The Pulpit Speaks: January 12, 1957

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

A few decades ago, a man very wisely said, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you … you will be a man!”

We live in a day when keeping one’s head is important. Never before in all of our history when tensions were so great has a time been when one must keep his head. Everyone’s nerves are on edge today. People are getting more and more touchy. Things that required a little of our time and energy years ago now require much of our time and energy. Everything has recently become taxing. People are committing suicide today as never before. People are becoming partners in crime at a faster rate. Something is drastically wrong in our current outlook on life. Thousands and thousands of our people are lulling themselves to sleep, and eventually to torment, because “everyone is doing it.”

People are more corrupt today than ever before. People in high places – in places of moral and spiritual responsibility, in places of intellectual responsibility – have lost their sense of value and, instead of them standing up for those principles for which they have dedicated themselves, they have chosen, in far too many instances, to follow the path of least resistance.

A few days ago, I heard one of our outstanding preachers say, “It is alright for a ship to be in the ocean. But when the ocean comes into the ship, things are getting critical.” Alas, we have moved to that place in most of our activities where the ocean is coming into the ship. Our world is in the condition it is today because in our family life, we have witnessed a definite breakdown. In our churches, we have seen the world come ” a runnin’ ” and the ideas of Christ have become the furtherest removed things in our churches. In our schools, one woman protested and now, in most instances, it is illegal to even read the Bible in the presence of children. What a sad predicament! No Bible in the school, no Bible in the home, and little Bible, if any, in many of our churches. When you marvel about the present generation, would you have done it if you had been brought up under similar circumstances? How can we expect to instill into our children the noble principles of honesty, integrity, and love in the absence of so much of the vital in our midst? Almost an impossibility! With the current conditions so dark, what can we do? Today as never before we need men who are able to keep their heads. This is no day for frustrated people. This is no day for lost people. This is no day for people who have failed to come to grips with the vital themselves. Worthwhile maturity is realized only when people are mature throughout. The tragic thing about many of our people today is wrapped up in the fact that far too many of us are giants in one area and pigmies in another. In order for a person to present a well-rounded contribution to society today, he first must be well-rounded himself. Yes, Kipling said a mouthful when he said, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs … you will be a man.”

The older one gets, the more conscious he become that this business of keeping one’s head is an art. The ability to keep on an even keel, to keep on an equilibrium at all times apparently cannot be realized by all. Many people – in the face of an opportunity of power, money, and material gains – lose their heads. No doubt Kipling had come in contact with such people. He had stood on the sidelines and watched people like you and me, and he saw people greedy for the material, for social prestige, for economic security, who would resort to anything. To them he said no, we just cannot go around losing our heads over such trivial things and expect to grow into manhood.

No doubt the author could have gone on a little further and said that there are prices attached to “keeping one’s head,” too. I feel that it is at this point that many of us actually lose out. You just don’t keep your head under normal conditions. At every point in human activity there is someone or something that serves as a distracting force to keep you from realizing your cherished ambition. If you stop and concern yourself with these distracting forces, you will never realize your goal.One very forceful description of Jesus as given by one of the writers should serve as a balancing force to many of us today when the darkness of life closes in on us. The writer says this of Jesus on one occasion: “And He set His face toward Jerusalem.” I like to think of this in terms that, despite the fact that He was forewarned by His disciples and friends, He saw Jerusalem as His ultimate goal.

Today there must be those among us who will do nothing short of achieving their ultimate goal. This can be realized only in proportion that we keep our heads when all about us are losing theirs and blaming it on us.