The story is told of a small boy who stood with his father on a high bluff overlooking the ocean. Below them the mighty waves crashed in among the rocks, sending up great white clouds of mist and spray. The little fellow snuggled close to his father and said, "Daddy, I need a hand-holder."

On the dizzy heights, in the deep valleys, in rough and shadowed places, when we falter or stumble, in the confusion of ways when we do not know which road to take, in the dark when we cannot see - we, too, sometimes need a hand-holder.

We are here this morning to be re-impressed with this everlasting truth: We have a hand-holder, one who says, "I will never leave nor forsake you," one who says, "I am with you always." We are here today to take a little firmer hold on his mighty hand and to let him take a firmer grip on ours.