ing Again,” and a host of others. He was summoned to the office of a Broadway show producer. To make a long story short, when he got inside, he discovered that he was being offered approximately a quarter of a million dollars for the rights to his lovely Gospel song composition, “Over the Sunset Mountains.” Hard ly seems possible, does it? A quarter of a million dollars for one song! What an offer! There was only one small catch. The producer kindly suggested, “All you have to do is allow us, in the purchase of the copy right, to change just one word in your song.” Well, when you stop to think about it, that seems quite plausible and reasonable for a quar ter of a million dollars. What dif ference does it make, changing just one word? It seems that the word was a name. That’s all that both ered them. Naturally, they wanted to use the stage name of the girl who was the lead in the Broadway production. In other words, instead of “Over the sunset mountains, some day I’ll softly go, into the arms of Jesus,” they wanted it to be Betty, or Margaret, or Harriet, or what ever the name of the person was, rather than into the arms of Jesus. Can you see the ridiculousness of this? John Peterson did. He actually turned down $250,000 for that one song. He left those offices and im mediately something happened. The devil came to him and said quite frankly, “Peterson, you are a fool!” Humanly speaking, Satan may have been right. Deep in thought, John Peterson walked through those vast canyons of Manhattan buildings. The Lord was speaking to him. He start ed thinking of a new melody and meaningful words, “Why should I sing of lesser things and things that pass away, when I’ve a friend like Jesus to sing about each day? I have no song to sing but that of Christ my King. To Him my praise I’ll bring, forevermore. His love beyond
degree, His death that ransomed me, now and eternally, I’ll sing it o’er. I find no more delight in other songs, my melody of love to Christ belongs. I have no song to sing but that of Christ my King. To Him my praise I’ll bring forevermore.” C hapter Two This blessed verse in Psalm 149 continues to say that we are to “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.” One of the big problems of the day is that we have become acclimated to attending church in order to see who can entertain, amuse, or at least hold our attention the best. We like speak ers who tell more stories and give better illustrations. In this way it generally encourages us to keep awake during the half-hour sermon. If this isn’t the case, all too fre quently we will concentrate on what is perhaps a more productive field, namely, considering the faults of others, those sitting in the pews near by supposedly participating in the service. Verse 2 of Psalm 149 is an encour agement to, “Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him ; let the children
Mr. and Mrs. Al Sanders (center). Vice President ot Public Relations for Biola, chat with Mr. Ron Hater (back to camera). Director of Student Activities for the school. Mr. Sanders was recently awarded "The Alumnus of the Year" by the Alumni Association.
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