Rules and Exceptions

There is an old and well-worn proverb which says that “one man’s meat is another’s poison”thus giving recognition to the fact that men have many points of difference. Food that is agreeable to some is injurious to others. Clothes and colors that are liked by some are unbecoming or distasteful to others. Medicine that is beneficial to some reacts negatively on others. People and personalities who are attractive and entertaining to some are unattractive and boring to others. And so we might go through the whole list of human likes and dislikes, of preferences and prejudices, of compatibility and incompatibility all pointing to the proposition that what may be true of one man may not be true of another. But there is almost always danger in generalization, even in the generalization which says that there are exceptions to every rule. Where personalities are so greatly different and where human experience is so widely varied, there would seem to be few things which would be generally true, and nothing which would be always true. But there are some things which are always true. There are unchanging principles and constant and eternal laws that apply to all men at all times. There are over-all and undeviating objectives in the plans and purposes of God. There are laws in nature and the universe that are constantly operative. There are principles of human conduct, obedience to which is always ultimately good for man, and disobedience to which is always an impediment to his progress. It is always safe to say, for example, that selfishness is always shriveling to the soul, that immorality always leaves its mark upon those who are partakers of it, that hate is always hurtful. Such generalizations are always inevitably true, although man may not always see the constancy with which they move. And so, while seemingly there may be exceptions to every rule, such supposed exceptions do not set the rule aside nor alter the ultimate and over-all consequences. In other words, there are some things that are “poison” to all of us whether we know it or not, and there are some things that are good for all of us whether we like them or not.