This Too Shall Pass – Sunday, December 21, 1941
It had been our hope that we could greet you from Temple Square on this Christmas Sabbath with the world at peace, but this cherished blessing is not ours. And so we must shape our thinking and our living to the circumstances of Christmas with the world at war-—Christmas with vacant chairs in many homes, and fearful yearning in many hearts. It isn’t the time to dwell upon the causes of what we see before us, except to say that men collectively have failed to give heed to those rules of life which the Savior of the world proclaimed near two thousand years ago, or even those earlier commandments which Moses brought down from Sinai.
We still do not love the Lord our God with all our hearts because the best evidence of such affection would be compliance with His commandments. We still love ourselves better than our neighbors. The meek have not yet inherited the earth; nor do we hunger and thirst after righteousness to the point where we are willing to give up some things we like better than righteousness.
We still lay up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, and our hearts are set upon them. Many of us still try to serve two masters. And as regards the mote and the beam, we still expect more of other men than we expect of ourselves. And so we pay a price for the things we have done which we shouldn’t, and for the things we should have done that we haven’t. But to all who have faith comes this comforting assurance—the ultimate purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the men of evil shall be confounded, and the good who have suffered innocently by the deeds of the wicked will find compensation at the hands of a just God. But in the hearts of those who lack this faith, there is no such assurance. He who finds sustenance only in those things which he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands is of all men most miserable, because in such things only there is no security, or peace, or survival.
We here recall these words of the Master: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) And that is the only way in which anyone will ever overcome the world—in accordance with the principles declared by Jesus the Christ nineteen centuries ago. It shall never be overcome by saber-rattling tyrants, by rabble-rousing demagogues, or by heel-clicking dictators. And so the message of this Christmas is the same as it has always been—the message that no good thing shall ever be lost, and that no evil thing shall ever triumph in the ultimate working out of those plans proclaimed by the Lord of Lords and the King of kings. And so, we ask not for an undeserved immunity from the sorrows of our generation, but only for faith to endure, and strength to surmount all things, for this too shall pass, and there shall yet come another Christmas with peace.
December 21, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,644