The W ork and the Workers By Wm. W. Orr
One way to visualize the number of stars is to think of every grain of sand on every beach in the world for all the grains together would not equal the number of suns in the heavens. It will be interesting to hear the re port of the completed survey which is being recorded on 2,000 photographic plates. It is estimated that astronomers will be kept busy for the next 100 years deciphering the material presented by these photographs. What is to be learned from all this? Surely our minds stagger at the im mensity of it all. Who can comprehend a million suns not to speak of billions of them, and the God who has brought into being all these star systems is greater than them all? This, however, is the God who has caused to be written “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16,17). Birthdays February always is thought of as the month of birthdays, mainly because the birthdays of two of our greatest Americans fall within this month. But birthdays come to us all and birthdays are a God given marking of time for God has planned the years and He has set the bounds of man’s tenure of years upon the earth as approximately three score and ten. Is there not a distinct lesson to be learned as each anniversary comes around? Should this not be merely a time of felicitations and giving of gifts but rather a time of heart searching and meditation? Does not the fact that life is divided into these divisions call atten tion to the desirability of growth and progress? Should not each year be spent in more nearly attaining the goal which God has planned for us? It is characteristic of human nature to avoid thinking of matters which are distasteful. Very rarely does one con sider the inevitable approach of his death, yet perhaps if it could be known, the anniversary of a death date would be far more appropriate than the anniver sary of his birth date for such recogni tion would bring to our hearts some very serious thinking which would inevitably lead to more earnest living and more profitable service. It is a serious thought that all birth days must be accounted for at the judg ment seat of Christ. God will most cer tainly require of His children a reckon ing concerning the years of our life here upon the earth. May genuine wisdom be given to each of us to so number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Object Lessons Man D R. Elmer L. Wilder, who has since 1934 written the widely-appreciated Object Lessons for The King’s Business, recently resigned as pastor of the Im perial Community Church, Imperial, California, to accept the pastorate of the Minthorn Community Church of Mil- waukie, Oregon. In addition to his being a pastor and an author, Dr. Wilder has for many years served as conference director of the Pine Valley Conference Association. He is well known as the originator of the “ Sing and Bring Clubs” for children. Dr. Wilder began his ministry in Ore gon the middle of December. The church of which he is now pastor holds the same doctrinal views as the Bible In stitute of Los Angeles. Any who are interested in securing his services in the Portland area may write him at P.O. Box 7574, Milwaukie, Oregon. The Heavens Declare M ANY times on the pages of Scrip ture the readers are exhorted to consider the night sky. Evidently one of God’s most convincing answers to skepticism is this vast and unbelievably amazing display which is presented night after night in the greatest drama of the ages as God unfurls the story of the stars. Since the very beginning of man’s sojourn on the earth he has mar veled at the multitude of these twink ling lights and wondered just how many stars there might be. One of the most interesting results coming from the Palomar Observatory in Southern California will be a closer approximation of the true number of these scintillating heavenly bodies which populate the visible universe. A survey is under way which will not be finished until possibly 1954 when the 48-inch “ Big Schmidt” telescope will be used. This survey plans to number the stars and systems of stars out to a distance of 350,000,000 light years. Dr. Albert G. Wilson, who is in charge of this program, has already intimated his belief with regard to the size of the universe. Our own Milky Way galaxy, of which the earth is but a tiny part and no star at all, is made up of 300,- 000,000,000 stars. The sun in our solar system is one of these stars but of medium size only. It is easy to remember how many stars there are in the Milky Way, says Dr. Wilson, because there are as many stars as there are dollars in our national debt. But of course our own galaxy is but one of many millions of other star systems which move through the heavens even to the observational limits of our greatest telescopes. There may be well over one billion such systems with some of them as big or bigger than our own
WCTU Increases An increase of nearly 1,000 in the number of new and reorganized local units during 1951 was recently an nounced by the National Women’s Tem perance Union. The total membership in the National W.C.T.U. and its affili ates is about 400,000 in approximately 10,000 state, district, county and local unions. Flying Seminar Plans for a Flying Seminar to Bible Lands have been completed by the Wi nona Lake School of Theology. The five- week tour of the Near East, which will include stops in Britain, France, Ger many, Portugal and the Azores, will be inaugurated on July 25, 1952. The Sem inar is to include graduate divinity stu dents and instructors who will be flown to Bible cities by means of an 82-pas senger DC-6Z chartered for the trip. Dean John A. Huffman of the Winona Lake school will direct the courses. Opportunities for Doctors Young Christian doctors just out of medical school should avail themselves of the great new opportunities in med ical missions and particularly in leprosy work. This is the recommendation of one of the world’s outstanding leprolo- gists, Dr. Robert G. Cochrane, of Lon don, England, who states, “ The oppor tunities for evangelization and religious education have also increased as more victims of leprosy come into the mission colonies to be cured and go back out into their home villages to spread Chris tianity.” New Themes A pair of dual themes, “ Share the Scriptures,” and “ Search the Scrip tures,” have been adopted by the Amer ican Bible Society for its 1952 Bible seals. These seals are the usual postage stamp size and the society is encourag ing the widest possible use, according to Dr. Frederick W. Cropp, General Sec retary. Daily Evangelism Because he was surprised upon find ing only six of his 100 workers were church members, Chester H. Thompson, plant manager of the Gerber Plumbing & Fixture Co., of Plymouth, Indiana, has instituted a daily morning prayer service on the company’s time. It is said that 14 or more of the workers have become church members since the serv ices were started. The pastor of the local Presbyterian Church attends to give to the workers daily talks on a Bible pas sage in a strictly down-to-earth manner. Church members among the workers have formed a choir to supply music for the services. Page Five
Milky Way system. F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 2
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