New Britain herald., 1914-04-08
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Views on all sides of timely questions as discussed in ex. changes thot come to Herald office.

(Utica Press.

1 Now and then there are exhibitions | of real religion and true Christianity 1 which stand out and compel attention l and respect, in part because or thelr l environment A notable instance ot l it has been chronicled in these col l umns within the last few days. News 1 paper readers have stood aghast at l the details of the wanton and wicked murder of Miss Beecher, the school
 teacher at Poland. She was brutally l killed when engaged in what she in ] tended to be an errand of mercy, an honest effort to lend a helping hand l to a boy whose brief career had
 shown it's need. The father, pastor of l a church in the little village of Sem net, was summoned by the news that 1 his daughter was injured and came l to find her dead, cruelty killed by the | hand of an assassin The c1rcum- l stances of the case were such as to | rouse all the indignation, passion and i hatred of which the human breast is l capable. The villagers who knew and ] loved the girl were almost prompted l to take the law into their own hands
 and in the heat and anger of the oc- casion said so in no uncertain tones. There was grave and gross provoca- | tion, they naturally thought it had l been presented there and then. When
 Mr. Beecher heard them he counseled
 to the contrary, stopping in the street
 to tell the ugly throng that two wrongs can never make a right. With heart bowed down and bearing
 burden of grief whose magnitude can ] scarce be measured, the one who above all others had the right to be
 resentful, preached the gospel of law and order.
 l This demeanor the good man pre-
 served all through the trying ordeal. l There was no lack of sorrow, deep l seated and sincere. He was heavy with the woe of the terrible affliction so suddenly thrust upon him, put
 never once did he lose the calmness l and the kindness which is the essence 1 of Christianity No lilly considered word, no expression of reproachful- ness passed his lips. MT. Beecher saw l and shook hands with the slayer of l his daughter. Even when face to face with the assassin of his beloved he said naught that would have been out l of place if uttered in the pulpit of | his little church. In all his walk and
 talk near the scene of the murder and |when bearing away to her last resting place in the cemetery at home the remains of his child, no harsh or un- l kind word was spoken. His must be 1 lovely character. He practices as we'll as breaches, and most folks find the ] former much more difficult and also it 1 is met with much less frequently. 1t
 is not hard to tell others what to do. Anybody can do that. There must be 1 c%or, ;o1 h0y, "a
 faith and the religion which will en- able a man to control himself in the face of such facts as confronted that ] country clergyman. It was notable and a noble exhibition that not one in 10000 could have given. Yet what I man has done, man can do. All who stop to think can but admire and
 applaud what this man did,. and more l particularly what he did not do. a 1 The heroes of the world did not all l gain glory on the battlefelds, the, | martyrs were not all burned at the. 1 stake and not all the great Americans ] figure largely and at length in the public prints. The everyday oc- 1 currences the everyday sorrows and tragedies bring out the stuff of which l men are made. great misery that | would have broken down a weak per- | son or made him lose self-control un- 1 der circumstances that would have l made almost any attitude pardonable, l was met in the manifest fashion by l this minister who before it all and 1 under it all manifested and put in evidence at most crucial time all l the precepts and principles of the | Christian religion. There are not 1 many here in central New York who 1 week ago ever heard of Rev. w. A. Beecher of Sonnet. but there are tens l of thousands here today who now respect him and praise his wonderful and almost unparalleled example of practicing what he preached.
 The Plight of Kentucky.