watching a nation die
by Rev. Bruce W. Dunn
I BORROW THE t it l e , “Watching a Nation Die,” ' from an editorial in the Presbyterian Journal, by Dr. Nelson Bell, a Christian physician. There are many ways to die. One can die by dis ease, by starvation, by malnutrition, by suicide, by violence, by murder, by accident. However it comes, among the saddest deaths is that of a young boy or a young girl, perhaps in their teen age or younger, or in young adulthood. Their parents have brought them up through some testing times, have seen them through elementary school, high school, perhaps even college. Just about to move out into the stream of life with high hopes and great aspirations, suddenly they are cut off. It seems to me as we look out on our land of America today, we face that more saddening expe rience. Is not the U.S.A., one of the younger mem bers of the families of nations o f the world, with a very glorious and wonderful history, in the provi dence o f God? It has been so vital, so alive, so dynamic, so progressive, so wonderful in the way that it has risen to a position o f power, prestige, glory and might in the world, the envy of the na tions of the world. The plight in which we find our selves today has surrounding it this additional weight of sadness and grief as we see America in its relative youth approaching an hour when that young life could end! That person who sticks his head in the ground and will not face the seriousness of his disease is very unlikely to accept any real remedy that will help him. One of the first steps toward any kind of cure is to face the facts. I honestly believe that we are even now watching a nation die! What a sad story it is! Many share this opinion. I was inter ested to read in a late issue of U.S. News & World Report, the reprinting of an article written in the
Portland, Maine newspaper, by a woman writer. She begins: “Unless there is a change deep down in the American people, a genuine crusade against self-indulgence, immorality, public and private, then we are witnesses to the decline and fall of the American republic. Death on the highways, a pack a day, cheating from the top to bottom in our so ciety, get rich quick, breaking up of the family, altering foreign policies, reckless debt. These have destroyed nations before us. Why should we think we can take that path and change history?” “Watching a Nation Die 1” A theme like that will be greeted with ridicule in some quarters. People will point to this affluent society in which we live, the material blessings that are ours, the rather bright material prospects that seem to be just ahead, and they will say, “What are you talking about? We never had it so good.” When I hear that, I think of that great text in Revelation 3 :17 spoken to a church, to which God said, “ Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” We are at this moment watching a nation die. This o f course presupposes a certain fact upon which most of us would agree. It is that the death or life of people or nations is in the hands of God. This we have lost sight of in the U.S.A. and in the world. The death or life of empires, kingdoms and nations does not depend simply upon economic fac tors, on the party in power, on the ingenuity or the wisdom of men, or the lack of it, although these factors certainly are present. Ultimately and finally, the destiny of nations and men is in the hands of God. How then do nations die? The same way that individuals die. They die by disease. Who can look
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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