by Merv Roseli
A C hicago f a th e r , home early one afternoon last autumn, opened the door of his son’s bedroom and found himself staring at a terrifying tableau. His son, a 15-year-old vocational-school student, was sitting there, one forearm bared, a hypodermic syringe in his hand. Another boy was holding a teaspoon over the flame of a cigarette lighter. Both the syringe and the teaspoon contained heroin. Weeping, the boy confessed that he had used drugs for a year—first marijuana on a dare from a school mate, then the virulent morphine derivative, heroin. The drug made him feel “high and light” and after he met a peddler named “Greasy George,” he started using it regularly. To get a “ fix” of heroin, he had only to ask George. For a dollar, the peddler would produce one of the capsules of white powder. Once supplied, the boy and his friends would repair to basements or bedrooms, fur tively dissolve the powder with water in a spoon, and give each other shots. The case was not unique. During the past few years, authorities have become aware of a tremendous and frightening spread of narcotic addiction among teen agers. In one New York court there were 161 arrests of youths between 16 and 18. And there is no telling how many others are using narcotics. One Manhattan wel fare worker guessed: “ thousands.” Once “hooked,” the youngsters behave frighteningly like older addicts. To get money for heroin, they steal at home and sell the drug on commission in school hall ways and lavatories. Some boys become thieves and holdup artists; many a teen-age girl has turned to pros titution.
There are in the U.S.A. 60 suicides every day, a murder every forty minutes. Billions of dollars are being spent annually on crime and drink. Immorality and sex laxity are so alarming that few feel safe on the streets at night. America is sick, sin-sick with nauseating agonies greater than a composite of all other sicknesses! It is not a foot trouble; not a hand hurt; not an eye ailment; not a lip difficulty; not a brain clot; our America has serious heart trouble! We have entered what may be a doomed decade, unless the Great Physician intervenes. In her people’s craving for money, fame, position and power, America is reaping war, crime, lust and insanity. Our children are cursed, blighted, doomed. They are fooled as they are schooled, and now are regimented in a great nation-wide sweep. We have forgotten to make sure that they were first regenerated! Must the children and youth of America be forever besmirched with the influence of parents living in sin? God made their ears, but not for lying propaganda; their eyes, but not for lust; their hands, but not for machine guns; their bodies, but not for liquor; their keen minds, but not for filth. Yes, God made their hearts, but not for sin and hate! He made those hearts to enthrone Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord! Only He can satisfy that great empty void in the heart that was prepared for His presence. A convert from a recent meeting wrote, “ In these lines you are going to read of a life broken by sin, but I know that Christ died for me. If I did not believe this, I would have nothing to live for. “Hear me out. If you-believe me and can help me find
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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