Yesterday's editorial in the News Letter was headlined: Future hangs on courage of David Trimble. It read, in full:
Supporting the Good Friday agreement in the referendum a year ago was the biggest single act of faith the people of Northern Ireland ever engaged in.
An even bigger one may well be required within the next few weeks if everything that has been achieved since then is not to be squandered.
This time the faith must be placed not in a document, but in the leadership qualities of First Minister David Trimble.
Mr Trimble will soon be required to make some of the toughest decisions any unionist leader has confronted. He must take those decisions with the same courage and tenacity that has marked his leadership, and in the knowledge that his judgment will be supported by everyone who craves a better future.
And he must get it right.
Getting it right means making the agreement work, not necessarily in his own terms, nor in those of Gerry Adams, but in terms which will satisfy the 71 per cent of people who said Yes to the Good Friday deal.
It means striking a deal which will establish a devolved administration, while bringing militant republicanism irrevocably into an exclusively democratic process.
Over the next month Mr Trimble will decide whether to apply the handbrake to the political process or to place his sturdy foot on the accelerator.
It is obvious that the decommissioning argument is not going well for unionists. The First Minister could respond by blocking the formation of a four-party executive. He could stall the whole process and force everyone back to the drawing board. Such a backward manoeuvre is unthinkable.
Such a failure would be a kick in the teeth for the 71 per cent of people who voted Yes. They would begin to believe that the problem lies not with the agreement, but with those they entrusted with making it work.
Mr Trimble's other alternative, the more difficult option, is to move on. From a unionist viewpoint, there are good reasons for taking this course, unpopular though it would be in some quarters.
Sinn Fein, even without an executive role, is on the inside track of the peace process. The First Minister would be right to keep them there, provided he can broker a deal guaranteeing a start to decommissioning early in the executive's lifetime.
Trust, of course, must work both ways. If republicans squander such an opportunity, then the First Minister must be assured that the nationalist people of Ireland will deal with Sinn Fein's intransigence as surely as they dealt with the wreckers who bombed Omagh and with the impediments to peace in their own constitution.
In the past year the First Minister has surprised his detractors. He has demonstrated leadership which on more than one occasion has prevented the political process from floundering.
He has led his own party courageously and judiciously, while creating space for the opponents of unionism to enter into a meaningful understanding as to how Northern Ireland can best be governed.
He has taken steps which seemed improbable when he assumed the mantle of leadership. He has been negotiating directly with Sinn Fein, and society has not fallen apart as a consequence.
The opposite is true. The talks have transformed the political landscape. Politicians who were at each other's throats have shown that they possess the vision and strength to embrace the concept of a better future, constructed within the democratic arena.
That is the only sure way to render the IRA and all its weaponry redundant, and to ensure that our second century is more peaceful and prosperous than the first.