Robert J. McCracken - "The Duty of Being Discontented" (April 8, 1956) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

[Deep voice] Virtues (indistinct) morning.

0:03

Priest

The text is taken from

0:11

the epistle of Paul to the Philippians

0:13

in the fourth chapter at the 11th verse.

0:17

I have learned to be content wherever I am.

0:23

Contentment is a virtue

0:31

an attractive and an engaging virtue.

0:35

It's praise has been sung by poets in every age

0:39

and its practice is repeatedly urged on us in the Bible.

0:45

It is one of the minor virtues.

0:51

Few of us would rate it as high as courage or integrity,

0:55

loyalty or magnanimity,

1:02

but those who possess it, help in no small measure

1:06

to reduce the streams and tensions of existence,

1:11

and they make life easier and sweeter

1:17

for their neighbors and acquaintances.

1:21

I have been rereading David Grayson's

1:24

"Adventures in Contentment."

1:28

If he lived does he wrote,

1:31

Greece must have been a benediction to a whole community.

1:34

And a friend in a thousand

1:39

for his book is a running commentary

1:42

on the seeing of Socrates.

1:46

Contentment is natural wealth. luxury is artificial poverty.

1:49

Now just how attractive

1:59

and engaging a virtual contentment is.

2:00

We see, as soon as we take into account,

2:05

the person who lacks it.

2:08

The individual who would rather air a grievance,

2:11

then acknowledge or kindness.

2:14

The individual who is consumed by petty trivial discontent.

2:17

All of us are familiar with the inveterate grumbler

2:25

complaining of the weather or food

2:30

or of the conditions under which he has to work.

2:33

All of the people with whom he has to work.

2:37

Complaining of what goes on in his church

2:41

or his fraternity or Washington.

2:44

The root of all such discontent is self-centeredness.

2:49

Somehow the more the self is indulged the more it demands.

2:55

Did you ever know a selfish person,

3:01

who wasn't also a chronic grumbler?

3:04

On the other hand, you have a great soul,

3:08

like the apostle Paul writing from a prison cell,

3:11

"I have learned to be content wherever I am."

3:16

It was something however that he had to learn.

3:21

And his letters one by one show how the lesson was mastered

3:25

by denying himself, by saying no to himself

3:31

there sternest of disciplines.

3:36

And by teaching himself to think about other people

3:39

to care for them.

3:43

A who woman who had lost the son became hard

3:46

and bitter and inconsolable

3:50

so that her health failed and her mind week.

3:53

Her husband took her to a famous French neurologist,

3:59

who attempted an unexpected, but direct method of cure,

4:03

for he went with her for a long drive

4:09

through villages that had born the fear

4:12

and fire and devastation of the war.

4:16

Madame said, "In nearly all these little humble homes,

4:20

there is a poor woman who has lost a son

4:25

and some of them that are mothers

4:29

who have lost two or three sons

4:31

is your grief greater than theirs?

4:36

Go home and bear your sorrow with courage and patience."

4:39

But though an attractive and engaging virtues,

4:49

there are times when content is anything but a virtue.

4:53

And saying that I'm thinking of a vivid striking passage

5:00

in the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

5:05

Moab from the thirst has to lean at ease.

5:08

Never known exile afar.

5:14

Lean like wine left on the leaves,

5:16

never pour from jar to jar, the taste the same as ever.

5:20

And it's Saint mellows never,

5:27

but the day comes, says the eternal,

5:29

when I saying men to move him, tilting him up and over,

5:33

emptying out his casks and breaking up his flasks.

5:40

Well, hundreds of years have passed

5:46

since those words when I first uttered?

5:48

But isn't there meaning crystal clear that are wrong,

5:51

that cry out to high heaven to be right.

5:56

There are injustices that must either be ended or mended.

6:00

There are situations so intolerable

6:06

that silence in regard to them

6:09

is not merely culpable but criminal

6:12

And they are inconsistent the offense of the man of Moab.

6:16

They were easy going and complete.

6:21

They tolerantly accepted the status quo.

6:24

They acquiesced in conditions as they were

6:28

in conditions against which they should have

6:33

raise that voice and that arm in spirited, defiant protest.

6:36

You see contentment is always in danger

6:44

of settling into complacency or what is even worse

6:48

into apathy into indifference.

6:53

You may have heard of the farmer who said,

6:56

"Don't tell me how to farm any better.

7:00

I don't farm as good now as I know how."

7:04

And in all walks of life that are men there women

7:09

who might well make the same sort of confession

7:14

in the realm of personal character, for instance,

7:17

there are those who are far too readily

7:22

and easily come to terms with themselves

7:24

and with the limitation.

7:28

Now I know that psychologists insist and rightly insist

7:30

on the need of self-acceptance,

7:36

but let us remember that there is a self-acceptance

7:39

that is all together to indolent and supine.

7:42

If you imposed on yourself a stricter discipline,

7:46

you could be a finer person

7:50

and you could turn into the classroom,

7:52

a finer quality of work.

7:54

Few things are said than to see men and women

7:58

deliberately sentencing themselves

8:02

to low levels of living and achievement.

8:05

Listen to what G.J.Nith

8:09

the dramatic critic says about himself

8:12

in his book, "Living Philosophies."

8:15

"To me, pleasure, and my own personal happiness,

8:19

only infrequently collaborating with others,

8:25

at all I deem worth a hoot.

8:28

It would make me out to much finer that and nobler person.

8:31

I duly, appreciate to see

8:35

that the happiness and welfare of all mankind

8:38

were close to my heart.

8:42

As a matter of fact, the happiness

8:45

and welfare of all mankind are not my profession.

8:48

I have all the time I can do to look out

8:52

for my own happiness and welfare

8:55

that I am selfish and to a very

8:58

considerable degree possibly or offensive.

9:01

Is that more and more regrettably obvious.

9:05

All that I am able to offer in extenuation is

9:09

that so are most other men, if you dig down into them

9:14

and pay no attention to their altruistic pretentious

9:18

get up a heart of them."

9:23

I have yet to find a man

9:26

who did not think of himself first and foremost,

9:28

as one type of self-acceptance for you,

9:35

does anyone really want to get up and defend it?

9:38

Should we be content with a philosophy of self-interest

9:41

even of enlightened self-interest.

9:46

If everybody adopted that sort of philosophy,

9:48

pleasure and our own personal happiness,

9:52

or we deemed worth a hoot,

9:55

what a crazy chaotic world, this would be.

9:58

Yes. And some people have to quickly come to terms

10:04

not only with themselves and their limitations,

10:08

but with the world and its limitations.

10:12

In adolescence, the status quo, anger them.

10:16

They could hardly wait until college days were over.

10:21

So we got to where they took it into the free,

10:25

they were free men crusaders for every good cause.

10:28

And for every overdue and unpopular reform,

10:33

they participated in debates, they passed resolutions.

10:37

They join societies and they went home

10:41

in the vacations to shock the parents

10:45

by their radicalism and their extremism.

10:48

Where are they today?

10:51

What has become of the social passion

10:53

of the resolve to change the face of the world

10:57

and hand down the millennium?

11:00

Alas in the case of the majority, time, further time

11:03

has had his way with, the years have tamed them

11:10

Some of them are prudent and cautious and calculating.

11:15

Some of them have given up their aspirations

11:19

for possessions they don't fight anymore.

11:22

Takes a great deal to arouse or stair them.

11:26

Next time you're in New York, all that you have to do,

11:31

is make four fifth avenue, cross to the fifth avenue

11:35

where the university club is situated,

11:41

cross to the front window of Elizabeth Arden shop

11:43

and watch the big front windows of the university club.

11:47

See the pot bellied man sitting there,

11:53

in those big windows.

11:57

It takes a very great deal to move them, to stir them.

11:59

The tumultuous, enthusiasms of youth have died down

12:04

and just like many of them, just like Dr. Samuel Johnson

12:09

at the time of the American revolution.

12:13

Bossewel, "If I were in parliament,

12:17

I should be vexed if things went wrong."

12:20

Johnson, "That can't, sir. Public affairs vex no man."

12:24

Bossewel, "Have they not fixed you a little sir?

12:30

Have you not yourself been vexed

12:35

by all the turbulence of this reign?"

12:37

Johnson, "Sir, I have never slept an hour less

12:41

nor an ounce less meat."

12:46

So shooting Samuel Johnson and I time him of public calamity

12:50

have been as equable as philosophical,

12:56

would it not have been for the general good,

13:00

if when king George The Third,

13:04

was making such disastrous decisions,

13:06

the leading man in England,

13:09

because of their concern over what was going on

13:11

had lost some sleep and found the age going off

13:14

their appetite, public affairs, vex no man.

13:18

A story that came out of China during the war

13:24

illustrates how wide of the mark

13:27

their generalization can be.

13:30

Story about two men

13:33

who succeeded in escaping from a prison camp.

13:34

After arduous travel and desperate hazards,

13:38

they made their way to the threshold of safety.

13:42

They had been associated for years in the service of China.

13:47

The one as a worker, the other as a publicist.

13:51

Insight of freedom, the worker stopped.

13:56

"You go on." He said, "And with your brilliant gifts.

13:59

Tell the world what we are fighting for.

14:03

I'm going back, so that when you write,

14:07

you can dip your pen in my blood.

14:12

And the world will know that we mean what we say."

14:15

There was a man whom the years have not tamed

14:20

and back of every movement for reform in history.

14:26

Of every one of them, you can trace a deep,

14:31

I would say, I divide this content.

14:35

Moses, for example, he was by adoption

14:39

a prince of the Royal house of Egypt.

14:42

But there was Israelitish blood in his veins.

14:45

How could he be content his brethren

14:49

were treated like beasts of burden.

14:52

His whole soul rose in revolt

14:55

at the sight of their suffering.

14:58

Every decent instinct in the man drove him

15:00

to renounce the link with the palace

15:05

and to identify himself with his own Kith and Kin.

15:07

In the end, at that head determined defiant,

15:12

he led out of Egypt.

15:16

Amos was the herdsman in Tacoma,

15:19

in the eighth century before Christ.

15:22

If you want to see how ill at ease and impatient,

15:24

a good man can be in the presence of social wrongs

15:28

and how zealous for radical thorough going reforms.

15:33

Read the little track for the times,

15:36

that is the prophecy of Amos.

15:39

It is full of tempestuous and withering words,

15:42

It is full of spiritual dynamite, no soft pleading in it,

15:46

no gentle persuasion in it,

15:52

but the wholesome cleansing influence of that

15:54

little book of nine chapters,

15:58

it would be very difficult for me to exaggerate.

16:01

And in the same prophetic succession

16:04

stands the Lord Jesus Christ.

16:09

For 30 years, 30 years,

16:12

he remained in the seclusion of Nazareth.

16:15

The wonder is that he stayed

16:19

by the carpenter's bench so long.

16:20

The wonder is that he was able to keep his patience,

16:23

or to hold his tongue in these of the situation of Israel,

16:26

of religion in Israel, at the time,

16:31

the formality, the unreality, the blight

16:33

that was lying on what should have been

16:37

a blessed beneficence thing.

16:39

But when at length he did speak,

16:42

there could be no mistaking the righteous indignation

16:45

that flamed in his words and in his looks.

16:49

It's strange the generation after generation

16:55

should persist in thinking about him

16:58

as a sweetly sentimental soul, insipid, was how a student

17:00

once described Jesus to me, insipid.

17:05

He was gracious.

17:09

He could be gentle as the gentlest woman here,

17:12

but all through his ministry,

17:15

there seize the name a divine discontent,

17:18

why the disciples had only to look at him,

17:22

to be reminded of the saying in the Bible,

17:25

"The seal of thine house have devoured him."

17:27

You see, he came to win the world back to God,

17:32

it was impossible for him to recline in slipperiness,

17:36

to stay by the carpenter's bench

17:40

to take life as he found it.

17:42

That last freeze, by the way,

17:45

I borrowed from a verse by Author Clow,

17:48

"The world load is very ill we see, we cannot comprehend it,

17:54

but in one point we all agree.

17:59

God won't and men can't mend it.

18:02

Being common sensed can be seen to take life as we find it,

18:07

the pleasure to take pleasure in the pain.

18:12

Try not to mind it."

18:16

The sentiment of those lines is anything but christian,

18:20

measure them against the life and teaching

18:24

and spirit of Jesus and the contrast becomes stark at once.

18:27

No one who professes to follow Jesus,

18:33

should take life as he finds it

18:36

or subscribe to the view

18:39

that the ills of this world are beyond repair or cure.

18:41

Yet, it has with contrition to be acknowledged

18:47

that the church has sometimes done this very thing

18:52

at intervals in its history there've been pious people

18:55

who have suppose that earthly conditions

18:59

had hardly any importance.

19:02

Some have said categorically,

19:05

that it is no part of the duty of the Christian,

19:08

to seek to make this world a better place.

19:11

That religion first and foremost

19:14

is a matter between a man and this maker

19:17

and the patrons and the structure of society

19:20

are neither his province nor its concern.

19:24

As I see it, this is disastrous doctrine.

19:29

And if I refer to it,

19:33

it's because it's always raising its head

19:34

on this continent and on the European continent,

19:36

one of the troubles about the crisis theology

19:40

is that it leaves its readers with the impression sometimes

19:43

that when all is said and done,

19:47

there's nothing that the Christian can do for that matter,

19:49

nothing that he should attempt to do

19:53

about the external order of society,

19:55

since God alone can save and redeem it.

19:58

There was a theological student who went from

20:02

the United States to Europe,

20:05

came for a time under the influence of this crisis theology.

20:06

He was familiar with as you're familiar

20:11

with W. P. Merrals, great hymn "Rise up, oh man of God,

20:12

His kingdom tarries long.

20:18

Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong."

20:20

But coming under this other kind of influence,

20:24

he parodied that verse and wrote,

20:27

"Sit down oh man of God, His kingdom, He will bring

20:31

whenever it may pleases His will, you cannot do a thing."

20:35

Believe that and you cut the nerve

20:40

of Christian social endeavor, you narrow the range

20:43

and the application of the christian ethic.

20:46

Yes, and you'll give your support

20:49

to the abdication of Christianity

20:52

from the whole field of politics and economics.

20:54

That way lies the passive acceptance of the status quo.

20:58

No matter how saturated the status quo may be with injustice

21:03

and inequality and oppression.

21:08

Over against this view, is the conviction

21:12

that you and I are called

21:16

to the service of God here and now.

21:18

And that it is our bound and duty to labor

21:21

for a society that will embody and reflect

21:25

the principles and the spirit of Jesus Christ.

21:29

When it comes to the maintenance of the cosmic order,

21:33

God requires no man's assistance.

21:38

But when it comes to the establishment of the social order

21:41

in his providence, He has called us to be His coworkers.

21:46

We have God in history is through human agent,

21:51

Moses and Amos and the others

21:58

Christ towering above them all, who is human and divine.

22:02

The kingdom of God is the gift of God,

22:06

but we can forward this coming

22:09

till the will of God is done on earth, as it is in heaven.

22:12

That should be in the heart of every Christian,

22:17

a divine discontent.

22:20

He should be alert to the presence of evil.

22:22

His conscience should be tender and sensitive

22:26

to whatever is unclean or unfair, unjust or unChrist like.

22:29

These certainly are days when there are situations in plenty

22:37

to stir up within us, discontent

22:44

within us stone's throw of the beautiful church, I serve.

22:48

Housing conditions exist,

22:53

which are a reproach to the city of New York.

22:56

And which should be a burden as I take occasion to say,

23:00

should be a burden and at the same time,

23:04

a challenge to the conscience of my congregation.

23:06

Disturbing to any sensitive conscience is the fact that

23:11

the United States

23:15

has well over twice, the average amount of food

23:17

of the rest of mankind, and with 6.2

23:21

of the world's population, it has 47% of its income.

23:27

And when we look abroad, what do we see?

23:34

The war no longer cold between the west and the east,

23:38

a fresh feverish race and armaments

23:44

with four new and awesome feature,

23:48

the experimentation and atomic vision.

23:53

What we see in short is a world on the brink of a new hell.

23:57

And I ask you,

24:02

who could be content with that for the status quo?

24:04

But you say, "What can we do?"

24:10

We mustn't harden ourselves.

24:14

That's what we must do. We mustn't harden ourselves,

24:17

we mustn't tell ourselves either

24:21

that things are not as bad as they seem.

24:24

We mustn't tell ourselves that in any case,

24:28

they're not our business.

24:30

We mustn't allow ourselves to become indifferent

24:33

to what is going on in the country

24:36

and to what is going on in the world.

24:38

Odd Nansen, son of the famous Norwegian Explorer,

24:41

wrote a day by day chronicle of his life

24:46

in a Nazi concentration camp.

24:49

And this is the way in which the book finishes.

24:51

"Dear reader, I shall stop now.

24:54

This book has turned out long enough

24:59

and it may have been heavy going.

25:02

But when you go to your book seller for a new one,

25:05

don't say to him as so many do,

25:10

I have had enough of these retched prison books.

25:14

Give me some better kind of thing.

25:17

I can't stand any more of that misery" says Nansen.

25:20

"Worst crime you can commit today against yourself

25:26

and against society is to forget what happened

25:33

and sink back into indifference.

25:38

What happened was worse than you have any idea off.

25:40

And it was the indifference of mankind

25:46

that let it take place"

25:48

Odd Nansen warning shouldn't go unheeded.

25:52

If we are going to build a screen,

25:55

between ourselves and the giant agony of the world

25:57

We're also going to pave the way to new miseries.

26:01

We mustn't harden ourselves.

26:06

We mustn't tell ourselves

26:08

that things are not really as bad as they seem

26:10

or at any rate they're not our business anyway.

26:12

And we must remember,

26:15

I want now to talk especially to undergraduates,

26:17

we must remember that the only discontent

26:21

that is worth anything is discontent that issues in action.

26:25

I remember when there had been

26:31

a fresh outbreak of corruption in New York,

26:32

getting into the subway one morning

26:36

and sitting down beside a man who had his paper open

26:37

at the place where the news was printed there in grave type

26:42

but he was fuming. He was angry.

26:46

He was as discontented as anyone could be.

26:49

I couldn't help wondering whether

26:53

all of the discontent would ooze out of him

26:55

and in picturing complete,

26:58

or if when the next time came to vote,

27:00

he registered a vote

27:03

that would do something to secure integrity for his city.

27:05

People who care, go and do something,

27:11

those who want democracy work for it.

27:15

Those who want peace work for it.

27:17

Those who want a finer juster order

27:20

roll up their sleeves pitch in and work for it.

27:22

And finally, forbidding and menacing

27:27

as the contemporary situation is

27:31

we mustn't allow ourselves to become

27:35

panicky and jittery over it.

27:38

If we are Christians, we must think

27:41

and talk and act like Christians,

27:44

that is to say, we must keep our faith in the love

27:49

and grace and power of God.

27:53

And we must also keep our faith

27:56

in the essential greatness and goodness of man.

28:00

I'm going to conclude now with a story,

28:05

which as I see it, doesn't contradict, but compliments

28:08

and maybe sums up what I've been endeavoring to say.

28:12

In the days of Oliver Cromwell, bulls trod Whitlock.

28:17

The British ambassador to the Hague,

28:23

was tossing through the night

28:26

in anxiety about the condition of his country.

28:28

And old servant lying in the same room addressed,

28:33

"Sir, may I ask you a question?"

28:38

"Certainly" replied the ambassador.

28:43

"Did God govern the world before you came into?"

28:48

"Certainly." was the answer.

28:51

"And Will He govern the world when you've gone out of it?"

28:55

"Undoubtedly." was the answer.

28:58

"Then sir, why can you not trust him

29:02

to govern the world while you're in it?"

29:06

The tired ambassador turned over on his side

29:11

and fell fast, asleep.

29:16

Fell fast to sleep so that the next morning

29:19

he was able and adequate for the handling

29:25

of the affairs of his country.

29:29

Let us pray.

29:33

Oh, Son of God in whose heart zeal burned like a furnace,

29:43

save us from weak resignation to the evils we deploy.

29:51

Stir up within all of us a divine discontent,

29:59

help us as we have opportunity.

30:05

And as though dos give us grace and strength

30:08

to bring in the day of brotherhood

30:12

and help in the night of wrong.

30:15

The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ the love of God,

30:20

the fellowship of the holy spirit,

30:26

be with us all now and forevermore. Amen.

30:29

♪ The Lord bless you and keep you ♪

30:39

♪ The Lord lift his countenance upon you ♪

30:50

♪ And give you peace ♪

30:59

♪ And give you peace ♪

31:01

♪ And give you peace ♪

31:04

♪ And give you peace ♪

31:06

♪ The Lord make his face to shine upon you ♪

31:09

♪ And be gracious unto you ♪

31:21

♪ And be gracious ♪

31:28

♪ The Lord and be gracious ♪

31:35

♪ Gracious unto you ♪

31:41

♪ Amen, Amen ♪

31:51

♪ Amen Amen ♪

31:56

♪ Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen ♪

32:04

(bell ringing)

32:25

(instrument playing)

32:35

Baby

Well, I think I'll talk to Heidi first.

32:57

Well Heidi we went in a car to see Santa, Santa Clause.

33:03

And I wanna tell all of you,

33:12

that I have a preset that Peggy gave me,

33:17

and I hardly can wait to open it up.

33:21

I can't think of what I wanna say now.

33:26

I think I'll give you-

33:31

Woman

What else did we see besides Santa Clause?

33:33

Baby

What?

33:36

Woman

What else did we see besides Santa Clause,

33:36

Baby

I don't know.

33:39

Woman

That's nice?

Did we see some pretty Christmas trees?

33:41

Baby

Yes' I will tell them about the manger.

33:44

Woman

Oh, all right, you tell them about the manger.

33:47

Baby

Well, not even grandmother,

33:49

I'll tell all the the girls about it.

33:53

Woman

Go ahead and do it.

33:54

Baby

Not even grandmother and Heidi,

33:56

we saw a manger scene and some pretty Christmas trees,

34:00

beside Santa Clause and over aunt Teresa's house,

34:05

It just lay in a Santa Claus.

34:10

♪ Up on the house stop reindeer pause ♪

34:14

♪ Out jumps good old Santa Clause ♪

34:18

♪ Down through the chimney with lots of toys. ♪

34:21

♪ All of the little ones Christmas joy ♪

34:25

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:28

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:32

♪ Up on the house stop click click click ♪

34:35

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

34:39

♪ First comes the stocking of little Nail ♪

34:42

♪ Oh dear Santa fill it well ♪

34:45

♪ Give her a dollar that last and cross ♪

34:49

♪ One that the local man shut her eyes ♪

34:52

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:56

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

34:59

♪ Up on my house stop click, click ,click ♪

35:03

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

35:06

♪ Next comes the stoking of little Will ♪

35:10

♪ Oh just see what a glorious bill ♪

35:13

♪ Here is a hammer and lots of texts ♪

35:17

♪ Also a ball and a whip that cracks ♪

35:20

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, ♪

35:23

Boy

Your not singing the right tune.

35:25

♪ Hoo, hoo, hoo, who wouldn't go ♪

35:27

♪ Up on the house stop click, click, click ♪

35:30

♪ Down through the chimney with the good Saint Nick ♪

35:34

♪ Jolly old Saint Nicholas new year this way. ♪

35:39

♪ Don't you tell us single soul what I'm going to say. ♪

35:44

♪ Christmas Eve is coming soon now you dear old man. ♪

35:48

♪ Whisper what you bring to me, tell me if you can. ♪

35:53

♪ When the clock is striking 12, when I'm fast asleep ♪

35:57

♪ Down the chimney brown and black, with your pack of three ♪

36:02

♪ Stockings, you will find hanging in a row. ♪

36:06

♪ Mine will be the shortest one, you'll be sure to know. ♪

36:11

♪ Johnny wants a pair of skates, Susie wants a Dolly ♪

36:16

♪ Nellie wants a story book ♪

36:20

♪ She thinks dolls are folly ♪

36:24

♪ As for me, my little brain, isn't very bright ♪

36:26

♪ Choose for me oh Santa Claus, watch you think is right. ♪

36:32

♪ Way down upon the Swanee river far, far away ♪

36:38

♪ That's where my heart is turning ever ♪

36:48

♪ That's where the old folks stay ♪

36:53

♪ Oh, my heart is sad and dreary everywhere I roam ♪

36:58

♪ Oh, brothers how my heart grows weary ♪

37:09

♪ Far from the old folks at home ♪

37:15

Woman

I've been trying very hard

37:20

to get Walter to say Merry Christmas to you.

37:21

And he agrees that he will.

37:25

And then when we hand him a little microphone,

37:27

he's just a silent as a little mouse,

37:29

but he's sitting here with us

37:31

and he's thinking about all of you up in Bridgehampton

37:32

and looking forward to another summer with you next year.

37:36

Now we want to say a last Merry Christmas to all of you.

37:41

♪ Merry Christmas to you ♪

37:45

♪ Merry Christmas to you ♪

37:49

♪ Merry Christmas dear family ♪

37:53

♪ Merry Christmas ♪

37:57

Robert J. McCracken - "The Duty of Being Discontented" (April 8, 1956)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options