Block the Beginnings

Along with the importance of beginning what should be done, there is also the importance of not beginning what should not be done. This suggests two or three citations, on from a man named Amiel, who nearly a century ago said: “We shut our eyes to the beginnings of evil because they are small, and in this weakness lies the germ of our defeat. Resist the beginnings: this maxim closely followed would preserve us from almost all our misfortunes.” The second comes from Thomas `a Kempis: ” We must be watchful, especially in the beginning of temptation,” he said, “because the enemy is more easily overcome, if he is not suffered to come in at all at the door of the soul, but is kept out and resisted at his first knock. Whence a certain man said, ‘Withstand the beginning.’ A fool beholdeth only the beginning of his works, but a wise man taketh heed to the end.” If, in our decisions, we were to look at the full length, at the ultimate end, frequently we would never take the first step, and would avoid the dabbling with, the trifling with, the flirting with; avoid assuming that a little compromise, a little evil, a little indiscretion will not matter much. We would avoid the first indulgence in something that could become a habit, or avoid saying it is only this once, it is only a little thing, it is not so serious. Perhaps no embezzler ever said to himself that he didn’t intend to put back what he took—but from a small beginning the amount becomes too big to put back. Perhaps no drunkard ever intended to let a habit grow beyond his control. Perhaps no man in degradation or disgrace ever intended to be where he was. Things come often by small steps, by small degrees, by “small” compromises of principle, by holding the door a little ajar, by holding the mind a little open for the enticement of temptation; by doing what supposedly is just a little unlawful, a little immoral, a little improper, and supposing that the process can be stopped or reversed at any time. But no man who is foolish enough to begin what he should not begin can be sure that he may not lose control of himself or the situation. The very act of opening leaves doubt that the door can be completely closed. “Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things,” wrote Bruce Barton, “I am tempted to think…there are no little things.”