Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

dares to make such a prediction, what airline wouldever print it? Look over the timetables of the majorairlines. At the present time one of them flyingexclusively on the west coast has a special planecalled the '^Champagne Flight." It is advertised as anall-luxurious service with champagne at no extracost. Another well-known airline features double deckstrata cruisers and operates a bar on the second deckof the ship. Trans-Atlantic travel is not quite complete now, you know, without the customary drinks.You can travel across the United States and youcan travel across the world on credit today. In fact,they'll throw in free cocktails along the way. In manystates it is illegal to buy liquor on credit, but the airlines have gotten around that.Christians everywhere should rebel against thishideous practice. Tickets which are purchased mustcertainly cover the cost of the alcohol dispensed andthe tickets of the non-drinkers help to pay forthis liquor. The atmosphere of the flying tavern isone that no true Christian can conscientiously enjoy.The Civil Aeronautics Administration has done anexcellent task in keeping the airlines safe. They are aconscientious group who are determined to makecommercial aviation as safe as sitting in your parlor.Christians should write to the Civil Aeronautics Administration at 226 W. Jackson, Chicago, Illinois andprotest the serving of alcoholic beverages on commercial flights. Christians should also check withtravel agents and passenger representatives of theairlines and inquire whether or not there will be alcoholic beverages served on the flight they plan touse. Although free cocktails are dispensed on manyfirstclass flights, not all feature this service. Thesafest way for the Christian to travel today as far asthe alcohol problem is concerned is to take Air Tourist, which is cheaper anyway. In event you cannottake Air Tourist because of a busy schedule and alcohol is served on your flight, ask the stewardess fora complaint form. Write it out and send it to thePresident of the Airlines in protest.Scientists interested in the future of our greatcities are anxiously analyzing and measuring the radio activity in the clouds. Recent explosions ofatomic and hydrogen bombs have contaminated theatmosphere and clouds have borne this contamination over our great cities. But Christians everywhereshould look to the skies too and see a new problemof contaminationalcohol in the skies.BOOK REVIEWSHighlights of Bible Archaeology by Fred H. WightSome people prefer a book on archaeology written by a man who has done actual field work and canspeak from personal experience. This book was notwritten bysuch a man. The man with field experience can speak with authority. Yet his bookis likely to deal with the one field wherehe has worked, instead of dealing with archaeology ingeneral. This book was written by a scholar whoseems to have read almost everything that has beenwritten on this subject of Bible archaeology. It iswell documented. His authorities are quoted in every198case, so that anyone who is interested in a particularfield will know exactly where to turn to find moredetailed information. This deals with all the fields ofBible archaeology, Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptianand Hittite as well as the Palestinian. The New Testament field is also covered and the more recent discoveries such as the Dead Sea scrolls found in 1947are described. The book is up to date. It contains awealth of valuable material and is one of the bestbooks to appear dealing with the general subject. Itought to have a wide reading. It sells for $3.95 and ispublished by the Moody Press of 820 N. La Salle St.,Chicago 10, 111. R. C. F.J. GRESHAM MACHENA Biographical Memoir by Ned B. StonehouseThat J. Gresham Machen is worthy of an extensive biography, even his enemies would hardlydispute, and he had plenty of enemies. But that 500pages should be devoted to his life and so much of itto his letters to and from his mother, and other material which seems rather extraneous to a biographyof such a man, if it is to be read by a large circle,leads one to doubt the wisdom of the writer in compiling this book. Mr. Machen deserves an importantplace in the history of Presbyterianism as he carriedon the fight for the Princeton of the established orthodoxy of the Presbyterian church. This battle waseventually lost and Princeton Theological Seminarylost its reputation as a conservative champion ofCalvinistic Reformed theology.Mr. Machen also carried on the battle againstmodernism in the Presbyterian Board of ForeignMissions and in the strategy of which he was perhaps the general, the Independent Board of ForeignMissions was established, and this battle finally ledto the expulsion of Dr. Machen and his colleaguesfrom the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.Dr. Machen was the founder of the PresbyterianChurch in America, if any one man can be a founderof a church or a denomination. But let us say thathe was the leader and the first moderator of theirGeneral Assembly. Also that Assembly was the beginning of the Westminister Theological Seminary inPhiladelphia which is still in existence, as is also thePresbyterian Church of America though it now goesunder the name of the Orthodox PresbyterianChurch.In the Third General Assembly the Dr. Carl B.Maclntyre faction lead a skirmish for the ScofieldBible interpretation of eschatology and premillennialism of a certain type. Losing this battle, they formedthe Bible Presbyterian Church and the Faith Seminary. Although we see that Mr. Machen was indeed ahistoric landmark in the history of the PresbyterianChurch U.S.A., as said at first the book is writtenby Prof. Stonehouse who was trained under Mr. Machen in the Princeton Theological Seminary and became his assistant and successor in the WestministerSeminary and is an unrestrained admirer of his hero.lt is a full length portrait with all the trimmings.$5.95 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., GrandRapids, Mich.D. R. T.COVENANTER WITNESS