, to get all they can—to get family possessions instead of treasures above, to get the praise of men instead of the praise of their God, to get a career that will bring prestige. All these—possessions, praise, and prestige, and others—I shall urge them to get now. As for the here­after, I shall stress the personal advantage motive again. They, according to my plan, shall be led to get eternal living for them­selves, get mansions of luxury and a fu­ture life of ease uncomplicated by difficult neighbors and trying parents-in-law."

"But, your Disgrace," interrupts the younger devil, "will not this play into the Enemy's hands? Will not reminding them in this way of the future life allow them to dwell upon the things of religion and eternity?"

"Fool!" hisses the older. "That matters not a hypocrite's toenail! Do you not re­member the blunder we made prior to the expulsion? We wished to get all. We were deceived into believing the Enemy wished also to get all. Too late we saw Him un­sheath His fearful weapon of self-abnega­tion and demonstrate that He is willing at any cost to give all.

"Can you not see? So long as we can drive home the get motive in Christian circles our victims can never have eternal communion with One whose whole pur­poses and plans are to give."

"I begin to follow you," rejoins the younger. "This plan ought to be included in the senior college syllabus for diabolics."

Fear of the Cross

"My central idea," glowed the older devil, "is 'Motive determines destiny.' I thank 1 Corinthians 13:3 and Matthew 16: 25 (among other extracts from the Fear­ful Document) for my understanding of this.

"At the level of the church, the main thing we need to fear is the concept of the cross. (How the thought of it is as a dagger at my heart even now.) Let our subjects catch a glimpse of the cross, and they may be drawn from us. Let them act long enough from motives arising out of contemplation of what happened at the cross, and we shall have no say in their destiny. Death in old age has taken too many love-motivated victims out of my reach for me to misunderstand this point."

The younger devil has been following closely. "Granted," he joins in, "that we were beaten at our game at 'the place of the skull.' What gives you this obvious prolonged bitterness toward the cross of the Enemy?"

"I should think it would be clear to all. The cross proved us wrong in our claim that self-seeking is the one basic universal motive; the cross proved the give motive to be stronger than the get motive; the cross demonstrated the impregnability of the Enemy in His joy to give to the extent of willingness to give Himself eternally. If men's eyes can be kept from this love-radi­ating center, then they can never be freed from the get motive, the self-seeking phi­losophy of life."

"Can you hope," queries the young lis­tener, "to have our forms of selfish motiva­tion actually put into practice within the Christian church?"

The older devil continues steadily and purposefully as if the opportunity to give expression to his plan has filled out its details more perfectly:

"It is a matter of discernment. None in this group would think deliberately of fol­lowing our way of life, but I am hoping that the ever-present call to be what men call 'practical' will carry the day. The ap­peal to self-seeking always works, because all men are naturally selfish since our lead­er's great intrusion."

That Monthly Report

The young devil has a further point to clarify: "Do you not find it an embarrass­ment to have to indicate on your monthly report the amount of church activity which even our form of motivation might engender?"

"Follow me well, my disciple. I care lit­tle for what they do so long as self-seeking is their motive. We know to our sorrow that if a church member gathers money for missions, constrained by Christ's love for doomed souls, then that church member has a foretaste of heaven upon earth. But (and this is the punch line) we know, too, that if the church member gathers money for missions to glorify himself in a com­petitive campaign based upon individual or group rivalry, then hell's stranglehold may tighten upon him within the very walls of the church."

"I argue not," responds the younger. "Apply it well, apply it repeatedly, and we shall have company on that fearful day when we stand on the brink of oblivion.

"There is the alert bell for the next ses­sion in conference. I crave one more com­ment, then I am your disciple till time snuffs out around us. Only give me a word that will guide me in applying your plan to my own field—education. I shall do my worst if you will suggest the way."

"But surely," the instructor encourages as they start to walk to the council room, "the principle is clear and its application follows directly. Remember: 'Motive deter­mines destiny.' Those who live to get come our way; those who live to give will never comfort our souls in the fiery lake.

"Find for the children and youth of your charges a school where rivalry is pro­moted by public praise and repeated competition. Encourage in every classroom an attitude of self-seeking toward studies, am­bitions, and careers. Pit child against child, group against group, sex against sex, and school against school. It is the daily dose of the get philosophy that will count, be it in the smallest or the largest tasks. It is imperative that the greater appeal of love be never applied.

"Now to the council room, then you to the classroom and I (for tonight) to the missionary committee meeting."

(To be continued)