Living the Radiant Life: A Personal NarrativeJames, George Wharton
Religion
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative
James, George Wharton
Conduct of life
Before I proceed to a further consideration of this radiancy of a
large-hearted, moral heroism, I want to answer the objection raised to
what I have already written by a young man to whom I read it. He said:
"But I am not an Emerson, or a Wendell Phillips, or a John Brown, or
Tolstoi. What chance do I have of exercising moral courage?"
A very pertinent question, and one I am glad to try to answer. I do not
believe there was ever a man, a time, or a place which did not,
sometime, somehow, call for the exercise of moral heroism. And
especially in these days of lax principle, breaking down of old
standards, political graft, and worship of material success. What
minister is there in no matter what church who is not called upon, now
and again, nay, often, to speak fearlessly upon some practical subject
upon which people are looking for light? Is he a moral hero who taboos
such subjects, who refrains from discussing them in the pulpit because
they are not "gospel" subjects? What gospel subject can surpass in
interest and in human and divine appeal to the soul of man the
"white-slave" question, and a host of other subjects upon which ordinary
well-to-do men and women need enlightenment? That minister is endowed
with the radiant power of moral courage who, even though he offend some
of the smug, comfortably righteous members of his congregation, dares to
denounce the church people who rent their houses and lands for immoral
purposes, for breweries, for saloons, for any and all things that
destroy men's bodies and souls and bring suffering to innocent women and
children. Take the child-labor question, especially in the communities
where men live who have become rich by using child labor, whether in
cotton factories, glass factories, tobacco, or any other factories.
Should not such men hear the gospel plainly and without equivocation?
Who is to give it? The minister of the Christ who came to seek and save
the down-trodden, the injured, the forsaken, the lost. Then all honor to
the man who dares to speak out, dares to be true to the inward voice,
though he lose caste, position, salary.
The same courage is required of the politician. How often the public
clamor for, or against, the very opposite of that which is right. In
California a few years ago there was a great fight for the exclusion of
the Japanese and Chinese. How about the doctrine of the brotherhood of
man? Can we play fast and loose with eternal principles? No! Let the
true politician stand by the truth and let the poltroon sacrifice his
principles for temporary advancement and gain.
There is not an employee who at some time or another is not called upon
to exercise moral courage. Some are asked to do dishonest, mean,
disreputable, contemptible things--for their employers. Some have one
temptation, some another. Stand firm for the highest truth. Be morally
brave and courageous. Dare to refuse. Dare to risk losing your job
rather than your character. Dare to be poor rather than mean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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