Historical Papers: Part 3 from Volume VI of The Works of John Greenleaf WhittierWhittier, John Greenleaf
History
Historical Papers: Part 3 from Volume VI of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier, John Greenleaf
History
What then? Shall we, in view of these things, call back young, generous
spirits just entering upon the perilous pathway? God forbid! Welcome,
thrice welcome, rather. Let them go forward, not unwarned of the dangers
nor unreminded of the pleasures which belong to the service of humanity.
Great is the consciousness of right. Sweet is the answer of a good
conscience. He who pays his whole-hearted homage to truth and duty, who
swears his lifelong fealty on their altars, and rises up a Nazarite
consecrated to their holy service, is not without his solace and
enjoyment when, to the eyes of others, he seems the most lonely and
miserable. He breathes an atmosphere which the multitude know not of;
"a serene heaven which they cannot discern rests over him, glorious in
its purity and stillness." Nor is he altogether without kindly human
sympathies. All generous and earnest hearts which are brought in contact
with his own beat evenly with it. All that is good, and truthful, and
lovely in man, whenever and wherever it truly recognizes him, must sooner
or later acknowledge his claim to love and reverence. His faith
overcomes all things. The future unrolls itself before him, with its
waving harvest-fields springing up from the seed he is scattering; and he
looks forward to the close of life with the calm confidence of one who
feels that he has not lived idle and useless, but with hopeful heart and
strong arm has labored with God and Nature for the best.
And not in vain. In the economy of God, no effort, however small, put
forth for the right cause, fails of its effect. No voice, however
feeble, lifted up for truth, ever dies amidst the confused noises of
time. Through discords of sin and sorrow, pain and wrong, it rises a
deathless melody, whose notes of wailing are hereafter to be changed to
those of triumph as they blend with the great harmony of a reconciled
universe. The language of a transatlantic reformer to his friends is
then as true as it is hopeful and cheering: "Triumph is certain. We have
espoused no losing cause. In the body we may not join our shout with the
victors; but in spirit we may even now. There is but an interval of time
between us and the success at which we aim. In all other respects the
links of the chain are complete. Identifying ourselves with immortal and
immutable principles, we share both their immortality and immutability.
The vow which unites us with truth makes futurity present with us. Our
being resolves itself into an everlasting now. It is not so correct to
say that we shall be victorious as that we are so. When we will in
unison with the supreme Mind, the characteristics of His will become, in
some sort, those of ours. What He has willed is virtually done. It may
take ages to unfold itself; but the germ of its whole history is wrapped
up in His determination. When we make His will ours, which we do when we
aim at truth, that upon which we are resolved is done, decided, born.
Life is in it.
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