Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

saved."wisdom."ther resolved that these resolutions be spread uponthe minutes of the Session, and that a copy thereofbe sent to his widow, Mrs. Robert W. Piper, and acopy be sent to the local paper for publication, alsoto. the Wheeling Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church."The Session of the United Presbyterian Churchof Moundsville, West VirginiaBy: Roy D. MyersClerk of SessionSo comes to a close the life of one called of Godto preach, and be a Minister to His people. He wasever faithful, a good Shepherd of his flock, a powerin prayer, and deply spiritual. He gave no quarterfrom any source to those who polluted our city withdrink, gambling, or debauchery. Even these hadgreat respect for this Crusader Minister, while allknew him to be most courageous in his desire to protect the Youth of this City from the insidious workof these who are notorious for their depravity.It is significant that perhaps the last publicservice rendered by Dr. Piper was the giving of thebeautiful Invocation at the March meeting of theChurch-Industry Group. The Association will misshim. He took his place among us humbly,great sincerity. As President, or official, our Asyet withsociation prospered under his benign guidance."Servant of God,well done !Thy glorious warfare's past ;The battle's fought, the race is runAnd thou art crowned at last."Marshall County Ministerial AssociationMr. Piper was very active here, loved by hiscongregation as well as byeveryone in the city.Many times he preached and did a good work in theS. S. of the penitentiary, he knew the men, couldtalk and pray with them.He broadcast over the Bellaire Radio Station,was to have given the message Saturday, the day before he passed away received manycards and phonecalls, had requests for his sermons which he gladlysent, he reached 40,000 people every time he spoke.He was instrumental in running the slot machines out of town. He was a hard worker for good.One thing more, his text the last Sabbath hepreached was Jeremiah 8:20. "The harvest is past,the summer is ended, and we are notnrri? rrnrTi? YirrarirkUT/wvnfiTinorl from T>aP*PTInstead of folding our hands in these difficultdays, let us rather renew our covenant and exclaim,"God be thanked, Who hath matched us with thishour."In accepting Christ's challenge, may we continuethrough covenant renewal to"Do the best we canWith what we have,NOW!"Wherever we areThis is "trueROADBLOCKS . . . continued from page 102These are difficult and serious questions. Thetendency is to by-pass and ignore such questions asthese. These questions are seldom faced. The tendency is rather to regard the status quo as normal. Or ifnot the present status quo, then at anyachievements of the past are regarded as normal. Ifwe could jnst get back to the way things were in "therate thegood old days" and maintain that standard, we aretold, then everything would be fine.But would it? Where have we been? This is1953. How are we to be excused for having failedto advance beyond our forefathers in understandingthe Scriptures ? How can we say that the reformationof the church was completed in 1560 or in 1638 orin 1806 or even in 1950? What have we been doingsince then ? Has our talent been buried in a napkin ?It is not difficult to admit that there are someevils in the church which need correction. But thetendency is to say that if we could just get back tothe sound basis of a generation or two ago, everything would be as it should be. What more couldanyone ask ? We could just hold that line for all timeto come.But that would not be doing our God-given duty.Our forefathers reformed the church in their time ;God calls us to reform it in our time. We cannot reston their laurels ; we must strike out for ourselves, byfaith, on the basis of the Word of God.(To be concluded)AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL PLIGHTPeople spend eight times more hours at moviesthan at Sunday School; only one out of twelve persons in our country attends church; seven out ofSchool ateight children quit church and Sundaytendance before they reach fifteen years of age;fifteen million "sex" magazines are printed monthlyand read by one-third of the American people ; thereare more bar maids in this country than collegegirls ; one million One Million American girls havevenereal disease; one hundred thousand girls disappear every year into white slavery ; one million illegitimate babies are born annually; there are almost a million illegal abortions performed annually ;our nation harbors three times as many criminals ascollege students; a major crime is committed everytwenty-two seconds;an aggravated assault or rapeevery hour ; a murder every forty minutes ; there aresixty suicides in our nation daily; two out of threeadults, both men and women, smoke; three out often who start as light drinkers, end up drunkards ; asa nation we spend about seven hundred fifty dollarson pleasures, sins, cosmetics and amusements toevery dollar given to foreign missions. J. EdgarHoover, in Church Chimes.105