The Spoken Word – Sunday, February 11, 1940
A modern apostrophe to the mountains reminds us of a text from the Psalms: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepth these will not slumber.” (Psalm 121:1-3) Before us are those hills at the crossroads of the West—with their sure footing and their refusal to be moved by the winds of strange doctrine—hills with their strength, their peace, and their quiet assurance—hills that do not run to and from, chasing false Utopias, following after blind leaders—hills that turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but stand with calm majesty on rock foundations, no matter what storms may be raging around them—hills that quietly speak age-old truth to all who will listen and learn. “God give me mountains, and strength to climb up.”
As we walk haltingly through life, repeating the mistakes and learning its costly lessons, we may sometimes be led to wonder why it is not given to us to know more than we know. It would seem logical to suppose that we could do better if we were granted greater perspective—if we had more intimate knowledge of what has gone before and what is yet to come, back beyond the reaches of our memory and forward beyond the limits of our foresight.
But such thoughts are dispelled when we contemplate what does frequently happen when knowledge without judgement and power without conscience are found in the hands of a man.
Such thoughts dissolve themselves when we realize that even now we have pushed the frontiers of abstract learning and material advancement far beyond our spiritual and social progress, and have thereby upset many delicate balances for which we are paying a great price. In the light of such things it is easy to understand that the plan designed by the Creator is the one best suited to the good of man.
And it would seem to be the course of wisdom to seek no greater power or dominion that we can justify by the use we have made of the facts and the forces which are already in our possession.
February 11, 1940
Broadcast Number 0,547