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Our character is what distinguishes us from others. It is the way we think and act when no one is looking, when we are sure no one will ever find out what we have done. It is what we really are, not what others think we are.
The balm of Gilead is a substance obtained from the sap of a small evergreen tree, with aromatic branches that supposedly soothed and healed. As song1 says, the healing was not always of the body, but of the "sin-sick soul" as well.
No compassionate, loving person can condone the violence that seems so widespread in the world today. Recent events at the XX Olympiad in Munich have gained world-wide attention and quickly bring to mind the troubled conditions which plague our planet.
"Home, home, sweet, sweet home, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."1 For most of us, no matter who we are or where we go in life, there is always a particular place in some corner of the world we can call our own. And there is no better way to appreciate this spot than to be away from it. Those who spend much of their time travelling are the first to admit that the best part of any trip is the return home.
Every Sunday for more than 43 years, the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir has broadcast one of the great joys of life - the sound of music. Today the Choir celebrates its 125th anniversary. The group began singing in 1847, beneath a wooden bowery in Salt Lake City. Over the years thousands have belonged to the Choir and millions of notes have been sung, all in an effort to express the joys of life through song.
Life for all of us has its problems. It has been said that life is a problem-solving existence which will defeat us if we let it. But I has also been said that no man ever sank under the burden of one day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added that the weight becomes unbearable.
When Paul Revere made his famous ride through the streets of Boston, he did so because of love and reverence for this country – a young and threatened land that held promise of hope and glory. And he was willing to do it because he must have realized that freedom is not easily obtained that it does not come without effort and sacrifice.
One of the world's most vibrant and challenged groups is today's youth. According to the 1970 census, in the United States alone, nearly one-half of the population is under twenty-five years of age. And more than ha If of that number - over fifty-six million - are between the ages of ten and twenty-five.
There is in each of us the seed of self-control, the power to be master of our own character, to act according to our own conscience. But there is also a passion which often gets in the way of self-mastery. It is the loss of one's temper, and it has resulted in more tragedy and sorrow than any other human trait. William Jordan said, "The second most deadly instrument of destruction is the gun - the first is the human tongue."1
There is much we do in life that is courageous, even though we may not think so at the time. Courage is a basic human quality. It gives man stability, confidence, a spirit of self-determination.
Every person who has lost someone close to them, and I suppose that includes nearly all of us, knows the heartache that comes from the death of a loved one. Such sorrow apparently was felt by Stephen Foster when he wrote "Gentle Annie." And such feelings seem to have prompted him to ask, "Thou art gone ... Annie ... Shall we nevermore behold thee, never hear thy ... voice again?"1
Disagreement among people is a common, perhaps even necessary part of our daily existence. But too often we feel that because someone's point of view is different from ours, he is our enemy and must be stopped. As such thoughts grow, disagreement soon turns to violence, and that is a sad comment on life.
Recently a friend of mine lost his father, suddenly and without warning. My friend's sorrow was not only at his father's passing, but also because it had been a long time since he had told his father how much he thought of him.
The dreams and hopes we all have in life will never be realized by just waiting and hoping they'll come true. It takes an effort on our part. If we are to accomplish anything we must be willing to accept the challenge of searching, waiting, trying, perhaps failing, and trying again. Success requires a constant effort, a perseverance every day of our lives. Yet too often we are willing to give up too easily - to leave the challenge for someone else.
From the diary of Anne Frank, we read: "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be amidst the simple beauty of nature."1
Much has been said and written - especially by the young - about peace in the world, but as Max Lerner said, "You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace."1
"Not all lost then was our hope, Our proud hope so old yet new ... "1
As we ponder life and the problems that face us every day, we are ofttimes stunned at what seems to be a lack of solutions to our problems. As we look to our future - especially the young - we could easily become discouraged and filled with despair at its prospects.
Nearly two thousand years ago Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, stood with others, before a huge, rock cave which was being used as a tomb - and found it empty. Already they had suffered extreme grief and misery, and then an added disappointment. But soon they, and millions of others since, learned that their dis appointment was not another cruel injustice by men, but rather the greatest event in his tory: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.1
Last week we spoke of not wasting the time we have, of not idly dreaming about tomorrow at the expense of today.
"To everything there is a season, … A time to be born, ... a time to die ..."1 And, may we add, a time to live, and that time is NOW! "Look to this day," is written in Sanskrit, "for it is life, the very life of life." Too often we are not content with the moment and wish it to rush on. Too often we wish the present hour would pass so we could hurry to the next, and hope that it, too, will quickly pass.
The words of Emerson' suggest there is something stronger than material force - something more than just what we can see and feel and smell and touch. Thoughts rule the world, indeed, mankind. "We are what we think," is a common saying. Thoughts, it seems, are the starting place for all that ever has been.
On the surface it might seem that we today have few of the problems of Valley Forge, and that they had few, if any, of ours. But the principles and the problems that pertain to people basically are quite constant.
We cite one of Dostoevsky's characters who was facing a fatal illness, and who had this to say concerning health: "Oh, now I don't care, now I've no time to be angry," he said, "but ...how I used to dream ...how I longed to be turned out into the street ... to be deserted and utterly alone, without lodging, without work, without a crust of bread, without relations, without one friend in a great town, hungry, beaten ... but healthy ... then I would show them."1
Two essentials for a good and effective life are flexibility and firmness - flexibility in some things and an adamant and absolute immovability in others. Frequently we hear it said that times have changed.
The words of an old song suggest a subject: "Let us oft speak kind words to each other, At home or wher-e'er we may be ... "1 Negatively, it suggests another subject: the opposite of kindness, which is cruelty. There is so much need of kindness, and yet so many kinds of cruelty - the physical kind and sometimes the almost crueler, subtler kind - the cruelty of sarcasm, the cruelty of indifference, the cruelty of neglect, the cruelty of ignoring people, of making them feel small, inadequate, foolish, or frustrated.
There is a proverb that says: “Believe no tales from an enemy’s tongue.” But perhaps we can believe our own examination of ourselves.
One of the most gracious and considerate men of our acquaintance, and one of the busiest also, puts at ease those who come to call by giving them his complete attention. Many people seem preoccupied when others are talking to them, and the split attention is obvious. It is difficult to talk to people who are thinking two ways at once. This tendency has many manifestations. There are those, for example, who only give half attention in their offices, who only give half attention in an interview, those who only give half attention when receiving instructions, those who try to read or study while looking at or listening to entertainment. This two-way attention is hardly effective for either purpose. Perhaps all of us have sat in church or in a classroom and received credit for being present when the thinking part of us really wasn't there.
“Build the more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!”1 This is more than a line of finely phrased poetry. It suggests we must not be indifferent, or resigned, or smugly satisfied with ourselves.
There is maxim quoted in Don Quixote which this day somehow suggests: "Where one door shuts, another opens. . .."1 We come to an end and find a beginning.