Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

witnesses"needing."ship. "Ye shall offer an offering made byfire unto the Lord." Our Elder, WilliamGarrett led in the Thankoffering prayer.PRESENTINGTHE COVENANTER CHURCH"Who are the Covenanters?"This short essay answers that questionby presenting the historical backgroundof the church and closes with a summaryof our beliefs. 16 pagesW. J. Coleman, "The Aim of the Distinctive Principles of the CovenanterChurch."Four packed pages by the first chairman of the Witness Committee, relating our special beliefs to their centralpurpose the exaltation of Jesus Christ.Available from the Witness CommitteeDavid M. Carson, Geneva College,Beaver Falls, PennsylvaniaDEEPER SPIRITUAL LDJE WEEKF. H. Lathom, D.D. pastor of CollegeHill congregationLast summer while on vacation I satdown to make plans for my fall and winter work. Suddenly there came to me thethought that we should have at least oneweek of special services in the fall. Therecords of the church showed how suchmeetings had 'been held years ago withsuccess. Why not give it a try?Arriving home early in September thematter was presented to the session. Theythought the idea a good one and promised their support. Later the leaders of thedifferent organizations of the church weregathered together in a special meetingand the project was presented. All werein favor, and all promised to help as bestthey could.Definite objectives were drawn up suchas bettering the singing, giving opportunity to testify, asking questions aboutthe Scriptures and the Christian religion,preaching the Word, giving an invitationto accept Christ, inviting others to themeetings, and deepening the religiouslife in the home. It was also hoped that itmight inspire other congregations to dothe same thing and profit by our experience.Dates were set for the middle of November. Rev. Kenneth Smith was askedto lead the singing. Rev. Willard McMillan was asked to bring the messages,others were asked to give testimonies.Dr. J. G. Vos was asked to conduct thequestion and answer period.All wereasked to pray for the meetings. Specialsermons were preached leading up to themeetings. Other congregations were invited to join us when possible. All whowere asked to take part expressed awillingness to do so.384On Sabbath evening, November 14,the meetings started with a union service of the two congregations on the Hill.The attendance was good and all were inexpectancy.On Monday eveningthe attendancewas down to about sixty-five, but theprogram and preachingwere good. OnTuesday night the attendance came backup to about one hundred and fifty andcontinued at a high level duringSome stayed for counselingservices. On Friday eveningthe week.after theone studentfrom Geneva College, a football player,gave his heart to the Lord. Others weredeeply stirred.On the last Sabbath evening of thespecial meetings the church was filled,with people on the very front seats and afew chairs in the rear, with about thirtyin the choir. The singing was wonderful.The second offeringof the series wastaken which more than covered all expenses. The sermon was based on thetext, "Ye are myand was astrong appeal to go forth and witness forChrist. At the close of the service, as inevery service, an invitation was given toanywho wanted to come forward andconfess Christ for the first time. Thenduplicate cards were passed out by theushers asking each one to covenant withGod to engage in personal prayer eachday, to have grace at meals, to help withthe family devotions, to read the Bibledaily, to tithe one's income and to witnessfor Christ and the church. Most of thepeople present filled out the cards, kepta duplicate and left one in a box whenleaving the church. These cards are nowbeing checked and returned to differentpastors.At our first prayer meetingafter thespecial services we tried to sum up theimmediate results. We found that mostof our aims and purposes had been accomplished. The singing was wonderful.The testimonies were sincere and touching. Many good questions had been askedand answered concerning the Scripturesand the Christian faith. We had hadmany visitors during the week. Some hadcome from as far away as Rose Pointand Pittsburgh. We made some newcontacts with families here on CollegeHill. The spirit throughout the meetingswas excellent.Many said, "It is whatwe have beenWe would have liked much to have hadmore converts. Webringingseemed'to fail inin those who were unsaved. Butall the benefits of such a series of servicesdo not appear immediately. We believethe results will continue to come in. Ourcongregation is now faced with the taskof holding our gains and pushingon togreater goals. We must continue to prayand to plan and work.We trust that other congregations willtake over where we have left off and goon to greater revival. This we believe iswhat the Covenanter Church in Americaneeds.GENEVA COLLEGEThanks to the ingenuityof two members of the Beaver County astronomyclub,"Star DustMelodies" will onceagain be popular around Geneva Collegecampus. Norbert J. Schell, of BeaverFalls, and Roelof Weertman, Beaver,members of the Beaver astronomy club,dug a telescope with a cracked lens outof moth balls and repaired it for thecollege. So Geneva faculty members andstudents hope to resume the art of"star-gazing."The powerful telescope was originallyacquired by Geneva in 1890 but laterin use the lens was cracked, and thetelescope hasn't been used for about30 years. Until the lens was ruined thetelescope was constantly used by Genevaprofessors and various clubs. Interestwas shown several times about repairingthe lens but no definite action was takenuntil Schell and Weertman volunteeredto repair it. Both are engineers, but asmembers of the astronomy club havebeen active in the science.The telescope was made by John A.Brashear, who is one of the mostfamous names in his field. The glassused by Schell and Weertman to replace the cracked lens was shipped fromGermany. The lens was ground and installed at the Fechnar company, Pittsburgh, under the supervision of the twoengineers. Dr. William E. Cleland, headof the mathematics department andadvisor to the Geneva astronomy club,said the telescope is in better shapenow than it originally was. Dr. Clelandanticipates a lot of fun studying thesolar system,and plans to use the telescope in conjunction with some of hisclasses. The repaired instrument waspresented to the college at a meetingin room 9, of the college science hall,at 8 p.m., Monday, December 6. Dr.Joost K. de Jonge and Wallace Beardsley,of the Allegheny Observatory,attended Monday's meeting. Dr. de Jongespokeabout planet astronomy.Following Dr. de Jonge's talk, the repaired telescope was presented to Dr.Charles M. Lee, president of the college.COVENANTER WITNESS