Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

JILEK HARTIN
In the United Philadelphia parsonage,
on May 7, 1955 at one P.M. before a
bower of palms and dogwood, a very
pretty wedding was solemnized. The
bride, Mrs. Martha Jilek, in a blue lace
gown and James Hartin, were married
by their pastor, Dr. Paul D. McCracken,
in the presence of their families and a
few friends. The bride was attended by
her sister Mrs. James A. Carson and the
groom by Charles J. Jilek. A dinner and
reception at Strath Haven Inn, Swarthmore,
Pa., followed the ceremony. After
July 1 Mr. and Mrs. Hartin will be at
home at 124 South Pennock Avenue,
Upper Darby, Pa.
A TESTIMONY
Yes, verses of Scripture presented by
Holy Ghost power have brought to me
conviction of sin more than once. For
example: In the Providence of God, I
roomed with a young lady for one year.
We were both Christians who needed
chastening temperamental differences,
maybe .
Speaking for myself, I was
conscious of the need of God's power to
give harmony
and prayed that God
would show me my part in the discord.
My habit in those days was to read por
tions of the Bible at three periods of the
day. In these readings I was halted by
this verse Proverbs 22:10 "Cast out
the scorner and contention will go out;
yea reproach and strife shall The
cease."
Holy Spirit enabled me to see myself in
the role of Scorner and furthermore He
enabled me to change my attitude.
Proof
Two years later we two, in
the Providence of God, lived together
again but this time there was harmony
the work of God's Spirit through the
applied Word of His grace.
This lesson is faithfully brought to
my remembrance as occasion requires
for which I praise God through Jesus
Christ my Lord and Saviour.
OPEN LETTER
Do We Dare Lose Our Lifef
"For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it; and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it." Mat. 16:25.
I've been interested in Dr. Taggart's
articles on,
Taking
a dare. And I've
been wondering if we as a church are
willing to take the dare of this verse
Matt. 16:25. We have been so concerned
trying to save our selves that we are
in danger of losing our life. We get so
alarmed over the fact that the church
might die that we forget that we are
in a much bigger fight than merely
keeping the Covenanter church in exist
ence. In the first place we don't need to
worry about the truth dying. God takes
care that it doesn't die. The Jews pre
served the truths of the Old Testament
336
through hundreds of years. They be
came so zealous in keeping the church
that they killed the 'Messiah they had
been looking for through the centuries.
The Jewish church had served it's pur
pose, but the truth went on living in
the Christian church. During the dark
ages a little group of Waldenses held
on to the true teachings of the apostles.
That truth was taken up by the reform
ers, Luther, Huss, Knox and the rest.
So we don't need to be afraid that the
truth our church holds will die. But the
church as an organization can die and
will, if we in our efforts to save our
selves lose sight of the fact that we have
a much bigger task to do.
We are in a struggle that takes in
the whole world, Satan against God;
evil against good. Are we in there fight
ing for all we are worth Or are we so
busy being jealous of who is going to
get the credit, or making sure that if a
soul is won it must be for our congrega
tion so we can report it, that we fail;
to win any one Are we thinking of
advancing the cause of the kingdom or
of our own pride and prestige Are
we just as willing to work for the
kingdom where we see work to be done
even though no one but the Lord knows
about it
Satan has not gone to sleep. He is
fighting for all he is worth and it's
amazing how much his followers will
sacrifice for the cause of evil. The Com
munist fights with zeal. The liquor in
terests never lose a trick. While so
many protestant churches dally around
taking it easy, chiefly concerned in try
ing to keep up with the Joneses. We talk
about the nation being blind to the
Bible truths. It's easy to put the re
sponsibility on the rulers of our country,
but the nation is made up of people. The
Christian church must sound the alarm,
wake people up to the great need of
Christian living and sacrifice. We talk
from the pulpit but do nothing about it
when no change of life is made. We are
afraid to upset the apple cart. We know
not where the waves might reach, per
haps to some influential member. We
need Christians that are born-again to
spread the gospel of love, not only in for
eign fields but in our own country. I think
we need some shouting preachers, at least
some that talk as if the cause is urgent.
But too often it seems the sermon is just
another chore for the week and it
doesn't make too much difference
whether people are in the fight or not.
Do you wonder why Billy Graham is a
success Well, part of it is because he
talks as if he really has a message
that must be put across with no time
more
to lose. He makes people feel that they
are sitting on a keg of dynamite. Sam
Boyle has the fighting spirit. We need
of it. Nothing
suits Satan better
than take-it-easy talks and methods.
The attitude that seems to say, "Let's
stay
on our own little island and be
good and let the rest of the world go
by."
It doesn't work. Unless we get into
the fight we lose our own goodness. He
who would find his life must lose it
for My sake.
If the Covenanter church forgets the
big fight in their efforts to hold the
members we have, if we spend all our
time and money trying to keep members
in bounds and pay
preachers to holeup
somewhere, where there are no
people to reach, if we think we can
revive ourselves by signing a Covenant
when we know &
great many
of our
members weren't keeping the Covenant
they had taken when they joined the
church; then it's time for us to wake
up. We have long consoled ourselves
with the story of Gideon and his three
hundred. The story is good, but remem
ber the three hundred soldiers that were
left were the most alert men of Israel.
Is that true of our Covenanter church
es If so, some of them are low enough
now that they should get started in the
other direction.
Why don't we send our Home Mis
sionary Superintendent and other min
isters out into new settlements, buy
them a house and let them start a mis
sion Sabbath school in the basement
and work to get a church started. Some
ministers in our church have done it.
Baptist and other churches are doing
it all the time. One town on Long Island
has grown from forty to four thousand
in only a few years. The same thing is
happening around all our cities. Are
we too far gone to take the dare and
really get into the fight Only alert,
born-again Christians would be interest
ed in this kind of a project. And if a
few people did the work would some of
us be jealous if they succeeded, instead
of rejoicing in the work done Of
course if we sat down and talked it
over from a business stand point we
would shake in our boots and say it
isn't practical. That's right, it isn't.
It would take faith. We
talk about
faith. Do we have it Are we willing
to lose our life Are we enough in
earnest to put away jealousies, pride,
and our own easy life If we are not,
remember the words of our text, "For
whosoever will save his life shall lose
it. "And that is God's Word.
Jean L. McFarland.
COVENANTER WITNESS