people to go into their own communities and speak forth the claims of Christ. Under the direction of Horace F. Dean of the Christ for America cam paigns, the plan is for the local church to inaugurate this campaign by a series of heart-searching prayer meetings dur ing the first week in October. This is to be followed by one or two weeks of intensive calling upon the community in which the church is located, followed by a series of special evangelistic meetings led by the local pastor or an exchange minister from a neighboring commu nity. Without a doubt, this Christ for Everyone Campaign is a step in the right direction pointing back to the very earliest days in the history of the Christian church where, without benefit of publicity or fanfare, men and women whose hearts had been changed by the living Christ, went forth simply to wit ness to the marvelous transformation that had taken place within their own lives. The result was that the entire inhabited world was thoroughly evan gelized. If there is something needed today above all else in Christian circles, it is a renewed realization on the part of the laity that they are capable, un der the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the risen Christ, to talk to men, women, boys and girls, con vincing them of their need of Christ and leading them into a simple accept ance of His sacrificial atonement. Too long has the matter of simple salvation been wrapped up in professional effort. Too long has the rank and file Christian been saying in his heart that the mat ter of reaching others for Christ was something which required special train ing or unusual ability. We pray God that this campaign may be eminently successful not only in actual results at tained but in the beginning of a new movement on the part of the average Christian to let his light so shine day by day that through him there will be a constant stream of converts coming to know Christ whom to know in a scriptural way is life everlasting. Don’ t Give Cheap Tracts T HE GREATEST message in all the world is the gospel, which simply states that while all men are sinners and all men are lost, still Christ died for all and every one may be saved by simple faith in Him. Here is a message which ought to be set forth in the very best possible man ner. It is not that God limits Himself to gifted servants only. It is not that God cannot speak from a scrap of paper, but the very excellence of the message de mands that it be presented in a dignified and reverent way. It has always been a source of deep discontent to see gospel tracts printed on newsprint. Without a doubt there is something to be said for the fact of greater distribution, but it is a sad com mentary on the giving habits of Chris tian people to so limit the distribution of
Have You Ever Read the Bible Through? H ERE are statistics that are both startling and 'shameful. Those who know, believe that at least half of our Christian people today have never con secutively read through the Book which they profess to love and avowedly fol low. It is not that they fail to give the Book its proper place and not that they do not believe in its inspiration. On the other hand, they would be quite willing to do battle on the question of its au thority and authenticity, but the stark truth of the matter is that even so, they have never yet started at the beginning and consecutively read every word on its sacred pages. To those who, realizing their lack, would like a simple plan of Bible read ing, may we suggest that the consecu tive reading of three chapters daily and five chapters on the Lord’s Day will, in the course of a year, cover the entire Bible. Most readers prefer to divide the reading with two chapters in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New daily, and three chapters in the Old Testament and two chapters in the New on the Lord’s Day. There is no question whatsoever about the fact that there will be both blessing and profit from such daily readings. Surgery Wasn’t the Answer A BOUT five years ago, Millard X. Wright, a 42-year-old chronic burglar, underwent a delicate brain operation, prefrontal lobotomy, which involves cutting of nerve pathways in the forebrain in an attempt to curb his deep-seated urge to steal. Mr. Wright had spent 15 of his 38 years in jail but because of his willing ness to undergo this possible contribu tion to medical science, he drew a light prison sentence and after two and one- half years was paroled. He was subse quently married, worked as a bus washer and it was thought that the brain operation had been a success and that he would “go straight” hereafter. However, r e c e n t l y in Pittsburg, Wright was identified as the man who had passed some stolen articles and in
his home police found stolen goods worth thousands of dollars. Taken back to jail, Wright confessed that the oper ation just hadn’t worked. Experts who examined Wright declared there was no reason to believe that it ever would work. The last chapter to this story was written recently as Wright took his own life after penning a note saying that he was sentencing himself to death for his own evil misdeeds. One cannot forego the sobering com ment that it is not a surgeon’s skill which can change the deceitful heart of man but only a cleansing by the pre cious blood of Christ. It is not enough to perform an operation on a thief’s brain; the operation must go deeper and change the heart. Nor is this merely theological theory. Case histories by the hundreds of thousands prove beyond the slightest doubt that when a person comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, old things do pass away and all things become new. Un righteous people are changed into ex emplary citizens. Thieves are reformed. Harlots become upright. Mouths of blas phemers become fountains of blessing. As a matter of fact, one who has been truly born-again into the family of God forsakes sin and is a different person. It is too late to do anything for Mil lard X. Wright but we are sure the number is legion of men and women and children with the same heart of deceit that characterizes every natural born son of Adam. There are evil ten dencies in every heart which, if unre strained, will break forth into crime but which can be removed by the simple act of placing faith in a crucified and risen Saviour. Then the life is saved as well as the soul. Christ for Everyone Campaign T HIS coming October worthy evan gelistic effort is to be launched in many thousands of churches across our land. This effort is known as the Christ for Everyone Campaign. The plan is not for huge evangelistic gatherings but rather for a movement in the local churches and on the part of the lay
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