How blessed can a people be – Sunday, November 18, 1956
When news disturbs us from around the world, we sometimes spend uneasy hours, and, in considering uncertainties, might sometimes feel sorry for ourselves. But if we had a choice of troubles, after looking all around, surely, we would choose to retake our own troubles — with all else that is ours.
Think of those, who, in their lifetime, have seldom had enough to eat; of those who have seldom been fully satisfied as they have left the table.
Think of those who have never known the freedom for which our fathers fought — a kind of freedom that is very rare in the world.
Think of the blessed blessing of lying down to sleep at night without fear; of the blessed blessing of knowing where tomorrow’s food is coming from; and of freedom to think, to plan, to work; to have a choice, to be able to change jobs; and to worship where and how we want; to vote and have the vote mean something at the ballot box; and to go where we want — to the mountains or the sea or the valleys in between; and of freedom to teach our children, to gather them around us, to see them grow up breathing the air of freedom.
How blessed can a people be? And how grateful should a people be? So good to us has been the Lord God — so good, that if we were grateful all our days, and showed it by our service, and by keeping His commandments, still would we not be grateful enough for all that is ours.
There come to mind some lines from Lincoln given to a nation some ninety years ago, and needed, we think, no less now: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. . . .”1
In the midst of many blessings, thank God for all that He has given: for all we have from Him who made us in His image — for life, for truth, for family and friends, for all that sustains us; for bringing us through another year, another succession of the seasons, with seed to plant and with the harvest that we have, with faith, and with the blessing of willing work; with life here and the assurance of everlasting life with our loved ones. And now to return a moment to lines from Lincoln— “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy, It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice . . . as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens . . . for singular deliverances and blessings … [and] with humble penitence….!2
1Abraham Lincoln, National Fast Day Proclamation, March 30, 1863.
2Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Thanksgiving, October 3, 1863.
November 18, 1956
Broadcast Number 1,422