(We normally reserve any political observations for our Wednesday posting but an event a few days ago has led us to bend that standard for this Monday. Last week, President Trump held a conference call with the nation’s governors to discuss the pandemic. When some governors questioned the federal help their states could get from Washington, the President said Washington was serving only as a “backup” to their efforts. That prompted Washington’s governor to respond that the nation doesn’t need a backup, it needs a Tom Brady—a reference to the great quarterback of the New England Patriots. At a news conference, the President seemed to miss the point entirely when he told reporters, “They think Tom Brady should be leading the effort. That’s only fake news, and I like Tom Brady, spoke to him the other day, he’s a great guy.” Our strong personal attitude on the President’s accusations that the mainstream media is nothing but liars aside, there is nothing fake about the news of the COVID-10 pandemic as it envelops our world ever more tragically. Truth, consistent truth, is badly needed in these circumstances. So we turn to Dr. Frank Crane and his thoughts just after the Great War on—
THE UPROAR
Violence is the gesture of Impotence.
Brutality is the outward sign of inward Cowardice.
The persecutor is not quite sure of himself. It’s the half-doubt lights the fagot.
When the boy passes the graveyard at night he whistles, because he is afgraid of being afraid. It’s the same with all who vociferate.
Only those who believe with their whole hearts can keep still.
The screaming reformers do not believe their cause—wholly.
If the Germans had been sure of the superiority of their Kultur they would have left it alone, to conquer the world by its inherent excellence. Because they were not sure, they went to war.
“Defenders of the Faith!” Ludicrous title! For real faith needs no defense. It is a defense.
You don’t need to stand up for the Truth, and to fight for it, and to preserve it against the enemy. When you talk that way it shows you don’t understand the quality of Truth.
Truth is the one indestructible, ever-green, eternally persistent thing on earth.
All we have to do is to see it, to believe in it, to adjust our lives, thought, and speech to it, and wait. By and by, it always wins.
Hence genuine believers in the Truth do not “strive nor cry, neither is their voice heard in the street.” They are quiet, calm, glad. They have hold of the one thing that cannot fail.
They lean against the pillars of the universe.
The Infinite flows through them, and they smile at the contortions of the Finite.
Whoever is sure is undisturbed.
All fret, worry, apprehension, and morbidity arise from uncertainty. Those who fight are not quite sure.
Only those who are sure can afford to turn the other cheek.
Only the sure can afford to forgive their enemies.
Few reach the dizzy height of Jesus, who saw the Truth so clearly, and believed so utterly inits triumph, that He refused to struggle for it.
The most amazing thing about Him was His leisureliness.
So true it is that “he that believeth shall not make haste.”
Most of us have only caught up with Joshua; we are miles from Jesus.
We juggle His texts, but have no idea of His vast, calm spirit.
Let us find the Truth, even if it be only the Truth about wood, or metal, or mathematics, just any little piece of the Truth, and believe it, and adjust ourselves to it, and be happy; for out of Truth flows peace.