“I sought for a man . . . that should . . . stand in the gap before me” (Ezek. 22:30).
“Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour” (Zech. 8:16).
Truth has been out of fashion since man changed his robe of fadeless light for a garment of faded leaves. Noah built and voyaged alone. His neighbors laughed at his strangeness, and perished in style. Abraham wandered and worshiped alone. Sodomites smiled at the shepherd, followed the fashion, and fed the flames. Daniel dined and prayed alone. Elijah sacrificed and witnessed alone. Jeremiah prophesied and wept alone. Jesus loved and died alone.
And of the lonely way His disciples should walk, He said, “Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Of their treatment by the many who walk in the broad way, He said, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world . . . therefore the world hateth you.”
The Church in the wilderness praised Abraham and persecuted Moses. The Church of the Kings praised Moses and persecuted the prophets. The Church of Caiaphas praised the prophets and persecuted Jesus. The Church of the Popes praised the Savior and persecuted the saints. And multitudes now, both in the Church and the world, applaud the courage and fortitude of the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and martyrs, but condemn as stubbornness or foolishness like faithfulness to truth today.
Wanted today-men and women, young and old, who will obey their convictions of truth and duty at the cost of fortune and friends and life itself.
Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes—they were souls that stood alone
While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone;
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man’s plain truth to manhood, and to God’s supreme design.
—James R. Lowell.