The Overflow
Point of view
"When we take a dollar bill down town to buy groceries, it looks about the size of a postage stamp. But when we bring it to church to drop into the collection plate, it has grown to approximately the size of an old fashioned bedspread with a border on it."
—Rufus Clifford
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A Catholic party?
Prominent in the political picture of nearly every nation in Europe is a "Catholic Party." In a recent radio address, G. Bromley Oxnam, Bishop of the Methodist Church, warned that the Catholics are slowly but surely forging such a party in this nation. More accurately, it seems, their immediate objective is to infuse a dominant Catholic influence into each of the two major political parties now controlling the national scene. They have made alarming progress within the Democratic party to date; have been less spectacularly successful in the Republican party, but even there are able to exert pressure that is potent.
—O—
Catholic censorship for Truman's cabinet Apropos of the above we note that the weekly news magazine, Quick, reveals that all speeches by members of Truman's cabinet are now passed on by experts on Catholic doctrine before being delivered. The Catholics had raised so much protest over certain remarks they considered unfavorable to their religion that Truman consented to having his cabinet officers' speeches censored and given an "imprimatur" by Catholic officials. Truman is a Baptist (of sorts) —but he still knows how to count votes, and who controls the big city machines.
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The right of every member
"It is the right of every member of a congregation to know and to be heard in every work undertaken by that congregation. The elders are not to rule by arbitrary authority, as lords over God's heritage; but in all matters it is their duty to let every act of the congregation be known to all and to satisfy every one of the rightness of the proposed action, and to hear every man's objections and to seek to remove them, and so lead them as ensamples of the flock, so that all may be united in one mind and one judgment, and may as one body all work harmoniously and heartily to the same end."
—David Lipscomb
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She found him We see lots of curious things in the church bulletins that come our way. We have no way of knowing what is original and what is lifted from some other source, except as credit is given. Anyhow, we'll give credit to Earl West at Indianapolis for being the first to tell us about the sister in the church who was always wondering where her husband spent his evenings —until she came home early one night, and there he was!
—O—
When a preacher moves When Chas. A. Holt left Highland View Church in Oak Ridge, Tenn., early this month to move to Mount Pleasant, Texas, the Tennessee elders sent a letter of commendation to the elders of the Mount Pleasant congregation, setting forth in detail the work that had been done by Bro. Holt in Oak Ridge. While there is the danger that such letters may become overly effusive under the emotional effect of a preacher's leaving a place, we nevertheless feel that such a procedure is basically sound. Many a congregation could have avoided headaches and heartaches had its elders inquired more fully concerning their new preacher.
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Yes, we saw it Several have written to ask if we saw Bro. Brewer's article in the Gospel Advocate, October 13, entitled, "What Doctrine Have We Learned with Reference to Schools and Orphan Homes?" The letters are too numerous to answer, so we take this way of saying, "Yes. We saw it."
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Guess who?
One of our "big preachers" was holding a meeting in an Oklahoma town. He was preaching on Paul's listing of the qualifications of elders, and had come to the "no striker" proviso. Said the "big preacher," "Now we all know what a striker is. He is a man who won't work himself; neither will he let anybody else work. No man like that has any business being an elder in the Lord's church!" So famous has this "b.p." become for his execrable exegeses that he'll probably be recognized immediately by many readers from even so meager a description.
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The insult A lady with one of her ears applied To an open keyhole, heard inside, Two female gossips in converse free—
The subject engaging them was she.
"I think," said one, "and my husband thinks That she's a prying, spying, eavesdropping minx!"
As soon as no more of it she could hear The lady, indignant, removed her ear.
"I will not stay," she said with a pout,
"To hear my character lied about!"
—Gopete Sherany
—O—
Mass shooting again Comes now another mass shooting similar to that in which the New Jersey killer, Howard Unruh, slaughtered thirteen people. This time it was a Minnesota farmer. He went beserk and shot ten people in two beer taverns—after having drunk a couple of beers himself. There is no doubt about it: this man is entitled to a niche in the Beer Barons' "Hall of Fame." He is truly a "man of distinction"—and after only two beers! He would really have made a showing, no doubt, had he switched to one of those high-octane, mild, mellow, "executive" whiskies.
—O—
Row smallpox is carried James L. Standridge, of Richland, Washington, sends us an interesting bulletin containing excerpts from the writings of Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy (that's right: three husbands—count 'em!). Says Mrs. M. B. G. P. Eddy, "We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection." Do Christian Scientists reject the whole principle of vaccination against smallpox? or do they just shoot a dose of Science and Health" into the mind?
—O—
This modern age Someone has remarked that we do nearly everything now by the simple flip of a switch—lights, radio, refrigerator, mixer, etc., etc. . . . everything that is except rear our children. And there the switch has definitely gone out of styles.