Kingdom for a Horse! – Sunday, August 20, 1944
We are often inclined to assume that if we can only dispose of our present pressing problems, the future will take care of itself. The famous line from Shakespeare, “My kingdom for a horse,” has far-reaching implications in the pattern of human behavior. When a man wants a horse, or needs one right now, or thinks he does, a kingdom may seem like a more or less trivial thing. Immediate worries, sometimes even inconsequential ones, often crowd out disproportionately, matters of greater concern. A hungry man will pay an exorbitant price for a sandwich—if he has the price and if he can find the sandwich.
There is another phase of this same problem. We are often inclined to obligate ourselves for more than we can possibly pay—but a time of payment inevitably comes due. We are prone to agree to do more things than we know we can possibly do, as a result of which we find ourselves worried and harassed and crowded from all sides, and we say to ourselves, “If I only get through this, I’ll never do it again.”
We have a tendency to believe that if we can only take care of this one immediate difficulty, if we can only get straight with our creditors this once, if we can only overcome this one embarrassment, if we can only avoid the consequences of this one indiscretion, we’ll never let ourselves get into such a position again. And so, with an immediate worry playing on our minds, we often pay usury to dispose of the problems of the present, while some very real though less immediate worries may be forgotten, because they do not for the moment seem to have their hot breath upon us. And so, it would seem to be well to caution ourselves against supposing that the expedient solving of one immediate problem is to solve the future—because the future will always be coming our way, and it is governed by unchanging principles which have nothing whatever to do with expediency or the facile juggling of daily dilemmas. We might well think twice before offering a kingdom for a horse—until we are sure that we want a horse, and can afford to give a kingdom for it.
Heard over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Aug. 20, 1944. Copyright – 1944.
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August 20, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,783