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Show - - - I- -- - ., - m m m - H dMieue . . . Ohio Political Leader Urges Humility and Cultivation of "The Listening Ear" A leading Cincinnati attorney and brother of Ohio's Senior Senator, Charles P. Taft reveals his personal creed. This is one of a series of statements prepared for broadcast by thinking, useful people in all walks of life. By Charles P. Taft Lawyer. Political Leaden Occasionally in old speech notes I find a few persistent threads of ideas which I still use. Are these beliefs, or are they merely a crystallization of past preaching? One of those Ideas seems to be a basic premise of my beliefs. I must be ready to sift out from the expressions of others whatever what-ever may have come to them from God's inspiration. It's easy for me to spout; it is far harder to cultivate a truly listening ear. The listening ear implies humility, hu-mility, for it assumes a readiness readi-ness to accept upsetting new ideas. The listening ear in which I believe also Implies an eagerness eager-ness for the participation of others, both in discussion and action. These qualities, the ear that listens with humility, and the eagerness for participation of v others are the essential lubricants lubri-cants of our lives as social animals, ani-mals, In families, or groups, or communities, and in all our organizations. or-ganizations. They also represent repre-sent a complete denial of absolutism abso-lutism in any form, including the hard and fast party line. But how can one be humble and receptive, and yet have convictions con-victions that are worth anything? There is one standard of absolute ab-solute love, and I do have convictions con-victions about how it affects me. This is the spirit of God, a person per-son of generous love and affection affec-tion whose characteristics I can see in Jesus. For me God does no self-starting miracles which ,1 sit quiescent, for He does His work only through people. When we suffer or cause suffering, either eith-er through our own perversity, or ignorance or some unexplained residue of evil, He suffer with us. Always He welcomes us, and gives us free choices, but the initiative in-itiative has to come from us and we have to approach Him with full understanding of how far short of His perfect ideal we have fallen I think God, therefore, is essentially democratic, seeking our participation in His love, not as an autocrat. But I live usually on a level far below that, where I act by more matter-of-fact rules of thumb. I find in myself the desire de-sire to excel by hard work, which I try to make creative by using all my acquired knowhow, and all the ingenuity I can muster, with a taking of risks that I try to calculate. That adds up to a determination not to be stopped by the usual obstructions, obstruc-tions, or the unusual ones either. I try to find the tie between this commonplace and the sublime by subjecting these rules of thumb to God's standard of love and generous spirit. I try to test my course of action and my decisions by these refined rules of thumb. Every so .often I stop to wonder whether the turning I took last year, or many years back, under the impulse im-pulse of one of those incentives was the right turn. And I may occasionally get that sinky feeling feel-ing at the pit of the stomach at the thought of where I go at death, quite irrespective of what turns I took. But this fear of death, and perhaps also the urge for personal per-sonal salvation seem to me essentially es-sentially selfish, however nat- .ural and human. Our goal is the accomplishment of God's broad purpose in friendly souls work-ing work-ing without haste and without rest. This I believe, and I be lieve in it above all for any one who has had more than hi1-share hi1-share of God's blessings. |