Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

good."away"yield,"Glimpses of the Religious WorldFrank E. Allen. D. D.Church BuildingFigures from the Federal Government show that thepermits for religious building for the first half of 1955 werevalued at $198 million, which is an increase of 15 per centover the first half of 1954.Churches Sponsor Jazz ProgramBarnum was ready to hire for his show almost any person who had made a name for drawing a crowd. It seemslike the Broadcasting Film Commission of the NationalCouncil of Churches has, at times, the same low view of aprogram when it is planning a one-hour jazz program onNew Year's Eve over a national radio network,which is tobe built around Alvin B. Kershaw the minister who gainednational prominence by answering questions about jazz on"The $64,000 Question"" TV and radio show. Manyevangelicals have regarded the hour from 11 to 12 o'clockon December 31st as a sacred hour, but this is the hour thatit is planned to release the jazz program. Is this to be theAmerican religious goal for the coming year? Is not this thatof which the Scripture speaks? "Having a form of godliness,but denying the power thereof: from such turnTim. 3:5).The National SundayGod in EducationSchool Association has held conventions recently in both western and eastern cities. One ofthe speakers was Dr. Henrietta C. Mears, director of education of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood where6,230 children are enrolled in the Sabbath School. She saidthat the failure of the public schools to make room for Godputs a greater responsibility(2on the church. "We in thechurch face a tremendous task but not a hopeless one ....We're feeding the children nothing but huskssuperficialities instead of realities. We must put God into our educationto make itWord of God.She emphasized the need of teaching theNew Reserve DrafteesThe National Security Training Commission has demanded careful safeguards over the moral conditions thatwill surround U.S. Armycamps where 18-year-old youthsprogram. Thewill take the new six-months reserve trainingCommission urged that the Army should keep strict watchto see that no intoxicating beverages are available to theyoung trainees, and to make sure that prostitution is prohibited in the vicinity of the training camps. It made a number of suggestions concerning recreation facilites and lecture series, and asked that arrangements be made for families and friends to visit them during off-duty hours.The Church in ChinaMr. J. R. Spence, a missionary in Hong Kong,his church paper: "Just out from Shanghai have come twowrites inCIM (China Inland Mission) missionaries who decided tostay on when the Communists came in. He got a job with alarge English shipping firm. The good news is that theChurch in China is carrying on and is writing a wonderfulpage of Church History. Special meetings are being held,souls are being saved, and the Chinese Christians are beingdeepened in Christ."386"The World We Live In"It is reported that more than 500,000 orders have comein for the book, "The World We Live In," first published ininstallments in Life magazine. These were beautiful picturesand many of them were of splendid educational value, butabout half of them were purely imaginary, according to theevolutionary theory. The sad part is that the mass of peopleseem to take the pictures which depict the theoryof evolution through billions of years as authentic as those shownof the sea or the jungles of the present day, despite the plainteaching of the Scriptures to the contrary.The articles published in Life on "The World's GreatReligions"have been answered in some evangelical papersor magazines showing the conflict of these religions with theChristian religion. Although no decision has been reportedto issue these articles in Life in book form it seems likelythat they also will be so issued and thus used to deceive vastnumbers of undiscerning people.Damage by LocustsThe Bible tells us what a terrible plague locusts wereand at times used of God to punish the wicked. They haverecently appeared in devastating swarms in Egypt and Palestine. In recent years anti-locust squads have usually destroyed the locusts before they were able to reach the Niledelta. But it is reported that this year's invasion got out ofcontrol. A very recent picture in the public press showed thelocusts doing great damage in Israel and the residents making a desperate effort to save the trees from the invaders.God's power in plague, or flood, or storm, or war has notdiminished. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.""The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:he maketh the devices of the people of none effect."Brain WashingA Communist magazine has admitted that "religious believers" offer a special problem to brainwashers. "Peoplecan break any idol, but this won't wash the divinity off thebrain of religious followers." An article in the Moody Monthly, entitled, "When the iron gates is a part of a bookby Geoffrey T. Bull, of life inside a Chinese Communistprison and the terrible measures used to accomplish what isknown as "brainwashing." The writer closes this chapterby saying : "The patience God gave me to go on day by dayin quietness before my accusers and tormentors is a marvelto me now. It was His work and His alone. Although I wasweak and faltering, yet prayer was winning. Satan was beingheld at bay. How could I see then the full accomplishmentof the truth which came to me in a simple verse one day asI sat in my cell a truth which made my eyes suddenly fillwith tears? He can break every fetter .... He can set youfree!"Freedom of the PressThe Evangelical Christian quotes the Canadian Newspaper Publishers Association as showing the danger of afettered press, and that the Nazi, Fascist and Communist regimes grew under rigid control of the press. Then the Editor comments: "With every word written there we agree.(Continued on page 390)COVENANTER WITNESS