Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 9
January 30, 1958
NUMBER 38, PAGE 11-12a

Reading The Bulletins

Charles A. Holt - P. O. Box 493 - Florence, Alabama

News From Here And There

Clyde Strickland is now working with the Union Road church in Lufkin, Texas . . . Leon Burns is leaving Columbia, Tennessee, where he has worked many years with the West Seventh church, and will move to Sherman, Texas, March 1, where he will labor with the Walnut Street church . . . Oaks Gowen has moved to Bradenton, Florida from Columbia, Tennessee . . . Fordon Rickets has also moved from Columbia, Tennessee where he was with the North Main Street group . . I see by nearly all the papers that George W. DeHoff has been "doctored" by Harding College. This changes him from just an ordinary mortal into something special — "Dr. DeHoff." Right about the same time he was appointed to be the President of a new college which plans to open this fall. It is the Magic Valley Christian College, located in Idaho. It sounds like a fabulous place and it was secured for nearly nothing. Of course, all the talk is about what a great amount of good the new school will do for the Cause of Christ in that area. The schools and colleges are praised so much for what they have meant to the Lord's work, that I am made to wonder just how the church got along without them in the first century! Only history will be able to give the true and full story concerning the part such schools have played in the history of the church. I fear that it will not look nearly as pretty as some of the boosters thereof think . . . Riley Moore has moved back to Columbia, Tennessee, where he will work again with the Riverside church . . . L. E. Sloan is moving from Medina, Tennessee to Louisville, Kentucky, where he will work with the Oak Grove church.

It's Time To Speak Up

There are many people in the United States who think that our national government is catering too much to the wishes of the Catholic church. And, evidently, it is for political reasons. However, other religious groups are not asking favors from the government, and why should this group be given so much preference — except for the fact that they may have a great influence on elections?

Dan Woodruff, of Crowley, La., writes as follows: "In June of 1957 our government sent a presidential representative to attend the 150th anniversary of the canonization of St. Benedict, the Moor, Negro Franciscan saint.

It's getting to where we have to send a governmental representative of a special sort to every religious service the Catholics hold.

"Recently, in Lake Charles, La., the Roman Catholic procession, during their redeclaration of love for Christ was led by a color guard from the United States Air Force. Our Air Force planes, which take plenty of "tax-money" gasoline, have been used in Catholic celebrations.

"The $64.000.00 Question quiz-program was forced to make an apology for asking a Bible question which involved the brothers of Jesus. You see, if Jesus had brothers, and so the Bible teaches, it does away with the Catholic tradition that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin forever. But, let's not hurt the feelings of the Vatican! Let's rather put the Word of God in a bad light!"

These incidents of favoritism toward the Catholic church are only a few of many that are being given them.

D. D. Woody, in Lewisburg, Tennessee bulletin.

Cook Stove Apostasy, Or The Upper Room And The Supper Room

"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting" (Ecc. 7:2). The early church prayed in the upper room, while the twentieth century church cooks in the supper room. The supper room has taken the place of the upper room; play has taken the place of prayer; feasting the place of fasting. There are more full stomachs than bended knees and full hearts. More fire in the church range than in the pulpit. Ice cream chills the fervor of the spirit.

The early Christians were not cooking in the supper room the day the Holy Ghost came, they were praying in the upper room. They were not waiting on tables, they were waiting on the Lord. They were not waiting on the fire from the stove, but the "fire" of the Holy Ghost from above. They were detained in the upper room by the commandment of God and not entertained in the lower room by the cunning of man.

They were filled with the Holy Ghost and not with stew and roast. How much better for the Lord if the cooking squad were put out and the praying band let in. Let us have less sham and ham, and more of heaven! less pie and more piety; less use for the cook and more for the Book. Put out the fire in the kitchen and give the Holy Ghost an opportunity to build it in the hearts of men. More love and more life; fewer dinners served in the supper room, and more sinners saved in the "upper room." — Bacon Press, Dallas, Texas.

Editor's note: If God had intended his church to be a Glorified Restaurant he would have revealed it in the Bible. There is no Bible authority for a church kitchen.

— Bulletin, Valley Station, Ky.

Home Remedy For Juvenile Delinquency

Not long ago, a New York city judge wrote to the New York Times saying that in 17 years he had been on the bench not one Chinese-American teen-ager had been brought before him on a juvenile delinquency charge. The judge queried his colleagues, and they agreed that not one of the city's 10.000 Chinese-American teen-agers, to their knowledge, had ever been brought into court on a depredation, narcotics, speeding, burglary, vandalism, stick-up, purse-snatching, or smuggling accusation. A check with San Francisco. where there is a large colony of Chinese-Americans, tells the same story. The same holds true in Chicago.

T. H. Chang, Chinese Consul-General in New York City then asked to comment, said: I have heard this story many times from many judges. I will tell why I think this is so. Filial piety is a cardinal virtue my people have brought over from China. A Chinese child, no matter where he lives, is brought up to recognize that he cannot shame his parents. Before a Chinese child makes a move, he stops to think what the reaction of his parents will be. Will they be proud or will they be ashamed? Above all other things, the Chinese teen-ager is anxious to please his parents.

"Most Chinese-Americans, no matter how wealthy or how poor, maintain a strict family-style home. Meal times are ceremonious affairs, which must be attended by every member of the family. Schooling, the reverence for religion, and decorum plus reverence for the elders, are the prime movers in developing the child from infancy."

The amazing record of the Chinese-American youngsters shows that it is in the home that the cure for juvenile delinquency will be found — and in no other place.

From an editorial in Saturday Evening Post.