Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1922-04-03
SEES REASSERT|ON
OF CONSCIENCE
DR.. Maclachlan Bases Sermon
OH Book, IF Winter
Comes"
MORAL HEROIsM TEST
Declares Supremacy of Con.
science Over Convention
Is Needed.
MORAL HERoIsM TEST

as follows last night:
II Is always significant fact
when book far outsells It's con-
temporaries, and this Significance is
grealy enhanced when the book Is
not OF the popular. trashy order, but
one which strikes tho deeper chords
and facea tho profounder problems
q. living.
Such Is the case with the hook
about which wish to talk to you to-
niEht. More tnan 100000 copies Of
J. have eeeE printed up to February
last. since Weli:' Mr.. Britiing.' no
n'v-l has appeared that has had
anything like the vogue OF this,
which Is all the more remarkable
since tho story. neither In styis nor
matter, is Of the sensational order
but makes it's appeal To the inteilec-
'nal and moral faculties rather.
1t Is tho moral appeal that In
tcrests us here. With the book as
work Of art we have nothing to
no. neither arc We concerned with
tho subuer ethical questions con-
corning marriage. divorces and the
relations between the sexes which
are incidentally raised in IT. This Is
not scx novel. 1t is on higher
plane-the plane OF fundamental
etnlcal challenge and appeal Few
Of 10 can read II without feeling the
Ee.ting new insight into what Is
meant by moral heIuism.
me motif OF the story IN tn. pa
'hetic struggle OF soul against The
stihinE. and In the end crucifyIng
conventions OF tho social order
Mark Sabre is introduced to us In
the very first paragraph as pecu-
liar. and peculiar he remains to the
end. His friends Ike. but can't un-
derstand, him. They called him OLD
fuzzlebesd' at school, because he
had habit Of thinking things
through for himself. Well. don't
see that. SIR he would gay 10 some
teachers statement which the otht :
boys swallowed raw. ON the other
hand. hc could Zee Yearly the po!nt
of view OF others. even when II WAS
not hts. Well. Dat sec what you
mean. was nnotn-- Of his expires
sioDs TO the great disgust Of thos .
who rcver put themselves In the
place of another. And peculiar lie
remained until the end. SO peculiar
hat II was only by Infinite pains
Rnh at Interest cost that no earned
his riHht TO be at all In a socict.'
people.
IL will not recapitulate the story.
known already TO most OF you. Only
the climax concerns us. and that
only AZ illustrative OF the inner
tragedies that are bound to result
have been resulting ever since CAL
vary and bcforc-whenever for con-
rcience' sake "A man defie5 the ira
dit!ona and prejudices OF the society
in which he lives. When Sabre took
ENlc. tho unmarried mother. into his
home over the protests OF his wife,
and she quite naturally and under
stRndably. from the point OF view Of
social usage, Left him. the die was
cast. his cstracism followed inevi
tab!y. and the accidents whereby he
subsequently fell under suspicion of
having murdered Efie and the babe
are only a symbol OF the terrible
risk involved In daring. even for
conscience sake. 10 he oneself. /
know OF nothing in all literature
Erander than Sabre's burning of the
paper that would have cleared him
of completely In the suicide OF EfHe.
because he would not save even his
own reputation at the cost OF pain
even to his bitterest enemy. When
he collapsed with hemorrhage Of
the brain. HHpgood said. In answer
to the doctors question whether he
had been through any trouble. any
kind Of strain: Trouble. strain! He's
been in hcll-right in lie descend
cd into hel,'-did you ever hear IT.?
/.
yet appalling. symbol OF the depth
OF tho Savior's love.
II shall not presume to discuss
The social problem set ty Sabre's
guixotic benevolence in taking Enc
into his home. Was 1t wise? 1t was
certainly not woridly-wise. Yet II
wax just the kind Of thing we would
expect Jesus to do II He were here.
But, at least. II sets us to thinking,
and the consequences to Sabre re-
veal the appalling gulf between our
Christian practice in the matter of
the Social evil and that which Jesus
followed when He encouraged the
woman who was a sinner to invade
the precincts of Simon's fashionable
dinner party and pour out her guilty
soul at His feet What would hap
pen II we were all Christians like
Sabre? do not know. The thing.
however. Is not impossible.
The great lesson OF the book.
then. is the supremacy OF conscience
over conventions: and know OF none
more needed today. When I was a
boy we used TO sing a hymn, Dare
10 be Daniel, dare TO stand alone
That is a very difficult thing: yet 1t
is the final test OF moral heroism.
1t is not so hard to do the right
when It is the correct and popular
thing to do: but to be alone In your
rightness, to do the thing that, as
The saying goes. isn't being. DONE
to differ in your thinking from your
church or social or political group.
to contraVcne the ukases Of public
opinion-that is the thing that tries
tho nerve and tests the soul.
Il do not mean, of course, that
social conventions and creeds, po-
litical or theological, have no value.
Quite the contrary. They represent
the cohesive clement in the society
or group to which we belong. Gus
tom. habit, tradition. are the cement
of civilization, and 1t may safely be
said that there. is no social conyen-
ton that has survived for any long
beriod OF time that did not once
seem useful purpose But when
tradition comes into conflict with
the movements OF broadening go
cial conscience. when what God saws
points In one direction and what
men say In another there can be
only one rule of right action.
God speaks direct to Some indi-
vidual soul. who, in; obeying the
voice. becomes "a nonconformist, h
Protestant. q heretic.A social, rebel,
or what you viii, and suffers the
appropriate penalty Of social mar
a tyrdonn. But his protest does not
fall to the ground, It becomes "a
I s q that xsfrninatsIi !nsotAss hsArts
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