Related commentaries – Commitment

Serve God from the Heart not the Head – Joshua 24:19 – 24:33

MacArthur’s Closing Speech

In MacArthur’s closing speech to the nation, he said: “I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the Plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished. But I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that ‘Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.’ “And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away—an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye.” (Encyclopedia of Illustrations - #1542)