(choral praise music) (bright organ and choral music) 

- As we continue our worship, let me ask that those of you seated outside and in Page auditorium follow and join with us in the order of worship as we all find it printed in the bulletin for today. As we worship, it is a joyful experience to sing God's praise. As we worship it is also a needful experience to confess our sins, to receive God's forgiveness, and to find new strength for the day. Let us then, together, confess our sins to almighty God. Let us pray. Oh merciful father, you who know the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and are acquainted with all our words and deeds, we confess to you our negligence and sin as citizens of our country, we have been excessively concerned about our rights, and have often ignored and neglected our responsibilities. We have been oversensitive about the wrongs which affect us, and have shown an easy acquiescence in wrong done to others. Our concern for social righteousness has been feeble and fickle. We have lacked the courage to expose and oppose that which is evil, and the zeal to advocate and strive for that which is good. We sorrowfully acknowledge that our own lives at home, at work, on the campus, and in society have not always commended the gospel of Christ. Forgive us as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. Cleanse and deliver us from all evil, and so confirm and strengthen us in all goodness we may henceforth do your will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Let us continue with our personal confessions. Our Lord Jesus Christ has said, "Any person who comes to me, I will in no way cast out." As surely as we have come to God in Christ, as surely as we have confessed, just as surely, God will forgive. Let us hear Christ's words now. "Your sins are forgiven, go in peace." And now we pray as our Lord has taught us to pray: Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. (organ music) (joyful choral music) 

- The scripture lesson for the morning is Psalm 23. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. "He maketh me lie down in green pastures; "He leads me beside still waters; "He restores my soul; "He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. "Even though I walk through the valley "of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; "for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, "they comfort me. "Thou preparest a table before me "in the presence of my enemies; "Thou anointest my head with oil; "my cup overflows. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me "all the days of my life; "and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Here ends the reading of the lesson. (choral and organ music) 

- Let us now, in one spirit, affirm our faith. We are not alone. We live in God's world. We believe in God, who has created and is creating, who has come in the true man Jesus to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by his spirit, we trust him, he calls us to be in this church to celebrate his presence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and hope, in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. We believe in God. Thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. 

Congregation: And with your spirit. 

- Let us pray. Please. Oh God. Giver of life and health, of body and food, of spirit and love, of mind and thought, help us in these moments to worship you. Give us a renewed sense of your presence. Oh how we need to know that you are both dear and near to us. We need your sense of compassion and concern. Your sense of justice and right. We need your presence in chastisement and in acceptance. Help us to know, oh God, that you rejoice in our right, and grieve in our wrong. Be close. Be near. Be with us, closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet. Hear our prayers for others. For those in need, hungry and starving, ill clothed and naked, wounded and weary, lost and lonely, in prison and captivity, the war weary natives of Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos. Those imprisoned because of their struggle for freedom and for right. For those who are sick, or forgotten. Those for whom the sun is setting on life. Those elderly persons who wait for someone, just anyone to come. Those who have difficulty breathing, or talking, or walking. Those who wonder if anybody really cares. In the name of Christ, help us to care. He cared. So are we to do. Hear our prayers of supplication, oh God. Oh God, give us faith that is strong enough to move mountains. Oh God, give us love that can surely know our neighbor and care for her or him. Oh God, give us hope to sustain us. To help us both to mount up with wings as eagles, and also to walk and not grow weary. Oh God, give us assurance in these turbulent and troubled times. Assurance about ourselves, about this university, about this nation, about your church, and your world. Be close to those who lead us, those in authority on this campus, those who lead our nation, and the nations of the world. Help them to be wise and responsible in their judgements and in their decisions. Oh God, we ask for very much. Do you know why, oh God? Because our needs are great. Very, very great. We do believe that from you comes every good and perfect gift. And now would you, in mercy, give to us not according to what we have said or feel, but give to each of us as you know we need. And above all, oh God, never cease to love us. Bring us at last to your full presence where we may hear, well done my good and faithful servant. Well done. Thank you, God, for life. Thank you. We offer this prayer, and we offer ourselves, in the name and in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. May I make one announcement please? In the bulletin it is noted that the ministers participating in the service will be waiting at the entrance to the chapel following the service. This cannot be. Due to other responsibilities and the need for rest, we have felt it somewhat imposing to ask Doctor Graham to remain. So this announcement, please disregard. Writer, husband, father, Christian, student, organizer, administrator, evangelist, preacher, warm and dear friend to persons around the world, we were pleased to have Doctor Billy Graham on campus with us yesterday. We are glad to welcome him back where he preached in 1952. Back to this chapel, following the singing of two stanzas of the hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Doctor Graham will bring us the message for the day. So we welcome you, Doctor Graham, to Duke University, to this service of worship. And we hear you eagerly as you bring God's word to us. (organ music) (choir sings "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross") ♪ When I survey the wondrous cross ♪ ♪ On which the Prince of glory died ♪ ♪ My richest gain I count but loss, ♪ ♪ And pour contempt on all my pride. ♪ ♪ Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, ♪ ♪ Save in the death of Christ my God! ♪ ♪ All the vain things that charm me most, ♪ ♪ I sacrifice them to his blood. ♪ 

- As Mr. Young said, it was my privilege to be in this pulpit 21 years ago. I have been invited back on other occasions, but because of scheduling in various parts of the world, have not been able to come. And I'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak to another generation of the Duke family. I'm reminded of an old prospector that was coming out of the mountains in the west, and a drunken cowboy came out of a saloon in the little town and started shooting his six shooter all over the place. He ordered the man off his donkey. And started shooting at his feet. He said, old man, have you ever danced? And the old man said, no. He said, you're gonna start now. And he began to dance as the bullets began to fly. And when he was out of bullets, the old man looked at the cowboy and reached in his saddlebag and pulled out a sawed off shotgun and held it up to his face. And he said, have you ever kissed a mule? And the cowboy looked at the donkey, and looked at the old man, and saw that he was sincere, and saw the barrel of that shotgun, and he said, no I've never kissed a mule, but I've always wanted to. (scattered laughs) Within these intervening years, I have always wanted to come back because of the warm hospitality here. And I'm delighted that yesterday, Duke did not lose because I would've held the blame I'm sure. Because so many people said, we're glad you're here to help. So I felt before I left the stands that I was the 12th man on the team. In the passage that was read by the chancellor a moment ago, David is a young man out under the stars, as a shepherd in the Middle East. So much of the world history revolves around the Middle East. And if you pick up a Raleigh newspaper this morning, the number one headline has to do with the oil in the Middle East, as the whole world is concerned about the problems and the conflict and the violence that may come out of the oil crisis that is surrounding the Middle East at the moment. And the Israeli Arab crisis. David was a young man. As a shepherd in that part of the world. And writing hundreds of years before Christ was born, David touched upon the three greatest problems that we face in 1973. And David said, I've found an answer to those three problems. These three problems are the three problems that science has been unable to solve. In all of these centuries, and in all of our scientific development, and knowledge is doubling every 15 years in the scientific world, we have not been able to solve these three problems. And these three problems are your problem. They are mine. They're America's. They are the world's problem at this moment. The first problem, David touches on when he says, "He restoreth my soul." "He restoreth my soul." There's the problem of human iniquity. What causes lust, greed, hate, jealousy, war, social injustice? What is the cause, what is the root cause of it? The bible says, "All have sinned and come short "of the glory of God." David said, "He restores my soul." Jesus asked a very searching question: "What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world, "and lose his own soul?" When the Berlin students were rioting some time ago, a Berlin student was interviewed by the press. And they said, what is the purpose of this trouble? What are your objectives? He said, "We want to restore the soul of Germany." I asked a friend of mine when I first heard of soul music and soul food, I asked a black friend of mine in Watts, what do you mean by soul music and soul food? He said, "Everything man that's good in a man is soul." A nation also has a soul. The bible teaches that you have a body, but living down inside of your body is a soul, a spirit. And that's the part of you that will live on forever, after the death of the body. That's the real you. The part of you that can remember, the part of you that feels and thinks, and is the real you, that's the soul. Our nation also has a soul. And America has been going through, during the past few months, a soul crisis, as we've seen the unraveling, ever so slightly, of a part of our government on television. And we've seen how government operates, and we've been seeing on the television, a classroom, and we've been taught something about our government. Its strength, and its failures, and its weaknesses. And we've asked ourselves can the system survive? And can it bring social justice to a nation that desperately wants it and needs it, and to a world can it bring peace? He restores our souls. How could the soul of an individual or a nation be restored? This is what Good Friday is all about. This is why every Catholic church and every Protestant church has a cross. Jesus Christ came to die on that cross for a purpose: to restore our souls. When he died on that cross, something mysterious happened. Something thrilling and wonderful happened. God took your sins, and my sins, and the sins of the whole world, and laid them upon Jesus Christ. And he became the world's great sin bearer. And because of that, God can say to you and to me, you're forgiven, I forgive you! I was in a mental institution some time ago, and the head of that institution said, I could release half of my patients, if they could be assured that they were forgiven. Because you see, one of the greatest psychological problems that we face today is guilt. What to do with our guilt. This is why Christ died, to take our guilt away. And God is saying through the cross, "I love you." "I love you." "I love you." "I forgive you." "I restore your soul." Because your soul was separated from God by sin. He forgives the sin and reconciliation between man and God takes place at the cross. But that's not the end of the story because there's another part to that story. They buried him. And as we said in our confession of belief a moment ago, he was risen from the dead. I went in to see a man that was approaching 90 years of age. He gave me a cup of coffee. Then he looked at me and he said, young man, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? I said I do. He said when I leave office, and he was the head of his country, when I leave office I'm going to spend the rest of my time studying the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, I see no ultimate hope for the human race. But Christ is risen. He is alive. And the message we proclaim today is not a dead Christ still hanging on a cross, but a risen savior who is willing to come into our hearts, forgive our sins, and restore our souls. How can a nation have its soul restored? America needs to repent. Not just the republicans, but my own party, the democratic party as well. We all have something to repent about, because there's a little bit of Watergate in all of us. And Solomon said long ago, "If my people which are called by my name, "shall humble themselves and pray, "and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, "then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, "and heal their nation." We as a nation need to corporately repent, and confess, and turn to God. And he will restore the soul of a nation that we're in danger of losing. Secondly, David touched on another great problem that Mr. Young will speak about in a few moments. David said, "I shall not want." The problems of our world are tremendous: poverty, race, pollution, population explosion, war, crime, drugs, kidnapping, bombing, assassination, the papers and the television are filled with it. What is the answer? David said, I have found that I, even though I'm poor, "I shall not want." I have found a resource that I can go to. Some of my men have just returned from Central West Africa because we have set up an emergency relief fund to help those people. And they're estimating five to six million will die before Christmas of starvation unless the nations of the world come to their aid and rescue. I was in northeast India recently. And flying over Bangladesh, I looked down, and I thought of the statistics I'd read and the stories I'd read of the hunger and the suffering, but there are other kinds of suffering. There are sufferings even in affluent America, or affluent Sweden, or affluent Britain. Personal problems that come to students and faculty alike at Duke. Boredom, guilt, loneliness, a marriage that went wrong, bad health, getting old, dreams unfilled, a friend that betrays you, the pressure of life that seems to great to bear at times, a child that disappoints us, a broken love affair. Job said, "Man is born into trouble "as the sparks fly upward." What are you going to do when crisis comes? What are you going to do when trouble comes? What are you going to do when betrayal, and disappointment, and loneliness, and emptiness come? We talk about cosmic loneliness today. You can be in a crowd, be at a party, having a good time and all of a sudden for a fleeting second there's a moment of loneliness. That's man's great loneliness for God. Because we were made for fellowship with God, and we try to bring in substitutes. But nothing works until we come to the reality of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I was in New Delhi a few weeks ago. And at the airport there were hundreds of American university students. They had been two weeks sitting at the feet of a Guru. They had three jumbo jets there to bring them back to America. So I decided to move among them and ask them some questions. I talked to several. I said, did you find what you came to India to find? And they sadly shook their heads and said no. They could find it in their own backyard. Acres of diamonds are there, found in a personal relationship with God that is available to everyone of us, and we can say with the apostle Paul, "That I've learned in whatsoever state I am, "there with to be content." Now there is also a Christian discontentment. We are discontented with the world in which we live. We want to do something about it and rightly so. We ought to tackle the problems of pollution. We ought to tackle the energy problem. We ought to tackle the population problem. We ought to tackle the war problem. And try to eliminate them from the human scene. But what about those millions that are caught up in other kinds of problems? Where are they going to turn? There is a resource that David found. He said, "I shall not want." And then the third problem that science has not solved. We've not solved the problem of human iniquity, we still have it. We've not solved the problem of eliminating poverty and war from the world, we still have it after thousands of years. And the third great problem is the greatest problem of all. The greatest crisis that you will ever face is when you have to face death. And David said I found answer there, too. "Yea though I walk through the valley "of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. "For thou art with my, thy rod and thy staff, "they comfort me." Death comes to the whole human race. When C.S. Lewis was the great professor at Cambridge, he made a statement one day that shook me. He said, "War does not increase death." He said, "You think about it a moment." He said, "Every generation dies." Because of war, some may die earlier. But all die. Every generation passes away. You will die. The bible says, "it is appointed unto man once to die." Now when you face that great crisis of death, how are you going to face it? And if you are prepared to die, I believe that you are prepared to live. And death today is the one suppressed subject. I spoke to the presidents and deans of the pack eight universities on the west coast sometime ago, and the big ten were there as well. And I spoke on the missing link in modern education. And one of the points I made was that I did not know a university at that time that had a single class on death. How to die. Or exploring the possibilities of a future life. And when I got through, one of the presidents of those universities came and he said we're going to look into it, and I'm glad to say that that university has put into its curriculum a subject, and did you know it's crowded out? Because you listen to the songs and the lyrics of the modern music of young people, a great deal has to do with suffering and death. And when the University of Kentucky took their survey to find out what university students were thinking, they found that university students think most often about, of course, sex. But second, and a close second, was death. We don't admit it. We would be embarrassed even to talk about it, just as we were embarrassed to talk about sex 40 years ago. We are embarrassed to talk about it, but there it is, our greatest crisis. And how much time and energy are we giving to solving it? Because modern science has not increased the longevity of life. More people are reaching the age of 70, but after 70, and 80, and 90, that's about it, except for a little handful. And most of those are in primitive societies. David said, "When I face death, God will be with me." It's a wonderful thing to know that you're prepared to die. It's a wonderful thing to know that your sin is forgiven. It's a wonderful thing to know that when crisis, and trouble, and difficulty comes, "I shall not want." It's a wonderful thing to know that when I face the greatest of all crises, God is there with me. Do you know God? Did you know that you can know God for yourself? You don't have to go through a clergyman or a priest. This was the message of John Wesley 200 years ago, and George Whitfield. They said you can know God for yourself. And they went to the fields in England and preached it. And that's how the Methodist church was born. You can know Christ. And George Whitfield, one of the founders of Methodism, preached every night on the subject, "You Must Be Born Again." And some of the leaders of the church came to him and said, "Why don't you change text?" He said, "I will when you become born again." We can have a new creation through a personal relationship with Christ. Shall we pray? Our father, we thank thee that these three great problems that seem to be insoluble find their solution in the person of Jesus Christ. And we pray that we today as individuals and collectively may commit ourselves totally and unreservedly to him. For we ask it in his name, amen. (organ and choral music) 

- Be seated please. May I say a word about the offering, which is now to be received? Included in your bulletin is some information giving a brief word or two about the starving conditions in West Africa, and also an envelope in which you may place a special offering for the Africa Famine Fund. Doctor Graham eluded to the desperate conditions in West Africa in his message. The ministers to the university have decided that on this day and on next Sunday, we will receive a special offering with all of the offerings put in these envelopes going for this particular cause. At the last service of the Minneapolis crusade of Doctor Graham's, an offering of some $80,000 was received. It would be wonderful indeed if we could anticipate such an offering this morning. But let me assure you that every penny you put in here, every check, every dollar, will go to help some starving fellow human being. None of it will go to any organization or for any administrative costs. So let me urge you to give. And I hope give generously. (soft organ music) (organ and choral music) (organ and choral music) Oh God, accept now this money we give to you. As we give our gifts, may we also give ourselves. Make us aware oh God of the needs of others, to know that we are indeed our brother's brother, and our sister's sister. In the name and in the spirit of the all loving Christ. Amen. (organ and choral music)