WE CANNOT LIVE BY "NO"

Day 4

Deuteronomy 32:20; Hebrews 10:38-39; Mark 4:40; 11:22

WE CANNOT LIVE BY A "NO"

We saw yesterday that if God goes, then the basis of ur moral universe is gone. The "Lie Detector' has shown that only 3 per cent of employees in department stores were honest through character honesty; that only 5 per cent of tellers in banks were dependably hones if there were no outer measures for checking fraud. Suppose we double the percentages of the "Lie Detector"; nevertheless, a nation that is living on this narrow margin of moral reserves is drawing too heavily on its resources, and is nearing moral bankruptcy. Before the war our crime bill could have paid our national debt in two years. Our moral basis is decaying. We must get God back. But can we?

I think we will, for the half-gods which have taken place of God are letting us down. If reason cannot lead us to Him, then disillusionment may drive us to Him, or sorrow may yet "toss us to His breast." But is there any hope of reasonable faith? Can we be believers with the consent of our whole beings, including our minds? I think we can, for the situation is clearing for the modern man.

Modern man is beginning to see that he cannot live, as he once thought, on the denial of other people's faith. The generation of people that lived on denials soon found themselves disillusioned even with their disillusionments. The had "three sneers for everything and three cheers for nothing." And they soon found they couldn't live by sneers, to live by sneers is poor fare. If we should walk to the table each day and look over the food and then turn away in high disdain, we could get away with this disdainful attitude for awhile, but only for awhile. In the end, hunger would bite us and drive us to to affirm something about food and to act on our affirmation. Both physically and spiritually we are positive beings and cannot live on negation. We cannot live by a "No"; we must live by a "Yes." And that "Yes" must be God, or it will let us down.

The future of the world is in the hands of believers, for the non-believers cannot act. They are suffering from "the paralysis of analysis." They can only deny.

Prayer O God, I come to Thee for clearer light. The light is dawning, I see that without Thee my universe tumbles to pieces. With Thee it makes sense; my sums come out right. Help me find Thee, the Key. Amen.