The Zeal of Communists.
In the late 1940s Whittaker Chambers was called to witness before a New York Grand Jury against Alger Hiss, one of our high government officials. Chambers, a one-time Communist, accused Hiss of trying to transmit confidential government documents to the Soviet Union through him.
When asked by one of the jurors what it meant to be a Communist, Chambers struggled to provide a clear answer. Finally he told them that when he was a Communist, he had three heroes.
His first hero was a Pole, a political prisoner in Warsaw. While there, he insisted on cleaning the latrines of the other prisoners because he felt that the most devoted member of any community should take upon himself the lowliest tasks as an example to those who were less devoted. "That," said Chambers, "is one thing it means to be a Communist."
His second hero was a German Jew who was captured and
courtmartialed during a revolution in Bavaria. When told he now was under the sentence of death he replied, "We Communists are always under sentence of death." "That," said Chambers, "is another thing it means to be a Communist."
His third hero was a Russian exiled to a Siberian prison camp where political prisoners were flogged. He sought some means of protesting that inhumane persecution. Finally in desperation he drenched himself with kerosene, set himself on fire, and burned
himself to death as a protest against what he considered a great indignity. "That," repeated Chambers, "is also what it means to be a Communist."
How many of us Christians reveal that kind of commitment to our Lord? Such commitment is costly.