Editorial July 29, 1905 Issue

Individual Adequacy

John B. Willis

THE high tides of humanity which surge together upon all possible occasions, evidence the strength and universality of that social or gregarious instinct, the phenomena of which have not infrequently authorized the command, "Go not with the multitude to do evil." The dominion of this impulse is so general, and we are so accustomed to its manifestations, that the exhibition of a disposition to be alone, or to act without reference to prevailing ideas, is likely to awaken surprise if it does not beget a reputation for queerness. And yet all men recognize, in some degree, the inherent grandeur and nobility of a nature which is marked by intelligent conviction, and which, if need be, can stand alone, and firmly, for that conviction,—a well-poised selfhood that does not need the support of conventional thought; that can be content and even happy though without companionship save that of Truth; that is willing to suffer "the loss of all things," as the great apostle puts it, to win Christ.

From any point of view the picture of Daniel alone amid the lions, and in command, is deeply impressive; but we miss its chief significance if we do not read, in his calm supremacy over bestial fierceness, the story of conquest over mortal sense and self by an incorruptible knight of Truth. In the day when enemies were plotting and friends were counseling "discretion," he had "come out from among them" all and been "separate;" he had chosen to stand alone with God and solve his individual problem, and in the hour of trial he found that in so doing he had solved all problems: the harmlessness of every beast of error, in the presence of Truth, was demonstrated. The lions were no less lions, but there was no longer the scent of flesh about him, nothing that answered to their hunger. In his ascent to an exalted plane of spiritual consciousness and determination, he had left the things that feed animality behind.

Though Daniel's experience was in many ways unique, the test he so grandly met is one which all are called upon to undergo, and the days are few in which the spiritually aspiring are not required to be indifferent to some edict of custom, some generally accepted belief, long indulged habit, or presuming personality. Sooner or later each must learn for himself that the only place of safety is found when he is alone with God; in the stress and fury of temptation's tide the arm of none other can save. In writing the Galatians, Paul exhorts them to stand fast in the liberty where unto they were called, the liberty of being a man for one's self, no longer dominated by circumstance, impulse, educational bias, or personal influence, but free, even as a Son of God. He enumerates the many and blessed fruits of this individual loyalty to Truth, and then adds, "Against such there is no law;" i.e., no lions for Daniel, nor for us!

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