Spoken Word Messages - Page 91

In every generation there are those who would have us believe in unreality, but sooner or later every generation learns to know that the only source of physical and spiritual strength, and indeed, of survival itself, lies in living close to the bedrock fundamentals. This generalization of an obvious truth calls to mind again the legend of the giant, Anteaus, whose strength was unconquerable so long as he remained in contact with his mother, Earth. Many who were compelled to wrestle with him, so runs the story, not knowing the source of his strength, would throw him to earth, from which be would rise stronger than he fell. But, Hercules, forewarned of these things, lifted him high above the strength-giving earth, where Antaeus weakened and perished. There are inferences to be drawn from this classic myth.

The awareness that another year has been measured out to us is always a sobering experience. But this year, with time pressing for decisions that will intimately affect the lives of all of us, we face the uncompromising reality of a new year with intense effort and prayerful waiting and watching, and always with the question in mind: What kind of world shall we live in tomorrow? On broad lines there are some who feel that they know, in accordance with the revealed purposes of the Almighty, what kind of world we shall live in ultimately, but ultimately is not tomorrow; and among those truly endowed with wisdom, perhaps there are none who would care to answer the question in detail—but of this we may be sure, somewhere along the line, whether it be tomorrow or beyond tomorrow, we shall pay a price for all our mistakes, for all our indifference, for all misdirected action.

If we were to measure the accomplishment of ultimate purposes in terms of the lifetime of any one man or any one generation, many things that are certain of eventual fulfillment would seem to have been vain and hopeless.

As we think upon the approaching Christmas, we become aware that there is much cause for disappointment, much cause for gratitude, and much cause for hope:—Disappointment because there are vacant chairs in many homes; because violence covers the face of earth; and because many causes that men have lived and died for seem to have lost much ground. But withal we are reminded that the world's greatest cause has often seemed to be a lost cause—the cause of right against wrong.

When men are faced with the possibility of solemn and sudden events—when the accustomed. pattern of our living seems threatened—there is a tendency on the part of some of us to give up in our thinking and in our doing, and wait for eventualities. And where this attitude prevails, creative activity has a tendency to cease.

Somehow there comes to mind again an old and well-worn subject — a practice that is tritely described by the phrase "following the crowd." The old and unimpressive excuse that we must do certain things because "everybody is doing them" is quite threadbare. In the first place, everybody isn't doing them.

Ofttimes in the face of some eventuality that has overtaken us, we find ourselves saying regretfully.— "If I had only known, I would have done differently." Sometimes this is true, but more often it isn't the fact that we don't know that gets us into difficulties, but rather that we choose to ignore what we do know.

The course of events which our generation has witnessed has brought to the thoughts and to the lips of many this accusing question: "Why would an omnipotent and all-wise and just and merciful God permit such things to happen?"  Failing to find the answer that brings peace to their troubled hearts, men, in increasing numbers, lose faith and hope and understanding, and cry out in bitterness against God. But they who find themselves asking this question should be reminded that it is neither the practice nor the purpose of the Creator to force men to be good.

We hear much these days, as we always have, concerning the shaping of public opinion. Always a vital concern to men who live together, public opinion has become yet more so with the extension of mass communication, as the spoken word has been added to the printed page in its appeals to the millions. Abraham Lincoln once said: "He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions."— And what was true in his day is true with increased intensity in ours, with our far-reaching facilities for communication, and with the ever-widening control of the sources of information in so much of the world.

There is a very old theme that comes again to mind—so old, indeed, that anyone who presumes to comment upon it, must risk the accusation of being old-fashioned—which, after all, is just a modern way of saying that you are reminding someone of something which makes them uncomfortable—especially if they need to be reminded of it.

There has come within the observation of all of us the type of person who loudly proclaims his right to live his life as he chooses, regardless of what anyone else thinks about it. His contention is that his life is his own, and what he does with it is none of anyone else's business.

It is probable that every thinking man, and it is certain that every generation, has asked the question:  “What is Truth?”  By some truth has been defined as a variable—a relative term.  Those who take this position contend that what is commonly thought to be true by the constituted authorities of any particular generation is true for that time.  That is to say that what is generally believed to be true today, is true for this day. But to say this is also to say that what was believed to be true yesterday was true yesterday. In other words, if a man stands in the pulpit or in the marketplace or in the classroom and proclaims what he and his generation believe to be the truth, it is. said by some that he is speaking the truth.

So sure and unfailing is the certainty with which remorse follows our misdoing, it is greatly to be wondered that men persist in disregarding the rules of life. Perhaps there may be some who would ask what there is to restrain us or to induce us to do otherwise. Certainly not threat of physical punishment. Fear of physical punishment never made a good man in any land in any age.

There comes forward in the train of our thoughts a much-discussed question— the question of. moral force. Moral force is a thing to be reckoned with, is it always has been in the affairs of men. It 'is one of the few weapons in the world that does not become obsolete. It has led many peoples to victory after they have suffered physical defeat. And yet, without it fortresses crumble, guns become useless, and men lose heart and give up. It is one of the few things that a dictator cannot ignore and ride over.

We live in a day when every standard of value is being challenged, and religion has not escaped the challenge. Perhaps this is because men have asked too much of religion and too little of themselves.

One of the widely accepted methods by which we determine the truth or falsity of any theory is that which we call "trial and error"—which is to say in common language, if you have doubts concerning a thing, try it, put it to the test. If it works it is true; if it doesn't it is false. In the physical world, in the world of things and materials, such experimentation has proved its worth many times over, and has led to many great factual discoveries. But every man cannot prove all things by trial and error—nor is it necessary.

One of the scholarly scientists of our day not long ago wrote these words: "We are learning more and more the high cost of discovering the truth about anything. Our subject matter is so complex that we never reach more than half-truths and first approximations." This wholesome admission offers a viewpoint which scholar- ship in all its fields would do well to keep in mind. It is very comforting and significant to the layman, also.

It was said of Ishmael, before he was born: "his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." (Genesis 16:12.) There are some people who remind us of this—people who are against the world and who think that the world is against them.  But there are some things that all honest men are against—-our thoughts, our voices and our feelings are set against the evil that is abroad. We resent the brutality that has been unloosed.

The clamor of voices to which our cars are daily subjected brings strikingly to mind a phrase from the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, in which he said: "There are … so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." (I Corinthians 14:10)

As we send our children off to school, there to spend many of the hours of their lives, many parents are suspected of unburdening a sigh of relief. We are busy people, we parents, especially these days, and with the great pressure of life upon us, too many of us fondly suppose that when we turn our children over to the school or some other public agency, our responsibility ceases.

To certain of His children whose ways were in error there once came from the Lord God a word of sharp reprimand. Of them He said: "They ... have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day." (Doctrine and Covenants 95:6.) It is doubtful if any phrase more trenchantly descriptive of our time has ever been spoken or written in like number of words—"they are walking in darkness at noon-day." 

In times of stress and disturbance, there are always those who rightly know that the ills of the world are the direct result of man's having broken the laws of God—having broken the rules of life. But there are also those who, in such times, cry out that God doesn't exist, because if He did, He would not have permitted men to bring about such unthinkable conditions—those who, in their resentment against the evils of the day, would eliminate God from the universe.

It would seem that we have gone far beyond that point where any mere rationalization of the issues of life would give any of us much satisfaction. We have come to a time when nothing but the bedrock facts will suffice—not only the immediate facts, but the greater facts that underlie all things, and reach beyond the present.

One of the things most evident in our shifting way of life is the severing of old ties, the abandonment of old associations, the uprooting from things to which we have been long attached.

Perhaps the time has come again to remind ourselves that things are not important as our attitude toward them. It is time to remind ourselves of this because material comforts promise to be less of a factor in our lives in the immediate future than they have been in the past.

"Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom." Perhaps we have never before been so much aware of the encircling gloom as we are at this time—a  gloom of hate, of oppression; a gloom of ignorance, and of cynicism; the gloom of lost honor, broken promises, and abandoned morals—a gloom that has cast its pall over the face of earth.

It has been many centuries since David of Old propounded the question, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4) Both before and since that time most thoughtful men have asked themselves the same question, and no doubt it is time to ask it again, because if we know what man is, then we can know how we may expect him to conduct himself, and what kind of world he has a right to live in—and these questions have bearing upon the troubles that rage about us. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" We have often appraised man according to his affluence, according to his environment, according to his rating in somebody or other's "Who's Who?" And sometimes we have appraised men according to their inherited good fortune. But if you strip a man of all these, what is he? Men from every avenue of life are filling the same ranks, wearing the same clothes, marching in the same cause.

It was inevitable that we should have been aware of a difference in this year's observance of July Fourth. There would seem to have been less of noise and more of sober thought, less of unconcern and more of awareness of the facts we face. Somehow or other, the old prescription of fine phrases and fireworks wouldn't have satisfied.

In protest of something of which we disapprove, we often hear the offhand comment: "There ought to be a law against that!" As a matter of fact, somewhere or other in the world, there is a law against almost everything. But multiplicity of laws does not make men good or society safe.

Whenever we want to say something that is very old and very true, to reach and impress the minds of some we have to think of new ways of saying it.