The First Mistake--and the Second

Sometimes, if we have made one mistake, we may think it will not matter much if we make one more of the same kind. We may fall into the fallacy of supposing that multiplying mistakes is not⎯additionally⎯so serious, when once a wrong direction has been taken.

This is, of course, an untenable position to take. It is certainly no less wrong⎯and may be much more⎯to make the second mistake than to make the first. The second false step is not more acceptable, not less serious, than the first. For the first we may plead innocence, or impetuousness, or ignorance⎯simply not knowing. For the second we can scarcely plead innocence or ignorance convincingly.

Stealing twice is surely not less serious than stealing once. A second act of immorality is certainly not less serious than the first. There is really no wholesale rate on sin or error or the making of mistakes⎯on the contrary, the more deliberate, the more experienced, the more intentional and frequent the offense, the more serious must be the mistakes.

And it is gross fallacy to feel that, after one mistake, another doesn’t matter very much. Since life is everlasting, no matter how far we may have gone in a wrong direction it is always urgently important to get back to the right road. Only the right direction will get us out of wrong ways; the wrong direction never did. And just because a man may be down deep is no reason why he should go deeper.

Wherever one is, or has arrived, let him resolve to make his next move toward the right way, and not succumb tot he false philosophy that following a first mistake by a second, or several, doesn’t matter very much. It simply isn’t so.