Prejudice also delays the spread of truth.  People sometimes brace themselves against arguments.  If I may be pardoned a personal illustration I will cite a case of political prejudice that came under my own observation.  I was speaking in a town in western Nebraska, an out-of-the-way place that I had seldom visited.  A friend heard a man say, “Well, I never heard him and I thought I would come and see what he has to say.”  And then, with a determined look upon his face he added, “But he will not convince me.”  Political prejudice is not so hard to overcome as race prejudice and race prejudice is not so deep-seated as religious prejudice; but prejudice of any kind, whether it be personal, political, race, or religious, seriously interferes with the progress of truth.

Narrowness of vision often obstructs acceptance of truth.  One must be made to feel interested in the subject before he will listen to that which is said about it.  Aristotle has suggested a means by which each one can measure himself.  “If he is interested in himself only he is very small; if he is interested in his family he is larger; if he is interested in his community he is larger still.”  Thus he grows in size as his sympathies expand—­the largest person being the one whose heart takes in the whole world.  In proportion as we can enlarge the horizon of the hearer we can increase the number of subjects to which he will give attention.  The minister has an advantage in that he deals with the one subject about which all mankind thinks.  The soul yearns for God:  it is man’s highest aspiration and his most enduring concern.  When one’s heart is changed—­when he is born again—­he listens to, understands and accepts arguments that he rejected before.

Selfish interest is one of the most common obstructions to the advance of truth.  Very often this difficulty can be overcome by showing that the party is mistaken as to the effect of the proposed measure upon his interests.  Fortunately in matters of government a large majority of the people have interests on the same side and the real task is to make this plain.  Where there is a real opposing interest, argument is of little use unless it can be shown that the public welfare outweighs the personal interest—­that is, that a public interest is large enough to swallow up the interest that is private and personal.

Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don’t argue with him—­search him; the reason may be found in his pocket.

Next to clearness of statement, I would put conciseness—­the condensing of much into a few words.  This is a great asset to a speaker.  The moulder of public opinion does not manufacture opinion; he simply puts it into form so that it can be remembered and repeated; just as my father used bullet-moulds to make bullets when he was about to go squirrel hunting.  The moulds did not create the lead, they simply put it