Charles P. Bowles - "The Unfinished Pyramid" (August 21, 1966)
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| Preacher | Dear friends, | 0:03 |
| my appearance here this morning, | 0:04 | |
| is rather unusual to me. | 0:08 | |
| I have left the North Carolina, | 0:10 | |
| where we have built in air conditioning. | 0:15 | |
| And I had just listened to two of America's, | 0:18 | |
| I think most unique preachers. | 0:21 | |
| Bishop Gerald Kennedy from Los Angeles | 0:25 | |
| and Wallace Hamilton from | 0:28 | |
| Pasadena Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. | 0:30 | |
| Wallace Hamilton said on Thursday evening... | 0:35 | |
| He said tomorrow morning because of a shortened schedule, | 0:37 | |
| I shall preach at 8:30, on how to be a Saint. | 0:40 | |
| And he says, I know if you were there, | 0:46 | |
| I'll know you're a real one. | 0:47 | |
| Well, you're a presence here at 9:30 | 0:50 | |
| makes you at least a partial Saint. | 0:52 | |
| I shall leave shortly after this service | 0:56 | |
| and then go back to my favorite hills, | 0:58 | |
| which makes you rather rushed schedule. | 1:02 | |
| And I'm reminded of my favorite children's story. | 1:06 | |
| I collect children's stories. I love them. | 1:10 | |
| I love children. | 1:13 | |
| The little boy who asked his mother saying, | 1:16 | |
| "Mother, is it true that we're made out of dust?" | 1:18 | |
| And she said, "Yes son it's true, | 1:21 | |
| you're were made out of dust." | 1:23 | |
| Well he said, "When we die, we return to dust. | 1:26 | |
| Don't we?" | 1:28 | |
| She said, "Yes. When you die, you return to dust." | 1:29 | |
| Well he said, "I was in my room a little bit ago | 1:33 | |
| and looked under the bed | 1:35 | |
| and someone's either coming and going, one, | 1:36 | |
| I don't know which. | 1:38 | |
| It's that kind of pressure that we live in in this day. | 1:43 | |
| Now, the scripture, | 1:51 | |
| which was read for you a moment ago, | 1:52 | |
| was only two of dozens that could be read in that respect. | 1:53 | |
| That righteousness exalted the nation. | 2:01 | |
| That a righteous, God loveth righteous people. | 2:06 | |
| And with that as a background to our thinking, | 2:14 | |
| I want us to do a rather unusual thing this morning, | 2:16 | |
| Because several years ago I was intrigued by a symbol | 2:22 | |
| or an emblem that has become the most meaning emblem | 2:28 | |
| or in symbol to my me, than any other, except the cross | 2:35 | |
| and it is not a symbol to me, it's the living reality. | 2:40 | |
| And that is the great Seal of the United States. | 2:46 | |
| I wonder how long it has been since you have seen it? | 2:52 | |
| In fact, I doubt, you know, | 2:58 | |
| how long it has been since you have seen it, | 3:00 | |
| because we see it so oft that we don't see it. | 3:05 | |
| And certainly we do not assess the deep meaning | 3:11 | |
| that it holds for us as Americans. | 3:16 | |
| It was by no accident that we sang a moment ago, | 3:21 | |
| America, The Beautiful. | 3:25 | |
| I love this nation of mine and I believe you do. | 3:27 | |
| And my hopes and all my prayers | 3:35 | |
| are with this nation of mine, | 3:38 | |
| but I want it to be a righteous nation. | 3:43 | |
| I want it to live up to the heritage | 3:47 | |
| that has been its heritage for many years. | 3:52 | |
| Now the great Seal of the United States is found | 3:59 | |
| in one place that you see quite often. | 4:02 | |
| It's on the dollar bill. | 4:07 | |
| And most of you, most of the time, | 4:10 | |
| have in your pocket or in your purse, | 4:12 | |
| a dollar bill. | 4:15 | |
| Now this dollar bill is the basic unit of our currency. | 4:19 | |
| And in world trade it becomes the basis, | 4:27 | |
| not only of our nation, but of the currency | 4:31 | |
| of many nations. | 4:34 | |
| As they seek to have a favorable dollar exchange. | 4:37 | |
| And we are commonly accused of dollar diplomacy. | 4:43 | |
| Now, of course, | 4:50 | |
| I am not speaking of the pictorial representation | 4:50 | |
| of our first president who is on the obverse side | 4:54 | |
| or the front side of the bill. | 4:59 | |
| Whose dignity and composure certainly, | 5:02 | |
| is not felt in the city that bears his name. | 5:09 | |
| But I'm speaking of the back of the bill. | 5:15 | |
| And this is the only one of the bills in our currency | 5:19 | |
| that has this pictorial representation. | 5:23 | |
| And you will see there both the obverse | 5:29 | |
| and the reverse side of the great Seal. | 5:34 | |
| The obverse side is very familiar maybe to you. | 5:41 | |
| It is the heraldic eagle, | 5:44 | |
| which represents the Congress of the United States, | 5:48 | |
| according to Felix Morley and many other people. | 5:50 | |
| But he called this first to my attention, | 5:54 | |
| that excited me. | 5:56 | |
| In the talons of one claw there a group arrows, | 6:00 | |
| signifying the power of our congress to wage war. | 6:04 | |
| But in the other talon there is the olive branch. | 6:12 | |
| Which is the perpetual hope of peace. | 6:18 | |
| Then upon the shield... | 6:25 | |
| Upon the breast of this eagle is an unsupported shield. | 6:26 | |
| 13 stripes signifying that this nation of ours | 6:32 | |
| needs no other help, other than itself, for its support. | 6:38 | |
| Now on the reverse side, | 6:49 | |
| you'll see a design that was not complete, | 6:50 | |
| and it was not complete by design. | 6:56 | |
| By purpose. | 6:59 | |
| You will find there an unfinished pyramid. | 7:02 | |
| Look at it when you go home. Look at it now, if you will. | 7:08 | |
| And above this pyramid, | 7:15 | |
| there are two Latin words, annuit cœptis. | 7:18 | |
| And I'm not sure that's the way to pronounce it. | 7:22 | |
| For I have forgotten all of the little bit of Latin | 7:26 | |
| that I ever knew. | 7:29 | |
| All the Latin that I remember | 7:32 | |
| is the beginning of Caesar's Gallic wars, | 7:34 | |
| which says that all of Gaul is divided into three parts. | 7:37 | |
| And by some of the people with whom I have had to deal | 7:42 | |
| I've decided it's gotten back together again. | 7:45 | |
| But it means he has smiled upon our undertaking. | 7:53 | |
| Now we know for certain that Thomas Jefferson, | 7:59 | |
| the scholar lifted this out of Virgil's Aeneid. | 8:01 | |
| But the design of the unfinished pyramid | 8:07 | |
| was created by Benjamin Franklin | 8:13 | |
| and purposely he left off the capstone, if you remember. | 8:19 | |
| And it is there hovering over the unfinished pyramid. | 8:25 | |
| And it is the all seeing Eye of Providence. | 8:31 | |
| Some of you men | 8:37 | |
| who are members of our certain fraternal order, | 8:38 | |
| and some of you, women of it's auxiliary | 8:41 | |
| will readily remember it. | 8:43 | |
| The all seeing Eye of Providence. | 8:48 | |
| And the pyramid represented and still represents | 8:54 | |
| the constitution of the United States. | 8:59 | |
| Beautiful in symmetry and form, | 9:04 | |
| but not complete until, | 9:10 | |
| and unless it was watched over | 9:14 | |
| by the by the unseeing Eye of Providence. | 9:20 | |
| This was the concept of Benjamin Franklin. | 9:28 | |
| Now this was the same Franklin | 9:33 | |
| who stood at the age of 81 | 9:37 | |
| at the continental congress and addressed the chairman, | 9:43 | |
| of that congress or convention. George Washington. | 9:51 | |
| And looking at George Washington he said, | 9:58 | |
| "I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live, | 10:00 | |
| the more convincing proof I see that God | 10:08 | |
| governs in the affairs of men. | 10:12 | |
| We have been assured in the sacred writings, | 10:18 | |
| as was read this morning. | 10:21 | |
| Except the Lord build the house, | 10:23 | |
| they labor in vain that building. | 10:26 | |
| I firmly believe that. | 10:31 | |
| And I also believe that without his concurring aid, | 10:35 | |
| we shall proceed in this political building, | 10:40 | |
| no better than the builders of Babel. | 10:45 | |
| This was the concept of our early fathers. | 10:52 | |
| At least many of them. | 10:59 | |
| Of the necessity of the all seeing Eyes of Providence | 11:02 | |
| in all we do. | 11:06 | |
| And it was written, it was drawn. | 11:10 | |
| It was placed in the very Seal of our government. | 11:15 | |
| Later, Mr. Franklin was asked whether he thought | 11:26 | |
| that this was a good instrument of government. | 11:28 | |
| And he said, "Frankly, I think so." | 11:33 | |
| I think it's the best instrument of government | 11:36 | |
| that could have been divised. | 11:39 | |
| That is if we live by its principles. | 11:42 | |
| But said he, "The government of the United States | 11:48 | |
| can only end in despotism as others have done before it, | 11:55 | |
| when the people shall have become so corrupt | 12:03 | |
| as to need despotic government being capable of any other. | 12:09 | |
| Now this old prophet of another age | 12:19 | |
| could look down the corridors of time | 12:25 | |
| and see the possibility of corruption | 12:28 | |
| in this nation of ours. | 12:31 | |
| He did not say if it becomes corrupt, | 12:34 | |
| he said, when it becomes corrupt. | 12:40 | |
| And when he designed the unfinished pyramid, | 12:45 | |
| he placed above it the all seeing Eye of Providence, | 12:52 | |
| which he hoped somehow not only what remain there | 12:57 | |
| in an emblem, in a symbol, | 13:03 | |
| but would direct and good govern the affairs | 13:08 | |
| of the people that should become the citizens | 13:11 | |
| of this nation of ours. | 13:18 | |
| Well, you and I know, | 13:23 | |
| and I do not need to stand here this morning | 13:28 | |
| to recount it for you. | 13:30 | |
| You and I know that things are not too well. | 13:34 | |
| Well, I'm not speaking about our international policy now. | 13:38 | |
| I'm not necessarily speaking about our domestic policy. | 13:43 | |
| I'm speaking to you this morning about the | 13:49 | |
| immoral erosion of our nation. | 13:53 | |
| If I had time, I could recount it for you. | 13:58 | |
| But you see it on TV, you hear it on radio, | 14:03 | |
| you'll read it on your newspapers. | 14:06 | |
| It becomes a part of the community of which you are part, | 14:08 | |
| and it is deplorable. | 14:14 | |
| Many of you. | 14:21 | |
| And it seems to be the right thing to do | 14:24 | |
| to quote Arnold Toynbee in this regard, | 14:28 | |
| but how right he is. | 14:32 | |
| And Arnold Toynbee said | 14:36 | |
| that there's been only three civilizations out | 14:37 | |
| of the 19 or 23. | 14:40 | |
| Some say one, some say the other that has ever crumbled, | 14:42 | |
| by an assault, from without. | 14:46 | |
| the rest of them have crumbled because of rottenness within. | 14:52 | |
| Now, as we look at this nation of ours, | 15:04 | |
| let me say three things. | 15:06 | |
| And only three brief things. | 15:08 | |
| When we see people who are investigated today, | 15:13 | |
| for the things which they have done in this nation of ours, | 15:17 | |
| sometimes brought into our own living rooms, | 15:23 | |
| the real culprit never appears. | 15:29 | |
| The real culprit never appears, | 15:32 | |
| for the real culprit is the indifferent public, you and me. | 15:37 | |
| A public that will allow these things to happen. | 15:45 | |
| The real culprit is hiding off in the wind, | 15:52 | |
| somewhere like a ghost or a rabid harpy. | 15:55 | |
| and he is never seen. | 15:58 | |
| The real culprit is the indifferent public, | 16:02 | |
| the complacent public that allow these things to happen. | 16:05 | |
| Whether it is in our own city, our state or our nation. | 16:09 | |
| We allow it. | 16:15 | |
| Rather interesting is when I was thinking of this situation. | 16:23 | |
| The moral lag the moral erosion of our nation. | 16:29 | |
| I picked up a newspaper that I was reading, | 16:35 | |
| that came to my home. | 16:38 | |
| And there was a picture of a man that I had quoted | 16:39 | |
| many years ago, by the name of Yellow Kid Weil. | 16:41 | |
| The greatest con man, this nation of ours has ever had. | 16:49 | |
| He admits it. $8 million he fleeced from other people. | 16:53 | |
| And he said there, as he had said years ago. | 17:00 | |
| 90 years old, he is now. | 17:03 | |
| That's the stock and trade of the con man | 17:08 | |
| is playing upon the masochistic desires of his victims. | 17:12 | |
| Upon people who want to get something for nothing. | 17:18 | |
| Then he added. | 17:26 | |
| If it were not for the masochistic desires of my victims, | 17:27 | |
| I would have had to go out of business. | 17:33 | |
| That's a public that allows this type of thing to happen. | 17:39 | |
| And many years ago, | 17:46 | |
| there was a man in government | 17:47 | |
| that some of us did not like. Maybe you did not like, | 17:48 | |
| but he said something that was written | 17:51 | |
| upon the photographic plates of my memory | 17:54 | |
| that I shall never forget. | 17:57 | |
| He was the Secretary of interior | 18:00 | |
| and his name was Harold Ickes. | 18:04 | |
| And he said, public officials do not bribe themselves. | 18:08 | |
| If public officials are bribed, | 18:16 | |
| it is because someone wants to bribe them. | 18:19 | |
| And he placed the responsibility | 18:25 | |
| squarely at the door | 18:29 | |
| of the individual citizen of our nation. | 18:31 | |
| A righteous, God loveth a righteous people. | 18:40 | |
| And as the revised standard was read a moment ago, | 18:49 | |
| a righteous, God loveth the work, the deeds, | 18:53 | |
| of a righteous people. | 19:01 | |
| Yes. Any kind of corruption. | 19:06 | |
| It's but the reflection of the lack of integrity | 19:09 | |
| and basic morality of it's people. | 19:17 | |
| Now let me say in the second place | 19:23 | |
| that there is something else that disturbs me enormously. | 19:27 | |
| Now we hear a great deal today about subversive activity. | 19:34 | |
| We are even accused of it within the church. | 19:41 | |
| I have said from my own pulpits, | 19:47 | |
| if you can show me a Methodist preacher, | 19:49 | |
| who is a card carrying communist, let me know. | 19:53 | |
| and I will see that he is handled | 19:56 | |
| as we in the Methodist Church | 19:59 | |
| can handle people to that kind. | 20:01 | |
| And I've had no takers. | 20:03 | |
| Dear friends I'm not so afraid of subversive activity | 20:08 | |
| as I am of subversive inactivity. | 20:14 | |
| People who are good American citizens, | 20:20 | |
| who would never doubt the fact | 20:26 | |
| that they were loyal to their nation, | 20:30 | |
| who could sing as we sang a moment ago, | 20:34 | |
| not very lustrously, America, The Beautiful, | 20:37 | |
| and could somehow feel that they are | 20:45 | |
| an integral part of this great nation of ours. | 20:49 | |
| But these people who are too busy, | 20:54 | |
| having a good time and making money, to really care. | 21:00 | |
| And those are the people who in my churches and in your | 21:10 | |
| churches, in my community, | 21:12 | |
| and in your community are the people who allow | 21:14 | |
| the moral erosion, that first begins with them. | 21:20 | |
| And then it spread through the community | 21:26 | |
| of which they are a part. | 21:30 | |
| Now in the third place and last, | 21:36 | |
| let me say to you that in the final analysis, | 21:42 | |
| all that I have said this morning | 21:45 | |
| presents itself as a personal problem. | 21:48 | |
| Just preach your preaching to himself, | 21:53 | |
| as I always do. | 21:55 | |
| It's a matter of individual character | 21:59 | |
| of our citizens. | 22:02 | |
| After the first world war and several years afterwards, | 22:06 | |
| I read a statement by CE Montague, | 22:18 | |
| an English writer who wrote with some perception. | 22:24 | |
| And he said at that time | 22:31 | |
| we were playing God over the burned out holes hell. | 22:32 | |
| And someone asked him, Mr. Montague, | 22:40 | |
| what hope do you have for the future? | 22:42 | |
| And he says, | 22:47 | |
| I have no hope on the basis of the kind of lives | 22:47 | |
| that people are living at this time. | 22:51 | |
| And then he added. | 22:58 | |
| Something that I hope I shall never forget. | 23:00 | |
| Any structure of any new civilization | 23:04 | |
| must be built of the ordinary bricks of common decency, | 23:10 | |
| clean rightness of living and old fashioned principles | 23:18 | |
| practiced in millions of undistinguished lives. | 23:23 | |
| And that was the basis. That was the basis. | 23:31 | |
| Common decency, plain rightness of living, | 23:35 | |
| old fashion principles | 23:42 | |
| practiced in millions of undistinguished lives. | 23:44 | |
| When I go back to this constitution | 23:52 | |
| that I have verged up before you, | 23:54 | |
| and you will find that of the 55 men, | 23:57 | |
| that was the largest number I'd ever sat at that table, | 24:00 | |
| that it was fought over with bitter discussion. | 24:05 | |
| And actually it was a compromise. | 24:13 | |
| And of the 55 who sat there only 39 signed. | 24:17 | |
| And the 39 that did sign it, | 24:23 | |
| were not quite sure that it would work. | 24:26 | |
| What made it work? | 24:31 | |
| What made it work? | 24:34 | |
| It was the people back in the 13 colonies, | 24:36 | |
| who had enough spiritual and moral fortitude and character | 24:43 | |
| to get under it and make it work. | 24:49 | |
| Yes, it was a wonderful instrument of government, | 24:54 | |
| but back of it, there had to be people. | 25:00 | |
| People, with moral character and spiritual insight. | 25:04 | |
| And so it resolves itself down to this, | 25:13 | |
| that nothing we do matters very much. | 25:19 | |
| Externally, | 25:23 | |
| without character, without character. | 25:25 | |
| Oh, I know we need intelligence. | 25:31 | |
| Here I stand amidst the great university that I love | 25:35 | |
| with a passion because it has meant a great deal to me. | 25:39 | |
| And I know that the technological age, | 25:45 | |
| of which we are a part | 25:50 | |
| is represented here in this university. | 25:53 | |
| I know it is represented in the community | 25:58 | |
| of which you're a part. | 26:02 | |
| And I know we must have intelligence. | 26:05 | |
| My dear friends, intelligence is not enough. | 26:09 | |
| Intelligence is not enough. | 26:13 | |
| Someone has rather humorously stated | 26:18 | |
| that if they were drowning, | 26:20 | |
| they would rather see a burglar who could swim | 26:24 | |
| than a bishop who couldn't. | 26:27 | |
| So would I, so would I. | 26:30 | |
| But I feel that somehow we would not be overcome, | 26:34 | |
| not be drowning in this moral erosion | 26:38 | |
| that is around about us, | 26:44 | |
| if we had enough high minded citizens of character, | 26:47 | |
| to give the leadership, we ought to have in our homes, | 26:56 | |
| in our churches, in our community, our state and our nation. | 27:00 | |
| Let me closed with this very simple story. | 27:10 | |
| It isn't a story either it's the truth. | 27:13 | |
| One of the movie idols. | 27:18 | |
| And I have ceased to go to movies, | 27:22 | |
| except on occasions, when a great film is produced. | 27:26 | |
| One of my idols was an Englishman in the states, | 27:31 | |
| by the name of George Arliss. | 27:35 | |
| And I see by the annoying looks on some of your faces, | 27:39 | |
| that you too remember George Arliss. | 27:42 | |
| He was an Englishman as I stated. | 27:45 | |
| He went back to England, | 27:49 | |
| saying concerning a friend of his, John Mason, | 27:54 | |
| that John Mason would have been the greatest actor | 28:00 | |
| that America had ever produced, | 28:04 | |
| if only his private character had been as well balanced | 28:08 | |
| as his public performance. | 28:14 | |
| My, like the sting of a whip is it? | 28:18 | |
| If only his private character had been as well balanced | 28:22 | |
| as his public performance. | 28:30 | |
| Yes, yes. | 28:34 | |
| That's one of America's greatest. | 28:37 | |
| If only you have a dollar bill in your pocket, | 28:43 | |
| and I hope it will be always, you will have a reminder, | 28:48 | |
| that over and above the instrument of government | 28:57 | |
| of this nation of ours, | 29:01 | |
| there is the capstone that was not placed. | 29:05 | |
| That capstone, | 29:10 | |
| was the all seeing watchful Eye of Providence. | 29:14 | |
| Never as long as I have it in my pocket, | 29:22 | |
| never will I forget the unfinished pyramid, | 29:29 | |
| which to me will always be a meaningful symbol. | 29:37 | |
| May we stand. | 29:46 | |
| Father in the quite of this moment, | 29:55 | |
| in this lovely place. | 30:00 | |
| When our hearts cry out in praise to Thee, | 30:04 | |
| we also look into the deep of our own hearts, | 30:11 | |
| our own souls and find many things there | 30:14 | |
| that would keep us from becoming what we ought to be. | 30:22 | |
| Remove them we pray. | 30:29 | |
| For we pray in humility and we pray for forgiveness. | 30:33 | |
| Send us away knowing | 30:41 | |
| that a righteous God loveth the work, | 30:47 | |
| the deeds of righteous people. | 30:52 | |
| Make us those people. | 30:57 | |
| And now may grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, | 31:03 | |
| the Son, and the holy spirit | 31:10 | |
| rest and abide richly and always in thy life forevermore. | 31:14 | |
| Amen. | 31:22 | |
| (church bells ringing) | 31:29 | |
| (organ music) | 31:40 |