How Forcible Are Right Words!

If we may judge the future by the past, when important issues are being aired, we may expect heat to be generated and rumors to be started. We may expect to hear much calling of names and much tearing down of reputations. We may expect to see many closets broken into in an attempt to find long-forgotten skeletons⎯or, perhaps, to make some new ones where old ones are not to be found. In all questions of controversy, there is often an effort for people to divert attention from themselves and to point fingers at others. And while all this may not be to our liking, it may give some small comfort to remember that such things are not peculiar to our time. This is a pattern long familiar to those who interest themselves in human affairs. But one might hope that we could have become old enough and wise enough to focus attention always on the fundamental facts, without becoming lost in the verbal smoke screen. Whenever we face claims and counter claims, the only safe thing to do is to sit back with objective judgment, look at the facts, decide what we want, and act accordingly⎯and not be misled by late repentance or extravagant promises. There comes to mind a phrase from Job: “How forcible are right words! But what doth your arguing reprove?” When we look at the record and see if the “right words” have been proved by the “right performance,” then we may have some basis on which to take our choice. To all who would shape the thinking or direct the actions of other men, let it be soberly said that he who speaks or writes, any time, on any subject, has a solemn responsibility, a sacred obligation to confine himself to the truth. Publicly and privately, we have a right to the truth, and an obligation to decide for ourselves.