hours in the water of the Ganges on the day when sun enters the constel lation of Aries. The goal of the Hindu pilgrimage is the sacred city of Hard- war which has a normal population of 80.000 but during the Hindu holy year swells to two million pilgrims. All such devices to take away sin are man made. Only a true acceptance of the Son of God will ever rid the heart «** With tongue in cheek, the Hayden Planetarium of New York City face tiously began taking reservations for interplanetary travel. Applicants were told to check the tour they desired, in cluding the moon, Venus, Mars, Jupi ter, or Saturn. The planetary instruc tions warned, for instance, that the moon is no romantic place, but rather a chill, arid spot with conversation impossible, climate problematical, and locomotion difficult. Strangely enough, the Planetarium received more than 18.000 reservations and requests for information. A few were “ gags,” but after a study of the requests by psy chologists, it was decided that many came from people who were “ tired of it all” and took this as an opportunity to escape this sorry world. It could be that deep down in the heart of man kind is that desire for rest and relief that only a visit to Heaven can cure. Bible Psychology Again «** Contrary to prevailing medical and educational opinion was a view ex pressed recently by Dr. Harvey F. Dietrich of the University of South ern California who stated that chil dren need discipline and sometimes a sharp whack. He believes children need discipline as much as they need food and love, and lack of proper dis cipline and understanding on the part of the parents may be responsible for the death of thousands of children each year who are killed in accidents. This has a wholesome, old-fashioned sound and reminds one of thé wise words about Child training from the ancient book of Proverbs. Israel's Trees •s* In connection with the plan of the Jewish National Fund to plant a bil lion trees in Israel, the 1950-51 quota is four million new trees. Shade trees of all varieties suited to the climate, wind breakers, and trees to provide food are being selected carefully. It is evident that no nation is so tree con scious as present-day Israel. In this connection, one should read Isaiah 41:19, 20 ; “ I will plant in the wilder ness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree ; I will set T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S of its burden. To Get Away
William W . Orr, D.D.
one day in Tokyo, someone placed in his hand a Christian pamphlet con taining the testimony of Jacob De- Shazer. Our readers will remember that this American who spent many years in a Japanese prison camp, after the war returned to Japan to preach the Gospel. Mitsuo was deep ly impressed that this was what he was seeking. He contacted Christians who showed him how to receive Christ as his Saviour, which he did on April 14, 1950. This is another example of God’s wondrous ways in His dealings «** Recently John Foster Dulles spent an evening in Korea worshiping with 3,000 Christian refugees who had fled from the Northern dictatorship of atheistic Communism. He obtained a firsthand report of the way in which the Koreans are standing fast in the face of persecution. While statistics are difficult to obtain, it is the opin ion of many a veteran Far Eastern missionary that we can count on the faithfulness of the Korean Christians. Dr. Lloyd S. Ruland declares, “We have every confidence in Korean Christians to whom oppression is nothing new. They will not let us down.” The absolute answer to this prob lem can only wait the end of the pres ent conflict and a new survey of the Christian church in that land. Hindu Holy Year As well as being a holy year for the Roman Catholics, the year 1950 has also been a year of pilgrimage for the Hindus. It is believed that they can have their sins washed away and the guarantee of eternal salvation not only for themselves, but also for their descendants for three generations as well, by standing knee - deep for six with the children o f men. Korean Christians Sound?
Churches Gain & In the past twenty years, church membership in America has risen from 50,000,000 to nearly 82,000,000. The reason seems to be that when man’s security is shaken, he invaria bly turns to religion. Last year churches made a total net gain of nearly 250,000,000 members with the ratio of the three faiths showing, Protestant 39%; Catholic, 33%; Jewish, 6%. The strongest Protestant denomination is Methodist, with near ly 9,000,000 members, and second place again goes to the Southern Bap tist with nearly 7,000,000. Three Billion More & In the fiscal year just ended, to bacco smokers in the United States used 355,000,000,000 cigarettes, an in crease of about 3,000,000,000 over last year indicating that our national nerv ous tension is definitely not lessening. Gospel Recordings & The work of the Gospel Recordings, Inc. continues to make news. During the past year over 50,000 presses have been made, and now there is need of two additional presses to take these records, which are really talking tracts, to the many unreached tribes of mission lands. This ever-growing work merits the prayers and support of God’s people everywhere. Pearl Harbor Leader Recently several articles have ap peared from the pen of Mitsuo Fu- chida who was commander of the air squadron which participated in the raid on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. It seems that Mitsuo Fuchida went through the war, then retired and be came a farmer, but did a great deal of thinking about himself and his na tion. In the midst of these thoughts, Page Eighteen_______________________________ _
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