T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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June, 1941
Significance of the News By DAN GILBERT Washington, D. C., and San Diego, California
Trifling with God The name of Deity is dreadful and glorious. It is given His people for a great refuge: “The name of the Lord is , a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” To trifle with that hallowed name is exceedingly dan gerous, yet how many there are today who do not hesitate to use it as a sanctimonious front for the promotion of all kinds of personal ambition! The commandment says: "Thqu ghalt not take the name of the Lord thy God .in vain.” The original text can be more forcefully translated: “Thou shalt not . -take the name of the Lord thy God to attest falsehood.” A thousand cults to day do not hesitate, to give the sanction of almighty God to the most damning of falsehoods. But we are wondering whether there are not those outside these insidious cults who cannot be held guiltless of the charge of trifling with the divine name! Serious reflection along this line will not be amiss. They tal$e His name in vain who pub licly profess to be defenders of ortho doxy, while, on the side, they engage in deceptive practices. There are those Who toy much with the name of the blessed Holy Spirit, but they do not hesitate to resort to ungodly methods of advancing their own interests. It is possible for one to- talk of his “baptism” in public, using the divine name as a smoke screen to hide something in the private life which will not bear scrutiny, C. E. Showalter, in a recent article, said: “A hypocritical man cannot make a good speech. What you are gets there before you. Only the personal knowledge that you are sincere, .honest, and genuine can get the confidence which every speaker de sires. If he lacks these inner assur ances, he will feel hollow, be hol low, and sound hollow, rto matter how good his material or how art ful his delivery.” Such is the certain result of trifling with the name of Deity. Is it not possible, alas, that one well versed in fundamental truth may have so long trifled with the name of ‘God that he does not realize that his spirit ual sense has been destroyed ? It might be said of a fundamentalist, as was said of Samson, that “he wist not that the Lord was departed from him,” and that the inner light had failed. . The pathetic story of the atrophy of conscience is being re-enacted in so many pulpits today that it behooves all who are “set for the defense of the gos pel” to take time with God for search ing of heart. Qne soon loses his right to leadership when he uses the name of God as a camouflage, and tricks of* psychology cannot for long stand one in good stead. —Keith L. Brooks.
WEAKNESSES IN OUR NATION’S DEFENSE: • Marshal Petaijj attributed the fall of France to alcohol, immorality, and irre- ligion. He pointed out that the under mining of the nation’s strength had been parried on for decades by these forces of paganism. “For over fifty years,” he declared, “France had been in process of becoming a nation of broken homes.” In his program for the rehabilitation of France, Marshal Petain has suppressed the liquor traffic, restricted the Issuance of “easy divorces,” and reintroduced re ligious instruction in the schools. Even Nazi Germany and Communist Russia have come to recognize the re lationship betweenocommon decency and national defense. Following the Bol shevik revolution, a system of “free love” was legally sanctioned in Soviet Russia. The youth of the land were en couraged in iporal laxity. In the early nineteen-thirties, Stalin set seriously about the task of building to maximum strength the Soviet Red Army. One of the first things noted with alarm by the generals and doctors was the wide spread wreckage of the health of young men by loose living. To combat this condition, Stalin enforced stringent laws against birth control and abortion, which formerly had been practiced legal ly. Although Karl Marx and Lenin de manded the abolition of the family in the name of Communism, Stalin has en deavored to reinforce the foundations of Russian home life. It would be folly to suppose that Stalin is a “convert” to Puritanism or Christian morality. He is still looking forward to the world revolution which* will make paganism world-wide. But, in the present emergency, he recognizes that the home is an indispensable unit of national defense. Hence, even Com munist youth is being taught moral re straint and common decency. Upon coming to power, Hitler put the German nation on a strictly military basis. But to make Germany strong in a military way, he recognized the need to restore sobriety and moral health in the ranks of youth. As in the case of Stalin, it would be a mistake to be lieve that Hitler really cares about the purity of youth for its, own sake. But he, too, realizes that a people given over to self-indulgence are on their way to self-destruction. ALCOHOL: THE ENEMY OF NATIONAL STRENGTH: • The war was on for nine months before Hitler’s soldiers marched in and
subdued France. During that period, the French and German soldiers faced each other, behind their respective forti- -fications, only a few miles apart. For eign commentators observed that while the French soldiers drank freely, the German soldiers were committed to total abstinence. No wonder that Marshal Petain is following the lead of Germany and Russia in restricting the alcohol traffic as a primary measure of national reconstruction! If the French and Germans and Rus sians can, in the main, give up alcohol as a contribution to the national wel fare, why cannot the Americans? Dur ing the coming years, Americans will be obliged to undergo many sacrifices. Mil- lipns of young men will give a, year of their lives to government service. They w ill.sacrifice a major share of their personal liberty. Is the liberty to drink to. be maintained alone, while other rights and freedoms are being sacri ficed in the cause of national defense? CORRUPTION FROM WITHIN: • More dangerous to our national safe ty and well-being.than enemy bombing bases, are the thousands of dens of vice which beckon day and night to Amer icans of all ages. Billions of dollars, as well as the vitality of multitudes of our people, are squandered in roadhouses, night clubs, cocktail lounges, and other centers of degradation. That these should operate for their set purpose of destruction, while the nation is prepar ing for vital defense, appears to be a stultification of Uncle Sam. As H. C. McGinnis has written' in a widely circulating religious magazine; “National defense is more than a mobilization o f a nation’s armed strength. •To mobilize manpower and train it in the use of the latest * gadgets of war without properly protecting the morals and spiritual ity of the trainees is to invite de feat from within.” Commenting on the national situation, he says, “Reliable persons who have in vestigated moral conditions sur rounding these army camps report, for the most part, most deplorable conditions. Some have seen truck- loads of boys returning to camp in various stages of drunkenness; . others have seen the vice districts so crowded that they resembled county fairs at their worst. Near one camp there are twenty-three [ Continued on Page 222]
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