Antaeus – Sunday, January 10, 1943
In every generation there are those who would have us believe in unreality, but sooner or later every generation learns to know that the only source of physical and spiritual strength, and indeed, of survival itself, lies in living close to the bedrock fundamentals. This generalization of an obvious truth calls to mind again the legend of the giant, Anteaus, whose strength was unconquerable so long as he remained in contact with his mother, Earth. Many who were compelled to wrestle with him, so runs the story, not knowing the source of his strength, would throw him to earth, from which be would rise stronger than he fell. But, Hercules, forewarned of these things, lifted him high above the strength-giving earth, where Antaeus weakened and perished. There are inferences to be drawn from this classic myth.
One such is the reminder that close living to the good earth is a source of physical and moral and spiritual strength. This is the verdict of history as far back as time goes, and those peoples and those nations and those civilizations which have forgotten it, have not fared well in times of crisis. Those who live in crowded places too often do not realize how utterly dependent we are upon the products of the soil, until the normal flow of those products is for some cause curtailed or diverted. Then with rude shock we suddenly realize how far we have allowed ourselves to drift away from the things that really sustain life.
There is another application of this ancient story. Sometimes men, in the ignorance of their small wisdom, presume themselves to be all sufficient in matters of mind and of spirit and withdraw themselves from that God and Father in whose image they were made. A dwarfing of mentality, and a blighting of the spirit within, are the result, and what follows is worse than physical failure, because it affects that part of man which is immortal—even his spirit and intelligence.
These inferences from the story of Antaeus give us our clue to the shallowness of some of the things we do. Uprooted and suspended by another kind of Hercules—a way of life neither quite touching heaven or earth—men risk succumbing to the spirit of living from hand to mouth, stripped of physical reserves, weaned away from self-dependence, and lacking in spiritual perception. Thus life crowds in upon those who, like Antaeus, don’t keep their feet on the ground—who remove themselves too far from the fundamental sources of physical and spiritual strength.
By RICHARD L. EVANS, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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January 10, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,699