Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

sponsibility to sow the seed and water it, but onlythe Spirit can make it grow. We can continue to playour part in prayer and we look to you friends athome to join us in this. The longer I live the moreI feel that this is where we lose out in our work. Sofew of us have ever put real prayer to the test. I wasreading and meditating lately on the prayer of Nehemiah. What an impossible situation his was when heheard the disturbing and distressing news aboutJerusalem! What could he do about it? Many wouldhave said nothing could be done. But that was not so.He could pray, and he prayed, and persisted in prayerin the face of what seemed an impossible situation,and his prayer brought him an almost incredible victory. What could we also do if we had like faith inprayer and were prepared to hold on till we got ananswer. Such praying as that of Nehemiah makesone think seriously and is a strong and severe rebuketo one's weak faith.We are running a small summer school for abouttwo months, beginning from the nineteenth of thismonth. It brings us into contact with many peopleand gives one many opportunities of preaching theWord. I was interested to meet a young man theother day who came with his young brothers to seeme about getting them into this summer school. After we had talked for a time he told me that he wasspecially interested in his brothers getting religiousteaching, and I told him that was what I was specially interested in giving, and that it was for thatwe had our school open. One does not generally findpeople so anxious these days to get religious teachingfor their boys.Zahleh, as we have told you before, is a nominallyChristian town of around 30,000 inhabitants. It isstrongly Roman Catholic. I have lately had sometalks with some of the outstanding citizens about theplace of holiness in the Christian life. The curse ofthis place is that people think they can commit allthe sins, and then come to the priest who grantsthem forgiveness, when back they go again to thesame old sins. Again they come to confess and beforgiven, and then back to the same old sins again.All sense of holiness in their daily living is foreign totheir thinking and teaching. To get people to breakwith such a system is no easy matter. Only theSpirit of God can do this. It is interesting to note thenumber of people who have gone from here to America, Canada, and Australia and have gotten soundlyconverted. I have met with three of them during thelast year who have come back for a visit to theirfriends. They are thoroughly disgusted withthe state of things here and have been witnessing faithfully to their friends. Through themwe have met with many of their people and havehad some good opportunities of speaking to themabout true Christianity as set forth in the Word. Ialways try, as far as possible, to hold them down towhat the Bible says. One can only try to show themthe teaching of the Bible, and then pray that theSpirit may enlighten their darkened understanding.We are all very well, I am glad to say. Mr.Macquigg and my son are in a place called 'Ain-Zahaltafor six weeks studying Arabic. Mrs. Lytle isjust back from a very interesting trip to Antiochwith our daughter and my sister. I am still on theblack list in Syria, and my wife had some difficultygetting into the country from Antioch. Poor Syria!When will her people know and enjoy true freedom?November 3, 1954My heart goes out to her ignorant people who do notknow what is for their good. We are delighted to getsome of her sons to teach and train, so that they maygo back and help in bringing light and liberty totheir own people, so if I cannot go, I hope to sendothers. Christ will one day come into His own in thatdark and benighted land. The liberty we enjoy hereseems almost incredible.We thank you for all your help and interest inthe work and ask you to continue to pray for us thatwe may be faithful in presenting Christ in all His fulness to those with whom we meet.GLIMPSES . . . from page 274Urge Freedom for IndiansLeaders of the Southern Baptist church of New Mexicohave urged an amendment to the federal Civil Rights Actto American Indians. Theysaid that the U. S. Constitutionguarantees such freedom to all citizens, "but we have no statute to enforce it within the boundaries of Indian pueblos andreservations established by treaties." Dr. A.C. Miller ofNashville, Tenn., executive secretary, urged Baptists throughout the South to interest their congressmen in this problem.Crusade of DecencyAt Trinidad, Colo., more than 100 men and women haveorganized a "Crusade of Decency" in a movement to suppressthe display and sale of objectionable publications. The LasAnimas County Judge estimated that 60 per cent of juvenilelaw violators there can be traced to reading comic books dealing with crime. Those who formed the "Crusade" have prepared a list of tests to determine which books are objectionable, vicious in content and demoralizing to children, whichare:crimes?1. Do they violate the Ten Commandments?2. Do theyexcuse or make attractive criminal acts?3. Do they present details and methods of committing4. Do they create disrespect for law, justice and the American way?dress?5. Do they display or contain vulgar jokes, gesturesi or6. Do they undermine the stability7. Do they ridicule anyof the home?religious or racial group?HOME IN ONE PIECE"If you go to a party and find that you aredrinking, put your car keys in a self-addressed envelope and mail them back to yourself. Then, if youshould want to drive, you won't be able to, as you'llhave no keys. You'll get home someway in one piece,it."and you won't kill yourself doingSo said Dave Garroway on his New Year's Evetelevision program "Today" as he and Dr. Jim Osterberger,of the New York Police Department, graphically tested the effect of drinking ondriving, usingactual demonstrations for his viewers. These testsproved that after a man takes six martinis, his reaction time is so reduced that he requires twentymore feet than normal to stop his car enough inmany cases to cause tragedy.Garroway concluded: "It sure seems silly tohave to beg people not to kill themselves. The fact isthat, when there is an accident due to drinking, ofteninnocent people who haven't been drinking getkilled."281