Robert E. Cushman - "Thoughts on the University" (May 17, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft hymnal music) | 0:04 | |
(choir singing) | 0:10 | |
- | If we say we have no sin, | 2:55 |
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. | 3:00 | |
Therefore, let us offer unto God, | 3:07 | |
a prayer of confession. | 3:10 | |
Let us pray. | 3:13 | |
Eternal Father, who art not only all mighty, | 3:16 | |
but all holy, | 3:22 | |
we cannot praise Thy glorious name | 3:25 | |
without remembering that we are sinners. | 3:29 | |
Yet we want to forget that we are supposed to think | 3:34 | |
Thy thoughts after Thee, | 3:38 | |
that we ought to behave as members of my family, | 3:42 | |
that we are looked upon by Thee, and by our fellows, | 3:48 | |
as Thy representatives on Earth. | 3:53 | |
We find the strain of living the Godly life too much. | 3:58 | |
We're baffled and disappointed by the contrast | 4:05 | |
between what we're meant to be and what we are. | 4:09 | |
But we come back ashamed of our performance, | 4:16 | |
yet aware that we are not ourselves, | 4:23 | |
when we stay away from Thee. | 4:27 | |
We ask in humble confidence for forgiveness, | 4:31 | |
for more than forgiveness. | 4:38 | |
On this Whit Sunday, we ask for Thy Spirit within us. | 4:44 | |
That our own self-centered lives may be displaced | 4:52 | |
by Thy presence to the end that we may behave | 4:57 | |
like men and women whom thou has made Thy known, | 5:01 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 5:07 | |
And hear these words of assurance | 5:14 | |
from the New Testament that He is a God who forgives sin. | 5:16 | |
Who is like unto God, who pardons iniquity | 5:24 | |
and passes over transgression. | 5:29 | |
He does not retain His anger forever | 5:33 | |
because He delights in steadfast love. | 5:37 | |
He will again have compassion upon us. | 5:42 | |
He will tread our iniquities underfoot. | 5:45 | |
He will cast all our sins in the depths of the sea. | 5:49 | |
Jesus said, "Him who comes to me, | 5:56 | |
I will not cast out." | 6:01 | |
Our sins are forgiven for His sake. | 6:06 | |
Therefore be of good courage. | 6:11 | |
And so let us offer unto God, | 6:16 | |
a unison prayer of Thanksgiving. | 6:19 | |
For all the things for which we have never | 6:26 | |
given You thanks oh Lord, we humbly bow our hearts. | 6:29 | |
For common things of Earth, | 6:35 | |
which sustain our bodies in health and strength, | 6:37 | |
though we pay scant attention to them, we thank You. | 6:41 | |
For far off things in the ages passed, | 6:46 | |
or in lands distant from us, | 6:50 | |
which enlarge our heritage and expand our horizons, | 6:52 | |
we give You thanks. | 6:57 | |
For invisible things of Heaven and Earth | 7:00 | |
which sweeten life with beauty and grace, | 7:03 | |
we express our thanks. | 7:07 | |
For things of the Spirit, | 7:09 | |
which disclose to us the beauty of Your holiness | 7:11 | |
and sanctify the passing time with eternal meaning, | 7:15 | |
we give You thanks. | 7:20 | |
For things bought with a great price | 7:22 | |
given to us without cost, by which we are deepened | 7:25 | |
and heightened to the measure of Christ Our Lord, | 7:30 | |
we give You thanks. | 7:34 | |
Though there be no end to Your gifts, | 7:36 | |
help us to remember them as they are revealed to us | 7:39 | |
day by day. | 7:43 | |
Amen. | 7:46 | |
(soft hymnal music) | 8:42 | |
- | The scripture lesson is taken today | 11:29 |
from Isaiah 6:1-8, | 11:32 | |
1 John 1:5-10. | 11:37 | |
"In the year that King Uzziah died, | 11:42 | |
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up | 11:45 | |
and His train filled the temple. | 11:50 | |
Above Him stood the Seraphim. | 11:52 | |
Each had six wings with two, He covered his face, | 11:55 | |
and with two He covered his feet. | 11:59 | |
And with two He flew. | 12:01 | |
And one called to another and said, | 12:04 | |
'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. | 12:07 | |
The whole world is full of His glory.' | 12:11 | |
And the foundations of the thresholds shook | 12:14 | |
at the voice of Him who called | 12:17 | |
and the house was filled with smoke. | 12:19 | |
And I said, 'Woe is me for I am lost, | 12:22 | |
for I am a man of unclean lips | 12:26 | |
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. | 12:29 | |
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' | 12:33 | |
Then flew one of the Seraphim to me | 12:37 | |
having in his hand a burning coal | 12:40 | |
which he had taken with tongs from the altar. | 12:41 | |
And he touched my mouth and said, | 12:45 | |
'Behold, this has touched your lips. | 12:47 | |
Your guilt is taken away and your sin is forgiven.' | 12:50 | |
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, | 12:55 | |
'Whom shall I send and who will go with us?' | 12:58 | |
Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'" | 13:01 | |
"The light shines in darkness, | 13:09 | |
and the darkness has not overcome it. | 13:11 | |
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. | 13:14 | |
He came for testimony to bear witness to the light | 13:17 | |
that all might believe through him. | 13:21 | |
He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. | 13:24 | |
The true light that enlightens every man | 13:28 | |
was coming into the world. | 13:30 | |
He was in the world and the world was made through Him | 13:31 | |
yet the world knew Him not." | 13:35 | |
(choir singing a hymnal song) | 13:48 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 14:21 |
- | And also with you. | 14:23 |
- | Let us pray. | 14:24 |
Let us offer a prayer of intercession | 14:31 | |
for all conditions of men. | 14:33 | |
Loving and Holy Spirit of God, | 14:38 | |
we pray that we and all men may increasingly work together. | 14:42 | |
That Thy will may be done on the Earth. | 14:48 | |
That the resources of the Earth may be gathered, | 14:52 | |
distributed and used with unselfish motives | 14:56 | |
and scientific skill for the benefit of all. | 15:01 | |
That beauty may be given to our towns | 15:07 | |
and left to our countryside. | 15:11 | |
That children may be finally bred and finally trained | 15:15 | |
that there may be open ways and peace and freedom | 15:22 | |
from end to end of all the Earth. | 15:30 | |
That all men may learn goodwill | 15:35 | |
through keeping Thy company, | 15:38 | |
through love for Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 15:42 | |
And let us offer a prayer of intercession | 15:48 | |
for national unity. | 15:50 | |
Remember oh Lord the nation to which we belong | 15:54 | |
that in righteousness and truth, we may be established. | 15:58 | |
Extend for Thy mercy's sake, Thy blessing to this our land. | 16:04 | |
That within this realm of different races, | 16:10 | |
peace may rain and prosperity | 16:15 | |
with love of right and justice. | 16:20 | |
Help us better to understand and love those | 16:25 | |
who are of a different race or color from ourselves. | 16:28 | |
Remembering that we are all members of the one family. | 16:34 | |
Overcome in us, any want of charity, | 16:40 | |
any manner of prejudice. | 16:45 | |
By Thy more abounding goodness and loving kindness, | 16:48 | |
may our agreements be greater than our differences | 16:53 | |
and may our unity in Thee | 16:58 | |
sanctify all our natural diversities of opinion. | 17:00 | |
Grant that there may be open ways and peace and freedom | 17:06 | |
from end to end of the nation. | 17:11 | |
And let us offer a prayer of supplication | 17:18 | |
for all who worship with us in these chapel services. | 17:23 | |
Almighty God whose house this is, | 17:28 | |
we ask Thy blessing for many people as we come toward | 17:32 | |
the last Lord's Day of another regular academic year. | 17:38 | |
On those who with diligence and preparation have led us | 17:45 | |
in the ministry of the word, spoken and preached, | 17:48 | |
on those who have led us in the ministry of music | 17:54 | |
our choir, our director, our organist, our calender. | 17:58 | |
All of whom have helped us make a joyful noise unto Thee. | 18:06 | |
On those who have guided us in the ministry of the liturgy, | 18:13 | |
bringing out of their treasures prayers, | 18:19 | |
old and new, corporate and individual, | 18:21 | |
to comfort and to shock, but always to glorify Thee. | 18:27 | |
On those who have occupied the pews, | 18:36 | |
the ministry of the pew, | 18:39 | |
and have made our worship corporate, | 18:42 | |
by prayer and praise and listening. | 18:46 | |
From the university community, from the town, | 18:52 | |
from far places, strangers in our midst, | 18:58 | |
who are well known to Thee, | 19:03 | |
and those who have carried out the ministry of service, | 19:07 | |
ushers and collectors, chapel guides and chapel monitors | 19:11 | |
and chapel hostesses, | 19:18 | |
secretaries and janitors and maids | 19:21 | |
whose work is so necessary for our wellbeing and Thy glory. | 19:25 | |
Bless them all oh Lord. | 19:32 | |
Bless them, everyone | 19:35 | |
that has offered a special prayer of supplication | 19:40 | |
on this Whit Sunday, | 19:43 | |
send we beseech Thee all Mighty God Thy Holy Spirit | 19:45 | |
into our hearts, that He may direct and rule us | 19:49 | |
according to Thy will, | 19:53 | |
comfort us in all our affections, | 19:56 | |
defend us from error and lead us into truth | 20:00 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 20:06 | |
who with Thee and the same Holy Spirit | 20:08 | |
liveth and reignth one God, we're old without Him. | 20:12 | |
And now as our savior Christ has taught us | 20:18 | |
we humbly pray together saying | 20:21 | |
our Father who art in Heaven, | 20:25 | |
hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, | 20:28 | |
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 20:32 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 20:37 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 20:40 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 20:43 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 20:46 | |
but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom, | 20:49 | |
and the power, and the glory, forever. | 20:53 | |
Amen. | 20:58 | |
- | Provide you with the scriptural | 21:39 |
basis of what I undertake to say this morning. | 21:46 | |
I read from Philippians 4: 8-9. | 21:50 | |
"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, | 22:01 | |
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, | 22:06 | |
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, | 22:13 | |
whatsoever things are of good report. | 22:21 | |
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, | 22:25 | |
think on these things. | 22:30 | |
And the things which ye both learned and received | 22:34 | |
and heard and saw in me, | 22:37 | |
these do. | 22:41 | |
And the God of peace shall be with you." | 22:46 | |
If I mistake not the nation is deeply troubled, these days. | 22:58 | |
Some universities are in partial disarray, | 23:07 | |
many seas with unrest, | 23:12 | |
academic life is disturbed, | 23:16 | |
studies are in jeopardy, | 23:20 | |
students are aroused and profoundly stirred, | 23:24 | |
teachers are disquieted, | 23:30 | |
administrators alternate between hope and despair. | 23:34 | |
The fact is that Cambodia touched off | 23:41 | |
the smoldering pile of young adult resentment. | 23:44 | |
To our day protracted war that had already amassed | 23:50 | |
appalling records for debauchery, atrocity and futility. | 23:55 | |
The pattern of turbulence and of closed universities | 24:04 | |
of Southern Europe may in fact, lie ahead of us. | 24:08 | |
Mass education adds to the problem by geometric progression. | 24:14 | |
Not only does it provide arenas for massive ferment, | 24:23 | |
but mass education itself is potentially a reservoir | 24:28 | |
of vast political power for ill or for good. | 24:34 | |
In the face of these realities, | 24:42 | |
it is perhaps already too late. | 24:44 | |
Too late in the day, to hope for a constructive answer | 24:47 | |
to the question, what is the role | 24:51 | |
of the university in today's society? | 24:54 | |
In some ways, the events of the past three years | 24:59 | |
make the answer at all too apparent. | 25:02 | |
For the New Left, the decision has already been made. | 25:06 | |
It holds that the university is a cheap instrument | 25:12 | |
for social revolution. | 25:16 | |
It is just this, | 25:20 | |
that a stooped conservative reactionaries perceive. | 25:23 | |
And it is this which many teachers and scholars | 25:29 | |
pursuing their researchers, with time honored | 25:32 | |
a non-judgemental objectivity have been slow to take in. | 25:36 | |
All decent people inside and outside the universities | 25:45 | |
are aghast over the desperate events at Kent State. | 25:49 | |
And now, at Jackson state. | 25:54 | |
They are also, I believe, bewildered and shocked | 25:58 | |
by recent calculated student indecencies | 26:03 | |
at Princeton in March. | 26:07 | |
These plainly violated standards of academic process | 26:10 | |
and scholarly restraint. | 26:14 | |
Ordinary people do not comprehend | 26:17 | |
disruption of the university | 26:21 | |
when disruption is planned and then justified | 26:24 | |
as an instrument of social protest. | 26:28 | |
They have not up till now, understood that the university | 26:32 | |
is, at all the chief instrument of societal change. | 26:37 | |
They are perhaps still thinking of the university | 26:45 | |
in the manner of John Henry Newman's idea of it. | 26:49 | |
Namely as the place of liberal learning, | 26:54 | |
where knowledge as he said, | 26:58 | |
is capable of being its own inn. | 27:00 | |
Knowledge is capable of being its own inn. | 27:05 | |
In his "Idea of a University," Newman spoke | 27:10 | |
of university education as a comprehensive view of truth | 27:15 | |
in all its branches. | 27:20 | |
This liberal education he taught | 27:23 | |
in genders the philosophic temper, | 27:25 | |
it instills a habit of mind serene and compose, | 27:30 | |
which fosters, as he said, throughout life | 27:35 | |
the personal attributes of freedom, equitableness, calmness, | 27:39 | |
moderation and wisdom. | 27:45 | |
For such conceptions of university education, | 27:49 | |
the platform of the New Left is on the face of it, | 27:53 | |
unintelligible. | 27:58 | |
From the Newman perspective, that of the 19th century, | 28:00 | |
the eloquent defense of Princeton graduate student, | 28:05 | |
Michael Teitelman, on behalf of his fellows, | 28:10 | |
charged with disruption and insubordination | 28:14 | |
must seem incredible and outrageous. | 28:17 | |
He says this, | 28:21 | |
"This is a political trial. | 28:25 | |
And that's what we want everyone to understand. | 28:29 | |
We are not on trial here. | 28:33 | |
What's on trial is the ruling class. | 28:36 | |
It's racism and imperialism. | 28:40 | |
We have said that the real explanation of all that we do | 28:43 | |
in this trial is to be found in the unhuman unfree, | 28:47 | |
repressive social reality about us. | 28:52 | |
We do not deny that we organized the demonstration | 28:56 | |
against Mr. Hickle. | 28:59 | |
We explained why we did so | 29:02 | |
and why we thought he had right to do so. | 29:04 | |
It is not necessary here | 29:09 | |
to enlarge upon the bill of particulars | 29:12 | |
with which Mr. Teitelman indicts the established orders | 29:14 | |
of society, including the university." | 29:18 | |
It suffices to observe two or three things. | 29:22 | |
The first is, that by asserting the political character | 29:27 | |
of the hearing for students charged | 29:32 | |
with violating the university code, | 29:34 | |
Mr. Teitelman means to exempt the defendants | 29:38 | |
from the standards appertaining to their membership | 29:41 | |
in the university community. | 29:45 | |
He does so on grounds of the rightness | 29:49 | |
of their political views. | 29:53 | |
Secondly, | 29:57 | |
and behind this is the premise | 30:00 | |
that the really sufficient reason | 30:02 | |
for continuing university membership, | 30:05 | |
is political enlightenment in liberating social action. | 30:08 | |
Thirdly, | 30:15 | |
that disruption of university practice | 30:17 | |
and academic protocol is nonsensurable | 30:19 | |
if it is politically justifiable. | 30:23 | |
The end justifies the means. | 30:27 | |
Our ends are right. | 30:30 | |
Therefore our behavior, however obnoxious, is justified. | 30:32 | |
But beyond these, is the underlying premise | 30:39 | |
about the nature of the university that justifies | 30:43 | |
this logic of expediency with immunity. | 30:47 | |
It is that the university is at least a staging for | 30:51 | |
perhaps even an instrument of social revolution. | 30:57 | |
Certainly the New Left is not about using the university | 31:01 | |
as such under the guidance of ends taken to be | 31:06 | |
as Teitelman says right. | 31:10 | |
So right indeed. | 31:13 | |
So valid, is the end in view. | 31:15 | |
That even means which denature the university | 31:20 | |
are not deterrents to the apostles of social reform | 31:24 | |
urged on as they are | 31:29 | |
by what they believe to be a justifiable revulsion. | 31:32 | |
Where the oppressive established orders. | 31:37 | |
Both inside and outside the university. | 31:40 | |
The agony of the present day university then, | 31:49 | |
is something like this, | 31:52 | |
it is caught in the pincers of a societal revolution | 31:55 | |
surrounding it. | 31:59 | |
While at the same time, | 32:01 | |
the university is itself disturbed | 32:03 | |
and disrupted from within, | 32:05 | |
by morally defensible outrage against maladies without. | 32:09 | |
It is caught in the middle between societal inaction | 32:16 | |
on the one side, and leftist reaction within. | 32:20 | |
Meanwhile, often as at Princeton, | 32:26 | |
the leftist reactors within, claim all the immunities | 32:28 | |
of the academy while exhibiting the behavior of fanatics. | 32:35 | |
The resulting internal conflict is insupportable. | 32:41 | |
But of all civilized institutions, | 32:46 | |
the university committed as it is | 32:48 | |
to rational inquiry, persuasion | 32:52 | |
and the honor code of the gentlemen. | 32:56 | |
Is most vulnerable to disorder. | 32:59 | |
The discipline of the university is | 33:03 | |
and remain mainly, self discipline. | 33:07 | |
When the university however, | 33:12 | |
becomes the focus of infectious ills | 33:13 | |
of the environing society, it is the first casualty | 33:16 | |
of the prevailing cultural disorder. | 33:21 | |
Liberal education is incompatible with the illiberal spirit. | 33:24 | |
When the latter waxes the former wins. | 33:32 | |
But this special vulnerability is not all | 33:38 | |
that imperils the university. | 33:41 | |
In addition, by its very nature, | 33:45 | |
the university tends to invite however unintentionally, | 33:48 | |
the disorders with which it is presently surely afflicted. | 33:53 | |
For the university is as the medieval school man understood, | 33:59 | |
a microcosm of the world. | 34:04 | |
It is a microcosm of the surrounding culture. | 34:07 | |
In so far as there is reasonable working harmony | 34:11 | |
between the ends or goals of a society | 34:14 | |
and its institutional support of them | 34:18 | |
there is stability. | 34:22 | |
In such a case, there is also stability enough | 34:24 | |
for the peculiar role and function of the university. | 34:27 | |
When the contrary prevails, | 34:32 | |
that is when there is contrariety between new emerging goals | 34:34 | |
and the institutional vehicles for their realization. | 34:40 | |
Then the resulting ferment and strife | 34:45 | |
in the surrounding culture | 34:47 | |
first comes to articulate consciousness in the university, | 34:50 | |
as the microcosm of the macrocosm. | 34:55 | |
To be more explicit. | 35:00 | |
It is the nature of the academy | 35:04 | |
from the time of Plato, | 35:07 | |
that it should proceed on the Socratic premise | 35:10 | |
that the unexamined life is not worth living. | 35:13 | |
And that therefore, the purpose of the academy | 35:17 | |
is just exactly to examine life as it is being lived | 35:20 | |
to the end of its progressive betterment. | 35:24 | |
In a sense, the academy has always stood then | 35:28 | |
in the role of critic of the established | 35:32 | |
or prevailing culture. | 35:34 | |
That is why, the gown and the town | 35:37 | |
have frequently experienced some measure of estrangement | 35:41 | |
and some need of reconciliation. | 35:45 | |
But in times of vast cultural revision, | 35:50 | |
when the nicest of history moves toward | 35:54 | |
the renovation of cultural forms | 35:57 | |
in the interest of squaring the practices of society | 35:59 | |
with a larger human good. | 36:03 | |
This need, frequently has its initial acknowledgement | 36:07 | |
in the university. | 36:12 | |
Here, the inequality or contrariety | 36:15 | |
between the things that are, | 36:18 | |
and the things that ought to be, | 36:21 | |
comes first to disquieting awareness. | 36:24 | |
And in our time of immense societal distortion, | 36:28 | |
stubbornly resistant it seems, | 36:32 | |
to humane solutions by way of present modes of political | 36:35 | |
and institutional response, | 36:39 | |
the university tends to become | 36:42 | |
the home of radical solutions to societal ills. | 36:44 | |
All this obtained while the ailing society is laggard, | 36:50 | |
either frankly to acknowledge its sickness | 36:55 | |
or to seek a cure. | 36:59 | |
So, the university spawns social activists, | 37:04 | |
students and faculty with varying degrees | 37:10 | |
of revolutionary commitment. | 37:14 | |
Among these, | 37:17 | |
the most zealous like those at Princeton lately, | 37:19 | |
are not above turning the academy | 37:23 | |
into an instrument of social revolution. | 37:25 | |
Even disrupting the educational process itself | 37:30 | |
in the interest of radical renovation of the political order | 37:33 | |
and its economic phase. | 37:37 | |
Their strength lamentably, | 37:40 | |
is that they have too good a case against society. | 37:44 | |
But at the same time, | 37:50 | |
they denature the function of the academy | 37:52 | |
by using it as a political tool. | 37:55 | |
So it has come to pass | 37:59 | |
that the currently ascendant idea of the university | 38:02 | |
is that of the New Left. | 38:06 | |
They hold that the university | 38:08 | |
is properly an agent of societal change, | 38:10 | |
at times they act and speak | 38:14 | |
as if the university should become the church. | 38:16 | |
It cannot be denied that in some part | 38:21 | |
they represent a rebirth of conscience | 38:23 | |
of which the church should always be the promoter. | 38:25 | |
But prompted by great righteous indignation, | 38:30 | |
these apostles of social reform | 38:33 | |
have their residents in the academy. | 38:36 | |
Yet the academy is not the church. | 38:39 | |
And unlike the church, | 38:42 | |
the academy has not required that its members be regenerate. | 38:44 | |
But apostles of righteousness who are not regenerate | 38:49 | |
may easily become fanatics. | 38:53 | |
New Left does I think, however, | 38:59 | |
follow in some part, the admonition of St. John, | 39:05 | |
in his first epistle. | 39:09 | |
It comprehends, what in fact, | 39:12 | |
the academy has characteristically been slow to acknowledge, | 39:16 | |
perhaps almost by function. | 39:21 | |
This namely, | 39:25 | |
that the truth is not something to be known only | 39:27 | |
or always to be being sought after, | 39:33 | |
but rather that the truth is something to be done, | 39:37 | |
and now. | 39:41 | |
The New Left in part then seems to hear | 39:46 | |
what church men ought always to hear. | 39:49 | |
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him," says St. John, | 39:54 | |
"And walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." | 40:00 | |
It is the New Testament and the church | 40:09 | |
which always say that the truth is for doing. | 40:12 | |
The New Left is urging | 40:18 | |
that there is no more needed pedagogy among us. | 40:20 | |
And no Christian can quite deny it. | 40:25 | |
The fact is that the truth for doing as St. Paul declared | 40:30 | |
is just exactly the trinity of faith, hope and love. | 40:34 | |
And the exasperating thing, is that the New Left | 40:41 | |
concurs with St. James, that faith without works is dead. | 40:45 | |
Nevertheless, | 40:52 | |
the academic apostles of social righteousness | 40:55 | |
are mainly blind or perhaps just uninformed, | 41:00 | |
respecting Isaiah's authentic apostolic calling. | 41:06 | |
They are unaware that just because he was a man | 41:11 | |
of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips, | 41:15 | |
Isaiah could not be trusted with mission | 41:21 | |
until he had acknowledged his complicity | 41:23 | |
in the sin and guilt of his own people. | 41:25 | |
He could not be trusted with mission | 41:29 | |
until he had been cleansed for mission. | 41:31 | |
He was not sent until he had received | 41:35 | |
the grace of a divinal forgiveness, | 41:37 | |
which preserves righteous indignation | 41:40 | |
from supercilious fanaticism. | 41:42 | |
From the Princeton Weekly, | 41:46 | |
nothing is playing or respecting the academic apostles | 41:49 | |
or some of them, the academic apostles of righteousness | 41:52 | |
and is declared in Proverbs. | 41:56 | |
"This is a generation that curse their father | 41:58 | |
and bless not their mother, | 42:01 | |
this is a generation that are pure in their own eyes | 42:04 | |
and yet are not washed from their filthiness." | 42:07 | |
Now the biblical view of man does not indulge | 42:13 | |
such an interpretation of the generation gap | 42:19 | |
as were distinguished between one generation | 42:23 | |
and its successor by the sinfulness of the former | 42:25 | |
and the righteousness of the latter. | 42:28 | |
Nevertheless, only invincible ignorance would deny | 42:32 | |
that the young adult generation are warranted | 42:36 | |
in some very grave indictments | 42:39 | |
they bring against contemporary American society. | 42:42 | |
What happened at Kent State and perhaps at Jackson, | 42:49 | |
is a frightening disclosure I fear | 42:55 | |
of the moral sickness of our culture. | 42:57 | |
Surely it is a time of peril for any nation | 43:02 | |
when agents of government charged with maintaining the peace | 43:07 | |
resort to overwhelming force | 43:12 | |
against an indiscriminate body of unarmed citizenry, | 43:14 | |
especially youthful ones. | 43:20 | |
Such official excess, | 43:23 | |
is probable evidence, as was stated by John W. Gardener | 43:27 | |
this week in the New York Times, | 43:31 | |
that "We are," says he, | 43:34 | |
"Dealing with this integrative forces | 43:35 | |
that threaten our survival as a society." | 43:38 | |
As for the universities, | 43:43 | |
and I speak after nearly 30 years experience | 43:46 | |
in three such institutions, | 43:49 | |
the universities, as microcosms, | 43:52 | |
cannot sustain much longer the inner turmoil engendered | 43:57 | |
by the unresolved ills of the larger society. | 44:01 | |
After nearly three years of internal divisiveness, | 44:06 | |
the universities are becoming disfunctional. | 44:11 | |
It is true as Mr. John Gardner, | 44:16 | |
also is reported to have said, | 44:18 | |
that today's divisiveness is not confined to one issue. | 44:22 | |
"There are multiple points of conflict," he said, | 44:28 | |
"The war, race, the economy, political ideology. | 44:31 | |
There are multiple risks," he said, | 44:38 | |
"Between the old and the young, between the regions | 44:41 | |
between social classes." | 44:45 | |
This is all true. | 44:49 | |
Yet I suspect, | 44:51 | |
so far as the universities are concerned, | 44:53 | |
it is much as I wrote to the Divinity School alumni | 44:56 | |
a year ago, namely this, | 44:59 | |
that until the futility of Vietnam is retired | 45:02 | |
with its violation of conscience, | 45:06 | |
the skepticism of youth toward the wisdom of their elders | 45:09 | |
and the propriety of established orders will not receive. | 45:12 | |
Vietnam is the scandalous symbol | 45:17 | |
of the bankruptcy of capitalistic democracies | 45:20 | |
way of meeting the future or dealing with human destiny | 45:23 | |
by stereotyped and outworn patterns of response. | 45:26 | |
More than anything, and I still believe it, | 45:31 | |
it epitomizes the frustration of the young | 45:36 | |
with the shear inertia of the established. | 45:39 | |
And I would affirm again what I then declared | 45:44 | |
that unless creativity replaces inertia, | 45:46 | |
Vietnam may turn out to be the fatal nemesis | 45:50 | |
of the American way of life, | 45:53 | |
it's dissolution of confidence. | 45:55 | |
This past week, Mr. Gardener declared that | 46:00 | |
"A crisis of confidence is indeed upon him." | 46:06 | |
He said, "We must move vigorously | 46:11 | |
to solve our most crucial problems | 46:15 | |
and we must seek a healing of the spirit of the nation." | 46:17 | |
He is right. | 46:24 | |
And it was in commentary upon these words | 46:26 | |
that the Times noted this, that almost two years ago, | 46:29 | |
the National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence | 46:37 | |
warned that the greatest threat to American survival | 46:40 | |
was not from without, but from within. | 46:45 | |
Therefore, we might begin to see, | 46:51 | |
however be late it be, | 46:57 | |
that the real enemies are as the scripture says, | 46:59 | |
those of our own household, including us. | 47:03 | |
And it is this unblankable fact I believe, | 47:09 | |
that simply renders obsolete | 47:13 | |
the premises and consequent policies | 47:16 | |
that seem to justify Vietnam in the first place. | 47:19 | |
Certainly they are now discredited | 47:24 | |
for any further extension of the wall. | 47:26 | |
And that is the scandal of Cambodia. | 47:30 | |
It not only offends | 47:33 | |
against the decent opinion of mankind, | 47:34 | |
to use the words of Jefferson, | 47:37 | |
but flies in the face of reason itself, too many. | 47:38 | |
There's one student from Pfeiffer this week rightly wrote, | 47:44 | |
"It seems an invitation to societal suicide." | 47:48 | |
What if there is to be, | 47:55 | |
as Gardener has urged, | 47:58 | |
a healing of the spirit of the nation. | 48:01 | |
Then surely there must be in addition | 48:04 | |
to acknowledgement of our moral blame as a people, | 48:08 | |
may recovery of moral integrity | 48:13 | |
and above all a recovery of vision. | 48:16 | |
If as Proverbs puts it, "Without a vision, | 48:21 | |
the people throw off constraint and perish." | 48:25 | |
The question before us is whether as a people | 48:30 | |
we will give ye now at length to our foundations. | 48:33 | |
Brethren, therefore, whatsoever things are true, | 48:40 | |
whatsoever things are honorable, | 48:47 | |
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, | 48:50 | |
whatsoever things are of good report, | 48:57 | |
think on these things. | 49:01 | |
So, counsel St. Paul, | 49:04 | |
but more emphatically he enjoins us. | 49:09 | |
Thus, these things do | 49:14 | |
and the peace of God shall be with you. | 49:19 | |
Brethren, our jeopardy as a nation, | 49:25 | |
the threat of our dissolution as a people and as a society, | 49:29 | |
is that we cannot continue longer | 49:34 | |
to exist in defiance of the moral universe. | 49:37 | |
At last, and in escape of that, the truth is for doing. | 49:45 | |
But it is the nation and individuals who compose it | 49:55 | |
that must do the truth, including us. | 50:01 | |
The universities cannot in this substitute for society. | 50:06 | |
Neither can they safely assume the apostolate of the church. | 50:12 | |
Only this week, student activism | 50:18 | |
has resorted to the legitimate avenues | 50:22 | |
of democratic legislative process. | 50:25 | |
Brethren, this may be a turn of the tie. | 50:30 | |
I pray God, the legislators may hear. | 50:36 | |
Amen, and amen. | 50:44 | |
(soft instrumental music) | 50:50 | |
(choir singing a hymnal song) | 51:31 | |
(soft instrumental music) | 54:07 | |
(choir singing a hymnal song) | 56:07 | |
(instrumental music) | 59:45 | |
(choir sings another hymnal song) | 1:00:06 | |
- | Oh God in whom we live and move and have our being, | 1:01:05 |
here we offer and present unto Thee, | 1:01:10 | |
our silver and our gold, | 1:01:13 | |
the symbol of ourselves to be a reasonable, | 1:01:16 | |
holy and living sacrifice unto Thee | 1:01:21 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 1:01:26 | |
May the blessing of God, come upon you abundantly. | 1:01:34 | |
May it keep you strong and tranquil | 1:01:40 | |
in the truth of His promises. | 1:01:44 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 1:01:48 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:01:53 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:01:57 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:00 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:05 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:14 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:23 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:34 | |
(instrumental music) | 1:03:03 | |
(music ends) | 1:03:37 |