Text of the meditation
If a person would do a noble thing and does not do it, they are not exalted thereby, but debased. The term Goodness does not mean sickly sentiment, but inward virtue, the direct result of which is strength and power; therefore, the good person is not weak, and the weak person is not good.
We should not judge the souls of others in a spirit of condemnation, but we can judge our own life and conduct by results. There is nothing more certain than this: the evildoer speedily proves that their evil produces misery; the good person demonstrates that their goodness results in happiness.
It is a fact that one may "flourish like a green bay tree" and yet be unrighteous, but we should also remember that the bay tree at last perishes, or is cut down, and such is the fate of the unrighteous. An exalted being apart from an exalted life is inconceivable and cannot be.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
