"Missing In Action"

These grim words brought to Cled and Ola Wallace the message from our nation's capital that John, their third son, had gone down with his crew over Italy. John was Pilot of a four-motored Liberator and was on his seventeenth mission over enemy territory. He has been missing since April 21, the date of his last hurried letter to his parents, in which he mentioned his love for them, for his young bride, for the church, for his Lord, and for the cause in which was enlisted-the cause of God and man. He closed the letter with a terse, "I must leave now," took off and did not return.

The message came during the good meeting we were having at Temple, and while it cast a pall over the whole church, and the town people, too--who know Cled and Ola so well--yet it did not retard the meeting. We carried it on with a new zeal. Though suffering all of the agony of grief-torn hearts Cled and Ola are as strong as their noble son was brave, and they do not surrender to their sorrow. With the muscles of his face tight and quivering, his manly frame shaking with grief, Cled remarked to me in broken tones, but in characteristic manner: "I shall have more to live and fight for than ever--and I shall do it." And he will.

We do not know how the word traveled so far and so fast but floods of messages, letters, telegrams poured in to Temple from all over the country, from friends, brethren and some who do not know them personally. The heart of the brotherhood seemed touched. The pulse of fellowship in a common cause was felt.

Among the messages that came was a touching note from one lad to another lad. The note was from Tom Ed Wallace, youngest son of our father, to Henry Wallace, youngest son of Cled and Ola. Tom is also in the Army Air Corps. Henry is fifteen. Tom and John are near the same age. Tom said to Henry: "Henry, your brother is a hero, and a great man. He justly deserves all the admiration you and I can give him. I am confident always that the Lord's ways are wiser than man's, and all events will continue to work to his will, and good. John has my prayers that he will return safely to you again."

There are no noncombatants in this struggle. "This is war and we are in it."

Lt. Dow B. Wallace, Cled's oldest son, is enroute over seas. His whereabouts are unknown to us, but he received the delayed word at sea. His immediate response by letter to his parents breathed affection for them, reverence for God, hope for John--and courage to press on. In the midst of an almost unbearable grief in their suspense and anxiety, Cled and Ola nevertheless have cause for an unspeakable satisfaction in that both of their sons in the service of the nation, are also in the service of God--they are both Christians, living or dying.

There will be weeks of waiting; days of doubt; nights of dark forebodings. But they are not dismayed, for God will take care of him. He was performing the functions of good government in the cause of humanity. "For he is a minister of God to thee for goodfor he beareth not the sword in vain." John was bearing the sword, but not in vain. In so doing he was one of "God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing." God ordained the use of the sword as "a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." The sword belongs to the government for that purpose. But the only way the government can use the sword is through its citizens, for it is "of the people, by the people, for the people." And the apostle said: "For this cause pay ye tribute also." A Christian, as such, is no more exempt from one than the other. That is the way our New Testament reads. It is therefore in harmony with the will of God and Christian duty. When we stay on the side of the God-ordained mission of government, we stay on God's side. May the God of all consolation comfort the hearts of the parents and loved ones of our noble lad, and we believe that the Lord whom he loves with all his youthful heart, and who loves him, will take care of him whether in life or in death. -F. E. W., Jr.