Look at some of the recent develop ments of Hollywood luminaries. For as one publicist has put it, “This is what sells the papers. The people want to identify themselves with those who have been involved in escapades, even though they may not be able to suc cessfully maneuvre similar happenings for their own lives.” The Los Angeles Times recently stated that as a result of the TV scan dals, New York police have started ex amining other business concerns. They discovered that butcher shops had cheated their customers out of mil lions of dollars; that of the 315 gaso line stations checked, one out of every five had “gimmicked” their pumps to cheat. The city was beginning to some what recover from this when the Bar Association reported on a sizable num ber of attorneys who were conniving in the old “ambulance chasing” game. As Dr. Richard H. Walters, psycholo gist at Toronto •University stated, “So ciety verbalizes one code, but lives by another.” And again, we are faced with a new standard of morality, or so it is known through pictures, magazines and books etc. It is not new at all, for it has been in the world ever since the fall of Adam. The seeds of the destruction of the 21 great civilizations of past his tory, are already sown in our own land. Today, we seem to have two kinds of pride: pride in our own per sonal integrity and pride in what we can get away with. There seem to be two standards. In a world which is moving toward a challenge for sur vival, need we ask which standard will exist! Nearly 100 years ago, in 1863, Ab raham Lincoln declared, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been pre served these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in num bers, wealth and power. But . . . we have forgotten God! We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved and strengthened us; in the deceitfulness of our hearts we have vainly imagined that all these blessings were produced
by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-suffi cient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace — too proud to pray to the Lord who made us. It be hooves us, then, to humble oursfelves before the Lord God, and confess our national, as well as personal sins, to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” This, of course, is basic! We must realize that the Christian is also faced with mounting tempta tions in every area of life. Paul wrote to Titus concerning the effects of worldliness, “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, de ceived, serving divers lusts and- pleas ures.” It is one thing for a Christian to get all worked up about the trend of the times, but it is quite another thing for us to honestly examine our selves and see if we have succumbed to the cunning devisements of Satan. People think that if they can only secure the things they feel they must have, they will be happy. As a result they do much spending; mounting bills come with insufficient money with which to meet them — then comes rest lessness and frustration. The Word of ■God always has the answer, it says “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” And then there is the practical chal lenge to redeemed hearts — “But walk ye in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the "flesh.” Walking simply suggests the putting of one foot in front of the other, not running or standing still, but moving ahead, motivated by the omniscient Spirit of God. May you always hear “Walk in the Spirit.” Do you, as the Lord’s child, realize the tremendous pressures brought to bear today, yes, even the satanic attack upon the human mind? Everything the ear hears and the eye sees: the news papers, the billboards, the ra,dio, even life itself, points the enticing finger with its suggestive “come hither.” The' forbidden fruit is still Satan’s choicest temptation. But “Walk ye in the Spir it!” 35
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