Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

sions"release."conquerors."AnyPlease don't forget our plea for help a shorttermteacher for the high school, to come out withthe Sandersons and Miss McElroy in September. Wehave now (for how long?) an open door for evangelism among our high school young people, and wehave many adversaries. How about another ally,while there is time?Yours for Christ's Crown and Covenant.A Farewell LetterBy Blanche McCreaS. S. Constitution, August 16, 1955Dear Friends in ChristThroughout the States :Not having written a farewell letter before leaving the States, I'm starting on one now the last daybefore we enter the Mediterranean. We are supposedto make a short stop at Gibralter this evening.It was just a year ago today that I landed inNew York on my return from Cyprus. Many pleasant associations come to my mind as I review theyear from my first meal in the Richard Weir hometo my last in the Crawford home. My first churchcontact came at the White Lake retreat, my firstweek-end and my last in the Montclair congregationwhere I spoke my last Sabbath, spending the lastweek-end with friends, the McFarlands.It was possible for me to contact manyof ourcongregations from the Atlantic to the Pacific, butstill there are a number that I missed. Thanks aredue to all in every place I've been, for I have foundvery receptive and appreciative audiences to whomI was happy to speak and tell about what the Lordhas done and continues to do in Cyprus. Many werethe thanks and expressions of understanding thework better, and having a better basis for prayer.My longer stay in Santa Ana, California, callsfor a special note of thanks to my many fine Christian friends there who were so kind and generous.Though in Sterling only about six weeks altogether,I still consider it my home and I appreciate the manykindnesses and tokens of friendship shown up to theFarewell and Steamship telegram containing theirpromise of prayer support.Between speaking engagements I was at thehome of my sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs.Roy Maxwell at Dodge City, Kansas, where I wasalways made to feel very welcome.I want to thank the Synodical ladies for thebeautiful corsage as a token of welcome and the boxof delicious fruit, nuts and candy as a farewell gift.It has been good to be in the Homeland, and yetI am glad and anxious to get back to Cyprus and thetasks awaiting me there. As I look back on the number of years behind me and forward to the feweryears of service left, it spurs me on to greater effortsfor His work in Cyprus.I have not been able to mention everyperson orgroup that has helped me during the past year, butmy last goes to those friends who boarded the Constitution with me and wished me God's blessing asI started forth once more.152Yours in love for Him.LIFE LOOKS AT BUDDHISMfrom front pageThis summary of Gautama's life, including boththe imaginative and the factual aspects, presents thepicture of a seeking soul. A self-satisfying philosophy is finally reached and then preached. At longlast, death ends it all. The total absence of divinerevelation, of the supernatural, of miracles, and of aprophesied plan gives it a hollow ring. The majestic,eternal and foreordained plan which we do clearlysee in the life of Christ is missing. There is nothingin the teaching and death of Gautama that would remind one of Jesus Christ. The absence of a resurrection message places the entire picture on a humanlevel. Gautama himself made no claim to divinity. Infact he makes little mention of God. "He that hathseen me hath seen the Father," could never fit hislips. Guatama's life is not a portrait of the "visibleimage of the invisible God." He made no claim oreven suggestion that he was saved or that he couldsave others through his own virtue or sacrifice. Concerning Christ alone has it been said, "Behold theLamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World.For he was made sin for us who knew no sin that wemight be made the righteousness of God in Christ."Buddha's Message"Gautama inculcated neither prayer nor praise.He offered neither redemption, nor forgiveness, norheaven. He warned of no judgment and no hell." Hismessage was an appeal to "work out one's own salvation by the use of facilities already latent in everyhuman being." It is an evolutionary process to beachieved by one's own efforts. He adopted the Hindudoctrine of Karma, which is the law of cause and effect, as well as the concept "of the world as an abodeof ignorance and sorrow from which wise men shouldseek He accepted the Hindu philosophy"that the path of wisdom lay in taming the appetitesand passions of the flesh."History demonstrates, the human heart bearstestimony to, and the Bible confirms the fact thatone might as well endeavor to get the leopard tochange his spots or the poisonous serpent his waysas to regenerate his own heart through self-effort.The message of the Bible is that "the heart is deceitwicked."ful above all things and desperately realconception of the depravity of human nature forbidsthe thought of the "taming the appetites and pasthrough human effort. ". . . the whole head issick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of thefoot even unto the head there is no soundness in it ;but wounds, andbruises, and putrif ying sores : theyhave not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with It is ointment."only as we become "newcreatures in Christ" that we can become "more thanThe philosophy of Buddhism is outlined in FourNoble Truths, a Noble Eightfold Path and Five Precepts. The Four Noble Truths deal with the causeand cure of suffering. According to these Truths,suffering is universal and the cause is selfish desire.The cure is obtained by eliminating desire. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of things that are right,such as rightknowledge, right intention, rightspeech, etc. These right things are obtained by amethod of "self-discipline that will lead to a life ofgood works and inner peace of mind."COVENANTER WITNESS