The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-01
THE SAVING REMNANT.

1t is easier to float with the current
than to stem it; easier to run with
the wind than against it; easier to
drift with the crowd than to make
Roadway against it, and most men
love ease. There is more Of gain III
catering to the cause that Is momen-
tarily popular; there is financial and
other serious loss in opposing it, and
most men love gain and dread loss.
Ihe penny before the eye hides the
see only the penny, that their myopia
mas been expressed in the proverb Of
penny wise and pound foolish" Pol
icy is the penny, principle the pound;
ana most men grasp the one and miss
the other. Policy is shortsighted; prin-
clple takes the centuries in it's range
OF vision. He who takes policy for his
guide floats with the changing cur
rents, runs with the shifting winds,
drifts with the vacillating crowd. He
VINO charts his course by principle stems
against the winds when ahead, and
breasts the crowd that is chasing the
rainboWs of policy.
When principle points one course an
expediency lures to another, come the
times that try mems souls" Then
character is put to the test and men
show of what stuff they are made.
1t is not the summers breeze but the
gale that tests the oak; it is the
strenuous command Of deep convic-
ton, not the promptings plastic of ex-
pediency, that tests the stamina of
men. There is more to commend, morr
that is admirable, in the man VINO
stands by his convictions, however
erroneous they. may be, when such
stand brings obloquy, than there is
in him who, stands with truth when
the struggle is over and won, and
it and it's prosperous to be just"
Light may come to him, and right or
wrong, he is, at least, a dependable
quantity But such men have much
to endure. If they are the pioneers of
reforms. slothful conservatism, loving
its ease, upbrafds and reviles them;
entrenched privilege turns upon them
all its batteries; stolid philosophy
stupidity analyses them; society looks
askance at and ostracizes them. In
politics, in public life, their test is
severer, for they stand out targets for
every shaft. The social circle widens
to embrace the state or the nation.
The editorial columns lombard them.
and the rapid-fring guns of the par
agrapher blaze away incessantly at
them. Satire dips her shafts in her
bitterest compound, and vituperation
eXhausts her vocabulary Hatred
mixes herFp pigments and biackens char
acter, while envy and jealousy concoct
their mixtures of innuendo and false
hood for the rousing of passion and the
poisoning Of the minds of men.
But humanity has progressed as far
as it has because it has always had ir.
and of it this saving remnant OF
sturdy men and women whose clear
eyes saw the right and whose moral
and physical courage kept them true
to it amid all the storm that ragged
about them. Always, in time, through
bitter travail, has truth come upper
most and ever is justice done" Ever.
out Of the "vile compost heap" OF
abuse. falsehood, envy, hatred and
malice. unwittingly compelled by the
eternal laws of justice to furnish nu-
triment, a new plant of freedom has
sprouted and grown and fourished
And, seeing this, reading it on every
page of human history, those who are
tempted to desert the rugged paths
of principle and tread the flowery lanes
of eXpediency take fresh courage AMI
persevere, Sustained and soothed b,-
an unfalterng trust" that thus they
best serve God and their fellow men.