Covenanter Witness Vol. 41 - Reformed Presbyterian Historical ...

26 THE COVENANTER WITNESS July 14, 1948
Theological Seminary F. M. Wilson, Robert McMillan, S. Bruce
Willson, Robert McConaughy.
Temperance Committee J. O. Edgar, Paul Wright, Mrs. G. I.
Wilcox.
Board of Foreign'
Missions F. M. Wilson, W. C. McClurkin,
Robert Edgar, J. Paul Wilson, G. M. Robb, S. T. Stewart.
Evangelistic Committee J. E. McElroy, J. L. Wright.
Home Mission Board Robert Clarke, R. A. Blair, J. G. McEl
hinney, Robert McMillan, J. M. Allen, J. S. Tibby, Chester Fox to
succeed Robert McConaughy, M. F. Murphy to succeed J. R. Lathom.
Board of Christian Education E. R. Carson, Bruce Stewart.
Board of Church Erection D. R. Taggart, R. W. Speer.
Synod Member of Board of Corporators of Geneva CollegeJ.
S. Tibby.
Stewart
Assistant on Traveling Fund Committee for 1949 Bruce
Board of Control M. W. Dougherty, Merritt McElhinney.
Jewish Mission Board Joseph M. Steele, Mrs. S. E. Greer.
Synod's Board of Trustees R. M. Young, John M. Anderson,
Charles H. Haslett.
Committee on Stewardship David Carson.
7. Special Committees which we appointed:
Special Committee to act on Correspondence Paul Coleman, F.
F. Reade, W. R. White.
Prayer Meeting Topics Committee Walter McCarroll, Gordon
Betts, R. E. Smith.
Psalter Revision C. E. Caskey, G. M. Robb, David Carson.
Treasurer of Board of Foreign Missions J. S. Tibby.
Committee on Limited Pastorates M. S. McMillan, J. C.
Mathews, Samuel Crockett, J. A. Carson, W. J. McBurney, E. G.
Russell.
Committee to consider equalization of Ministers and Elders at
the meetings of Synod J. G. McElhinney, J. Ren Patterson, Fenton
Farley, Carl Murphy.
Special Committee to study Close Communion E. L. McKnight,
F. E. Allen, C. E. Caskey.
Committee on Social Justice Term Expires
John Coleman, Claude Brown 1949
Paul White, J. Dale Russell 1950
R. M. Carson, W. McCarroll 1951
Committee A. W. Smith, E. R. Hemphill, T. R. Hutcheson,
Ralph Mathews, W. W. Copeland.
Prayer Meeting Topic
For August 1, 1948
THE KIND OF KING THE PEOPLE
Psalms:
WANTED, GIVEN THEM
I Samuel 9:1-27; 10:1, 17-27
Psalm 145: 1-3, No. 389
Psalm 72:1-6, No. 190
Psalm 85:1-4, No. 229
Psalm 110:1-6, No. 305
Comments :
By the Rev. Paul E. Faris
The passages of Scripture are long
and should be read before you read
these comments. That should be our
practice in all Bible study. Give God's
Word first place.
The children of Israel had made
their request to Samuel that they
might have a king like the nations
about them. In our chapters we see
how God gave them a king
after the
desires of their hearts. While we are
not under a king,
our nation does get
methods have been abandoned in our day, but
the work of attempted destruction still goes
on. The greatest effort of the present is to
discredit the Bible, and thus to undermine the
believer's faith, a more insidious, and there
fore a more dangerous foe than all that have
preceded it. But the roll destroyed by Je-
hoiachim was replaced by another and greater
one. The parchment was destroyed, but not
the truth inscribed on it. "Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass
away."
The latest word concerning Baruch is
found in Chap. 43:6, which "tells of his being
on his way to Egypt, a prisoner. Another
reference is in Chap. 45, but in point of
time goes back to the reign of Jehoiachim,
when Baruch wrote the roll for Jeremiah.
And it is not without regret that we find in
those final words something of reproof
spoken by the prophet himself,
at the Lord's
command. Verse 3 would seem to imply that
the scribe had been making complaint be
cause of his unhappy lot. In verse 5 is an
implied charge that he had thought himself
worthy
of a higher place than he had been
given. "Seekest thou great things for thy
self? Seek them
following
the kind of a president it desires;
schools seek the teachers which they
like, and our churches get the kind
of a preacher they want or attempt
to make him that way after they
secure him. There are untold ways
in which you may apply this lesson.
The first part of our Scripture
passage pictures the future king be
fore any man knows anything about
his future work. God points out the
man in a short preview; there are
qualities shown here that are what
the people had wanted. The sad thing
is that some of these same qualities
will show up later in life. We know
that today,
and when we seek a per
son to fill a place of responsibility
we feel that it is best to know
something
work.
of his former life and
These are some of the things we
find in Saul's life: He is from a fam
ily
of means. His father was "a
not."
One writer gives the
estimate of Baruch: "He stands
before us as a man of fine character and rare
spiritual gifts, the promise of which was
marred by an admixture of baser elements.
He never became the man he might have been
because he was too eagerly bent on being
men."
seen of This is one man's judgment.
The reader may take or leave it. "Judge not
that ye be not judged."
"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revela
tion of Jesus Christ."
mighty man of
power"
I. Peter 1:13.
a marginal
reading
for power. The people no doubt
gives the word "substance"
wanted a king with substance; al
though as they looked at the other
kings, they probably failed to see
that those kings got their substance
by demanding it from the people;
they would find later that their
kings got their wealth in the same
way. He also had a stately and com
manding personality. They wanted a
king of whom they could be proud
as he led the people. Saul was tall
and carried himself well. If good
looks counted, he had it. He was dili
gent in his work; this is shown in his
search for his father's asses. Follow
him over that country
on foot, and
you will understand. He did not give
up easily. Another quality that must
have been noticed in the other kings
is in Saul too. He knew nothing
about the Lord's servant; from this