The World's Oldest Contest

The world’s greatest cause has often seemed to be a lost cause⎯the cause of right against wrong. Going back more than nineteen centuries, there was Gethsemane, and there was Calvary. There was Pilate who knew better than he did, and Judas who sold his friend and sold his soul, and Peter who thrice denied his Lord. But the victories of “lost causes” have been repeated many times. Truth has been on trial in all ages. The struggle with error, with oppression, the struggle with evil and sin, and, perhaps most of all, the struggle with ignorance, which is at the root of most struggles, has seen little subsiding. But it may give us comfort⎯and it should give us courage to know that right causes have often been on trial and have triumphed. The physically strong have often walked over the weak. Liberty has often been sold for a price. Vicious men have bullied and deluded people many-many times. Slavery in all its forms is not new. Human passions have often burst their bounds. But despite all this, there is only one right cause⎯truth; and only one wrong cause⎯error; and as to final outcome of the contest there is no question. Tragedy comes closest, not when a right cause seems to be lost, but when intelligent men and women forsake a cause they know to be right, no matter how lost it seems. There is no such thing as a lost cause⎯if it is a right cause. This is true, and when we are down and depressed, it should give us all comfort and courage to hold on a little longer⎯or even a lot longer.