the Old Testament. Under Pope Boniface VIII, in the year 1300, it was celebrated once every century. In 1350 it was changed to every fifty years because of the shortness of human life. In 1475, the present custom of a holy year every 25 years came into being. Rome is looking for a tremendous influx of pilgrims this year by aeroplane, boat, train, bus and car. Estimates of the crowds range as high as six million. Those Catholics who visit the eternal city during the year, confess their sins and receive communion, will earn plena ry indulgence, which means that accord ing to the promise of the Catholic lead ers this will erase punishment for past sins which otherwise would be atoned for in purgatory. Jerusalem, Capital £ A step nearer to that day mentioned in Zechariah 14:4 was made when the Parliament of the new nation of Israel recently voted to transfer government offices from Tel Avrv to Jerusalem. Premier David Ben Gurion told the Parliament, “ For the state of Israel there always has been and always will be only one capital, Jerusalem the eternal. So it was 3000 years ago and so it will be, we believe, to the end of time.” The Bible and Truman «** A fine statement from our President on the recurrence of the program of World-wide Bible Reading sponsored by the American Bible Society reads: “ Our forebears were a people who read one book. Happily for them and for us that book was the Bible. From earliest childhood through all the years to advanced age it was for them the source of an amazing fortitude, the fountain of peaceful and lasting spiritual energy. “ The Bible is the book that guided the souls and molded the hearts of genera tions of good men and valiant women. It became the rock on which rested the everlasting reality of religion. It also formed the style that gave our English tongue its most facile expressions. As one who is a sharer in this rich heritage I am happy again to voice this appeal to Americans everywhere to participate in the observance of Universal Bible Sun day, which falls this year on December eleventh.” Jazz to Gospel «** An excellent idea was made in Salem, Illinois, when Mrs. Harvey Leckrone sug gested to the proprietors of establish ments where 44 juke boxes were installed that hymns, such as “ The Old Rugged Cross” and “ In the Garden” be included in their repertoire. Mrs. Leckrone, who is a Baptist housewife declared, “ All popular music is the same anyway, so I figured people might just as well hear something different—and something that might be a help to them.” T H E K l N & ’ S B U S I N E S S
William W . Orr, D.D.
One Billion the knowledge of God and His love through Jesus Christ. “ I sincerely trust that the people of America will grasp the present oppor tunity afforded by a merciful God to lay the foundation for a true and living faith, and I urgently request that Chris tian people everywhere shall support the Pocket Testament League in their noble efforts to meet the challenge of this crucial hour.” Greatest Impact In the opinion of the American News paper and Radio Editors in a United Press poll, former President Franklin Roosevelt was voted as the man who made the greatest impact on the first half of this century. Others mentioned were Hitler, Edison, Churchill, Ford, Lenin, Wright Brothers, Einstein, Stalin and Pasteur. Not included in the poll, of course, was a Man who lived for 33 years nearly two millenniums ago and whose influence today continues to be stronger and deeper than ever before. New Universe <£ A gigantic star realm, thought to be the largest cluster of stars, has been dis covered by the University of California’s Lick Observatory. This new minor uni verse contains more than 1000 nebulae, each of which, containing millions of stars, is comparable to the Milky Way galaxy. The location of this new star system is some sixty million light years away. (One light year equals six trillion miles). Scripture has long made a comparison between the grains of sand which lie upon the beaches of the world’s oceans and the number of stars in the sky. Holy Year 1950 has been designated officially by the Roman Catholic church as a holy year. This custom evidently is patterned after the year of jubilee described in
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