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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
February, 1939
alibi is wearing a little thin, however. Realizing that they cannot hold their posi tion by remaining indefinitely on the de fensive, some of them are contemplating the bold move of openly championing bigger deficits as "the salvation of the country.” The professors’ book is good propaganda for that purpose. The President has gone a long way in arguing the justification of the New Deal spending policy, but it is not certain that he can be persuaded to go all the way with the professors. ATHEIST ADVANCE: According to the Communist, Soviet newspaper published in Erivan, capital of the Armenian Republic, “there has never been a better year for godlessness in that section of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” Armenia was one of the earliest homes of Christianity, and atheists had difficulty making progress there, during the early years of Soviet rule. As late as 1936, the Armenian branch of Bezbozhnik, the Soviet Godless League, had only 6,000 members. But in 1937, the membership leaped to 11,400, and by Christmas, 1938, it had grown to 37,734 militant atheists. BUSINESS UNDONE: Predictions are hazardous, but it is almost safe to forecast that the 1939 Congress will leave its most pressing business undone. The budget will be left unbalanced by billions, although the fact will be somewhat obscured by the Ad ministration’s resort to “fancy” bookkeep ing as a means of making the red ink less glaring. Strong pressure and much discussion will center on proposed revisions of the Wag ner Labor Relations Act. But it is un likely that anything will be done about it. The C. I. O., backed by Secretary Perkins, will fight to the last to keep the law un altered. A coalition of conservative Demo crats and Republicans, plus mild liberals such as Borah and Johnson, will drive for revisions. But their efforts will be crippled by lack of clear accord as to the nature of desirable revisions. Probable result will be a sidetracking of the whole plan. Efforts will be made to clarify or change the neutrality law, especially in connection with the certain passage of the rearmament program in one form or another. But noth ing concrete will eventuate. Senators con cerned about the future of their country will continue to ask, with Senator Johnson, "What is our foreign policy?” But no an swer will be made by any responsible Ad ministration spokesman. Whatever our for eign policy may be, if indeed we have one, its essence is secrecy. RED HYPOCRISY: The Daily Worker, the official organ of the Communist Party in the United States, has pretended to be concerned about the plight of the Jews in Germany. In fact, it has advocated a boy cott of German goods — in the United States. But the Communist press in Mos cow advocates no such thing for Soviet Russia! On the contrary, Russo-German trade is flourishing and booming. Accord ing to Current History, in June, 1938, So viet Russia attained the rank of Germany’s second-best customer!
G IDEON BIBLES PRESENTED 0 Five thousand Bibles for classrooms and libraries of the Los Angeles City Schools are the recent gift of the local camp of the International Gideon Association. The Bibles are similar to the nearly one and one-half million Bibles which the Gideons, an international organization of Christian laymen in commercial occupations, have placed in hotel and hospital rooms and elsewhere. Pictured as they stood before a section of the huge stack of Bibles in the Church of the Open Door on Sunday afternoon, January I, are the following (left to right): Robert Lee Wall, Chaplain Los Angeles Camp of Gideons; A. L. Forde, State Bible Secretary (Mr. Forde is President of the Alumni Association of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles); Claude A. Watson, Associate Member of Gideons; C. M. Amos, Secretary and Treasurer (State Officer); Ralph L. Elliott, State Vice-President; E. H. Vanderwall, State President; Cecil Kettle, State Chaplain; Charles Eisenmayer, International Trustee, President Los Angeles Camp; Freeman Lusk, representing the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles, and Roy L. Laurin, Associate Pastor Church of the Open Door and Vice-President Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
of the International Gideon Association, a group of Christian businessmen. The pre sentation proceedings were in charge of Charles Eisenmayer, International Trustee of the Gideons. The service consisted of brief messages from local ministers on the effective use of Gideon Bibles, in various public institutions, following which the Bibles were presented officially to Freeman Lusk, who accepted them in the name of the Board of Education. W e consider this event exceedingly sig nificant. Outside of the church and the home, there is no more strategic place for the Bible than in the school. W e trust that the aggressiveness of the Los Angeles Gideons will become contagious and that Gideons throughout the nation will be used of God to put the Bible in the schools of the nation. While the placing of these Bibles in Los Angeles schools does not mean its obliga tory reading in classes, nevertheless, its presence as a reference work should stimu late inquiry by those in the classroom, stu dent and teacher alike. This presentation is the first of a series in which the Gideons of the State of Cali fornia expect to place at least fifty thou sand copies of the Bible in the school rooms in this State.
E D IT O R IA L [Continued from page 53]
an acceptable teacher of altruism only, you must thereby deny deity and authority that none other possesses. But if we deny the deity of Jesus in our eagerness to exalt His humanity, we have violated truth itself. How can you lose faith in Jesus as a truth- teller and keep faith in Jesus as a teacher of altruism? If Jesus is not divine. He is not a truth-teller. Further than this, He gave public approval of the writings of the Old Testament authors, especially Moses. In this consent He identified His faith with the Genesis account of creation. The teach ings of Jesus are as much a part of the Bible as is the historic and prophetic ac count that sets Him forth as the Son of God, and no one has the moral or the in tellectual right to divide the two. If there is any hopefulness in Millikan’s "sign,” it is the fact that the very thing he denotes as the “loss of faith” is evidence of prophetic fulfillment. His words speak of a fulfilling of prophecy, and this development is always hopeful. "Now the Spirit speak- eth expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4 :1 ). "That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first” (2 Thess. 2 :3 ). While the fact of a lost faith is deplorable, the sign indeed is hopeful because of its prophetic implications. Dedicating 5,000 B ibles for Los Angeles Schools A remarkable and historic service was held in the auditorium of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles on the Sunday afternoon of January 1. In the presence of an audience of some two thousand people, five thousand Bibles were dedicated for presentation to the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles by the local camp
V IE W S AN D R E V IE W S O F C U R R E N T N EW S [Continued from page 55]
Some observers suspect that the book has been published at a significant time— and for a significant purpose. All along, the New Deal spending chiefs have been admitting that unbalanced budgets are a bad thing, but have asserted that they couldn’t be helped. After six years, the
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