Without Higher Help – Sunday, February 22, 1953
When we think of America’s patriots of the past, there are two who almost unfailingly are mentioned, whom this month we hold in special remembrance.
Washington and Lincoln were markedly different in many ways. In some things they were similar—one in particular: in their earnest prayerful petitioning of Providence for help in meeting their grievous problems. We often expect much of men. And there is much that sincere and able and honest men can do. But men, after all, are men. And with so many men thinking and working and planning against so many other men, it is going to be more than men that will determine the ultimate outcome.
If we—if any of us—if you (meaning each of us)—if you would wish to convince yourself unforgettably of this solemn fact, suppose for the moment that the world’s weighty problems were placed in your bands for some immediate solution. Just what would you do?
Suppose that the lives of millions of men, suppose that all we hold dear, suppose that freedom, that civilization itself were to be saved or lost by your word, by your wisdom. What would be your answer? What course would you choose? Which way would you go? (Suppose that only one life depended upon you. Even that would be very weighty.) Remember that you are only a man with the wisdom of a man, even as are all other men.
Some are wiser than others; some more able; some have more knowledge of some things. But all have limitations, and all make mistakes. None of them is omniscient. And so, suppose you put yourself in the place of those who have grave and grievous problems placed upon them, and think how urgently they need insight and inspiration, how urgently they need our earnest prayers, as well as their own.
It is easy to see how such men as have been mentioned, and many others also, have been brought to their knees in acknowledgment of their need for divine direction (even as we know our own need in meeting even our own daily personal problems). Mere men without higher help are woefully inadequate.
But by prayer and repentance and by living for the guidance of the Lord God, men and nations have right and reason to expect the answers to their perplexing problems. *
*Revised.
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February 22, 1953
Broadcast Number 1,227