Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

me."
ness."
us,"
saved."
stairs to have a look, and put our minds at ease. Af
ter it was all over we had a good laugh. The next
morning the funeral was held. About ten friends and
six sailors came ashore to pay their last tribute and
to be with the deceased's husband. Two of the girls
from the upper class laid wreaths, one at the head
and one at the foot of the coffin. This alone was a
token of our sympathy. Rev. Awad read a few words
in Arabic and Rev. Hays held the service. The sailors
carried the flag-draped coffin in true military fash
ion.
The husband received a shock in the graveyard,
however, as the cloth on the coffin is cut before
it is lowered into the ground. I explained to an Eng
lish man standing beside me that this is an old cus
tom. It is done to discourage anyone from opening
the grave to steal the cloth off the coffin ; which was
done years ago. After the funeral we all went to Miss
MeClurkin's home and had coffee. Mr. Wightman,
the husband, is from Edinburgh, Scotland. He was
glad to find a strain of Scotch blood in the land of
Syria. He thanked us all heartily and said. "You have
made it quite bearable." His wish is to have a marker
put on the grave and a picture of it sent to him.
out."
"His ways are past finding
The church in Banias is growing. There is a
class of young men which meets during the week
for a prayer-meeting. The pastor Rev. Ibraheem
Besna has a service before the Arabic service in
Turkish, for Turkish speaking Armenians. The Sab
bath School is held in the afternoon.
Two of the young girls in Bmelkie are having a
Sabbath School. This is the vision we long for. Serv
ice without compulsion. We want it to be their own
actual "bit," the overflow of superabounding devo
tion to God. Pray that the people will catch a vision
of service because of their love for Christ. We had
word recently that one of these young girls was mar
ried. She is living in the same village and we do hope
and pray that she will continue to serve as before.
All we are able to do is not because of our good
ness or strength, but through Jesus Christ. "I can
do all things through Christ which strengthened
Jap an
ON BOARD S. S. "PACIFIC BEAR"
Homeward Bound to Kobe
By Orlena Lynn
Dear Friends:
After several postponements of the sailing date
we finally left San Francisco on the morning of Feb
ruary 23. The first night out was quite rough. The lid
had been left unscrewed on a bottle of ink on the
desk, leaving me some "permanent blue" reminders
of our first night at sea on my return trip to Japan.
We did have some quite nice days following that.
One of the passengers was wondering what it would
be like to be in a storm at sea. During the last two
days we have found out, and it has been the first
experience in a real storm at sea for most of us.
People were literally thrown out of their chairs and
more than one went sprawling on the floor. No real
damage done, though. We all had our sea legs by
then, and the majestic waves of the ocean made
quite a picture. The storm did slow us up so that
now it will be March 14th before the ship
reaches
Kobe.
Through the singing of the psalms together
aboard ship, two missionaries on the ship have be
come quite interested in the Psalter and each want
to buy the complete Psalter to have for themselves.
One is a Presbyterian and the other is a Methodist,
both returning to Korea after furlough. Several of
the passengers were interested in the Navigator
verses. As I had some with me, two of them have
already started on these aboard ship. The Korean
lady in my cabin has asked me to pray for her. She
is a professing Christian and church leader, but
more because her grandfather was the first Chris
tian in their part of Korea than because of a real
conviction of our being sinners in the sight of a
holy and righteous God before whom we can only
come as we do so, clothed in the righteousness of
Christ. A Korean man on board ship considers him
self a Christian because his father was an elder in
the church, but shows no evidence of the fruits of the
Spirit in his life, and there is apparently no vital
April 6, 1955
personal faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour of his
life. Pray for these among whom the seed has been
sown that their spiritual eyes might be opened.
What a wonderful promise we have that "If we con
fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous
This furlough year has been a profitable one.
It was good to see the family, relatives, and friends
again. Also, I enjoyed the opportunities of meeting
many of you and seeing your part of the work for
the cause of Christ. My thanks to each of you who
have written to me and who have shown me much
kindness and warm hospitality during my time in
the United States. The many steamer letters were
greatly appreciated.
The Japanese friends told me to gain weight
while at home, but I doubt whether they expected
me to add fifty pounds as I did. Hope they will rec
ognize me. It will be good to get back to Japan and
I am anxious to return to the Covenanter Book
Room and to the work among the people of that
land. Going forth with the Gospel message as am
bassadors for Christ is truly a wonderful privilege,
whether it be to those in America or to those in
lands across the Ocean. Pray for me as I again
take up the work in Japan that I might be used of
God to His own glory. Also, pray for our Japanese
Christians as they take to others in their land the
message that "God commendeth His love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for
and that "whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be Knowing our stubborn,
selfish human nature, how thankful we are that even
that faith to believe is a gift of God!
Communism
Is this a religion It is a religion and much
more. It is a religion of atheism, of dialectical mater
ialism. It is a religion of redemption of the human
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