Things That Last 10/19/41
Scripture: Hebrews 12: 25-29.
The apostle Paul was one of the most solidly dependable and courageous men of history. Probably that is why so many of his letters were carefully saved by the people, and were read and re-read, and finally made a part of the sacred Scriptures of the Christian Church. His letters encouraged people to face all sorts of difficulties and dangers for what is right; encouraged them to be what they ought to be and could be.
Some solid character appears in the second letter which he wrote to the Thessalonian people when he says (II Thess. 2: 2) “...we beseech you - - that ye be not soon shaken in mind..”
Some other things were being shaken, as they are being shaken now, while we live. Paul advised people to occupy their minds with things that can not be shaken down - things that last. When he was writing another letter to the Hebrew people, he used this sentence: “And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” That sentence is not crystal clear. It takes several readings before the meaning begins to come out of it. Even those who have tried translating it, from the time of the King James scholars to Professor Goodspeed, and others of our day, have had trouble with it.
One thing seems clear about the sentence, however. It is full of contrasts. Some things can be shaken - even pushed over. Some things can not be shaken. They are permanent. Much that can be shaken ought to be pushed over and cleared out of the way in order that the permanent things may occupy the minds of people.
Probably Paul was, in those words, saying something like this: “Things are being shaken. Very well! Let them shake! They are man-made, anyway, and not well-made either. Besides, they are being shaken in order that those things that cannot be shaken may endure.”
Those words could have been written for us, today. Our world of experience is much like the world of Paul’s. There is confusion in the affairs of mankind. Some of the old customs are ignored or scorned. There is a feeling of insecurity and of uncertainty as to what the immediate future may hold in store for us.
Are our homes of the future going to be like homes of the past? Will our country continue to be the same kind of United States of America which our parents have known and our grandparents knew? Will our churches have the highest place among the constructive forces in our civilization? Will people cherish their faith in a personal God, in the leadership of Christ, in the finality of the Bible’s truth? What are the things that shall stand during the shaking and testing of our confused life in this decade? What ought to last?
I venture to suggest several things that I think ought to endure and I believe will endure.
1) Consider the habit of careful thinking. This is being terribly shaken just now. Some governments have practically said to their people, “Never mind thinking for yourself. You will be told what to think. Whatever we wish you to believe, we will repeat over and over again until you do believe it! Do exactly as you are bidden. Say only what you are permitted to say. Think what you are told to think!”
Now that shaking has had alarming success in Germany, in Russia, in Japan and elsewhere. It is even felt now and then among other peoples. We shall be fortunate if our right to think in America is not shaken some more! But truth will endure. And there will always be some who will try, despite every obstacle and danger, to learn what is true. Some men will still want to know, “What are the facts?” and will seek to find them just as they sought to read the printed Bible when it was forbidden.
We need one word of caution on this matter, however. While we try to think carefully, we ought to guard against a skeptical attitude which only tears down the ideals and enthusiasms of folk. Careful thinking is critical thinking. But let the criticism be constructive.
2) Another thing that will abide is the known and tested value of certain moral standards. A man’s “yes” must mean “yes” and his “no” must mean “no.” One of the things that has broken down the confidence which one nation ought to have in another is the feeling that the word, the treaties, the promises of some governments can not be trusted. Neither nations nor neighbors can be at peace with each other unless they can work together in the confidence that their promises will be kept even to the point where they hurt.
People will always admire courage rather than cowardice, faithfulness rather than fickleness, honesty rather than trickery, integrity, generosity and kindness rather than carelessness, greed and malice. The old moral values endure. Part of our present day confusion is only the breaking of our own heads on the stone wall of the enduring moral order.
3) Another thing that lasts is friendship. People cannot live without it. The possession of differing degrees of power, or wealth, or culture, or social prestige does not change, one bit, people’s need of friendship. When one is sick, when death strikes close, when bitter disappointment comes, about all that is left that matters is friendship. That is why the breaking of a friendship through dishonesty or infidelity is such a bitter experience. We depend on our friendships! Whether the day goes well or ill, whether triumph or humiliation has come, even in the midst of pride and self-sufficiency, any man likes to feel, and needs to feel, that there is someone who is glad he is alive.
4) Let the world be shaken. Courage still abides. It will endure simply because it is a fundamental demand upon life. This universe has a way of saying to people in a number of ways, “You must. You must do thus and so.”
Sometimes it says “you must take this place of leadership because there is no one else who can do exactly what you are qualified to do.” Sometimes it says, “You must go on without your property even though it is taken from you by circumstances you can’t control. Your only glory is to go ahead!” Sometimes it says, “You must go on without your husband or your wife, without your father or your son.”
A man walking down a street in New Haven one Christmas season was greeted by an old woman who had sold him Christmas wreaths for a number of years. An old man had always been with her. They had worked together. This year she was alone and the customer said to her, “You are alone this year.” “Yes,” she said, “My husband was killed a few weeks ago, while chopping in the woods. But I have to go on with the wreaths; Mister, there’s a pretty one!”
Isn’t that grand? Who would think of trying to break down anything so fine? There she is, matching her puny strength against the demands of the Universe! When life says to her, “You must,” she replies quite simply, “I can.” There is courage, as lasting as the rocks of Rib Hill.
5) And God abides. Unhappily, there is some disagreement about this. At least one government (Russia) has decreed, “Down with God.” (Which, of course, doesn’t prove anything except that that government and people are trying to escape from a mistaken idea.) No running away and no decree will make the slightest difference to a fact. And the fact is that man always seeks some lasting, eternal ground to validate his ideals and his efforts. People must still find that deep undergirding purpose that we can not get on without. Men must still find God.
The effort to find Him in the party, to find Him in the class; in the state; in the Emperor; or in the achievements of man falls short of the Hebrew-Christian discovery that God is in the moral order.
It is only man’s ideas about God, and man’s mistaken searchings that fail. God still abides, eternally.
6) And Christ abides. To be sure, some of man’s doctrines about Christ have been shaken and will be shaken some more. Some of the superstitions about Christ, some of the creedal statements about Christ have fallen. But nobody has succeeded in doing away with him.
I think it is because life is never all the way a clearly-marked, straight concrete road. It fades out to a trail, and sometimes to sheer wilderness from time to time. And we do not forget anyone who blazes through a trail which we can follow.
Men will still say, “Jesus Christ found the trail of life and left it marked for me.” They will see in him more than trail-maker. They also recognize in him the Master Craftsman in the high art of living. People are going to continue the discovery that Jesus was right in what he had to say about God and about living.
Things are shaking, are they? Well, let them shake! Nobody who is responsible has ever promised us an easy life or an effortless existence or a secure future. But when the things that can be shaken down have fallen, we shall still see, above the quakings and the storm, the things that last eternally.
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dates and places delivered:
Wisconsin Rapids, October 19, 1941
W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, November 19, 1941