Pioneers Remembered, Pioneers Needed 5/30/48
Scripture: Joshua 1: 1-9
Text: Ezra 8: 18a; “And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding ....”
Last evening our community joined other communities all over Wisconsin in a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the admission of this state into the Federal Union. An elaborate, day-long and long-day celebration was held yesterday in Madison. High lights and salient facts in the history of the State and its local communities have recalled; outstanding personalities named; unusual achievements cited.
Of course an anniversary is a kind of made occasion. The tearing off of another calendar sheet is just a pretext; hardly an event in itself. Many of us have little enthusiasm for worship of the past. And we certainly view with indifference, even irritation, any disposition comparable to that of an old church deacon who, having once been converted, seemed never to have been moved much thereafter. It being still in the days of the mid-week testimonial meeting, common to many earlier churches, he would rise regularly to say, always in substance, and usually in actual repetition, “I may not be making much progress, but I’m established.”
There came a day when this old pillar of his church drove his buggy into a mud hole so deep that the rig sank to the hubs and for some time stayed there. A fellow church man, observing his predicament, could not resist the impish impulse to remark: “Well, deacon, you’re not making much progress, but you’re established.”
One of the most startling, disturbing, interesting observations on the life of Jesus is that he never rested his case with the established pillars of the church in his day. He did uphold the moral law of the ages. He quoted the prophets of old as if he knew them by heart. And from there he moved ahead to the contemporary need of peoples’ souls.
It is possible -- and too often it is a tragic fact -- that we may get so interested and occupied with the lauding of the pioneers that we become content with the rosy aspects of the past and sealed off from the needs of the present and future. The value in an anniversary, or a centennial, is an orientation to the present and a set-of-the-compass for the future.
Now and then a man, who is fairly satisfied with being just a “medium sort of man,” discovers that an ancestor of his was listed in “Who’s Who,” or belonged to some movement of revolutionary importance. And thereupon he holds up his own head a bit higher and realizes that he too ought to be a leader in the good causes of his day.
If a centennial study can do that --- make some new pioneers in the contemporary scene of Wisconsin --- it will have been worth a great deal of the effort poured into it. The pioneers of the past were needed for their day. Our day needs pioneers just as surely. And for us, the leading of some modern pioneers is more important!
Whenever there is lack of able leadership, in the affairs of state, of education, of the church -- the misleading feeling of establishment turns to sure decay. The nation needs pioneers in its diplomacy and policy-forming departments --- not mere adventurers, but great souls and able minds. The Christian church, with the greatest and grandest task ever committed to man needs the leadership of the most able young men and women who can be found.
When the late Mohandes Gandhi was asked what particular qualification is most needed in a man who would lead our weary world out of the bog, he replied confidently, “He must be a man who is conscious of God twenty-four hours of the day.” Gandhi’s regular, hour-long prayer periods every morning and evening do not appeal to our busy minds as a practical use of urgently-needed time. And yet, despite the puny insignificance of his scrawny, homely little physique, his fasts, his imprisonments, his literal home-spun style of living, his dependent poverty -- has any other human spirit been so supremely accountable for real progress in India as has been this one, pioneering, God-conscious life?
Of course, Gandhi really was a well-trained, highly-educated man; comprehensively experienced in the arts taught in Britain’s best schools. But thousands of Oxford graduates, without Gandhi’s soul, have accomplished far less in the leadership of their world. In fact, history sometimes calls some untrained, unknown man to be its pioneer in time of need -- some raw but sincere Abraham Lincoln forr the need of the hour.
What might be the makeup and works of the pioneer of our day? What manner of man can safely lead us in exploring and conquering the wilderness of our own time?
(1) I hope you will not dismiss me lightly when I say that our leaders must be face to face with Jesus and his Calvary. The people who really move in leadership are those who become fired with a great ideal and a great enthusiasm -- awakened, persuaded, “converted” to a new way of life! The only standard of safe leadership that will keep an able man humble, and save him from the sure pitfalls that surround his mortal pride, is that of the Christ.
Count Zinzendorf would trace his Christian activity to the day when he stood, in a little church, before a picture of Christ crucified and read the words: “All this have I done for thee. What hast thou done for me?”
The names of men and women who have been able, in their time, to set their fellow’s eyes to a better day are not found among those established in ease, comfort and security.
There is a medieval story of a monk whose cell was visited by one of lordly and majestic bearing. “Who art thou?” asked the monk. “I am Jesus,” was the answer. Something about the manner of the stranger failed to satisfy the monk and he asked further, “Where is the print of the nails?” Instantly the stranger turned and fled. It was Satan, not Christ. Those who would lead in the Lord’s work, bear the marks of their struggle.
(2) The true pioneer of our time, as of any age, will be one of high idealism -- not of the insulated sort that makes him an easy prey for the conniving ones, but of that spiritual sensitivity which makes one alive to the voice in his soul.
Havelock Ellis remarked that “To be a leader of men, one must turn one’s back on men!” The truth of this paradox is seen in the pitiful contrast between Warren Harding’s cry of “back to normalcy” and the position of his predecessor in the presidency who had said: “I would rather be defeated in a cause which one day will succeed, than be victorious in a cause which one day will be defeated.”
It will take high idealism -- generous quantities of it -- to steer our nation to a decently balanced economy between extremes; on the one hand instruments of production all owned and controlled by a few, and on the other hand nobody “sitting under his own vine and fig tree.”
It will require a battle of idealism to bring about in our country an order in which every boy and girl, whose record of ability and promise warrants it, will have some sort of equalized opportunity for higher education.
The prophet Isaiah said: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” [Isaiah 2: 4]. High idealism has to be translated into programs for action.
(3) The pioneers of any day must be people of character; good character, strong character. It has been observed that “a pebble has the force of a bullet if a David is behind it!” Conviction and courage must go together. The U.S. postal department has just issued a postage stamp engraved with the likeness of 4 chaplains who went down at sea early in the war, in the service of country and of God. Their transport torpedoed and sinking, they went on deck where men were being plunged into the icy Atlantic waters without life preservers. Each of the four chaplains took off his own life jacket and gave it to one of the helpless men. One who looked back at the sinking ship got the last mortal glimpse of the four chaplains, one Catholic, two Protestant, one Jewish, arms about each other praying as they sank.
You remember accounts of the sinking of the great ocean liner “Titanic” 30 years or so ago. A newspaper of that time published two drawings side by side. One showed the giant ship, her hull ripped open like a fragile toy by the iceberg, with this caption: “The weakness of man; the supremacy of nature.” The other picture was a drawing of a distinguished passenger who drew back from the last life boat, giving his place to a woman and her child. Underneath this drawing was this caption: “The weakness of nature; the supremacy of man.” Convictions and courage in character!
One of Paul’s secrets was that he “never knew when he was licked.” The mental and spiritual equipment of the pioneer includes, emphatically, the ability and will to see a matter through.
(4) Again, the pioneers needed must have Christian personality. One of the striking descriptive sentences about Jesus is this: “He filled all the house.” [Acts 2: 2]. When Christ lives in a man, it is as though a great light had been turned on in his soul.
Each of us has something unique, something unlike that possessed by anyone else. When Christ enters a life, that gift become hallowed, made glorious.
There is the “folksy” story told of a man who looked at a girl, the girl unconscious of his presence. He said softly to another onlooker, “What a pretty soul she has!” Often we hear it said, “What a stunning dress” or “what a cute hat” or “Ah, what a lovely form,” or “what a pretty face.” Or the feminine equivalent in comment, “What a handsome fellow,” or “Oh, what a physique.” How incomparably more discerning is the rare remark: “What a splendid soul.” An old sage wrote this wisdom: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” [Proverbs 4: 23]. And when that heart is tied to some great cause, even though it be unpopular, a job of pioneering is being done!
We ought to be good students of history; we ought to know and honor the heroes, the pioneers, of the past; it is a good thing to seize upon special times and occasions for reminding ourselves of the greatness of our family and community and spiritual forebears. But all that study has only one good purpose - to inspire the pioneers of our day. Our time needs not dead heroes, but live, courageous, great-souled men and women, for present- day action in the spirit of accomplishing God’s will.
Someone has remarked on two kinds of people, as he sees them classified; those who say to God, “Thy will be done;” and those to whom God finally says, “Thy will be done.” The choice is ours.
The book of Ezra has these brief but pointed words of grateful appreciation: “By the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding.” That kind of pioneering quality is the need of our day.
---------------
Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, May 30, 1948.