The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-25

tahc CdEt VI Ib5efI anu Keep on
doing as they had been doing. No God
IN that home. No religious consolation
In time Of bereavement. No formation Of
thorough Christian character in the lives
OF those growing mp boys and girls. They
will go out into The world to meet its VI
cissitudes without any sublime re-en-
forcement Of the gospel. What a pity
It was that he did not put down the man
uscript Of his well prepared sermon on
the Bible if he preached from notes or
pour it out of his SOU il he had lodged it
there through careful preparation No.
He allowed that opportunity, which
could never return, to pass into eternity
unimproved. He observed by the way
the rain dashed against the windows of
the parsonage and the windows Of the
church that the wind was from the east
or the northeast, and he did not SOW or
sowed that which was not worth sowing.
Lack Courage Of Conviction.
In all departments Of life there are
those hindered by the wind of public
opinion. 1t has become an aphorism in
politics and In all great movements, HE
Is waiting to see which way the wind
blows" And it is no easy thing to defy
public opinion, to be run upon by news
papers, to be ~overhauled in social circles,
to be mathematical by those who here
tofore were your friends and admirers.
1t requires a heroism which few possess.
Yet no great r~eformatory or elevating
movement has ever been accomplished
until some n was willing to defy what
the world should think or say or do. But
there have been men and women Of that
kind. They stand all up and down the
Nnrpsdnrc nf hfSfnrv nvoAD1ar Fn, rc 70
follow. Charles Sumner In the United
States senate, Alexander H. Stephens in
Georgia convention, Savonarola stalking
his life in time Of persecution, Martin Lu-
Their fighting the battle for religious free
dom against the mightiest anathemas
that were ever hurled, William Carey
leading the missionary movement to save
q heather world while churches denounc-
ed him as a fanatic and with attempting
an impossibility; Jenner, the hero of
medicine. caricatured for his attempt by
vaccination to beat back the worst dis
ease that smote the nations. They who
watch the wind of public opinion will not
SOW. 1t Is an uncertain indication and Is
apt to blow the wrong way.
Communities and churches and nations
sometimes are thrown into hysteria, and
it requires a a Of great equipoise to
maintain a right position. Thirty-three
years ago there came a time Of bitterness
in American politics, and the impeach-
ment of a president of the United States
was demanded. Two or three patriotic
men, at the risk of losing their senatorial
position, stood out against the demand
of their political associates and saved the
country from that which all people Of all
parties now see would have been a ca
lamity and would have put every subse-
quent president at the mercy of his op-
p~onents. 1t only required the waiting of
q few months, when time itself removed
all controversy.
Let us have war with England il
needs be-" said the most of the people Of
our northern states in 1861, when Mason
and Slidell, the distinguished southerners,
had been taken by our navy from the
British steamer Trent and the English
government resented the act of our gov
eminent in stopping one Of their ships.
"Give up those prisoners" said Great
Britain. "No," said the almost unani-
nous opinion of the north. "Do not give
them up. Let us have wal with England
rather than surrender them" Then Will
liam II. Seward, secretary of state. faced
one Of the fercest storms of public opin-
ion ever seen in this or any other country.
Seeing that the retention of those two
men was of no Importance to our country
and that their retention would put Great
Britain and the United States into i'm
mediate conflict, he said, 1--WE give them
up" They were given up. and through
the resistance of popular clamor by that
one man a worldwide calamity was avert
ed.
Some of US remember as boys huzZaing
when Kossuth. the great Hungarian, rode
up Broadway, New York. Most Ameri-
cans were in favor Of taking some decid-
ed steps for Hungary. The only result
Of such Interference would have been the
sacrifice Of all good precedent and war
with European nations. Then Daniel
Webster. in his immortal "Hulsemann
letter" braved a whirlwind of popular
opinion and saved this nation from use
less foreign ENHANCEMENT. Webster did
not observe the wind when he wrote that
letter. So in state and church there
have always been men at the right time
ready to face a nation full-yea, a world
full-of opposition.
Beware of Overprudence.
How many there are who give too
much time to watching the weather vane
and studying the barometer! Make up
your mind what you are going to do and
then go ahead and do it. There always
will be h%indrances. It is a moral disas.
ter if you allow prudence to overmaster
all the other graces. The Bible makes
more of courage and faith and persever-
ance than it does Of caution. 1t is moi
once a year that the great ocean steamers
fail to sail at the appointed time because
Of the storm signals. Let the weather
bureau prophesy what hurricane or cy'
clone it may, next Wednesday, next
Thursday. next Saturday, the steamers
will put out from New York and Phila'
delphia and Boston harbors and will
reach Liverpool and Southampton and
Glasgow and Bremen. their arrivals as
certain as their em~barkation. They can
not afford to consult the wind. nor car
you in your life voyage.
The grandest and best things ever &C
complished have been in the teeth OF
hostility. Consider the grandest enter
prise OF the eternities-the salvation Of 6
world. Did the Roman empire send III
4 invitation to the heavens inviting TIT