about their insistent inquiries: “How could it be that One should rise from the dead? If it be true, what rela tionship to Him do I bear?” Today the cross of Christ needs continual and persistent emphasis, for by it alone is there salvation. But perhaps too often the sacrifice of Calvary is left to stand alone without its corresponding truth of the resurrection. Do we refrain from constant preaching on the resurrec tion merely because there has grown up in the minds of some that this theme must always be associated with Easter? Are we missing the joy and thrill of the Christian life by failing to emphasize continually the fact that Christ arose, and that now He lives? Should not our sermons always include the ecstatic note of that resurrection morning? The Book of the Acts contains twenty-six wonderful sermons. Per haps they have been placed there in order to be the example for our preaching today. If this be true, there can be no doubt but that the glorious resurrection theme should appear in some form in every mes sage we preach. ☆ Vacations I T IS not too early to begin to think and plan for a summer vacation. This year the Bible Institute of Los Angeles is sponsoring an eight-day Bible Conference at beautiful Mount Hermon, near Santa Cruz, California. This lovely vacation spot is in the heart of the tall redwood country and is an ideal spot for a most bene ficial vacation. The speakers at this Bible Conference will include Dr. William Evans, Dr. Vernon McGee, Dr. Harry Rimmer and our own Dr. Louis T. Talbot. In charge of the music will be Dr. Herbert Tovey and a special musical feature will be the Bible Institute Hour Quartet, The conference will continue from Sun day, August 24, to and including September 1 (Labor Day). All friends of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles along the West Coast are most cordially invited to be pres ent. Requests for Information regard ing accommodations should be ad dressed to Rev. Cyrus Nelson, Mount Hermon, California, and all other in quiries to the Conference Director, Dr. William W. Orr, 558 South Hope Street, Los Angeles 13, California.
Catholics Become Protestants rpHERE has been a great deal of -*■ fanfare in recent months over the conversion of a number of prominent Americans to Roman Catholicism. The press, which is known to favor Catholic propaganda, played up these items before the American public with a view of attempting to- prove that Protestantism is grad ually fading out of the picture. Subsequent to this publicity, the Christian Herald made an effort to point out that the swing has not been from Protestantism to Catholi cism, but rather the reverse. A sur vey of this matter made on a very inadequate basis, was seized upon by a number of Catholic journals in which it was made to appear that only 515 Catholics had joined the Protestant church in the past ten years. One of these Catholic journals was promptly called to account by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which pointed out that, as a matter of statistical record, 1,280 former Roman Catholics joined the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, in the year of 1945. Furthermore, it was pointed out that, inasmuch as the membership requirements of the Missouri Synod are much higher than those of the average Protestant body, it seems reasonable to assume that the number of Catholics in America who turned Protestant runs into the hundreds of thousands each year. It is also true, as the Converted Catholic magazine has stated, that almost three times as many Roman Catholics joined the Baptist and other evangelical bodies as those Protestant denominations whose re quirements include adherence to fixed forms and rituals. While exact and accurate figures are not available, it seems a reason able supposition that for every Prot estant who embraces the Catholic church, there are one hundred Cath olics who turn from their faith in Romanism to seek admission into the various Protestant evangelical bodies. ☆ Foundations at Yale JT IS interesting to note the reli gious background of many of our great universities. Sorrow fills our hearts when we realize how far some T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Never W HAT an inexhaustible storehouse of treasure is the Word of God! For instance, in the fifth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, we find a most soul-satisfying state ment. Because its paraphrase is ob scured by our English translation, some have not “drunk to the full of its riches." The Authorized Version translates this verse: “I w ill never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” but in the original Greek, there are two negatives which the Greek writer could have selected, one much stronger than the other. When these negatives are employed as they are in this case, the meaning is tripled. The phrase may be rendered per fectly correctly: “I will in no wise leave you, and I will in no wise for sake you." Nor is this all; there is a fifth negative implied, and since we know the mind of the Lord regard ing this theme from other passages in the Bible, we may paraphrase in this manner: “I will never, never, never, never, never leave thee nor forsake theee.” The One speaking is our precious Lord; those addressed are His children; the statement itself is imperishable truth. The result: perfect peace. ☆ Main Theme W E BELIEVE the Book of the Acts to be a continuation of what Jesus “began both to do and teach” as recorded in “the former treatise" which Luke penned to his friend Theophilus, which we know as Luke’s Gospel. It is the first page of church history, with thousands of pages to follow. We have been struck by the constant use of the resurrec tion theme in a recent review of the addresses which form a large portion of this book. Time after time, the Holy Spirit, through the lips of His appointed evangels, calls attention to the amazing implications of the Lord’s resurrection. To be sure, the work of Christ on the cross is not overlooked, but the emphasis is strong indeed on this climax to His death—His resurrection. It seems this is what all Jerusalem was talking about in that early day, not so much the execution of the “criminals" on Calvary’s hill, but the fact that One of these three could not be “holden” by death. This is what provoked the curiosity of the people and brought PAGE FOUR
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