Read of the mothers in India who die of slow starvation, never allowing a
morsel of food to pass their lips so that they may save up their own
small daily portion to add it to their children's. Why don't we pray to
God not to withhold from us His precious medicine of pestilence and
famine? So is shipwreck a fine school for courage. Look at the chance
it gives the captain to set a fine example. And the engineers who stick
to their post with the water pouring in upon them. We don't reconcile
ourselves to shipwrecks as a necessary school for sailors. We do our
best to lessen them. So did persecution bring out heroism. It made
saints and martyrs. Why have we done away with it? If this game of
killing and being killed is the fine school for virtue it is made out to
be, then all our efforts towards law and order have been a mistake. We
never ought to have emerged from the jungle."
He took a note-book from under his pillow and commenced to scribble.
An old-looking man spoke. He lay with his arms folded across his breast,
addressing apparently the smoky rafters.
Pages:
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440