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Page 34
Another phase of this subject is the power, which has seemed to come
from outside the soul, to sustain and help those who have been called to
endure bitter and long-continued sorrow and pain. Those who feel
themselves to be weak as water under the stress of severe trial, almost
without previous suggestion, assume the proportions of heroes. They
endure and suffer with patience what would crush those who are only
physically brave and strong. A woman who seemed to have few resources in
herself, suddenly lost four children. In speaking of it, she very simply
but forcefully, said: "I could never have endured it myself." She
believed that her fragility had been reinforced by one stronger than
herself. Exceptional physical courage will account for deeds of amazing
heroism like that displayed at the sinking of the Merrimac in the
harbor of Santiago. Some persons are thus gifted by nature, as others
have a poetic temperament. But exhibitions of physical valor, stimulated
by the consciousness of world-wide applause, are very different from the
patience with which weak persons accept heavy burdens without a murmur,
and carry them apparently without assistance, sustained only by the
consciousness of being right.
How shall we explain the singular devotion of Monica to Augustine? By
mother-love? But mother-love might have been content with the greatness
of her son, and his regard for her. She bore on her heart "the salvation
of his soul," and would not cease in her quest for his spiritual
welfare. A profligate father, the degraded ideals which justified vice,
distances which seemed to be almost world-wide, did not daunt her.
Without haste and without rest she sought to bring her gifted son to
his Saviour. He had fame, and at least all the wealth that he needed,
but Monica never faltered in her prayers, or in her service, until her
son bowed before the cross, albeit for years she carried a heavy heart.
The age of martyrdom has passed but not the age in which men of vision
and strength have to serve their fellow-men with neither pecuniary
compensation nor expressed approval. And yet the number is steadily
increasing who quietly undertake herculean tasks for their fellow-men,
knowing that they will be neither appreciated nor understood, but,
instead, will have to suffer social ostracism, which is sometimes quite
as hard to endure as physical martyrdom. When a strong and earnest man
undertakes a service in which he must be misunderstood, and seldom if
ever applauded, when he chooses suffering with joy in order that he may
serve others, when he is willing to accept discomfort, social hunger,
physical pain, and without complaint continue in such a path, although
opportunities of worldly emolument and honor make their appeals to him,
it is difficult to explain the phenomena by simply saying that he is
finding strength in some hitherto unknown chamber of his own
personality. It would be easy to make a list of illustrations, long and
pathetic, of those who have patiently endured tribulation, who have
accepted heavy burdens and carried them without flinching that others
might be relieved, who have had physical deformity, depression of mind,
and pain of body, and yet who have never faltered as to their duty even
when the way was dark. The world's noblest heroes are to be found among
those who suffer but still endure and aspire in the night and silence,
clinging to duty when no one understands, and much less approves. Such
heroisms need explanation, and they have it in the inspiration and the
regeneration which are mediated by the Inseparable Spiritual Companion.
Phenomena like those of which I have thus far been speaking have been
observed in every age and every land. Some like Socrates have felt
themselves warned against evil courses; others like Augustine have been
protected from moral and spiritual death; others like Sakya-Muni have
been led to give up wealth and power for truth and service; others, who
could draw upon no hidden source of strength, have been sustained in the
midst of trials which have seemed heavy enough to crush; and, most
wonderful of all, in spite of all vices and crimes, all darkness and
ignorance, all bondage to ignoble ideals and slavery to commercialism
and pleasure, the race of man has never been content with things as they
have been. As the moon draws the tides by unseen attractions, so by
unseen attractions the souls of men have been made dissatisfied, and
drawn toward truth and beauty, love and holiness; and this desire for
some better country has never been absent. The passage from Egypt to the
promised land is the eternal parable of humanity, which is always
getting out of some Egypt, with its slavery and tyranny, and pressing
toward some intellectual and spiritual Canaan. This is one of the most
marvelous facts in the history of our race--its discontent with things
as they are, its faith in something better, and the perfect confidence
with which it embarks on unknown seas in its search for ampler and
fairer worlds.
The history of the past is the record of the weak receiving strength, of
the wicked being made uncomfortable in their wickedness, of limited and
provincial creatures reaching out to broad and high horizons, of
weakness, suffering, agony, willingly endured in the confidence that
relief and blessing will come at last, though far off, to all.
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