Reverend Jesse Halsey | Chicago c1942
“Come after Me and I will make you . . .” Matthew 4:19
A group of Roman boys went with their troubles to Seneca,
the philosopher. After hearing them patiently, he said: “What you need is someone
to follow.”
The obverse of that coin I saw on Sunday at the Ravenswood
“L” Station. On a billboard was chalked in big black letters, “Heil Hitler. To
H--- with F.D.R.” Someone to follow!
That evening the senior class met for supper at the
Headmaster’s house. I was asked to talk to them, so I asked them to ask me some
questions. They said, “Tell us about Grenfell.” “Tell us about Lenin.” (They
had been told I had been in Labrador and in Russia.) Here it was—“old stuff”
sure, but “someone to follow.”
The Roman boys asked Seneca, “Whom do you suggest, sir?” He
said, “Socrates.””
Immediately (likely with bad grace) the young men began to
pick flaws in the character of Socrates.
Two seminary students years ago were spending the weekend in
the home of a Moravian saint and learned Bishop. They had been airing their
ideas on the Trinity, the person of our Lord, and whatnot. Finally, one of them
with a belated courtesy turned to the Bishop and said, “Uncle Eddie, what do
you think?” And the old Bishop simply said, “He is my hero,”—someone to follow!
Sir John Seeley in Ecce Homo indicates that unless we find
Christ as a man, we are not likely to discover Him as a Savior. That is the
experience of many, including the writer. “Someone to follow!” He is my “hero”!
(I suggest that during the month that we read one of the gospels through every
day. Suppose, for example, that the next thirty days we should each day read
St. Luke (the most beautiful book ever written, Renan said), and intimately
associate with the character there portrayed by the beloved physician.—“Someone
to follow!”
He is my hero because of His infinite patience (one reason
among a thousand others). I see him take shifting Simon in hand and of that
characterless quantity make Peter—the rock. John, “the son of thunder” is
transformed into the beloved disciple. It took a long time; the process is
slow; but the grace irresistible. Thomas the doubter I am glad he was included,
he is so like so many of us, included among the disciples not for his doubts’
sake, but for his loyalty—“Let us go up to Jerusalem and die with him.”
Patient with them, patient with us!
And then He is my Hero “because of His courage.” With the
small cords and blazing eyes He cleanses the temple of grafters, overturning
the money changers’ tables with indignant speech, “Make not my Father’s house a
den of thieves.” Demosthenes, himself, never equaled the fiery invective in
which my Hero denounced those who “steal widows houses and for a pretext make
long prayers.”
The red badge of courage is worn by those who do the will of
God, but even a greater courage is required to bear the will of God, and with a
“face like flint” Christ set himself to go up to Jerusalem, where a cross
awaited—“For this hour came I into the world.” Soul agony, but no
hesitations—“My God, why?” “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Courage
to bear the will of God—My Hero!
A group of children were wrestling with a jigsaw map of
these United States. Maine and Florida and California and Washington—they knew
the corners. Square Utah and Kansas, they were easy, but crooked Cape Cod—Massachusetts,
and funny little Delaware didn’t fit. Finally, in desperation they turned the
puzzle over and with swift progress put it together, for on the wall of their
grandfather’s study they had seen many times the features of the “Father of His
Country,” and the picture puzzle of Washington went together much faster than
the States on the other side. This is a parable of the experience of many:
“That one face, far from vanish, rather grows,
Decomposes
but to recompose,
Becomes my universe that feels and knows.”
“Someone to follow”---and Jesus said, “Come after Me and I
will make you!”
