spiritual condition in this way, “AU have sinned and come short of the glo ry of God.” Through faith in the Sav-. iour, we are no longer mongrels, spir itually speaking, before God, but new creatures in Jesus Christ. Scripture as sures us, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” * The business of the church is to get rid of evil, not to supervise it. * * * REVENGE There is an old Welsh proverb which says, “Before revenge, first know the cause.” Supposedly, this saying came into being when one day a faithful dog named Gelert, was guarding his mas ter’s sleeping son. A hungry wolf came into the castle; seeing the baby, he leaped toward the cradle. Gelert, the family pet, however, attacked the wolf to protect the child. A furious fight followed and in the process the cradle was upset. It landed upside down, cov ering the baby. Both animals were badly hurt by the fight. However, Ge lert was able to kill the intruder who fell b e h in d the cradle. The noise aroused the household. Poor Gelert was licking his wounds as his master came in. One look at the overturned cradle, the state of the room and the bloody dog, caused the man to jump to the wrong conclusion. He drew his sword, rewarding the dog with death. Then the baby began to cry. Righting the cradle there was the man’s baby son, and upon closer inspection, the father discovered the huge wolf lying on the other side. He realized what a terrible mistake he had made. But no amount of remorse could bring back his faithful Gelert. Similarly, too frequently we jump to the wrong conclusions about others. How often have you said things for which you have felt so sorry later on? The grief, embarrassment and concern, however, do us little good. It’s so easy to seek revenge when we may not know the full situation involved. The old Welsh proverb cautions, “Before re venge first know the cause.” God says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” The principle for our lives should always be to overcome evil with good. 27 * *
the tongue by which we taste how good the Lord is. A feverish tongue is never theless a tongue. We may believe even when we're without the smallest por tion of comfort for our faith is founded not upon feelings, but upon the prom ises of God. Faith is the foot by which we go to the Saviour. A lame foot is still a foot. He who comes slowly never theless comes.” ‘‘But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." * A Christian must carry som e th in g heavier on his shoulders than chips. * * * THE FAM ILY TREE Dr. Curt Stem , president of the American Society of Human Genetics, made a statement at a press confer ence which met at the preview of his book, ‘‘The Child’s Heritage.” He force fully declared, “Heredity does not de cide what a person’s going to be. All of us are pretty much mongrels. We don’t have pure races anywhere in man.” Well, I think this might be quite a blow to the average person’s pride, being called “a mongrel.” It is like the con versation that took place at a friendly dinner party. The people were discuss ing their family trees. One member was noticeably silent until asked about his background. Sheepishly, he told the company, “Frankly, I’m ashamed to have to tell you. As long as you’ve asked, however, I might as well ex plain, and then perhaps you’ll see why I feel the way I do. First of all, my mother was a thief, my father a receiv er of stolen property, and my elder brother a murderer.” The people, al ready in a state of shock, were fur ther taken aback when he suggested that his relatives’ names might be known to them. He said, with a twinkle in his eye, “My mother was Eve; she stole the fruit that didn’t belong to her. My father was Adam; he took it when she gave it to him. And my elder brother, Cain, killed Abel without a cause.” His friends got the point. Actu ally, when we go back far enough in our history, we’ll all discover, just as Dr. S tem pointed out, that we’re “mon grels.” The Bible reminds us of our * *
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker