It is stimulating and humbling to try to put into words the faith by which we live. I suppose that with most of us, the private yardstick we apply to ourselves and our inner motives often stem from a fairly simple fact. I know that’s true in my case. It comes from two things my mother said to me as a child and repeated many times over.
At the time, her statements made little sense to me, but over the years they’ve come to have more and more meaning. “Paul,” she used to say, “You may be able to fool others, but you’ll never be able to fool thyself.” I’m a member of the Religious Society of Friends, and Friends believe there is an inner light, a part of God in every man.