Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

adder."
government."
nations."
OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES
(Song of Solomon 2:15)
By Lillian Hitt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
We are a
family of four. Dad and I, David our
fourteen-year-old, and Susan who is ten. Fortunately
we have a rich heritage. We, as parents, had the
priceless possession of Christian parents before us.
We grew up in the church, and attended Sabbath
school so early in life that we scarcely remember at
tending any public gathering prior to that.
My recollection as a little girl of the church serv
ice was that sometimes it seemed to go on and on.
But I always brought a handkerchief and with it I
discovered that I could have a world all my own. By
folding and refolding it, the handkie became a pa
poose, a cradle, and so forth. And so in those tender
years, only the Sabbath school really meant some
thing to me. The story of ten virgins, told by an art
ist who with blackboard and chalk depicted the story,
shall be one that I shall carry forever in my memory.
And I was a very tiny tot sitting on a little red chair
that Sabbath afternoon.
So without the Sabbath school in those early
formative years and the compulsory verse memoriz
ing, I might not be enjoying today the deeper things
of God . . . how important to have the right Sabbath
school teachers to tell the story graphically and in
the power of the Spirit so that it will be retained in
the pliable hearts and minds of these little ones.
And how important it is for us as parents to see
that our children are taken to this school to learn les
sons that will be lost forever if the opportunity is not
grabbed up at this precise moment.
We have done this. And have rejoiced to see the
results in some measure in the spiritual develop
ment of our children.
But once a week Sabbath school, as good as it is,
is not enough to build them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord. We have found that a family
altar at home each day can be the tie binding Sab
bath to Sabbath.
We have set aside a few moments after dinner
each evening for our family devotions. They are not
long,
nor complicated. But we read the Word and
have printed notes to assist us. And incidentally
these notes are leveled not to the adult, but rather
to the We child.* consider this paramount. Some
times we might discuss or answer questions in con
nection with what we have read.
And then we pray. Sometimes it is the parents.
Sometimes just the children. Sometimes we all pray.
HOW DRUNKARDS ARE . . . con't from page 296
pent, and stingeth like an Prov. 23:32.
Truer words were never penned.
How much longer will God-fearing men and
women allow the devotees of greed, crooks, liars,
thieves, thugs, racketeers, outlaws, adulterers and
adulteresses to dominate "our land" If all who pro
fess to love and serve the Lord were true to Him,
Greed's rule would soon end. We put on some of our
coins "In God we trust" and then allow Bacchus to
rule our nation. Words are too weak to express the
shame of this folly.
8100 Wornall Road, Kansas City, Mo.
May 11, 1955
If we do, they are short but to the point. They in
volve the family interests school interests neigh
borhood interests church interests plans for a
trip-:that examination tomorrow a safe journey
the missionaries we know personally and all that is
important to us.
In it all, we don't forget to thank Him. For when
we pray together like this, we have seen many
prayers answered. How this increases our faith as
well as the faith of our children ! And little by little,
we see some progress being made.
Recently we had to go out for dinner and the
evening thus leaving the children a little while. When
we returned, they told us that they had had their
own devotions
and the other praying.
one reading
Our hearts were strangely
brushed away a tear !
warmed and I
*JUNIOR NOTES by Scripture Union, 3 Cawthra
Square, Toronto 5, Canada
THE BIGGEST NIGHT
Cont. from front page
Japan 400 years ago through Spain and Portugal.
"But the Christians fought our
he said,
"so we closed our land to Christian Chris
tianity sounds good, I thought, but maybe my teach
er is right.
Again, as I listened to the speaker in the sta
dium, my mind went back to the war years. I remem
bered that during the war Christians in Japan were
not permitted to meet for worship. This did not seem
right to me. But some said the American mission
aries were spies. It did not seem logical that Amer
ica would use missionaries to spy for them. I could
not decide whether Christianity was good or bad.
Politics Interested Me
At the time World War II broke out, I was a
socialist politically. I had been interested in commun
ism, but had given it up because I came to realize
that the claims it made were false. However, because
I opposed the war, I became suspect and was jailed as
a communist. After my release from jail, I was con
fined to my home and could not work or go to school
until the war was over. I reasoned that the govern
ment had been wrong about me
maybe they were
wrong about the American missionaries, too. After
the war I decided that the missionaries had not really
been spies.
In college, I again encountered the Christian re
ligion. One of my best friends there was a Christian.
Although he invited me, I didn't go to church with
him on Sundays because I was busy training or run
ning in track meets. (Running was becoming my
chief interest outside the classroom, although I still
planned on a career in government.) However, I was
increasingly interested in Christianity, and attended
some Bible studies sponsored by the YMCA.
My mind raced through these thoughts in a mat
ter of seconds as the speaker spoke of Jesus Christ
and salvation from sins. In all my previous brief en
counters with Christianity, I had never heard the
Christian Gospel explained so clearly and simply. And
never foefore had I felt such an overwhelming desire
to give my life to this Jesus who could forgive sins
and make men good.
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