mind,” said Joe, and Lindy needed no second invitation. He made a bee line for the field over the hill where his father and mother were. They were very surprised to see him and were getting ready to scold him when they saw how wet he was. “What happened?” asked his father, and when Lindy told them how he had disobeyed and what had been the re sult, his mother began to cry. “ Don’t cry, Mamma, I’m all right now,” he said, snuggling up to her, “ I’m sorry I was so bad.” “ You have made us a lot of trou ble, Lindy,” said his father, “but I will hot punish you because you have been punished enough already. We cannot return to our hole because Joe, the Farmer Boy, knows where it is and he will not let you off a second time. I will have to begin dig ging a new home at once. If you had only listened to your mother, you would have saved yourself and us all of this worry and work. But if you have learned a lesson, maybe it will be worth it.” How sorry little Lindy was! He made up his mind right then and there that he would never, never, never again keep his ears closed when his mother was talking to him. Sometimes boys and girls do not listen to their parents, and even worse, they do not listen to God’s Word, which states that no one can ever go to Heaven who does not ac cept Jesus as his Saviour. There is a wonderful verse that says, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Let us listen to Him and obey Him. Re member the words of the old hymn, “Trust and obey, There’s no other way, To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey.” BIBLE ARITHMETIC Add to the number of disciples chosen in Mark 3:14, the number of chapters in the book of Genesis. Sub tract from this number, the number of fish the little lad gave to Jesus (John 6:9); divide your answer by the number of disciples who were with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (John 9:2). Divide the result by the number of chapters in the book of Ruth. Your answer will be the chapter in one of the gospels which contains a verse which states the conditions whereby one may know that he or she "hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Give the name of the Gospel, chapter and verse and "conditions." ANSWER: John 5:24 — Conditions "heareth my Word, believeth on Him that sent me."
kindness, no knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, lying, murder, theft, adultery, violent out breaks, bloodshed after bloodshed.” The right of taking a human life for justifiable cause has been dele gated to civil authorities by God, as we have shown in the Bible portions quoted. Many more are available. The criminal may, as many have, look to Him in whose hand is the disposition of the soul for salvation, and receive pardon by the mercy and grace of God. In fact, the prospect of imminent death has brought many a person to that all-important deci sion of receiving Christ as his Saviour. The argument that capital punish ment rules out the possibility of re pentance for crime is fallacious. If a condemned killer does not repent with the sentence of death upon him, then certainly a lifetime of impris onment ahead of him cannot be ex pected to alter his thinking and atti tude. Possibly you have heard of a cer tain governor of Pennsylvania a number of years ago who would not pardon a young man who had delib erately committed murder. The day before the execution the governor, as a Christian, went to the cell of the young man and told him that while he had to pay the penalty for his crime because there was no one to die for him, the Lord Jesus had died for him at Calvary, redeeming him from the penalty of eternal con demnation. The governor declared that if the prisoner would accept the gift of salvation by faith, he could be saved. The condemned man took Christ as his personal Saviour and the next day was executed for the murder he had committed. The governor did not “ bear the sword without reason,” but at the same time he acted as a Christian in leading a never-dying soul to the only Saviour of sinners. We certainly can never take any pleasure when punitive justice is exe cuted against any person, but we dare not allow ourselves to be influ enced by sentimentality which is op posed to the clear and express revela tion of Scripture. In a country or state where just punishment is given to those con victed of crimes, there is less crime. When this principle is set aside, human life becomes cheap and crime flourishes. Society loses its God- given protection. May God give us the wisdom to follow the logical and practical prin ciples of justice and proper punish ment to those who deserve it, as evi denced in the Scriptures.
(continued from page 33) ter the kingdom of heaven. Thus it seems evident that He was address ing regenerated persons like His disciples, not civil rulers, when He delivered the Sermon on the Mount. In I Timothy 1:8-11 we read: “ But we know that the Law is ad mirable if one makes lawful use of it, keeping this in mind that a law is not laid down for an honest person but for the lawless and the refrac tory; for the ungodly and sinful; for the impious and profane; for patri cides and matricides; for homicides; for the unchaste; for sexual per verts, falsifiers, perjurers and what ever else is contrary to the whole some teaching according to the glori ous Gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” Possibly one of the strongest ar guments for retaining the death pen alty in this present age is the Apos tle Paul’s defense and appeal record ed in Acts 25:11: “ In case I am guilty and committed anything de serving death, then I am ready to die . . .” Some people claim that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murderers, and offer various statis tics to “prove” the point. But it is obvious that the only true deterrent for a murderer’s repeating a heinous crime is his execution. As long as he is in prison, he can cause riots, fires, endanger lives of other inmates and guards, and destroy thousands of dollars’ worth of property — as has happened all too frequently. Some advocate that a life sentence with “no possibility of parole” should replace capital punishment. What incentive would that afford a mur derer to behave himself while thus incarcerated? Countless numbers of prisoners and guards have been killed or seriously maimed within prison walls by such criminals. It might well be asked: Why should taxpayers have to pay, for 10 to 60 years, or even longer in some cases, for the expense of housing, clothing, feeding, and entertaining a criminal who has merited death by his vicious deeds? When a person has been given a fair trial and found guilty of com mitting a capital crime such as mur der, God says (in Numbers 35:31): “Neither are you to accept a ransom {or bribe] of money for the mur derer who deserves to die; he must die.” When the courts lack authority to deal adequately with the lawless, we soon see the conditions described in Hosea 4:1-2: “ . . . for the Lord has a charge against the dwellers of the land, because there is no fidelity, no
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