Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 20
September 19, 1968
NUMBER 20, PAGE 8,10a

The Passing Parade

Fanning Yater Tant

COURAGE. "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but a form of every virtue at the testing point which means at the point of highest reality." — C. S. Lewis OBVIOUSLY NOT! The magazines are now speculating that the beatnik hippie movement may be on the decline. Well maybe so but there is still one very obvious thing to be said about the hippies. As of now they are far from being "all washed up!"

MALE MANUAL. There being four full months still remaining in Leap Year, this young woman browsing in the library, rushed to check out a book on the cover of which she noted in large lettering: "How To Reach Men; How To Hold Men; How To Win Men; It Can Be Done!!" She was more than a bit disappointed when she got home to see on the inside page that she had checked out "A Manual of Useful Information on How To Build A Men's Bible Class."

"CHECK HERE." From an advertisement in a large metropolitan newspaper we copy the following interesting instructions: "If you want to receive Jesus and be saved from going to HELL, write YES here. If you want prayers for healing or other requests check here. For instruction sheet on how to receive the Holy Ghost and be joyful check here."

IT'S HOT, BROTHER! "If you took all the timber in Maine, piled it up and put all the coal in Pennsylvania on top of it, then poured all the oil in Oklahoma over it, and set it on fire and waited till it was burning its worst then took a man out of hell and threw him into the midst of it, he would just naturally freeze to death!'

(Quotation from an old sermon we found somewhere on "How Hot Is Hell?")

LORENZO ANTONIO GOTTO He was my father-in-law. No word is more fitting to his life than the word "gentle." In the truest and fullest meaning of the term he was a gentle man. Grandson of an Italian immigrant, he was a man of infinite patience and humility. Nashville, Tennessee; Tucson, Arizona; and San Diego, California, all felt the influence of his quiet and unassuming life. In April my wife Helen (his only child) and I helped him celebrate his 87th birthday. Ten weeks later on July 15, his tired and wasted body was laid to rest on a gently sloping hillside in Mt Hope Cemetery in San Diego. Helen and I and David his only grandchild, thank all his friends and our friends who remembered. There are tears in our eyes, but the rainbow of hope shines brightly in our hearts.

ON SETTLING DIFFERENCES. "No difference between men is ever settled until the parties to a dispute want to be at peace with one another and right before God. Show me two men both of whom truly want to go to heaven and I'll show you two men who will surmount any difficulty to dispel any difference which may have arisen between them." — Bible Herald, 1960 HARD TO CONVINCE. I was trying to convince a brother that any kind of action, association, society, arrangement or method of work which activated the church universal as a functional body was wrong. He kept nodding his head, agreeing with every word I uttered. And after an hour or so of this as the conversation ended, he announced happily, "That's just what I believe. And of course that makes the Herald of Truth scriptural because all they have here is one local church under its own elders!"

DEAD MEN DO BLEED. The above incident reminded me of a story I read somewhere. Henry called his wife one morning: "Susie, darling. I'm dead " he explained. "I died during the night. I want you to take care of the children. Don't bother with me; just take care of our children. What do you mean you died?" asked his bewildered wife. "Just like I said," Henry replied with infinite patience. "I died during the night. See that I have a nice funeral Susie. Forget all about me and marry some nice man." "But you are not dead" said Susie. "Of course I am dead," said Henry. "Perfectly natural. Happens to everybody sooner or later." Susie called the doctor. The doctor came and listened to the semi hysterical Susie and to the calm and unruffled "dead" Henry. "I know just what to do," said the doctor. "Henry, you will admit won't you that dead men do not bleed?" Henry thought a minute before replying, "yes, Doc, you are right, dead men do not bleed." The doctor picked up Henry's hand, pricked his finger his finger and a few drips of blood welled out. Henry stared in pop-eyed amazement. "Well, what do you know about that!" he exclaimed in astonishment. "Dead men DO bleed after all."