Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-09-07
THE TEST OF THE HERO.

By Rev. William A. Kirkwood.
Whosoever shall compel thee to go
one mile, go with him two. Matthew
Al.
What strange precept! Is 1t posi-
bic? What would happen If we tried
to practice it? Let's see.
The word translated compel is of
Persian origin. 1t is equivalent to
"lmpress' and suggests the ancient
Persian custom Of Selling man and
compelling him to serve the king, how
ever inconvenient it might have been
TO the man. The man seized may have
personal business or pleasure in the
East. but now, without his choosing to
10 so, he must go West. He must obey
or suffer if he refuse.
We are not living in ancient Persia,
but who does not know what it is to
be compelled to go ont of his way? Is
il not fact that every human Is sub
iect to many various and burdensome
commissions? Who is free to do al
WAYS exactly as he pleases? What man
has not been held back from his own
chosen way and been compelled to go
in other directions? Who knows that
tomorrow may not call upon him to
change absolutely his own carefully
chosen course and to go many "a mile
out Of his way-perhaps never again
TO regain it?
The schoOlboy would rather play, but
nj INn &c
sion to leave his pleasure and his com
pulsion is a heavy one. For what boy
would not prefer to go fishing or to
play ball rather than to pore over an
cient history or the spelling book or
mathematics? And when the boy be-
comes 4 man full often would he go
elsewhere than to the field or the shop
or the office or the study to go on his
daily round of professional life. But
rompulslon is upon him. His necessi-
ties or his honor compel him to go
many mile away from where he
thinks his pleasure lies.
We choose to be we'll and strong, but
sickness seizes us and marches us off
to the hospital. We plan to live for
many year, but the king Of terrors
claims US for his realm. Evermore
are we all subject to be compelled to
70 the mile against our will.
Admitting this fact of compulsiOn in
our lives, let us also look at the other
fact implied in our text, which, the
Master would have us know, has power
to extract the bitterness from the for
mer-"go with him two" We may be
compelled to go one mile; we may vol
unteer to go that mile and still an
other.
We are under compulsion to do many
things, but we are free to choose to 20
the way in which we must go. In
short, because we are men and not
puppets we are not victims of ad-
to be such and thereby entail upon our
selves the misery that ever awaits the
~ul1en and rebellious captive.
We can all understand that if man
is willing to do or to suffer. the sting
thereby is drawn from the duty or the
loss imposed. But who would vOlun-
teer to encounter hardship or pain or
loss of life? We answer the hero or
love of God or for love Of country, the
martyr and the patriot often have gone
willingly and glad that second mile.
And, in doing so, they have crowned
themselves with everlasting joy and
immortal glory. In humber spheres
IF duty whenever. like heroes, we shall
volunteer to do the hard, distasteful
thing, the hardness and the bitterness
will often disappear. Nay, new and
higher JOY will be found to lie in the
very path that threatened to despoiI us
Of delight.