The Overflow
Yet many there be who do it
" `Tis not charity in me to hug my brother to my bosom, whispering `all is well,' when I know that in his heart is festering the poison that may kill him."
— Moses E. Lard
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Self-respect
"I can never hide myself from me, I see what others may never see, I know what others may never know, I can never hide myself, and so Whatever happens I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free."
—Selected
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Tax exemption for Catholics only Francis J. Spellman, Roman Catholic cardinal, has his imprimatur on a Catholic text-book, "Catholic Principles in Politics," which sets forth the idea that only Catholic churches should be tax-exempt; and declares that once Catholics have come to control a government, "they could not permit them (non-Catholics) to carry on general propaganda nor accord their organizations certain privileges that had formerly been extended to all religious corporations, for example, the exemption from taxation." Thus we have the Catholic Church 'growing fat and prosperous under a type of government to which she is unalterably opposed, and which she is determined to change once she can. Catholicism is forever committed to the policy that, once the roles are reversed and she is the majority rather than the minority element in our nation, she will ruthlessly deny the minority the very kind of freedom which she is now enjoying herself as a minority party!
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Cans won't burn; paper bags will W. S. Boyett, Tipton, Oklahoma, who worked for a number of years in Mormon communities in the west is our authority for this one: Since coffee drinking is contrary to Mormon teachings, the sale of coffee in Salt Lake City was way below the average for the nation—until the big coffee companies wised up to the facts of nature (human nature, that is). Once they packaged their coffee in paper bags instead of tin cans the sale of coffee sky-rocketed in Mormon communities. The explanation? Elementary, my dear Watson; tin cans won't burn, and have to be discarded with the garbage. Paper bags will burn.
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Let's balance the budget!
Why all this howl about balancing the national budget? Let congress put a fifty per cent tax on horse-race betting, whiskey, and tobacco, and the job is done. Last year the great American public wagered six billion bucks (that's right; it's no mis-print, the word is "billion") on the bang-tails; sent up over five billion of the same kind of money in tobacco smoke; and then drowned their sorrows in over eight billions in booze.
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That's what we like about G. K.
We get so many of the other kind (especially lately) that we likely have an exaggerated pleasure out of a nice friendly letter once in a while. Such is the one we got from G. K. Wallace the other day, replying to a rather sharp criticism we had written him on his article. "Freed-Hardeman College," in the January 24th issue of Firm Foundation. He said, "I appreciate your letter and the criticism . . . . I hope the time never comes that I am sensitive about good brethren talking to me about the things that I say and write." Incidentally, we felt that his article gave evidence of being hastily and carelessly written, and was confusing. We had asked him if his opposition to the "school in the church budget" was based on policy or principle. He replied, "To me there is a principle involved and not just a policy . ."
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"Slight case of leprosy"
Some brethren aren't worried at all about the current trend toward denominationalism within the church. They feel that it is "so slight that it isn't even worthy of notice." Which reminds us of the calm unconcern of the fellow who was sick. He had such a teeny - weeny, insignificant, very slight and scarcely noticeable illness. Really, there was practically nothing wrong with him; all he had was one very minor case of leprosy.
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"Under enlightened control".
We are indebted to Brother Earl Fly of Friendship, Tennessee, for some clippings from the Memphis newspaper telling how the Presbyterian pastor at Greenville, Mississippi, was plumping hard for repeal of prohibition, saying that liquor must be brought "out of ambush" and placed "under enlightened control" Brother Fly says, "If it is expedient to legalize one form of sin and place it "under enlightened control," why not legalize all forms, and bring them "out of ambush" too? For example, why not legalize murder, rape, robbery, etc., and place them too "under enlightened control?"
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Embarrassing the preacher A preacher is a public man. He meets hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, within the course of a single year. And then twelve years later, in a spot a thousand miles away, some sadistic character will come up and shake hands with him, grin fatuously, and say with deep reproach in every tone, "You don't remember me, do you?" He stands there enjoying the discomfiture of the poor preacher who is frantically searching his memory, saying to himself, "Where on God's green earth have I ever laid eyes on this nut before?" and finally gives up and says he does not remember the man. The preacher is embarrassed, the man is hurt, and an unhappy time is had by all. Why not show the common courtesy and decency to introduce oneself at the first approach? Instead of "I bet you don't remember me," why not extend your hand and say, "I am John Smith; I met you when you held a meeting in Turkey, Texas, in 1884.
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"Them Days Are Gone Forever"
"Oh, for the days of chivalry Of man-to-woman courtesy—
The days when men Were really men, And women didn't try to be!"
—Jack G. Dunn
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W. Dale Pearson, 100 Sherrill Drive, Amarillo, Texas, February 7: "January was a fine month for the Pleasant Valley congregation, having had seventeen responses to the invitation of the Lord. Ten of these were for baptism, the others were restorations and memberships. The membership now is 86. The congregation is now twelve weeks old."
Last year according to the F. B. I. some 1,686,670 crimes were committed in the nation as a whole.