The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-11-06

with smiles for each and tendern6ss
for all, staggering beneath a burden
more than man has dared to bear,
who shall deny her praise? That
widowed mother, with a flock and a
pittance; that child who alone sup
ports a home; that maiden who is
pure and sweet upon wages that are
criminal before the living God, who
shall deny the sublimity of their
humble heroism?
To my mind the heroism of the
plain people, who have little but who
serve so much, to whom life offers
such a meager portion but who make
it go so far, is a most sublime, as it is
a most compelling, fact of human life.
I can conceive of nothing harder, day
by day, to arise to face the impenetra-
BILE wall Of hardship and Of approx
mate poverty which dominates the
horizon of so many lives. I can pic
ture nothing more unutterably un-
bearable than, day by day, to be COM
PEELED to undergo the refined slavery
that is unquestionably characteristic
of so much of our modern life. To
desire to live in the face Of it, to de-
eide to struggle against it, to hope
even against hope, to live and to love,
to get a little and to give a little, TO
retain and to augment the diviner
characteristics that alone ~differentiate
humanity from the beast, to plan for
p~osterity and to have faith in God in
the midst of the relative riches that
constitute the poverty of our times,
is heroic. We should thank God for
the heroism of those among us who
have so little and wis live so largely,
in proportion as they have capacity
and opportunity, for the common
veal. We should thank God that
they are faithful, that they know
how to live simply, that they are
moral. For if ever the men and
women who are the burden-bearers
in the worlds work become saturated
with the vices, the follies and the
fallacies concerning life that ,infest
the minds of those who constitute the
topmost and the nethermost strata Of
society, the world will have short
shrift.
Another sort of heroism that We
must never fail to remember and con-
slider and to which we owe much, is
that moral heroism among the polit-
ical and religious leaders of the coun-
try that Is increasingly obvious and
actively at work. For that heroism is
real. The forces of unrighteousness
are intrenched. The army of greed at
any price is already in the field. The
plunderers of the public are as busy
as the vultures that prey upon the
dead. The camp followers who are
out for petty graft are busily at work.
The sleek, s~elf-satisf1ed captains OF
political and commercial piracy are at
the front. They are all the more
dangerous because they have per-
suaded themselves that they are sim
cere, that the benefits they have I'M
d~oubtedly been instrumental In bring
ing to society excuse and justify the
rapacity of which they have been and
are guilty. They scorn gov
eminent, they laugh at law, they scott
at the rising tide of popular disap-
prevail. Their special pleaders are
hired, their subsidized papers are
already bought, many of their books
are burnt. They invite the test and
even dare to threaten. In pulpit and
in pew, on the forum and in halls Of
learning, wherever there is an itching
palm or a callous heart there their
may be found. 1t Is need
less for me to expand the story by
you of the governments, mu-
and state, that they may al
be said to own, the legislatures
that they have bought OF have tried
to buy, of the defiance that they
throw into the very teeth Of admins
officers who with honesty and
of purpose attempt to
bring them to account.
We are face to face with no theory.
We are confronted with the rcost I'M
palatable facts, when everything is
with which any nation
has aver had to deal. There is no use
in waiting for a declaration of hostil-
tiles. The war Is already on. The
Is in the field. Heroism
is required to go up against him
for 1.-The sake of our cities and for the
people of our Cod" Heroism has al
ready been shown. 1t has already
cost some mel dear.
The dictum is to pulpit and press,
to politician and statesman, to the
financial and the business world, to
labor and to capital, to the world at
large: We have erected u golden
image, it suit us, bow down Or be con-
And voc betide the man with
the information and the heroism &C.
essary to refuse to bow. Men have re-
fused. They have been consumed.
The threat to-day is bow down or
be ruined. Touch US not lest the
country die. Forsooth we shall re-
frain to eradicate the vermiform ap-
of financial and commercial
and political i%ndecency and disease
because Of the shock to the patient.
Thank God We have men of heroism
at hand, men who have wisdom, who
have the hand and the nerve and the
experience and the wisdom to disobey
our modern ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and to
operate. And they will not be burnt.
Their heroism will not spell their
death. It will not invite disaster. 1t
will a v the patient from uglier ills
and worse torments.
The sort Of heroism that can live
in the contemplation of such
evil with trust in God and confidence
in the heroism of the leaders that are
called is the sort that has made
America a power. The heroism that
remains steadfast and faithful in the
face of regnant wrong is the heroism
that Eliminates her history. She has
much Of it. She needs more of it.
It should be rewarded. 1t should
have our support. We should have it.
For it is the heroism of the Christ.
sam / My Brothers Keeper"