Winter 2002
Volume 6 Number 2
Winter 2002
Volume 6 Number 2
"A Witness to Truth"
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Eulogy
for PTS Alum James J. Reeb
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Continued I say, in conclusion, the greatest
tribute that we can pay to James Reeb this afternoon is to continue the
work he so nobly started but could not finish because his life-like the
Schubert "Unfinished Symphony"-was cut off at an early age. We
have the challenge and charge to continue. We must work right here in
Alabama, and all over the United States, till men everywhere will respect
the dignity and worth of human personalities. We must work with all our
hearts to establish a society where men will be-that "out of one
blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth." If we will do this, we will be able-right here in Alabama, right here in the deep South, right here in the United States-to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. We will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children-as expressed so beautifully in this marvelous ecumenical service-all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands in unity and brotherhood to bring about the bright day of the brotherhood of man under the guidance of the fatherhood of God. So we thank God for the life of James Reeb. We thank God for his goodness. We thank God that he was willing to lay down his life in order to redeem the soul of our nation. So I say-so Horatio said as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet-"Good night sweet prince: may the flight of angels take thee to thy eternal rest." °
© Copyright 2001 Princeton Theological Seminary
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We
must work with determination for that great day. "Justice will roll
down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." We must
work right here, where "every valley shall be exalted, every mountain
and hill shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places straight. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together." We must work to make the Declaration of
Independence real in our everyday lives.
