It is human to stand with the crowd; it is divine to stand alone.

It is man-like to follow the people, to drift with the tide; it is God-like to follow a principle, to stem the tide.

It is natural to compromise conscience and follow the social and religious fashions for the sake of gain or pleasure; it is divine to sacrifice both on the altar of truth and duty.

"No man stood with me, but all men forsook me," wrote the battlescarred Apostle in describing his first appearance before Nero to answer for his life for believing and teaching contrary to accepted views of the Roman world.

Noah built and voyaged alone.

His neighbors laughed at his strangeness and perished in style.

Abraham wandered and worshipped alone. The Sodomites smiled at the simple shepherd, followed the fashion, and fed the flames.

Daniel dined and prayed alone. Elijah sacrificed and witnessed alone.

Jeremiah prophesied and wept alone. Jesus lived and died alone.

And of the lonely way His disciples should walk, He said: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Of their treatment by the many who walk in the broad way, He said: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

Wanted today, men and women, young and old, who will obey their convictions of truth and duty at the cost of fortune and friends and life itself.

-Sel