heartless deed. He ranked high in busi ness circles, but he lived and died a miserable man. The memory of his crime tortured him by day and haunted him by night. Often he would jump up from his sleep with the urgent com mand, “Lower the boats! Lower the boats!” He felt the cold sweat of mor tal agony, but it was forever too late. Money could never calm his remorse of heart. Similarly, how will we answer the Lord concerning the souls of our neighbors who know not Christ if we have failed to give a hand, and a word of hope, as they sink in the despair of an eternity without God? STAGGERING STATISTICS One of the things which should cer tainly challenge us tremendously for Christ is the fact that of the more than 3000 languages on the face of the earth, only a little more than a third of them have a Bible translation. But what’s of even greater concern is the fact that 94 per cent of the world has never heard a gospel message. Of all of the world’s ordained pastors, 94 per cent minister to the nine per cent of the world’s English-speaking popula tion. That’s not all either; 96 per cent of all funds our churches obtain are used to minister to these nine per cent. That’s 96 per cent of the money spent on nine per cent of the people. What kind of a character is revealed in the statistics •here in America which shows that our citizens spend more for liquor every 24 hours than is given to evan gelize the world over the course of an entire year? Think of it! These are days when we need to follow the ex hortation of the Apostle Paul in the long ago when he said, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (I Cor. 15:34). Feed your faith, and you'll find that your doubts will starve to death.
WARPED WORDS One of the sad aspects of our Chris tian faith is the danger of gossipping, or of listening to those who speak maliciously. It is really a clever trap of Satan. So quickly do people jump to the wrong conclusion. Because of unfortunate .stories, a pastor had to explain that he had been greatly trou bled by a rumor which had been going around. It concerned the fact that his wife purportedly had attended a meet ing of some rather radical group. Fur thermore, he was supposed to have gone to the gathering and in great indigna tion literally took her by the hair of her head, bringing her back home by force. Finally he supposedly physically beat her in order to make certain that she would never do such a thing again. Such a report was very damaging to a man of his position so he felt it necessary to explain what actually hap pened. He asserted, “I certainly would not keep my wife from going wherever she desired. I’d never trail her only and drag her out bodily. I think you know me well enough to realize I would never use force and injure anyone, much less my wife. After all, no wife of mine would attend a meeting in the first place which wouldn’t be of the utmost character and importance. Yet, it is amazing to me, and to those who know my family background, to realize the sheer hypocrisy of such rumors, for I’m not even married!” Whether true or not, this story does illustrate a very pertinent and potent fact. How often people are misled and fail to under stand that they will have to give an account of every word which has been spoken. Before we open our mouths, let’s remember that our tongues, though little members of the body, can kindle a great fire. Let each of our statements pass through the three gates of gold: is it true, is it kind, is it necessary? Our prayer should be with the Psalm ist, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be accept able in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psa. 19:14).
Too many people are like wheelbarrows — not good unless they're pushed.
Emotion is no substitute for devotion.
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