We blacks look for leadership in men and women of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that we sometimes seem rudderless. . . . We see basketball players and pop singers as possible role models.
POVERTY, n. A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. Its victims are distinguished by possession of all the virtues and by their faith in leaders seeking to conduct them into a prosperity where they believe these to be unknown.
Unless the secret of inward peace is also the secret of escape from fear, it does not meet a need I believe is almost the central need of mankind. If it be asked, "Why are so many people in the modern world anxious, worried, nervous, irritable, depressed, bad sleepers, and not quite well?" the answer in most cases is that they are frightened. . . . What, then, is the way to escape from the power of this ever-present enemy? I know none except learning that we are in the keeping of a God who will never desert us. . . . There is no fear where love is, and the love of God is always present. . . . Till we have faced that fact, we are not ready to understand what God does actually for those who trust in Him. But when we have learnt that truth, we may go on to say, "Come what may, we know that He will be with us and therefore need not fear." We may have to suffer in the body, but His sustaining grace will never leave us. We may lose our dear ones and so be wounded in our very hearts, but His grace will give us strength to carry even that cross. We may have to face poverty; but if so, He will do for us what He has done for thousands and teach us how to be poor and yet content. We may have to face hunger of the heart, and no one who knows what that means will ever think lightly of it; but even through that fiery trial, His love will sustain those who turn to Him.