Page:The message of the hour - four sermons delivered on the new years' day, and the day of atonement, 5651-1890 (IA messageofhourfou00moseiala).pdf/40

 most conclusive of all convictions, it was life itself. God, to their minds, was not a term for an indefinite religious aspiration, but the life of their life, the soul of their soul. Their very occupation and name became to them symbols of their divine mission. Elijah means: My God is Jehovah, the Eternal, I know no other. To him I have devoted my life, my powers. This name stands as the type of all prophets of Israel, before and after Elijah. They were all men of thorough-going conviction; their faith in the God of Israel did not rest upon popular assent, but was a direct voice speaking to them through their own consciousness. Such men are always in the minority. The true people of Israel have always been few in number. The masses are not moved by conviction, but by convenience; their God is not Jehovah, the Invisible, the Eternal, whose law is unyielding truth, whose service is uncompromising devotjon to duty, whose nature is unchanging love, justice and holiness; but Baal, the visible deity, whose symbol is the sun, now smiling in friendly rays, now hidden behind obscuring clouds, to-day kissing the flowers out of their sleep, to-morrow parching up field and meadow, that all creatures languish for thirst a type of that idol worshiped at all times by the masses, the idol called: Public Opinion. The masses are swayed by the outlook of temporal prosperity; they bend the knee before the successful hero; they praise the victorious conqueror. Let the tide of fate's\\ cep against them, and the loudest praises quickly change into public accusations. He who yesterday knelt in reverence before the child of fortune, will to-day, when the sun of luck no more smiles upon it, be the first to strangle it, if by this act he may win the favor of the new powers that be. Public opinion is no gauge of the worth of a man; it is not the measure of value of principles or institutions; it is no criterion of truth or right. "The voice of the people is the voice of God," is one of those favorite catchwords skillfully employed by demagogues to tickle the long ears of his sovereign majesty the Public. One man with the conviction of truth in his heart is a majority, and his voice is the voice of God. And when his words fall like thunderbolts upon the torpid souls of the massees, awakening into consciousness whatever there is yet in them that is divine, and thus morally forcing their assent to his