Fraternity-Testvériség, 1968 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1968-12-01 / 12. szám
A Iden Palmer The Life Underwriter and Santa Claus IT SEEMS particularly fitting for Christmas to to conic at the end of the year. Because it brings the spirits of Tenderness and Kindness, of Compassion and of Tolerance and Forgiveness. For at least a little while, Chritmas makes us better people—more nearly the sort of folks our Maker would have us be. And it brings, too, the grand spirit of Love. This is the wondrous foundation and the glorious inspiration for all the other good qualities. Can there be any attributes more God-like or more holy than these? How better, then, can we close the Old Year than in this spirit of Forgiveness, of Thoughtfulness for others and of Understanding and Love? Not only is this a good spirit in which to close the Old Year. It is also the best preparation possible for the entrance of the New Year. In the words of the late Rev. Percy Thomas—tliPe greatest minister I have ever known—all of this for the inner man is much the same as laying aside the worn and soiled garments of the days of past labor, and the donning of everything new—to measure up to the shining new days ahead. Tile very heart of any Christmas message should be just that: “Behold, I make all things new!” II For the same reasons that Christmas inspires and renews these heaven-horn spirits, Christmastime becomes the season of Happiness. How wonderful it would be if we could only remember this fundamental Law of Life—that such istlie source of true Happiness. The Lord, I believe, wants us to be joyful. Indeed, he expects us to be joyful, even as “the women came out of all cities of Irael, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, with instruments of music.” For: He has given us a beautiful and magnificent world to live in. He h as multiplied this heauty with lakes and and streams; with forests and snowcovered mountains and with valleys of lush meadows and golden grain. He has adorned it with the gorgeous colors of roses and delphiniums and dahlias and carnations, and given these iridecent displays a base and background of shootliing green. He has filled this world with the enchanting, heavenly music of birds. He has surrounded us with the hountie of living. All to the end that His people may find Happiness and Joy in the life He created for them. But He knows that children showered with a deluge of toys soon become restless. So he has given us a home with many doors of opportunities. These doors must he opened by us. Each must open his own door. Each must develop his own opportunity. Only in that way will we find full enjoyment of the world’s beauties, and permanent happiness in its opportunities. The ancient dictum applied to Adam still holds: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread!” III This is splendid. For, as with children, cloyed with playthings, man does not value the things he gets for nothing. There are no more embittered people anywhere today—none that criticize our government more severely and unfairly—than those who are living off its gratuities. This is true with nations, as it is with children— even as it is with you and me. Trite as it may sound, and as often as it has been repeated, still all that is worth while in this life has its price. “Earth sets the price for what Earth gives us.” It is a fair price, and we must pay that price, if we would have it. Life insurance is worth while. Life insurance, too, has a fair price. Adequate life insurance calls for frugal savings; even for the giving up of frivolities, of some pleasures and non-essentials. Surely we do not have to dream the dreams of Joseph, in the land of the Pharaohs, to know that it is a common experience of mankind for the years of plenty to be followed by years of famine. IV Surely the families that need life insurance have seen these needs exemplified in situations all around them. They have seen widows compelled to go to work again in offices and shops, in order to supply children with shelter and food. They have seen old men and women working, when their arthritic bones cried for rest. And tbey must realize that all the fine attributes of life we have mentioned have but little meaning when Christmas stockings sag with emptiness on Christmas morning, and the Christmas dinner consists of thin pieces of pork, instead of rich helpings of roasted turkey and oyster dressing. Tbey must know that unless the young man sets aside for future years a part of what be earns today— a part of what he wastes today—he will likely reach age 65 wholly unprepared for the lessened income of old age. For a man, even younger years may represent a Danger Age—even age 50. For at that age, most doors of opportunity are closed. And at age 60, if he escapes 10
