President Harold B. Lee, Part Three - Frank Crane and the Power of Truth and Thought

 For Part One, Part Two, Part Four, Part Five or Part Six, you know what to do. Click away!

 Returning to President Harold B. Lee's talk, "A Time of Decision", we find a quote on truth:

 

The Quote

A noted columnist wrote: 

“Truth is the logic of the universe. 

It is the reasoning of destiny; 

it is the mind of God. 

And nothing that man can devise can take its place.” 

(Frank Crane)

Interesting - truth is critical to our being able to live a joyful life, for sure....but who was Frank Crane? 

It appears he was a Methodist Episcopalian minister who also wrote self-help books and columns. My hands-down favorite would be his Everyday Wisdom - A Page for Every Day of the Year.

Man, I just eat this stuff up. This book was published in 1927, around the year my grandmother was born!

Here's an exerpt from his advice for January 22nd, the day I'm posting this blog. 

Ponder on this today, courtesy of my tenth cousin twice removed. 

The title is:

 

Thought is the Trouble Maker

 

THOUGHT is the troublemaker of the world. 

If it were not for the thinkers, kings might go on undisturbed, 

spending in play the cream of the nation’s toil, 

and trusts might keep sleek as fatted swine, 

and superstition rule forever, and old frauds flourish as eternal oaks.

It is the thinker that is at the bottom of every revolution. 

He splits parties and churches, he sows discontent among the lowly, 

and makes the magnificent ones of earth suspect their privilege.

Thought brings down them that sit on high, and the despised and rejected of men it raises up.

...

Thought is always modern, and more, it is a futurist, 

it is the abiding heretic, the ever present disturber of the peace. 

Thought is the “angel that troubleth the pool.”... [loved this reference to John Chapter 5 in the New Testament]

It is interesting to note how the condition of mankind 

has been rapidly improved by one invention after another. 

And every invention was but a thought...

Thought is not only the great destructive, but the great constructive force in the world. 

Thought eats its way into ancient frauds and at last they crumble. 

And at the same time thought, like the buried acorn, pushes upward as a mighty tree.

Man the animal is contemptible; the elephant and the lion are stronger than he. 

But man the thinker is considerable.

 

The man sits astride the horse and makes the animal go where he will; 

yet the horse is more powerful than the man. 

The secret of it all 

is that the man knows how to put a bit in the horses’ mouth 

and the horse does not know how to spit it out.

 

What thoughts do you get from this?