Life without liberty – Sunday, September 25, 1960
Last week in commenting on the anniversary of what Gladstone called the “…American Constitution,”1 we included some recent quotations from a “Challenge to the Citizen,” by a distinguished judge—and now would cite some further sentences from the same source.
In speaking of forces that would altogether undermine freedom, these sobering contrasts were included, as to the lives of those who live without liberty, with “no right to possess property, real or personal, to travel abroad or live abroad, to read foreign literature, . . . to choose between different candidates with different platforms in the elections . . .. no church . . . to worship God according to . . . conscience, no private organization whatever its importance and value to the community, . . . no right to emigrate, . . . no right to rent an apartment, no right to live by themselves in privacy, no right to print or publish their own or other persons’ writings, no right to support political ideas other than the ideologies of the State Free interchange of thought between friends and family becomes difficult and even dangerous …. deprived of the conceptions of justice and liberty which have inspired men through the ages. The most tragic element in the situation is that [he who lives under such circumstances] comforts himself with the thought that a system, which denies justice and freedom, is right. He is not allowed to see and consider another.”2
With these sobering facts before us, fervently we would say thank God for government by law instead of by men, and for the God-given free agency of man, which gives the right to choose. And now we would close with a fervent plea from a distinguished statesman of our time; “God grant that in his infinite mercy, in his love for his erring children, that spirit of belief and understanding may come to us . . . ere it is too late, and again enkindle in our souls the love of truth over error, of freedom over slavery, of independence over dependence, a reverence for human rights and free local self-government over despotism and tyranny, that shall carry on this free people through the gamut of unnumbered centuries yet to come.”3
1William E. Gladstone, “Kin Beyond Sea”
2Florence E. Allen, U. S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit, Commencement Address, University of Utah, Aug. 26, 1960
3Hon. J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Washington Birthday address, Feb. 22,1935
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, September 25, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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September 25, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,623