The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-02

Iuii0S o6o declared 10 the world In
Greek. Blessed are those who are
prosecuted for righteousness sake, for
theirs is the kingdom or heaven"
Another way Of partly paying our
debt TO the Greeks is by higher appre-
citation OF the learning and self sacri-
flee OF the men who in our own land
stand for all that the ancient -Sfeeka
stood. While here and there one co1Ues
to public approval and rewa1
OF them live in privaticM salary
disgracefully small. Icnola 5, the
a~rchaeologists, the a : Its, the .1erati-
most Of them live up three 0 four
flights OF stairs and by small windows
that do not let in the full sunlight.
You pass them every day in your
streets without any recognition. Grub
street where many Of the mighty men
OF the past suffered, is long enough to
reach around the world. No need Of
wasting our sympathy upon the unap-
precfated thinkers and workers OF the
past, though LinnaeuS sold his works
for a single ducat, though Noah Web
ster's spelling book yielded him more
than his dictionary, though Correggio.
h great painter, receiving for long
Continued work payment OF $39. died
from Overjoy; though when Gold
smiths friends visited him they were
obliged to sit in the window. as he
had nothing but n chair; though
Samuel Boyse, the great poet, starved
to death; though the author OF "Hud-
ibraS" died in a garnet, though Para
disc Lost" brought its author only $25
ash down, with promise OF $50 more
il the sale warranted 1t, so that $75
was all that was paid for what is con-
sidered the greatest poem ever writ
ten. Better turn our attention to the
act that there are at this
hundreds Of authors. painters. sculp-
tors, architects, brain workers, without
bread and without fuel and without
competent apparel. AS far as you can
afford it, buy their sculpture, read
their books, purchase their pictures,
encourage their pen, their pencil, their
chisel, their ~engraver's knife, their
architects compass. The world calls
them ''bookworms" or "Dr. Dryas-
dust" but if there had been no book
worms or dry doctors Of law and sci
ence and theology there would have
been NO Apocalyptic angel. They are
the Greeks Of our country and time.
and your obligation to them is infn-
lite.
WAY TO PAY THE DEBT.
But there is a better way to pay them,
and that is by their personal saliva
ton, which will never come to them
through books or through learned pre-
sentation, because in %iterature and in
tellectual realms they are masters.
They can outargue, OutquOte, Outdog-
Matte you. Not through the gate Of
the head, but through the gate Of the
heart, o may capture them. When
men Of learning and might are brought
to God, they are brought by the SIM
plest story of what religion can do for
a soul. They nave lost children. Oh,
tell them how Christ comforted you
when o lost your bright boy or blue
eyed girl! They have found life a
struggle. Oh, tell them how Christ has
helped you in all the way through!
They are in bewilderment. Oh, tell
them with how many hands of joy
heaven beckons you upward! When
Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug
of war" but when a warm hearted
Christian meets a man who neds pardon
and sympathy and comfort and eternal
life then comes victory. If you can, by
some incident of self sacrifice, bring to
such scholarly men and women what
Christ has done for their eternal rescue,
you may bring them in. Where De-
mosthenic eloquence and HOmeric ina
gerry would fail a kindly heart throb
may succeed. A gentleman of this city
sends me the statement of what occur
red a few days ago among the mines OF
British umb It seems that Frank
Conson and Jem Smith were down in
the narrow shaft of a NINE. They had
loaded an iron bucket with coal, and
Jim Hemsworth, standing above
ground, was hauling the bucket up by
Windlass, when the windlasS broke, and
the loaded bucket vas descending upon
the two miners. Then Jim Hemsworth,
seeing what must be certain death to
the miners beneath, threw himself
against the cOg of the whirling wind
lass, and though his flesh was torn and
his bones were broken he stopped the
whirling windlass and arrested the de-
scending bucket and saved the lives of
the two miners beneath. The superin-
tendent of the mine flew to the rescue
and blocked the machinery. When Jim
HemswOrth'S bleeding and broken body
was put on a litter and carried home
ward and some one exclaimed, Jim,
this is awful" he replied, 'Oh, what's /
the difference so long as 1 saved the |
|
What an illustration it was of suf-
fering for others, and what a text from !
which to illustrate the behavior Of our
limping and lacerated and brok-
en- and torn and crushed in the work
of stopping the descending ruin that
would have destroyed our souls! Try /
such a scheme of vicarious suffering |!
as this on that man capable of over
throwing all your arguments for the
truth, and he will sit down and weep.
Draw your illustrations from the claS-
sizes, and it is to him an Old story, but
Leyden jars and electric batteries and
and Greek drama will all