Spoken Word Messages - Page 91

History, both past and present, has given us many examples of those who have supposed that truth was somehow narrowly limited to their particular way of life, to their particular sphere of knowledge and belief.  To all such there is a delightful experience yet to come—the experience that comes when we realize that there is no monopoly on truth. 

The coming of another Easter stirs our thoughts anew to the issues of life, and death, and immortality.  We think much at this season of those whom we cherish who have already departed from us—where are they, and when shall we again behold them?  For answer there are many who cry out from the depths of their hearts. 

In the many complications of our way of life, there is a marked tendency to look upon the problems of men and women as statistical rather personal.  Unless we guard ourselves against it, we are inclined to think of men in terms of classified groups rather than to think of each man as an individual. 

There is a very old subject that has been distasteful to every generation, and which every generation has had to reckon with no matter how distasteful it was.  It isn’t a popular subject—in fact speaking of it at all is commonly thought to be quite old-fashioned

One of the strategists of our day has restated the axiom that it is hazardous either to under-estimate or to over-estimate an enemy.  The soundness of this age-old truth is readily seen when we realize that to under-estimate an enemy means lack of preparedness on our part; and to over-estimate him may mean that we shall defeat ourselves by assuming that we are defeated. 

There is an old word that has come again into daily prominence which often implies some deception or artifice, but which does not necessarily carry with it such implication.  The word is “strategy”.  We hear of the strategy of warfare, the strategy of propaganda, and the strategy of achieving all manner of ends often by deceptive means.  But the most effective strategy is the oldest strategy known to man.  It had no beginning and shall have no end. 

As we face the reality of a restricted economy, we see before us many grasping for things they fear will never come again—or at least no soon.  We have witnessed within recent times, the picture of grim buyers emptying the shelves of merchants against a future which they are fearful will deny them things to which they have become accustomed. 

There is a persistent characteristic of human kind which causes many of us to imagine that we are somehow immune from those things which affect all other men.  One of the best evidences of this feeling of personal immunity is the need that someone found a long time ago for adding the words “This Means You”  to signs which say “Keep Out” and “No Admittance” and other instructions intended to restrict the activities of all comers—in spite of which there are still those to whom it never occurred that it really means them. 

We sometimes hear the phrase, off-handedly spoken, that “It’s a Man’s world after all.”  And there are still a good many men who believe it, and the practice of many centuries would almost seem to make it so.  But fortunately we have come upon a day when it is also a woman’s world. 

There is a persistent trait of human nature which causes most of us to seek refuge in the crowd.  This is easily understandable because we have long since learned to know that few if any of us can enjoy security alone. 

It is a common experience of history that when a man’s physical world begins to crumble, he seeks refuge in the realm of those spiritual and intangible things which he had heretofore ignored or neglected.  When things beyond our control begin to move in upon us—things which neither our money nor our influence nor our goods nor our strong right arm can cope with, we turn for comfort and assurance to those things which are beyond the grasp of men—those things which are known to a few by certain knowledge but which are know to most of us by faith. 

What is happening to us these days is rather readily explained in sociological and economic and statistical terminology.  We read of population displacement, of labor scarcities, of abandoned towns and industries, of old homes forsaken, of new housing projects, of young men inducted, and of many sweeping changes, according to the need and expediency of the hour.  But illuminating as such statistical facts are, what isn’t apparent in these broad, sweeping summaries, is what is happening to people, inside themselves, in their personal lives.  This, no statistical report can possibly reveal, and no general statement can possibly describe, with full meaning. 

With the breathless passing of many days, we have come again upon the first week of a new year, which, while it is fundamentally no different from any other day or time, emphasizes in our thinking the passing of our lives and rapid journey we are all making toward whatever eventualities lie before us.  Countless times these past few days, we have heard countless people wish each other “Happy New Year” with something of an awareness that there was less of conviction in this traditional greeting than there has been at the change of the year in some seasons past.  But, notwithstanding the shadow that has cast itself upon this annual wish, we are still impressed with the overruling fact that every man in his own way is seeking happiness. 

With another new year soon to become a part of the reality of our lives, we contemplate those things which belong to the changeless past, and those things which are yet to come.  And as we look out upon the prospect of the year that lies before us, perhaps that which impresses itself most upon our minds is its uncertainty—all of its undisclosed events.  Sometimes we think if we could only know we could endure all—but that is not the way of this life. 

It had been our hope that we could greet you from Temple Square on this Christmas Sabbath with the world at peace, but this cherished blessing is not ours.  And so we must shape our thinking and our living to the circumstances of Christmas with the world at war-—Christmas with vacant chairs in many homes, and fearful yearning in many hearts.  It isn’t the time to dwell upon the causes of what we see before us, except to say that men collectively have failed to give heed to those rules of life which the Savior of the world proclaimed near two thousand years ago, or even those earlier commandments which Moses brought down from Sinai. 

We hear many these days urging the necessity for faith—faith in the future, faith in God, faith in the ultimate triumph of right, faith in the unknown—but what is this faith that is so freely talked of, but too little understood.  Faith is that quality, a gift of God, that enables men to believe things they cannot see or touch—to trust for things that have not yet happened—to live with confidence that the future will bring that which, in the wisdom of our Father in Heaven, should come to pass. 

One of the most common complaints of mankind is that we know so little about the future.  To most of us the future is closed, except as it may be predicted in general terms by the experience of the past, and except as it has been broadly outlined in scripture.  But so anxious are some to pry into the secrets of specific things to come in their own lives, that they will go to great lengths to consult almost anyone within reach who professes powers beyond the perception of ordinary men.  Before Saul ever consulted the Witch of Endor, and perhaps until the last scene of time shall have been enacted, men have tried and will continue to try to wrest from the great unknown, some inkling of what is yet to transpire. 

Sometimes we build such a strong case for the great virtue of tolerance, that, in doing so, we fail to remember that tolerance, like all other great virtues, can be abused, at which point it ceases to be a virtue.  The misuse of tolerance, or any other virtue, may cause it to defeat its own purpose.  With this in mind, attention is invited to a kind of tolerance that is intolerable—the kind of tolerance that fosters indifference—the tolerance of a man who doesn’t care enough to know, or know enough to care, whether or not his convictions or his rights are being compromised—the tolerance of a man who has a reputation for tolerance because he lacks that sense of responsibility which would lead him to find out whether he is really tolerant, or merely asleep!

Someone has coined the phrase—“Tolerance without compromise”—which briefly expresses an idea that deserves further comment. 

Whenever the subject of justice is discussed, there are always some who would rather talk about mercy.  Justice is not usually attractive to a man facing judgement.  Mercy is much more to his liking.  But the question arises:  Can mercy be permitted to set aside the operation of justice? 

Even in this day of urgent haste and uncertain expediency, there are still among us some who are trying to appraise things in terms of ultimate values.  The gains and losses, the accomplishments and the failures, of each hour or of each day, are not significant, except as they become part of far-reaching achievements and permanent victories.  In business, a profit at the end of one day does not mean that we shall stay in business. 

There is a phrase in the current language of the day that leaves overtones of solemn accusation.  It is the terse five words—“too little and too late.”  Usually it has reference to events of world scope in their physical and material aspects.  But “too little and too late” may well describe a man in his relationships to the fundaments of life itself.  The cry of the prophets of Israel has sounded down the centuries:  “Jerusalem, O turn thee to the Lord, thy God.”  And for brief respite, Jerusalem, and those of other lands and generations have, at times, turned to the Lord, but peace has led them to prosperity; prosperity to vanity, and vanity to greed, strife and evil ways, in the wake of which have come poverty, affliction, and humility, and with humility, a turning again to things of righteousness. 

It is within the experience of all men to seem to remember things that lie beyond the reach of a memory—to seem to recall things that are beyond recall.  Flashes of recollection momentarily light up experiences of the past that are familiar, yet not familiar.

We ofttimes hear people complain of the inadequacy of words.  The stammering student is often heard to say that he knows the answer but can’t express it.  There are times of deep emotion in the lives of all of us that defy the limits of language.  Sometimes in our thinking we border on great thoughts that transcend our ability to reduce them to words.  But this complaint about the inadequacy of words has no reference to any scarcity of talk. 

There is one characteristic that many of us have in common, and that is our unwillingness to believe that which we do not understand.  It requires a man of considerable faith to believe that which he does not or cannot understand.  Lack of understanding ofttimes causes the man of primitive circumstances to doubt or distrust the operation of anything that is not apparent to his limited mind. 

There seems to have come to dwell among us the spirit of escape.  Perhaps it has always been present, but the tenseness of our times makes it more apparent.  We seem to want to escape reality; to postpone the day of settlement; to prefer present pleasure to future happiness; to escape the consequences of our own mistakes.  There are some who seek to escape by borrowing rather than face the restrictions of a sound economy. 

There are prevalent among us two extremes of thought, neither of which must be allowed to dominate our thinking.  One faction supposes that age itself is a virtue, and that time can give the authority of truth to things that are not true.  Those who thus contend fail to perceive that an error, even though it has become traditional, is still an error, and that time alone cannot make truth of anything that is less than truth. 

There is a phrase that has become currently common, in the use of which we often over-indulge, and from which few men are immune, and that is—“wishful thinking.”  Wishful thinking means briefly that we are sometimes guilty of deciding what we would like to believe, what we hope might be true, and then settle down to the complacency of thinking of those things as though they were an accomplished fact. 

In considering last week the question of moral standards we arrived at the obvious conclusion that there must be some basic moral law beyond the whims of men, because where no such law is recognized, chaos is what we always have left.  This conclusion brings us to the question:  Now and by what authority is this basic moral standard fixed. 

An eminent contemporary figure of science is accredited with the statement that “Moral sense is more important than intelligence.”  Of course, all such statements resolve themselves to matters of definition, but it is difficult to see how anyone in his thinking could separate moral sense from intelligence.