The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-09-13
Th. victories Of the Meek.

Blessed are the meek for they shall j,
herit the earth.-Matt.v., 5.
When these words were spoken by tt
Son of Nan-who had not where to Ia
His head-Imperial Caesar had but to NO
to be obeyed by a hundred millions Of pc
pie. =
Behind Caesar were the proud legion
and all the "boast Of heraldry and pom
of power" that went along with tSen
while behind the Son of Man there wt
nothing but the simple truth which y
hoped might, some time or other, make
all Gree"
Caesar and his legions and pa9dects an
palaces are faded memory. part OF Il
archaeology of things, but the Galilean
stronger to-day than He was when, Dj
years ago He uttered that word about t
meek.
Steadily since that date the Man of lo}
and gentleness and truth has been gToi
ing, while the man Of power, the man vii
the legions back OF him, has been dWin|
ling. ~
The empire of arms, the dominion
brute force, is slowly but surely retroTd
ing, while the kingdom Of reason, of Id
and of quiet truth has been pushing to q
front.
When Jesus announced His truth aho
meekness it sounded very strange. IT
a time of storm and stress, Of blood al
iron, of organized violence and robbed
and in the midst OF such condition of
fairs what show was there for such as W.
meek" for such as were modest, gent
unassuming?
But Jesus knew what He was about.
was talking. not wildly, but. nationally a
web, and the. twenty centuries that M
elapsed since He threw His beatitude il
the world only seem to show how well
knew what He was saying. ~.
|. Brute force and violence are but pref
mary. When the man comes in to td
the place of the beast for brute force
have reason and for violence love.
The history, oflthe process we call eis
zation is the history Of the. slow,
steady ADVANCE .t Of the spiritual e .ts np9p
eDthronement of the spiritual.
Even when the most noise is being ma
when the armies are laundering and
trumpets are changing, it will be found
it is the quiet genus OF the few think
behind it all that is doing the business.
: Power, when all is said, is subject
not objection: thing of the brain
heart and soul, rather than of the mig
enginery panopied with its insignia
material might.
This is the greatest and grandest gen}
tion simply because it is the. fullest of id
of. gentleness and OF Sweet reasona
ness, ,r l.g, -
The old idea Of the conquerer-G wad
through slaughter to a throne" and fou
ing his dynasty" on the wreck and I'm
of millions of human ives--is fast NAL
way for another idea-that of the one
conquers by good will, by the force
truth, BY the silent omnipotence OF pr
pie. .a.
And SO it has steadily gone on from
beginning right down to the present,
the 'meek"-the kind, the rational,
just-have been getting more and NOR
a footing on the earth, and a Larger Ell
in its true possessions.
The old-time struggle for life" still
on, it is true, and in. the struggle it is
the fittest that survives, but the fttes
to-day is finer thing than was the fit
of the long ago.
There has been a great moral adva
and the cookies of mems hearts to-day
warmed by the great spiritual i'd
which Caesar never dreamt of and
which the Alexanders and Dariuses n
once heard.
The giants OF the Prince that tare
other in their shrine" are long since d
and the physical force that once lordd
over the world is beginning to be subs
mated to the force Of mind and chars
which wins its battles not by blows
blood, but by the silent influence o
own superior excellence.-Thomas 3. G
ory, in the New York american.