Herbert Gezork - "Discipline" (February 26, 1956; March 7, 1956)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | A gospel according to Saint Matthew 7:14. | 0:13 |
"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way | 0:19 | |
"which leads on to life." | 0:26 | |
I would like to talk to you on a subject, | 0:31 | |
which is not very popular with young people. | 0:35 | |
And for that matter, with the old people either. | 0:39 | |
The subject discipline. | 0:44 | |
Now the word discipline does not fall happily | 0:49 | |
upon modern ears. | 0:51 | |
The whole trend of thinking and living | 0:54 | |
during the last decades has been rather away from discipline | 0:58 | |
talk more and more self-expression. | 1:04 | |
Ridding ourselves of our repressions | 1:09 | |
toward more and more freedom. | 1:14 | |
The Puritans who certainly believed in discipline | 1:18 | |
and practiced it with a vengeance are somewhat pitied today | 1:21 | |
as narrow killjoys who didn't know how to live. | 1:30 | |
Discipline is frowned upon as something | 1:38 | |
that produces lifeless, dispirited, unhappy people | 1:40 | |
that lack all bounds and joy of life. | 1:45 | |
Now let me say that I am heartily in sympathy | 1:52 | |
with this trend toward more and more freedom. | 1:55 | |
I myself was brought up in Germany. | 2:01 | |
And in that particular part of Germany, | 2:05 | |
which has become somewhat famous for its ruthless discipline | 2:08 | |
in Prussia. | 2:14 | |
As children, we did not talk to our elders | 2:16 | |
unless we were first talked to. | 2:20 | |
I could count the times that I was permitted | 2:24 | |
to stay out later than 10 o'clock | 2:29 | |
out of the house of my parents. | 2:32 | |
Until I left their home at the age of 18, | 2:36 | |
I could count those times on the fingers of my two hands. | 2:40 | |
If I would try to bring up my children that way, | 2:47 | |
I would have a domestic rebellion on my hands. | 2:49 | |
So I don't even try. | 2:53 | |
I remember what I taught at Wellesley College, | 2:59 | |
we had one day, a Chinese diplomat, | 3:01 | |
the Chinese have the old school lecturing to the students. | 3:05 | |
And in the course of his lecture, he told that neither he, | 3:11 | |
nor his wife had had anything to say about their choice | 3:14 | |
as mutual life partners, as husband and wife. | 3:19 | |
It had all been decided for them | 3:24 | |
by their respective families, their parents. | 3:28 | |
And I looked into the eyes of the students | 3:33 | |
as they listened to that. | 3:35 | |
And I could just imagine what went on in their minds. | 3:37 | |
How they thought what chance for romance | 3:42 | |
under conditions like that. | 3:48 | |
Moonlight and roses, all the goes with romance. | 3:51 | |
As romances go nowadays, one is almost inclined | 3:56 | |
to say what chance for moonshine and four roses | 3:59 | |
under conditions like that. | 4:02 | |
We are a long way from that and thank God for that. | 4:09 | |
Even in this context, it is only a few generations | 4:14 | |
that have seen a tremendous loosening up | 4:21 | |
of discipline imposed from without. | 4:24 | |
You here in a university community. | 4:29 | |
I do not know what rules and restrictions I hear, | 4:34 | |
but the other day I came across a set of rules of admission | 4:39 | |
that all new students have to sign | 4:43 | |
before they were permitted to enter the college, | 4:47 | |
a college, which is now one of our famous women's colleges | 4:51 | |
in New England. | 4:55 | |
And this is only about two generations ago. | 4:56 | |
I want just to read two or three of those rules to you. | 5:00 | |
No young lady shall become a member of this school | 5:05 | |
who cannot Kindle a fire, wash potatoes | 5:08 | |
and repeat the multiplication table. | 5:11 | |
Outfit; no cosmetics, perfumeries or fancy soaps | 5:15 | |
will be allowed on these premises. | 5:19 | |
Exercise; every member of this school shall walk | 5:22 | |
at least a mile every day, unless a flood, earthquake | 5:25 | |
or some other calamity prevent. | 5:29 | |
Time at the mirror; no member of this institution | 5:35 | |
shall tarry before the mirror | 5:38 | |
more than three consecutive minutes. | 5:40 | |
Reading; no member of the school shall devote | 5:43 | |
more than one hour each week to a miscellaneous reading. | 5:47 | |
Strictly forbidden, the Atlantic Monthly, Shakespeare, | 5:51 | |
Scott's novels, Robinson Crusoe and immoral works. | 5:55 | |
Earnestly recommended for light reading | 6:01 | |
are the Boston Recorder, the Missionary Herald | 6:04 | |
and Washington's farewell address. | 6:07 | |
Company; no member of the school is expected | 6:11 | |
to have any male acquaintances | 6:15 | |
unless they are retired missionaries. | 6:18 | |
Well, there you are. | 6:25 | |
That was discipline with a capital D. | 6:28 | |
And no one wants to return to that. | 6:33 | |
And yet, after all is said, | 6:37 | |
I still want to strike a blow for discipline, | 6:41 | |
for the two, freedom and discipline belong together. | 6:46 | |
And one without the other becomes dangerous and destructive. | 6:51 | |
Discipline without freedom becomes suppression, | 6:56 | |
tyranny, degradation. | 6:59 | |
And those of us who had to live on the totalitarian regime | 7:01 | |
as I had too, for some years, we know what that means, | 7:04 | |
how under it, man become something like a cringing dog. | 7:08 | |
But freedom without discipline becomes disorder, | 7:14 | |
this integration, anarchy. | 7:17 | |
And there men, in HG Well's apt phrase becomes a raving mob. | 7:20 | |
You see, human life is built like a Gothic cathedral | 7:29 | |
on the principle of balanced trust. | 7:34 | |
Every new arch must be braced with a new foundation. | 7:39 | |
If you raise the attitude or widen the knave, | 7:44 | |
you will need stronger buttresses. | 7:48 | |
And so the problem in our modern life | 7:51 | |
with its expanded freedoms is that we so easily forget | 7:54 | |
that the greater the freedom, the stronger must be | 7:59 | |
the inner discipline to keep it in balance. | 8:03 | |
The prophet Isaiah has a word with reference | 8:09 | |
to his own people that is well applied here | 8:11 | |
when he says once, "Lengthened your ropes | 8:15 | |
"and strengthen your stakes." | 8:18 | |
And everyone who has ever pitched a tent | 8:21 | |
knows what that means. | 8:23 | |
If you will made the tent wider, | 8:27 | |
if you lengthen your ropes, | 8:29 | |
you must get stronger stakes and dig them deeper | 8:31 | |
into the ground or the whole thing | 8:34 | |
would tumble about your ears. | 8:35 | |
Increased extension calls for increased stability. | 8:39 | |
And so it is well for us to remember | 8:45 | |
that as our freedoms have extended and disciplines | 8:48 | |
from without, imposed from without | 8:52 | |
have become less than less, it would be tragic | 8:54 | |
if we do not build up within us, discipline, | 8:57 | |
in order to balance this greater freedom. | 9:02 | |
Look about you and observe. | 9:07 | |
Anyone who has ever accomplished anything worthwhile | 9:10 | |
in almost any field of human endeavor, | 9:14 | |
you will see that one of the ingredients of his | 9:19 | |
or her success has been discipline. | 9:23 | |
Sport. | 9:29 | |
Can you ever think of somebody becoming a champion | 9:31 | |
in his field who constantly breaks the training rules? | 9:35 | |
Science. | 9:42 | |
I hope that all of you at some time or other | 9:45 | |
will read the moving biography of Marie Curie | 9:47 | |
written by her daughter, even so well translated | 9:52 | |
by Vincent Sheean. | 9:55 | |
It is a moving theme to a watch this young Polish girl | 9:58 | |
so desperately poor, working away and studying | 10:02 | |
in France and Paris, | 10:07 | |
sacrificing everything, subordinating everything. | 10:10 | |
Suffering hunger and cold but with one objective, | 10:14 | |
I want to become a scientist. | 10:18 | |
And one day she would stand before her mankind, | 10:23 | |
honored by the great of this world, | 10:27 | |
because she had given to the world (indistinct). | 10:30 | |
Art: You sit in Carnegie Hall in New York | 10:35 | |
and listened to Arthur Rubinstein playing the piano. | 10:39 | |
And it is as if you are lifted up into another world | 10:42 | |
of beauty and power, and you're so easily forget | 10:45 | |
that behind it, there are the endless hours and days | 10:49 | |
and weeks and years of practicing, practicing, practicing, | 10:54 | |
playing the scales. | 11:01 | |
Yes. | 11:04 | |
In these and so many other areas, | 11:06 | |
it is true what Jesus said, "Straight is the gate | 11:09 | |
"and narrow is the way." | 11:14 | |
Have you ever thought about this, | 11:17 | |
that there is something narrow about all true greatness. | 11:19 | |
The narrowness of concentration, | 11:25 | |
the narrowness of dedication, | 11:29 | |
the narrowness of unflinching loyalty | 11:33 | |
to an adopted course. | 11:37 | |
And that is discipline. | 11:40 | |
Or take the area of human relations. | 11:45 | |
The relationship between man and woman. | 11:49 | |
Now, we Americans certainly are interested in love, | 11:54 | |
aren't we? | 11:57 | |
Judging from what one hears most of the time on the radio, | 12:00 | |
we seem hardly to be interested in anything else but love. | 12:04 | |
The other day driving my car across the country | 12:09 | |
and pushing the five buttons on the radio in my car, | 12:12 | |
one after the other from every one of them, | 12:16 | |
some voice sang or crooned or groaned or sobbed | 12:20 | |
or whined about love. | 12:25 | |
Well, that is all right. | 12:29 | |
But here again, what is it that we want? | 12:33 | |
If the fleeting gratification of our senses. | 12:40 | |
Dr. Kinsey calls it outlet, is all we want. | 12:45 | |
If the success of thrills of flirtations and conquests | 12:53 | |
and the fuss is all that we expect, | 12:57 | |
then my friends, there is not much need for discipline. | 13:02 | |
Then you might just as well let yourself go. | 13:05 | |
But if we think of love in great and profound terms, | 13:11 | |
where all body and soul, emotion and will, | 13:18 | |
the fire of passion and the quiet, steady flame | 13:25 | |
of serene companionship, | 13:30 | |
the sharing of suffering and the sharing of joy, | 13:34 | |
where they all blend together in one great | 13:39 | |
and fulfilling and lasting and rich | 13:42 | |
and incomparable experience, | 13:46 | |
there must be discipline, self control. | 13:51 | |
The subordination of the purely animalic | 13:57 | |
under the spiritual. | 14:01 | |
If you want that, if you want that, | 14:05 | |
don't forget discipline or else you'll never get it. | 14:11 | |
Here too, straight is the gate and narrow is the way | 14:17 | |
that leadeth onto life. | 14:23 | |
And as one looks upon the American scene and upon the mess | 14:26 | |
that millions of people make out of their relationships, | 14:29 | |
in marriage and out of marriage, | 14:36 | |
one might well wastefully at the word of Jesus here too. | 14:40 | |
And few there be that find it. | 14:45 | |
Go still one step further into the realm of religion. | 14:52 | |
Now, most of you in this congregation | 14:59 | |
are probably Protestants | 15:01 | |
or come from what we call the Protestant tradition. | 15:04 | |
And I want to speak very frankly for a moment to you | 15:10 | |
about this. | 15:13 | |
You know that at the heart of Protestantism | 15:16 | |
stands this ideal of freedom. | 15:19 | |
There are other religious communities within Christendom | 15:23 | |
where all the strict disciplines are imposed | 15:28 | |
upon the believers so that they gradually become | 15:32 | |
the very pattern of their living. | 15:36 | |
Beginning in early childhood, the regular prayers, | 15:39 | |
the faithful attendance in church, in mass and so forth. | 15:44 | |
Now, we in Protestantism have broken away | 15:52 | |
from a good deal of all that. | 15:55 | |
We have proclaimed the freedom of the individual soul | 15:59 | |
before his God, with which no one, | 16:02 | |
no ecclesiastical authority, no priest should interfere. | 16:06 | |
We have rejected many of the disciplines | 16:14 | |
that are practiced in other religious communities. | 16:17 | |
But see to what this freedom has led in so many cases, | 16:23 | |
to a careless indifference, | 16:28 | |
to a flabbiness of religious life, | 16:32 | |
where everybody thinks he can do as he pleases, | 16:36 | |
where he follows his mood. | 16:39 | |
Where religion simply become something to get comfort from. | 16:44 | |
Perhaps a help to stop worrying. | 16:49 | |
A cult of happiness, | 16:53 | |
where all demands are ignored and rejected | 16:56 | |
as an unbearable intrusion upon the individual freedom. | 16:59 | |
I'm reminded of the answer that a boy | 17:05 | |
gave to a friend of mine who was a minister in Boston. | 17:07 | |
And when this minister visited the hospital | 17:12 | |
and came to the bed of this 14 or 15 year old boy, | 17:14 | |
he asked him, "And what church do you go to?" | 17:18 | |
And like a flash, his answer came, | 17:22 | |
"Sir, I am a Protestant, I don't have to go to any church." | 17:24 | |
If this goes on, if this should be the pattern of the future | 17:32 | |
for Protestantism, | 17:37 | |
then I honestly believe it doesn't have any future. | 17:38 | |
And people eventually might well return | 17:45 | |
to an authoritarian religion | 17:47 | |
where disciplines are imposed from without | 17:49 | |
or they may go on to a godless secularism | 17:52 | |
as it has happened in other countries, | 17:57 | |
which will create only that kind of spiritual vacuum | 18:01 | |
into which then the godless faiths and creeds | 18:05 | |
and new idolatries of our time will pour in. | 18:08 | |
That has happened in other lands. | 18:12 | |
We're now in the Lenten season. | 18:19 | |
And this is for every Christian, a time for earnest | 18:22 | |
self searching for the examination of his spiritual life. | 18:26 | |
When we should meditate upon what God did for us | 18:34 | |
through Christ, | 18:38 | |
but also upon what we should do for Him. | 18:40 | |
This is the time to ask ourselves, what is my religion? | 18:47 | |
Is it merely a matter of passing moods, | 18:54 | |
of comfortable habit? | 18:59 | |
A means getting something from God for myself. | 19:02 | |
How much is there in my religion of real self denial, | 19:08 | |
of self giving, of subordination of that which I want | 19:12 | |
to that which God wants. | 19:18 | |
The cross of Christ teaches us many things, | 19:23 | |
but certainly among them is this, | 19:28 | |
that nothing truly great is ever achieved without sacrifice. | 19:32 | |
And at the beginning of all sacrifice stands discipline. | 19:40 | |
Ultimately, everything I have tried to say | 19:50 | |
comes back to one question, | 19:55 | |
do you care? | 20:00 | |
Do you care? | 20:03 | |
If you do not care for a music, | 20:07 | |
then the playing of the scales becomes a wearisome business. | 20:09 | |
If you do not care for science, | 20:15 | |
then the wrestling with its formula | 20:17 | |
becomes a boring treachery. | 20:20 | |
But if you care, then you will gladly accept the discipline | 20:24 | |
and it is then not a burden, but a satisfaction. | 20:31 | |
If you care deeply for another person, | 20:37 | |
then you will be happy in the discipline of loyalty | 20:42 | |
and faithfulness and it will not be a sacrifice, but a joy. | 20:45 | |
And if you care deeply enough for God, | 20:55 | |
then to worship Him, to seek communion with Him, | 21:01 | |
will become as indispensable to you | 21:09 | |
as the air that you breathe and the bread that you eat. | 21:13 | |
The choice is yours. | 21:23 | |
Straight is the gate and narrow is the way. | 21:29 | |
Let us pray. | 21:39 | |
Lord, let us not be hearers of Thy word only, | 21:50 | |
but doers also. | 21:54 | |
And grant that what we have said with our lips, | 21:58 | |
we may truly believe in our hearts | 22:04 | |
and practice in our lives | 22:08 | |
and in Thy mercy, keep us ever faithful. | 22:12 | |
And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. | 22:19 | |
The Lord make His face to shine upon you | 22:25 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 22:28 | |
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you | 22:32 | |
and give you peace this day and forevermore. | 22:37 | |
Amen. | 22:46 | |
(choir sings) | 22:51 |