Page 2 & 3, December 23, 1943

CCUPYING a pulpit is a new experience for me, and if there is any justification for these circumstances, it is first that religion was a deep and all-pervading experience to my mother. She gave me a Christian faith which I have never ceased to cherish.

More than 40 years ago in a little church in the Adirondack Mountains in a setting such as this, I helped to take up the offering and the memories of that day are very real to me. Among them was the outline of a sermon which so impressed itself on me that I can almost hear the words which were spoken.

The theme was that every incident in the life, of Jesus here on earth was forever being reenacted in the lives of men and nations. He reminded us that man had long been seeking to understand the nature and attributes of God. But to him Jesus was an associate, a personal friend. They walked and talked together on the same plane and they spoke the same language. He liked to think that Jesus led the life of the common man.

Is it not true that the drama of human experience in which Jesus was the leading figure is once more presented, scene by scene and act by act, in these strange times in which we live? Once more there is the Manger where holy and beautiful thoughts are born; once more there are the Wise Men who recognize their worth and take time to do them honor; once more there are mothers who rejoice because they have brought sons into the world; once more these mothers live in the dread shadow of the sacrifice which they too may have to make.

The sublime tragedy of the Crucifixion is now with us. With each passing hour thousands of young men are laying down their lives that others may live.
Today ideals and truth

itself are mocked by the soldiers of a brutal despotism who have thrust the! spear into the side of freedom.

I have neither the license nor the qualifications to preach, but if it is not too presumptuous, I would like to venture to again draw an analogy between the supreme incident in the life of Jesus on this earth and the times in which you and I live.

There is a Resurrection today. At the very moment when hope seems slain there is the promise of new life. Out of death and night and sorrow, hope is once more being born.

Is it not a grim circumstance that all of the superb findings of science and learning are now devoted to the business of destruction? The greater part of mankind throughout the earth is now divided into two classes: those who fight, and those who make the instruments with which to fight. All the skill of modern medicine and surgery is applied to saving the lives of the wounded, many of whom are restored to return to battle.

We justify this paradox of creating for destruction by recognizing a profound truth: we fight for principles, and the survival of principles is more important than life itself. If winning the war meant the destruction of all we possess; if it took us back to a stage when we had to find shelter in caves and to work without tools, it would be worth it. For those who have lived in freedom, life without it is impossible.

And so we are in the business of building the instruments of destruction. We employ them with all the skill and ingenuity which modern man can command. In this effort miracles such as Jesus wrought are a daily occurrence; sea water is turned into a valuable metal as was the water into wine; men are all but raised from the dead by the blood plasma which is fed into their veins,

food is processed until a basketfull will feed the multitude, as did the loaves and fishes.

Today man faces the most superb opportunity which has ever come to him. His world lies in ashes. It is now his to rebuild. The vast forces of production which have made our nation an arsenal and a fortress may soon be liberated for the work of reconstruction. Strange as it may sound, the peak of our war production has
passed. It is time to begin building for peace.

Ironical as it must appear, the war has taught us to employ our vast resources and to multiply them a million-fold by power and the machine. The war has taught us how to train men and women quickly for new trades so that the labor which is displaced by the machine can be quickly adapted to new techniques. In the dread circumstances of war we have brought employment to the peak, and efficiency to an all-time high.

It is now our portion to be better fed, better housed, better clothed, better transported, better trained, better skilled in all the arts of production than at any time in the history of mankind. It is now our lot to enjoy better health, better education, and better understanding of the nature and behavior of organic and inorganic matter in all of its forms.

But once more the story of Jesus lives again. At a critical moment in His life He was tempted to build an empire; to use the vast powers which His Father had given Him to His own advantage. He endured that momentary appeal and then gave an allinclusive answer, which has come ringing down through the centuries "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone."

If we rebuild a world of monopoly and special privilege, we will taste a

defeat as bitter as a victory for the Axis powers. Our task and our hope is to release our energies for creative effort. Surely one of the great freedoms is the freedom to produce. An active, progressive, expanding production is the chief source of social welfare which we so much desire.

The individual is still the supreme unit in creation, his survival in terms of personal responsibility for his own progress and security must be preserved at any cost. But the earthshattering struggle through which we are now passing has forever proven the worth of unified and cooperative effort. If we can work together in defense and attack, we can work together in the great business of reconstruction. Competition is inherent in freedom, for free men have the right to excel. But we have learned to temper the brutality of competition with the spirit of fair play. Phillips Brooks once closed a great message with these words: "To work, to help and to be helped, to learn sympathy through suffering, to learn faith through perplexity, to learn truth through wonder, behold, this is to live and this is to conquer." Do we dare to have the faith to know that it can be done.

Happily we could again learn from Him the great lesson of tolerance. For there is a bitterness abroad in the land; class conflict and deep antagonisms; men hating each other without cause. These savage wars of peace can never be resolved by riot, nor by mob violence, nor indeed by martial law. Men's hearts must be right. The Master of men showed us the only way.

How truly and how completely the story of Jesus lives again.

This message was delivered by Mr. Henry J. Kaiser before a group of his friends and neighbors at a religious service at Lake Tahoe, California last summer. Bo's'n's Whistle editors felt that the thoughts and ideals in this message were appropriate to the Christmas season.