Fruits of Freedom – Sunday, July 23, 1950
Perhaps periodically we should look at the principles that prompted the Pioneers and Pilgrims of the past. Mostly they were men who wanted wider opportunity than the ways of the old world offered, who wanted to live according to conscience, who wanted freedom not only for themselves but also for their children and their children’s children. The oppression and abuses which had been imposed upon them and their forebears were ever fresh in their minds, and they proceeded to see, as best they could, that such things should not soon recur. They fought for freedom; they lived for freedom; some of them died for freedom. And we their children have lived to see the fruits of the freedom that was so much cherished by our fathers. And not only we, but the rest of the world, look to this land as the symbol and the substance of the fruits of freedom—a freedom that has done more for more men, that has produced more for more people than any other way has ever been able to do, at any time, under any conditions. But despite the demonstrated fruits of freedom it seems that there are always some who seek to enslave. There are always some who seek to impose their planning and their purposes and their power upon other people. There are also some who have assumed, because freedom is subject to some excesses and abuses, that freedom has failed. Nothing could be further from the fact. It is likely that in this life there will always be abuses. But the fact remains that a finer, fuller, freer way of life has been found when free men have been free to decide for themselves and to realize the rewards of their own efforts. And any man who feels that he has found an acceptable substitute for freedom is mistaken. At this hour we are thankful for the faith, for the purpose, and for the resources that freedom has provided for the defense of freedom. And in all that we do, in all that we are, in all that we sacrifice, we must keep evermost in mind, even in meeting emergencies, that the over-all objective is freedom—the freedom of our fathers, freedom for our children, freedom for us and for all. Thank God that our Pilgrim and Pioneer fathers were mindful that the ultimate end was freedom.
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July 23, 1950
Broadcast Number 1,092