Bethlen Naptár, 1943 (Ligonier)
Charles Papp: To thine own self be true
BETHLEN NAPTÁR 115 world toward better things. I have a great admiration for these humble men of peasant stock who came from the comparative security of their humble villages, leaving behind their loved ones to face the vicissitudes of a. journey which to them was full of hardships and which demanded of them fortitude, bravery, the will to sacrifice and assume the hardest possible labor in a new, an unknown land. They began their tasks at the hardest chore. They were at a disadvantage from the beginning. They knew not the language, the customs of this country. They had to begin at the very bottom and work their way up by the sweat of their brow. They worked faithfully, they worked gloriously. They worked to make your lot and mine happier, easier, more blessed. What was it that gave to these fathers of ours the stamina, fortitude and hope that carried them on in those difficult times? What was it that they contributed to the life of their community which made them respected of men wherever they built their homes? Their faith in the God of their fathers! The religion of generations past which was tired by fire and steel and which came out of the trials truer, finer, more glorious, more invincible. These pioneers of ours brought no wealth in their purses. They brought the strength of their bodies and the faith of their souls and laid the foundation for your happiness and mine. Their first thought was to build for themselves an altar where they might worship their God. Nearly fifty years ago they organized our church. They gave their money, they labored here with their bodies after work in the factories. They carried earth, crushed stone, pushed the wheelbarrow, swung the pick. They were not ashamed to bring this sacrifice on the altar of God. They organized the choir, created the Sunday School, made their community a better place to live in. They made their contribution to America not only in the labor of their hands, but in that spiritual sacrifice they brought into the life of their community. They never permitted the light of their faith to become dimmed by indifference, selfish complacency. They labored and sacrificed not for themselves, but for their children. They lived in homes which lacked the most elementary comforts. The fathers labored in the factories and mines, the mothers bore their children, kept the homes and cooked for boarders. Their days and nights were incessant hours of labor. Yet they labored gladly because they saw through eyes burnt with
