THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE 269 



was encouraged to go to Paul because tlie Lord 

 would show Paul how great things he should suffer 

 for the name of Jesus. This is what appeals to the 

 heroic in every man, and we do not make nearly 

 enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his 

 heroic Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the 

 community to himself. They may not be very heroic 

 looking. You may be in some hill town in old Mas- 

 sachusetts "Nurse of heroes." Pardon me, I do not 

 intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. 

 One of the pillars of your church may be the school- 

 teacher of the little red school-house at the fork of the 

 roads, in the yard ornamented with alders, mulleins, 

 and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in any- 

 thing but silks and sealskins. But she trains well 

 her band of hardy little fellows, who will later fear 

 the multitude as little as they now mind the Berk- 

 shire winds. And from the pittance she receives for 

 training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she 

 is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a 

 brother to an education. And your deacon will be 

 some farmer, perhaps uncouth in appearance and 

 rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty 

 speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons ; and 

 until you've lived with him for years you will not 

 know what a great heart there is in that rugged 

 frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent 

 hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round 

 and ample, and certainly does not look especially 

 solemn or pious. She is aunt and mother to the 

 whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of 

 the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the 

 work of ten at home, and of a host in the village. 



