Prejudice by J. W. Lowe

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 17, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 10.

Prejudice

By J. W. Lowe

PREJUDICE, although so very tenaciously clung to by a large number of people, is a most unfortunate possession. A prejudiced person often fails to see even the plainest truth when it has been clearly presented; and if he does see it, he will not allow himself to accept it.

Some one has well said that prejudice is like a tightly corked bottle, in that it will not let anything into it, nor permit anything to come out of it. The prejudiced man will not accept truth from any source against which he is prejudiced, and will not give up any of the error he has in possession.

Any person who clings to his prejudices stands in the way of his own advancement, and is thwarting his own best interests. He allows his prejudice to close the avenues through which light and knowledge and truth find their way into the mind and the soul.

Prejudice narrows one down to a few ideas that he has acquired through his early education and training, and causes him to reject everything that is not in harmony with his former teaching and impressions. It will cause the individual to hold to the opinions of his parents or grandparents or earliest instructors, no matter how erroneous or absurd these opinions may be.

A prejudiced person seems to feel perfectly satisfied with what he already has, and actually says in his heart that truth is no better than error. He seems to be of the opinion that whatever he believes to be right is right, regardless of the facts to the contrary. But the time is coming when all prejudiced persons will see wherein they have been at fault, and will find that their prejudice has stood in the way of their personal advancement, and perhaps of their personal salvation.

J. W. LOWE.