Herbert Gezork - "Discipline" (February 26, 1956; March 7, 1956)

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-	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

Item Info

Title:

Herbert Gezork - "Discipline" (February 26, 1956; March 7, 1956)

Description:

Discipline is necessary in all aspects of life, as well as in faith. If one loves deeply and has true faith, then the sacrifice that comes with discipline will hardly feel like a sacrifice at all. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "The cross of Christ teaches us many things, but certainly among them is this: that nothing too great is achieved without sacrifice, and at the beginning of our sacrifice stands discipline."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43b61905

Date:

February 26, 1956
March 7, 1956

Speaker:

Gezork, Herbert

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Biblical Book:

Matthew

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0017
ref5257_dt1
uachapelsermaud
duke:628016
dcrau002070
ark:/87924/r43b61905
9377280d-478d-4818-99c1-99e72a1d0c3b

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

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This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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