Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying,
"This is the way, walk ye in it."—Isa. 30:21

“This is the way”--the way of obedience to the will of God and His righteous laws. “A voice behind thee”—the voice of history, which is forever sounding across the centuries the laws of truth, right, and justice, and reminding us of the doom that befalls men and nations that persistently transgress those laws.

In that voice there is the blending of many voices, from every age and clime. In it you may hear the voices of that long line of Israel’s heroes and prophets, “who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens” (Heb. 11:33-34).

As you follow on through the pages of history, its voice gathers into its ever-increasing volume more and more voices—those which arise from such fields of conflict as when the early Greeks, for the love of freedom, contested with despotic Persia; or when the early Romans expelled the tyrant Tarquin; or when the Netherlands under William the Silent resisted the persecutions of Spain; or when the Thirteen Colonies under Washington took up arms in the struggle for independence and liberty; or when the American conscience was aroused and moved to overthrow the power of human slavery, and finally to rid Cuba and the Philippine Islands of the misrule of Spain; or when the free nations united to forestall the aggressions of totalitarian dictators.

The trend seen in this history marks a pathway upward and onward in human progress, and justifies faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, truth, and right.

Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes to them at last.

Justice and truth alone endure and live.

History speaks across the centuries. And it speaks, always and everywhere, on the side of truth and right and human freedom.

Let those who feel that there is no hope for mankind take heart from this appeal to history. God who “ruleth in the kingdom of men” (Dan. 4: 25), rules in history.