And so, wearily
and little by little, but surely and steadily on the whole, was brought
home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his life--that
it was no fool's or sluggard's paradise into which he had wandered
by chance, but a battlefield ordained from of old, where there are no
spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life
and death. And he who roused this consciousness in them showed them at
the same time, by every word he spoke in the pulpit, and by his whole
daily life, how that battle was to be fought, and stood there before
them their fellow-soldier and the captain of their band--the true sort
of captain, too, for a boy's army--one who had no misgivings, and gave
no uncertain word of command, and, let who would yield or make truce,
would fight the fight out (so every boy felt) to the last gasp and the
last drop of blood. Other sides of his character might take hold of
and influence boys here and there; but it was this thoroughness and
undaunted courage which, more than anything else, won his way to the
hearts of the great mass of those on whom he left his mark, and made
them believe first in him and then in his Master.
It was this quality above all others which moved such boys as our
hero, who had nothing whatever remarkable about him except excess of
boyishness--by which I mean animal life in its fullest measure, good
nature and honest impulses, hatred of injustice and meanness, and
thoughtlessness enough to sink a three-decker.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162