W. Arthur Kale - "A Prayer for Candidates" (July 31, 1960)

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-	Hallowed Father in our thoughts, we bring to thee,	0:03
	our talents, our abilities,	0:06
	our influence in a prayer of dedication.	0:09
	Even as we bring them, we ask for them by	0:15
	(recording cuts off)	0:18
	(chorus singing Come, Thou Almighty King hymn)	0:23
	Almighty God,	0:57
	We know not,	0:59
	whether thy need to receive,	1:00
	is greater than our need to give.	1:02
	But we do know that thou has bidden us to offer our money	1:05
	unto thee and so now we do give thee	1:10
	this portion of our goods and pray that it may be used for	1:14
	thy glory and that we may live for thy glory in our lives.	1:19
	Through Christ our Lord, amen.	1:24
-	From the Book of Acts,	2:04
	I have selected a prayer for candidates,	2:07
	and it is in the first chapter of the book	2:15
	and you'll find it at verse 23.	2:18
	And they prayed,	2:23
	thou Lord, who knoweth the hearts of all men	2:26
	show us which thou hast chosen.	2:32
	Just suppose,	2:43
	just suppose that election officials	2:49
	across the United States	2:53
	should erect by every voting booth in every precinct,	2:57
	a small prayer alcove.	3:06
	And further suppose that each candidate	3:14
	for office this year,	3:20
	should place on all political advertisements a new slogan,	3:26
	which reads:	3:34
	before you vote for me, pray for me.	3:37
	Further suppose that, on Sunday, November 6th, 1960;	3:48
	which will be the Sunday	3:58
	just before the day for our national election,	4:01
	all the people of the United States of America should be	4:06
	called together for a day of prayer for the candidates.	4:10
	And finally, just suppose,	4:19
	that when each voter goes to his precinct on November 8th,	4:26
	he should be invited to enter the prayer alcove,	4:33
	and spend five minutes in prayer	4:40
	just before casting his ballot.	4:46
	Of course, I know all of this sounds	4:55
	fanciful and unrealistic.	4:57
	To be sure there are those listening who	5:02
	likely will say how absurd,	5:05
	how unnecessary and inappropriate.	5:10
	Some may object because this seems to be	5:15
	an unwanted mixing of religion and politics.	5:20
	But before these proposals or suggestions are tossed aside,	5:27
	may I very briefly support them	5:34
	by referring to three incidents,	5:37
	two of them from contemporary times from our own century	5:40
	and the third from the scriptures.	5:45
	On Sunday May 3rd, 1959,	5:49
	the citizens of the great Scottish city of Edinburgh,	5:56
	following a long and well-established custom	6:01
	observed a day of prayer just before a general election.	6:05
	I sat in the congregation along with my wife,	6:14
	in the great High Kirk of Scotland St Giles cathedral	6:19
	in Edinburgh,	6:23
	and watched with increasing interest,	6:25
	the ceremony as the city council of Edinburgh,	6:29
	be roped and be wigged in carrying	6:36
	the respective paraphernalia and the	6:39
	insignia of their offices,	6:42
	march into the Great Church	6:45
	and were seated in their proper places.	6:49
	The ceremony, the pageantry, the color and pomp,	6:54
	of the whole affair was impressive,	6:58
	but presently something happened to enrich	7:03
	and to give a depth to the occasion,	7:06
	which no ceremony could provide.	7:10
	I listened as the voices	7:14
	of the members of the city council	7:18
	were mingled with the voices of the congregation,	7:22
	as the words of the 121st psalm were spoken:	7:27
	From whence doth my help come,	7:33
	and the answer was given: my help comes from the Lord.	7:38
	I listened as one of the ministers, Dr Whittly,	7:47
	opened the scriptures to the Book of Deuteronomy	7:50
	and addressing the city council,	7:53
	read words from the eighth chapter,	7:56
	which begin:	7:59
	Take heed lest you forget your Lord.	8:01
	Lest you forget God.	8:07
	The occasion was not over with the reading of the scripture.	8:12
	When the time for the sermon came	8:19
	the distinguished Dr War was the preacher.	8:20
	And he selected as the subject for the morning,	8:25
	the motto of the city of Edinburgh,	8:28
	which also is a verse of scripture,	8:33
	from one of the psalms:	8:36
	Unless the Lord watches over the city,	8:38
	the watchmen stays awake in vain.	8:43
	Thus the people and officials of the great city	8:50
	on the eve of a general election,	8:56
	took time for meditation and worship,	8:59
	and observed a day of prayer.	9:04
	So that all who are up for re-election,	9:09
	and all new candidates,	9:13
	might feel the effect of a great people,	9:15
	and prayer that the will of God	9:24
	might be done in that election.	9:27
	I go back to another scene earlier in this century	9:35
	for the second supporting incident.	9:38
	This happened during World War II	9:43
	and also happened in Great Britain.	9:44
	Many of us recall gratefully the thought and spoken word,	9:49
	of the distinguished	9:56
	Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple,	9:58
	addressing the British nation during World War II.	10:04
	William Temple spoke once on the subject	10:09
	of the hope of the world.	10:12
	As he began, he said:	10:17
	I am disposed to begin	10:22
	by making what many people will feel	10:26
	to be a quite outrageous statement.	10:30
	This world can be saved from political chaos	10:36
	and collapse by one thing only,	10:43
	that is worship.	10:49
	And then the Archbishop added, as I said,	10:53
	it sounds outrageous.	10:56
	The third supporting incident for my proposal this morning,	11:03
	comes from the Book of Acts.	11:07
	And is that the election scene in the first chapter,	11:10
	when the early church elected the 12th apostle,	11:15
	the man who succeeded the traitor Judas,	11:20
	you will recall from the lesson read earlier today that	11:25
	after two candidates were proposed, the people prayed.	11:28
	Prayed not that one of them should win,	11:35
	and the other lose,	11:37
	not that the favorite would be victorious,	11:40
	but the prayer read:	11:43
	thou who readeth the hearts of all men,	11:45
	show us which of these thou doth choose.	11:50
	This morning, as I speak on the subject,	12:00
	a prayer for candidates,	12:02
	I do not have in mind that we pray for	12:05
	victory for our favorite candidate.	12:09
	Nor do I have in mind that we pray	12:14
	for the defeat of some person we do not favor.	12:15
	Rather, I am proposing the unusual prayer	12:21
	that God reveal His choice to all American citizens.	12:25
	More profoundly, I should like to suggest	12:35
	that an election year could very properly be regarded	12:38
	as a year of rededication for Americans.	12:45
	Moreover, an election itself	12:51
	might appropriately be looked upon	12:56
	as a call to prayer.	12:58
	The majority of us, I suppose,	13:04
	are negligent in prayer.	13:07
	We need to be reminded, daily,	13:11
	of our privilege and duty to pray.	13:16
	The best of us needs the daily reminder.	13:20
	I recall the confession of	13:26
	the late Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes,	13:29
	who said that the very sight of a church	13:32
	was used by him as a call to prayer,	13:38
	whether on foot or riding by car or by train or by airplane,	13:43
	whenever he passed a church	13:49
	or saw a church nearby or in the distance,	13:52
	he let the sight of the church	13:57
	become for him a call to prayer.	13:59
	I know a person who lets the traffic light	14:05
	in the middle of the street, in a busy city,	14:08
	be a call to prayer.	14:11
	When he is caught by the red signal,	14:14
	instead of being fretful and impatient,	14:16
	he lets the light call him to prayer,	14:19
	which he offers momentarily as he waits.	14:22
	It is not altogether unrealistic.	14:26
	I suggest, that Americans in 1960,	14:29
	look upon this election as a call to prayer.	14:35
	Now what can be accomplished in prayer,	14:44
	or through prayer?	14:53
	I have three simple answers	14:56
	which I wish to present now.	15:00
	First through prayer, Americans can	15:03
	acknowledge their deeper needs.	15:10
	Secondly, through prayer,	15:17
	Americans can enter into a cleansing experience.	15:21
	And finally through prayer,	15:30
	Americans can find encouragement for their hopes.	15:33
	Now, an election year is normally	15:41
	a year of political stock-taking.	15:47
	A time for reviewing the operations of the government	15:52
	or appraising achievements and failures.	15:57
	A period of critical rethinking of aims and purposes,	16:03
	a year when citizens carefully look at their leaders,	16:09
	those in office, others aspiring to office.	16:17
	Adding their approval to their favorites,	16:24
	and denouncing the blunders, the stupidity,	16:32
	of the irresponsibility of their opponent.	16:37
	Is this enough?	16:45
	I am disposed to answer that this is far short	16:50
	of what an election year might mean.	16:54
	And I am convinced that in 1960,	16:59
	Americans must enter into a new experience.	17:03
	One that today I'm describing as the experience of renewal.	17:08
	The experience of rededication,	17:15
	the experience of reconstruction.	17:17
	Political campaigns this year involve more than	17:22
	merely choosing candidates and casting ballots.	17:28
	It will take, I am persuaded,	17:36
	something more than political oratory	17:40
	to overcome our tendency to look upon the evil of others,	17:45
	as the malice of their free will,	17:52
	while attributing our own evil	17:57
	to the pressure of circumstances.	18:02
	It will require more than party pledges,	18:08
	I am persuaded, to correct some of	18:11
	the impressions we are making upon the world.	18:14
	We say we are concerned with saving the world.	18:20
	Others are impressed that we are	18:28
	chiefly concerned with saving ourselves.	18:32
	We say, we want the whole earth to be free.	18:38
	The impression we make upon the minds of people	18:44
	in other parts of the earth is	18:47
	that we alone care for freedom,	18:50
	and the Devil may take the rest of the world.	18:54
	We who are continuing to mistake	19:00
	our own bias for absolute truth or Goodness.	19:04
	We who continue to paint in clear black and white.	19:11
	The relative Good we do, and the Evil we combat.	19:18
	And we who continue to fight for our prejudice	19:25
	as if we were fighting for God himself.	19:29
	We are the people who need a more fundamental	19:34
	and more radical experience	19:38
	than is usually intended by party managers	19:42
	and election committees.	19:48
	Campaigns this summer, it seems to me,	19:52
	require of both candidates and voters,	19:55
	a deep searching of the heart,	19:59
	a penitent confession of the Deadly Sins,	20:04
	of which we are guilty.	20:11
	The sins of weakness, of shortsightedness,	20:14
	of indolence, of pride,	20:22
	of dislike of criticism,	20:29
	of unreadiness to do our full duty,	20:33
	and of a lack of faith.	20:39
	These sins are symptoms of our plight,	20:43
	in this very hour.	20:49
	These sins are indications that	20:51
	the United States of America needs today	20:55
	something more than the usual political campaign.	21:00
	We have soul needs.	21:06
	We have deeper needs.	21:11
	Do we not know that our difficulties	21:17
	will not end in November 1960,	21:21
	no matter who is elected?	21:27
	Let's be realistic,	21:32
	do we not know that our difficulties	21:35
	will not end in January 1961,	21:39
	whoever is installed into office.	21:43
	No victorious candidate, no group of winners,	21:48
	representing any party,	21:54
	can accomplish what humanity	21:57
	in America and Asia and Europe	22:00
	and across the whole planet needs today.	22:04
	Because we shall have to continue living in a world of	22:11
	disorder for awhile.	22:15
	Many of us are asking how we can possibly do it.	22:19
	To spend our days brooding will not help.	22:24
	To nurse our bitterness and cherish our grieves,	22:30
	will only result in defeated spirits.	22:34
	To curse our enemies, will only make them more determined.	22:39
	To trust that some miracle may come our way,	22:45
	will be complete foolhardiness.	22:49
	To trust in military might alone,	22:53
	will likely intensify our predicament.	22:57
	What shall we do?	23:02
	Call it unrealistic, maybe.	23:07
	But Americans, let us pray.	23:13
	Let us pray for candidates and voters.	23:20
	Can prayer help?	23:29
	There was a time when we preferred to argue this question,	23:31
	and we did not really believe	23:36
	that it mattered much how we came out,	23:38
	our skills, our ever-increasing knowledge	23:42
	gave us confidence.	23:46
	We felt we were able to meet any requirement.	23:48
	Men might pray or not pray, life would flow along.	23:53
	But in this fateful summer of 1960,	24:02
	very few have that type of confidence.	24:06
	Man's cry onto his God is an elemental cry.	24:11
	As George Buttrick reminded us some few years ago,	24:18
	man's cry unto his God is as inevitable	24:22
	as a baby's cry in the night.	24:26
	We have need of a wisdom beyond human wisdom.	24:33
	We have this deeper need.	24:42
	I favor in the second place,	24:49
	attempting to make this summer of 1960,	24:53
	a season of prayer across America,	24:57
	because I believe Americans need	25:01
	the cleansing action of prayer.	25:06
	It is easy from a pulpit,	25:12
	or from a political podium,	25:17
	to denounce all forms of corruption,	25:21
	of demagoguery, of political chicanery,	25:25
	and all evidence of greed and lust for power.	25:31
	Yet such evils continued.	25:36
	In prayer, my fellow Americans,	25:41
	we enter into the presence of Him	25:46
	who is like a refiner's fire.	25:50
	He is truth.	25:56
	And through communion with Him, our faultiness is exposed.	25:58
	He is honesty. Through Him, our sham,	26:06
	our pretense is revealed.	26:11
	He is purity.	26:15
	Through prayer, our corruption is laid bare.	26:18
	All Americans, we need the	26:25
	cleansing purifying experience of a prayer life	26:30
	in these days.	26:39
	And now in the third and final place,	26:42
	may I suggest that through prayer,	26:45
	Americans can find encouragement for their hopes.	26:48
	Their hopes?	26:54
	Yes.	26:57
	We've been hoping.	26:58
	For some exalted hour when fresh purposes	27:02
	and higher purposes would be acknowledged	27:08
	by all in public and private life.	27:12
	What are we trying to do this summer?	27:17
	Some answer, all they're trying to do is to save our skins	27:24
	or our faces,	27:29
	or our investments,	27:32
	or our prestige in the world.	27:34
	Some are answering,	27:39
	all we're trying to do is to save our lives,	27:40
	and the question of survival	27:42
	is the supreme question upon the conscience	27:45
	and mind of every American.	27:48
	I cannot really answer my question.	27:52
	I am not sure that I know what	27:58
	Americans are doing this summer.	28:01
	Perhaps all we're trying to do is to	28:04
	elect some favorite candidate.	28:06
	Perhaps what we're trying to do is to seek some	28:09
	ideological victory over rival peoples abroad.	28:12
	Perhaps we are laboring for some fresh technological trial.	28:17
	Perhaps we are trying to win more friends	28:23
	across the world and influence more allies.	28:26
	It has been just 15 years now,	28:35
	since we have been saying repeatedly	28:41
	that it's now or never.	28:46
	It's now or never that a better world must be built.	28:49
	It's now or never that we must have one world	28:53
	or we'll have no world.	28:57
	15 years, almost exactly,	29:01
	for come next Saturday, August 6th,	29:07
	we shall observe the 15th anniversary	29:10
	of the dropping of an atomic bomb	29:14
	upon the city of Hiroshima, Japan.	29:16
	When that bomb dropped,	29:20
	we closed the door upon one era	29:22
	and entered into another,	29:26
	a most fateful uncertain and tragic era.	29:29
	What one was closed.	29:33
	Now we've been saying across these years,	29:36
	'it's one world or no world',	29:38
	'it's now or never'.	29:41
	Could it be that through our national elections	29:45
	and state elections across this land,	29:49
	this very year, we are seriously at the business of	29:51
	building the one world.	29:59
	The one world that is decent,	30:02
	the one world that is pure and honest and true,	30:05
	the one world of neighbors and brothers	30:09
	undergone that must be built lest we perry.	30:13
	To accomplish that,	30:20
	I am recommending that we answer the call to prayer.	30:22
	Americans, let us pray.	30:27
	As citizens and patriots, let us pray.	30:30
	Let us pray for wisdom, for courage.	30:33
	Let us pray for hope.	30:36
	Let us pray for perspective and for equanimity.	30:39
	Let us pray for faith.	30:44
	Power is in prayer.	30:48
	I recall from the lips of another Scot:	30:51
	Queen Mary of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots,	30:55
	as she was popularly called,	31:00
	who said once regarding John Knox,	31:02
	'I fear the prayers of John Knox,	31:04
	More than I fear all the armies of Europe.	31:08
	There is power in prayer,	31:12
	for candidates, for the victorious ones,	31:14
	or the defeated ones.	31:17
	There is power in prayer for incumbents	31:18
	for retiring officials or newly elected leaders.'	31:22
	As I come to the close,	31:27
	may I suggest two possible prayers that we offer?	31:29
	The first one is the text for the morning:	31:35
	on the Book of Acts, the little prayer offered	31:38
	when the first church election was held,	31:41
	as the church was beginning its work in the world,	31:44
	Oh Lord, thou who readeth the hearts of men,	31:47
	show us which one.	31:52
	That might be an appropriate prayer	31:55
	for the American voters this year.	31:58
	The second one is the prayer at the end of	32:02
	the first stanza of the hymn we sang	32:06
	earlier in this service,	32:09
	the familiar hymn, Come Thou Almighty King.	32:10
	The last line of that hymn is:	32:17
	come and reign over us,	32:21
	ancient of days.	32:27
	All Americans, this might be the year.	32:30
	Let us pray that it become the year	32:36
	when we truly mean it, as we say in God,	32:41
	in God we trust.	32:49
	Let us pray.	32:58
	With humility,	33:07
	and with chasten spirits,	33:10
	we offer ourselves before thee,	33:13
	oh Almighty eternal God,	33:17
	thou art the God of our fathers,	33:21
	thou art our God.	33:24
	Hear our prayer for a cleaner America.	33:27
	Hear our prayer for a more honest people.	33:32
	Hear our prayer for wisdom	33:36
	and courage and faith in this day.	33:38
	And now may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ	33:45
	and the love of God, the Father	33:51
	and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.	33:55
	Amen.	34:04
	(choir sings)	34:14

Item Info

Title:

W. Arthur Kale - "A Prayer for Candidates" (July 31, 1960)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gx48v93

Date:

July 31, 1960

Speaker:

Kale, W. Arthur

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 RR-0113
ref5427_kro
uachapelsermaud
duke:628067
dcrau002135
ark:/87924/r4gx48v93
5fa46075-9baa-4aa4-ad6b-a55a3b4c563a

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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W. Arthur Kale - "A Prayer for Candidates" (July 31, 1960)

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