NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE
It was Christmas 1939. The outlook was black with foreboding. Great Britain was again at war with Germany. Hitler had worked feverishly to rearm, and his military forces were the most formidable in the world. Britain under Prime Minister Chamberlain had adopted an optimistic view of things and ignored the warnings of Winston Churchill, whose speeches in Parliament had been met with derision. Chamberlain’s announcement that there would be “peace in our time” had comforted and soothed the British people, who dreaded a repeat of the First World War when hundreds of thousands of their young men had been slaughtered on the battlefields.
Now Germany had broken her solemn pledge and invaded Poland. Britain had declared war, and the island nation braced for a repeat of the horrors of the First World War. Especially terrifying was the prospect of bombing raids that would devastate her cities. The prospects were uncertain at best and terrifying at worst.
King George the Sixth, the grandfather of the present King Charles, spoke to his people using the relatively new medium of communication, radio. His hesitant, stuttering voice was heard around the world, speaking words of determination, courage, resolution, and hope. He concluded his address by quoting:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and
put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light
and safer than a known way.”
Today the world stands on the threshold of unpredictable events. The great dictators are plotting. The scientists are preparing new weapons. Uncertainty fills the air around us. Old certainties that we once relied on are slipping away. Where is certainty to be found? Not in the White House, but God’s House. Not in presidents, preachers, or politicians. But in God. Remember the King’s speech. Remember the King’s God.
— John Carter
