March, 1942
TH E K I NG ’ S BUSIN ESS
8*
Senator Borah described, in which men would think a full stomach or a full pocketbook or a high standard of liv ing of more value than liberty itself. A few years ago, America may have been tempted to choose security in stead of liberty. But now the hour of decision has passed and* we have made, our Choice. We have determined to stand where the fathers stood,- to defend what they defended. THE “OLD, THE TRIED, AND THE TRUE": • America- is rediscovering the su preme value of “the old, the tried, and the true.” In this present conflict, we are not fighting for a. single thing that is “new,” i.e., that was unknown to our fathers. We are not fighting for our automobiles,, our luxuries, our “high standard'.of living.” Rather, we are being called Upon to take a stand for the things that our fathers Con sidered more precious than life itself: the independence of our nation, the rights and liberties of man made in the image of God, the integrity of our Christian institutions, the inviolability of our Constitutional democracy. “Daddy” Horton, one of the founders of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, used to say, “If it is true, it is not new. If it is new, it is not true.” He * was speaking of doctrines, but the rule can be applied universally.' There might be enough exceptions to prove the rule, but certainly not to dis prove it. We might paraphrase this axiom to read, “If it is worth fighting for,: it is not new. If it is hew, it is not worth fighting for.” In the dark days of -the Revolutionary War, a great patriot coined the famous phrase, “These are times that try men’s souls.” They are also times that try and test all things that affect civilization and are asso ciated with it. The glorifiera of our scientific civi lization have long popularized the position, “It is wonderful to be alive in the twentieth century. Look at all the comforts, and conveniences that science has bestpwed upon us.” The average school child cannot conceive' of life’s being worth while in'a world which did not have radios, autonib-1 biles, and electric refrigerators. But-in this crisis, many are being forced to appreciate the real value of things. We have come to realize that, after all, the conveniences of this- scientific age are not very important. The things that have real value today are the things that had real value a hundred or a thousand years ago. The Constitution declares that this nation was established to preserve and perpetuate “the blessings of liberty.” A hundred years ago, men knew little about the luxuries which we enjoy |Continued orr Page 116]
Father’s right hand, but He also is 'sitting there expecting until His enemies be made His footstobl (Heb. 10:13). He is sitting there awaiting the moment when He shall return again. How»majestic are the words of PsaJm 110:3. R. V.: : *¡ 0111 : of the womb of the morning ; Thou hast the dew of thy youth.” Yes, our Lord will come. He will' copie to the çhureh as thé Bright and Morning Star. He will come to Israel and to the.earth as the Sun of Right eousness, rising'with healing in His wings. He will burst forth as One leapihg from the womb of the morn ing. He will scatter thé darkness and Will cause the light of life and love and peace to girdle the globe with rest. The morning dawns in glory,-and the night Wraps up its somber garments in its flight; My soul awakes from dreaming And my eyes .Survey God’s sunburst.beaming From the skies, i I seem to hear Thee saying, “Sion the night Of earth will pass forever, and the light Of glory will be breaking - Wondrous fair, Eternal morn be waking Over there.” $ Significance of the News By DAN GILBERT Washington, D. C., and San Diego, California
THÉ REVIVAL OF MORAL VALUES: • Commenting upon the preference of his fellow politicians for the new and experimental rather than the tried and tested, Senator Borah said shortly before his death, “No one seems to be interested in preserving Constitutional lib erty. People don’t seem to care about the Constitution because they can’t eat it, or wear it, or use it to make themselves comfort able. They apparently are more Interested in ease and luxury than in liberty and integrity.” That was, undoubtedly, the prevail ing mood in America at that time. But today we are witnessing a revival of fundamental values, Americans are sacrificing their ease and their lux uries. and their conveniences in order /to preserve their liberty. We are giv ing away our mechanical gadgets and modern comforts as a contribution to the defense of our Constitutional herit age of freedom. We are giving up our “scientific, twentieth century way of life’’ in order to keep the values and virtues of the way. of life our fathers established for us. Our fathers fought in 1776 primarily for the great cause of liberty. They fought for their homes, their churches, their C h r i s t i a n institutions,, their d e m o c r a t i c ideals. Those are the things for which we are fighting to day. They rallied around the slogan, “ Give me liberty or givè me death.” Benjamin Franklin once expressed the fear that ' the time would come when Americans would “exchange their liberty for the promise of secu rity!” He feared the condition which
S5CK TO THE'"HORSE-AND- BUGGY" DAYS: '
• With automobile tires, batteries, and spark plugs practically unobtain able, and gasoline 'growing scarcer, it is not unlikely that “horse-and- buggy” .days may soon be here .again! The expression, “horse-and-buggy days,” recalls .exciting memories to one who has been engaged in-news paper work-in the nation’s capital. It was almost exactly five years ago that this writer heard one of our most im portant leaders declare that the Con stitution of ’ the United States . “be longed to the horse-and-buggy days.” The plain implication was that in this scientific, streamlined age, we needed a “néw model,” or at least a radically reconstructed Constitution. In the subsequent debates which occupied the attention of Congress, this phrase was hurled about as a sort of verbal football. Usually, the term was applied as a sort of stigma. To say that anything or any policy be longed to" the “horse-and-buggy” days was to expose it to open shame and contempt. As one Senator said, “Of course, we shall never go back to the old days before America moved about on wheels and enjoyed the luxuries and conveniences of modern scientific living” The prevailing attitude seemed to be that if a thing was old, it neces.- sarily was not worth keeping. Con gress, like some theological semi naries, was under the spell of “mod ernism.” Thè “new” was highly es teemed because it was hew; and the “old” was blindly condemned merely because it was old.
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