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I
r that we have lived through a
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Powerful influence in our live
' generation of disillusionment
First world Var--to make world safe for democracy
Horld Court; League of Nations--buildings at Geneva empty shells
A checken in every pot, 2 cars in every garage-~widespread penury
Second world Hero-todestroy the German potential for war--Horganthau
plan--but a new and greater threat has arisen.
Generous foreign aid-~we are still considered an aggressor
Atom bomb and aecurity--hydrogen bomb, and imminent disaster
Disappointments of individual life enough for most men
United Nations-~Korea--international police action
national and international frustrations on tOp of that create an
atmosphere of hopelessness, cynicism, disillusionment, and
loss of faith in mankind.
By far the worst result is the loss of faith in man's ability to meet
and solve his problems.
Are we indeed unable to control the Frankenstein of science?
Are we indeed unable to provide at least a minimum of subsistence
for all God's children, our brothers?
Are we indeed unable to work out a formula for living at peace
with the rest of the world?
Is this system of government and society which we have evolved
in America. admittedly the best the world has ever known,
so instilled with some inherent weakness that it cannot
provide opportunity for supplying the basic physical, social and
Spiritual needs of mankind?
If our answer to any of these questions is "yes," then we have indeed
lost our faith in this creature man, who was created in the image
. 0: God,
we hav no right to be ed at disappointment. Disappointment
V
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is the 'tails' side of a tJL-headed coin, the 'heads' side or which
is hope--dreams, visions
A rock cannot tell disappointment.
A sheep can only be disappointed at being taken from food or shelter.
A dog can rise to a higher level--and in rare cases die for disappoint-
ment that a loved master did not return.
The higher we rise in the scale of existence, the more we are subject
to disappointment. And the peOple who are most subject to
disappointment are those who hold the highest hapes, the noblest
visions, the most beautiful dreams.
He who never loves can never be hurt. .
He who never thinks can never be mistaken,but who will not take that
chance.
Another reason to question our cynicism:
It is not rational -- not hard-headed Judgment.
It is emotionally engendered by contemporary circumstances
Surely we have failed: there is war, poverty, the potential for
disaster.
But remember
1801: Wilberforce: dare not many-~future instilled
1806: Pitt--nothing around us but ruin and disaster
18h8: Lord Shaftsbury -- nothing can save from shipwreck
1852: Wellington-- Thank God and shall be spared the ruin
that is gathering
Yet since then many achievements
Higher concept of individual rights
Material advances the wildest imagination then could not dream
reduce the existen planet to a 50-year span
' It took h9 years to ah the lat primitive agricultural stage
In that 50 year span writing began 6 mos. ago, art and
literature 3 mos. ago, Christianity 2 mos. ago, printing 2
weeks ago, electricity 2 haurs ago, organized efforts for
world peace a few minutes ago, and most of the discouraging
factors I mentioned are events of seconds. I
Viewed in its proper perspective, our adventure on this wandering
planet has Just begun.
Another suspicious factor is the common concept of "possibilities"
Idea: that we stand amid facts, with possibilities no more
visions -- that facts are real, and possibilities are dreall.
If so, that is disastrous, because the actualities of today are '
tragic -- and loss of faith is Justified.
But the reality is that possibilities of life are the facts upon which
existence is built -
1. When the Everglades are converted by drainage to fertility,
the possibility was not Just a dream. It was a faiWch had
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been there for years, and we Just got around to it. '
2. When Columbus discovered America, he did not create something
new. American had been there for ages, always a possibility,
always a hard, substantial fact before as well as after he set
foot on it.
3. When Jesus looked at Peter and said: "Come ye after me, and I
will make you . . ..he was not dreaming. He was sing the
possibilities in the man.
And when in an evil-dominated world he lifted the standard
of human brotherhood, he was seing the possibilities in yen and me,
real, factual possibilities, whether we discover them or not.
I the. possibilitiePacts
Iactx possibility of d as free free eas as Florida from Georgia
sdick, quoting Barking of Harvard: "In a question of possibility,
.
1 negative experience counts for nothing if there is a single positive
Startling -- but Edison, 700 experiments, assistant
-- Robinson Crusoe -- Friday -- footprint
-- Ariatarchua evidence earth went around sun -- and then
Capernicus
- Mankind, evil, and Jesus
That is faith
-- on basis of few lowly hoaea
-- on basis few examples honest government '
We need that faith
Han in 1860: Hartford County, Md. U.S.A.
Some day we will put mankind first
Even the 700 other things fail first
He may say Christ's say of life has failed '
Or that it had not been tried--the possibility is there
If an epidemic, has medicine failed
Or the full application not understood
No -- one lessage
Alia the failures of ear, poverty, corruption we have not yet
begun to fight.
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T t is these possibilities facto Fact: possit '.lity or worE as t'ree froi:-. a:1 m' Flori.. -1 frier; 3.':Ta'i FondI ck, quot trig Hark iny or liarvard: "ht a ques t ion of pose 1 b1 i 1 t-:r negative experience count:1 for riothing i t the:tv is n sing:b' 5-erltiv
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