Some side lights on freedom… – Sunday, July 01, 1956
This significant season suggests some sidelights on freedom: One fact concerning freedom is that we seem so readily to recognize an enemy that assails our freedom with force, but do not always so readily recognize the loss of freedom by quiet encroachment.
Indeed, if something subtly infringes a small step at a time upon an established principle it can often go a long way (like a habit) before we fully know what hold it has on us. Some “freedoms” so-called, have been much talked of, and some have been too far forgotten.
One freedom so cherished in our lives, is freedom from intrusion upon our personal privacy. If the flagrant violation of personal privacy should come upon us all at once, we would no doubt resist it in all earnestness. But the intrusive, quiet encroachments can be a matter of serious concern.
There is another question concerning freedom that should be seriously considered: Having freely received a heritage of freedom from our fathers, how far would we be justified in fettering our children? What obligations should one generation impose upon another?
To what extent can we conscientiously let the future pay for the past—in money or in other matters? Owing so much to our grandfathers, how much should we owe to our grandchildren? How much are we justified in binding the yet unborn? We leave these questions open, as they provocatively suggest themselves, and close with these seldom quoted words from Andrew Jackson’s Farewell Address: “These multiplied favors, we owe, under Providence, to the adoption of the . . . constitution…. Experience… has shown the wisdom and foresight of those who framed it…. [But] no free government can stand without virtue in the people and a lofty spirit of patriotism…. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care.
Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number… May He who holds in His hands the destiny of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts, and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed to your keeping.
My own race is nearly run; … [but] I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty. . ..”1 God grant that we may live and act and so face our own obligations, that our children’s children unto the farthest future may also say, “Thank God my life has been lived in a land of liberty.”
1Jackson’s Farewell Address
July 01, 1956
Broadcast Number 1,402