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questions and answers
Q. San Luis Obispo, Calif. The listener says I recently heard from somewhere the old adage “virtue when used to ex cess becomes vice.” The person who used it seems to be very sincere but I wondered when it was spoken if he was not incorrect or if the quotation was not incorrect. A re there any limi tations upon virtue or not? A. I believe that the quotation is given faithfully by our listener in San Luis Obispo but just like so many maxims they can be paradoxical. For instance we have statements in English, “two heads are better than one” and then again we say “too many cooks spoil the broth” and you might ask what do you mean anyhow. You seem to be going in two different directions? Well, this statement “virtue when used to ex cess becomes vice” I think the thought there is a prohibition or a warning not to be overly righteous or seem to be overly virtuous but if it were taken in the absolute sense there is no limitation on virtue or upon goodness. We can’t say God is too good or God is too right or God is too holy. There is an ideal there. There is a verse in Ecclesiastes which indicates that we be not overly righteous. If you take it in the context it’s the thinking of man who looks around in the world and seeing worldly affairs is worldly wise and he has found out that it does not pay to appear to be overly right eous and overly virtuous when one gives a wrong impression in the world or, at least, he seemed to feel it did
not pay off. But. we know that when we take the full testimony of the scrip tures one can not be too virtuous and profess virtue to excess. There is no such thing in Scripture we cannot be on too high a plane. We are told to be perfect even as the Lord your God is perfect. However, this is no blanket permission for folk to act overly holy or overly pious. That kind usually cov ers up some kind of a lax life which they’re trying to keep the rest of folk from finding out. Q. Redding, Calif. The listener would like to know, “could you tell me if a person has to actually kneel, physically when he prays? 1 have arthritis and am therefore unable to kneel without much pain. A. The position that a person assumes when he prays, physical position, is completely and totally unimportant. It isn’t a position of the body that counts, it’s a position of the mind and the heart. Sometimes we kneel when we pray, sometimes we sit and bow our heads, sometimes we stand and bow our heads. There are times when you ought to pray with your eyes wide open. I often, especially when on the freeways, certainly keep my eyes open then. If you are driving and pray asking 30
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