The remarkable humility of Gladys Aylward is illustrated in her vignette under 'humanity'. Yes, tiny pinch-faced Gladys exuded the virtue of humility. The Chinese honored her for good reasons as Ai-weh-deh, the 'Virtuous One'. But what about a hero who seemed not to exude humility but great confidence, even country-clubby superiority? Certainly such a hero was tall, golden-maned Billy Graham.
    In 1954 Billy Graham launched a crusade in Great Britain. The British had lost their great empire after World War II. They once bragged the sun never set on their empire. And oh, how they had relished all their colonies, especially India, their Crown 'Jewel'. But one by one the colonies had gained their independence. Now all seemed lost. They were filled with hopelessness and cynicism. Many in Britain looked at Billy's trip to 'save' them with anger and contempt. Reporters certainly did not welcome Billy Graham. In fact they openly harassed him at the dock when he arrived.

     "Would Jesus travel on a luxury liner?" scoffed a reporter.
     "Do you really think you can save England?" sneered another.
     "Just how much money do you plan to haul out of England?" needled another reporter.
     The crusade nevertheless went very well - enormous crowds and many 'enquirers' - but the press remained unrelentingly hostile. To them Billy was a phony, a moneygrubber, a hypocrite. A proud man would have fumed under the unfair attack. Not Billy. He just determined to meet as many of the press as possible. His goodness and humility melted them one by one. One Daily Express columnist admitted he goaded Billy unmercifully during an interview. But suddenly he was overwhelmed by the realization:
          ...he is a good man. I am not sure he isn't a saintly man...But
          make no mistake about this. Billy Graham is a remarkable
          man...it is a bitter pill to swallow...(after Graham left me) my
          eyes were scalding with tears…
     Yes, that reporter broke down in tears from shame. But after three months of the crusade Billy had yet to meet his most vicious attacker - a man who wrote for the Daily Mirror as 'Cassandra'. In polite flattering letters Billy asked again and again to meet with him. Finally Cassandra agreed - if Billy would meet him in a particularly nasty pub where every other word uttered was a cuss word. He was sure Billy would not show up. But he did.
     Days later 'Cassandra' wrote in his column:
          (Billy Graham has) a kind of ferocious cordiality that scares
          ordinary sinners stone cold...He came into the Baptist's Head
         (pub) absolutely at home - a teetotaler and an abstainer able
         to make himself completely at home in the spit and sawdust…
         a difficult thing to do. I never thought that friendliness had
         such a sharp cutting edge. I never thought that simplicity
         could cudgel us sinners so (expletive deleted) hard. We live
         and learn…The bloke means everything he says…
    When Billy finally returned to America the British press was friendly, even sorry to see him go. He had won them over not with intelligence or charm or scheming but with humility born of love.
     Why is the virtue of humility  so essential to heroes?

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