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By W A L L A C E EMERSON, Ph. D. Member of the Faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
O UR country has taken part in two great world wars within the last quarter century, each one of which was designed to bring about stability of government, and to promote everlasting peace in the world. We have been disap pointed to discover that neither of these bloody conflicts has settled anything. Our world is in a state of greater con fusion, uncertainty, and turmoil. Those of us who look back to the days before 1914 with nostalgia can scarcely believe that there could ever have been a world so peaceful, so full of seeming certain ties, and apparently so safe. As we approach another Thanksgiving season we seem to have few causes for gratitude as we consider the possibilities for future evil inherent in the present world situation. We could recall that we live in a world where force and trickery, treach ery and violence have come to be the accepted mode. We live in an age whose gospel is not that enunciated by the four evangelists, but which draws its inspira tion from the unmorality of Machiavel- li’s Prince. We could say that we live in an age which will go down in history as one in which many of our spiritual leaders were apostate, our wise men our greatest fools, our young men with out vision, our business ethics unethical, our governmental arrangements short sighted and oppressive. All of these things would be true, and certainly no cause for thanksgiving. But there is, on the other hand, that which should make the heart of every Ameri can Christian rejoice. First of all, I thank the Lord that I live in a land into which all of the na tions of the earth have poured their chil dren, have contributed their culture, and have brought their separate talents and racial contributions. Americans should be in a position above all peoples to understand all peo ples, to enjoy all peoples, and to have a tolerance for and love of all that is best in every race and in every culture. It is true that we have been so friendly to other peoples that our enemies have used it against us—have even used this tol erance of ours to set one group against another. But I thank the Lord that it is the genius of America to be the meeting place of all nations, analogous in this lim ited sense to that great city of God in which all of the nations go in and out, walking in the light of the city, which is God and the Lamb.
but we have been so far removed from general famine that we hardly under stand what such a thing means. There are people in this country who are not properly nourished, but to see any one die of starvation is an unusual rather than an ordinary sight; certainly, to see thousands die, a thing which is common in Asia, yes, even in Europe, is un heard of in America. “ I will abundantly bless her provi sion: I will satisfy her poor with bread” (Psa. 132:15). We live in a country in which the subsistence standards are higher than anywhere else in the world. Much as we can rightly deplore the extremes of in equality between the very rich and the very poor in America, even so, the poor have better food than the well-to-do in many parts of the world. The day labor er rides to work in an automobile. Tene ment houses have bathtubs, and tenement districts have playgrounds and parks. Those things which are considered luxu ries elsewhere are thought of as abso lute necessities here. “ Blessed be the Lord; who daily load- eth us with benefits” (Psa. 68:19). We live in a land where great plagues sweeping the country to the destruction of a large part of the population are rare and far between. To be sure, we have had epidemics of influenza, epi demics of infantile paralysis, epidemics of sleeping sickness; but a very small part of the population has been affected. To have widespread bubonic plague or cholera or malaria of a fatal kind is unknown. We have to thank the med ical profession directly for this, but even the medical profession should be remind ed that it is only out of Christian civi lization that conditions have arisen to make a medical profession possible. “ He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destruc tions” (Psa. 107:20). “ Thou shalt not be afraid for the ter ror by night . . . Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psa. 91:5-7). I am thankful that we live in a coun try in which there are Christian insti tutions, the freedom to worship, the freedom to establish Christian colleges and educational institutions; a country in which there is a minimum of govern mental control over these institutions.
“ The Lord . . . gathered them, out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south" (Psa. 107:2, 3). I am thankful that we have been brought into a land that is indeed a goodly heritage, one which is diverse in its climate and in its products, one that is self-sufficient as to its basic needs; a land in which wheat fields wave over layers of, coal; in which orange groves bear fruit over the oil of hidden sands; in which the forests grow above the mines of iron and coal. God has been gracious to this land. Its resources are two and three layers deep. “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may pre pare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease” (Psa. 107:35-38). I am thankful that I live in a land where there has never been a general famine. There have been local short ages in this country of ours, crop fail ures due to drought and insect pests;
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