Confusion of Voices – Sunday, September 06, 1942
The clamor of voices to which our cars are daily subjected brings strikingly to mind a phrase from the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, in which he said: “There are … so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” (I Corinthians 14:10)
There are so many kinds of voices in the world—voices that contend, that persuade, that threaten; voices that plead, that cry, that quake; voices that deceive.
There are voices that would stir up within us a false fear, voices that would spread terror; voices that would lull us into a sense of false security, and would betray us while we sleep; there are those voices which would lead us to a theoretical Utopia through a devastating chaos—and to say that in following them we would find ourselves forty years in the wilderness would be to put it mildly. There are those voices that play upon the weaknesses of men and cry unto them to indulge their weaknesses. There are voices which promise us fabulous things if, to realize them, we will but permit ourselves to be enslaved for the moment. There are those voices which lust for power and which cloak their lust with the deception of pretending to serve those whom they would lead to bondage. There are voices that vend sensationalism, voices that gossip, voices that make capital out of the misfortunes of men. There are voices which promise us something for nothing—voices that promise us brotherhood and peace and plenty at bargain prices, with short cuts to all good things.
Beware of all such voices. Indeed, the clamor of voices which offends our ears and our intelligence takes us back to the words in Genesis, when, looking down upon the misdoings of the people of earth, the Lord said: “Let us go down, and there confound their language.” (Genesis 11:7) And now again, by the misdoings of men there is confusion of voices in our generation—voices crying Lo, here . . . and lo, there “insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matthew 24.24) But this assurance we have, that amid all this confusion of voices there are crying in the wilderness the voices also of those who win lead us out, and above them all will be found to be a voice which men have forgotten, but which they will yet know again, for every ear shall hear, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. And then will cease the clamor of misleading voices.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Sept. 6, 1942, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1942.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
September 06, 1942
Broadcast Number 0,681