We have largely forgotten the art of public disputation, the ability to discuss divergent points of view with due regard to the accepted proprieties of debate. We should welcome the free and frank interchange of opinion, for it is only by such discussion and debate that we can hope to arrive at an informed judgment. For this reason a recent debate (conducted in the best academic tradition) between Professor C. S. Lewis and Professor Norval Morris is to be welcomed. The debate gains an added interest from the fact that it took place in an Australian setting. It began over an article in the Australian legal journal, Res Judicate, by C. S. Lewis on “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.” (At the end of the article C. S. Lewis writes: “You may ask why I send this to an Australian periodical. The reason is simple and perhaps worth recording: I can get no hearing for it in England.”)

The subject at issue was the nature of crime and punishment. Is crime to be regarded as sickness or as sin? This basic question determines our concept of punishment. If crime is the result of disease the remedy is psychiatry; if crime is the result of deliberate lawlessness the remedy is punishment. Lewis is concerned lest we surrender ourselves to the “conditioners” and “straighteners” on the specious ground that those who transgress are only sick.

It is obvious that this raises questions of the most far-reaching consequence. Whether crime is judged to be the result of mental sickness or the manifestation of an evil heart will determine to a great degree the treatment of the criminal. People are not always aware of the implications of each position to the criminal and to society. Therefore it will be useful to summarize the arguments at this point.

C. S. Lewis points out that if we believe crime is pathological we shall be concerned to “mend” the criminal. It would appear, at first sight, as if we had passed “from the harsh and self-righteous notion of giving the wicked their deserts to the charitable and enlightened one of tending the psychologically sick.” The consequences, however, are not always clearly understood. “The things done to the criminal, even if they are called cures, will be just as compulsory as they were in the old days when we called them punishments. If a tendency to steal can be cured by psycho-therapy, the thief will be forced to undergo treatment.” And this is precisely the danger. Lewis says: “My contention is that this doctrine, merciful though it appears, really means that each one of us, from the moment he breaks the law, is deprived of the rights of a human being.”

The implications are not always grasped. Lewis warns us of the consequences:

“The Humanitarian theory removes from Punishment the concept of Desert. But the concept of Desert is the only connecting link between punishment and justice. It is only as deserved or undeserved that a sentence can be just or unjust. I do not here contend that the question ‘Is it deserved?’ is the only one we can reasonably ask about a punishment. We may very properly ask whether it is likely to deter others and to reform the criminal. But neither of these two last questions is a question about justice. There is no sense in talking about a “just deterrent” or a “just cure.” We demand of a deterrent not whether it is just but whether it will deter. We demand of a cure not whether it is just but whether it succeeds. Thus when we cease to consider what the criminal deserves and consider only what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether; instead of a person, a subject of rights, we now have a mere object, a patient, a ‘case’.”

The humanitarian is not concerned with punishing, but with healing. Lewis writes:

“Do not let us be deceived by a name. To be taken without consent from my home and friends; to lose my liberty; to undergo all those assaults on my personality which modern psychotherapy knows how to deliver; to be re-made after some pattern of ‘normality’ hatched in a Viennese laboratory to which I never professed allegiance; to know that this process will never end until either my captors have succeeded or I have grown wise enough to cheat them with apparent success—who cares whether this is called Punishment or not? That it includes most of the elements for which any punishment is feared—shame, exile, bondage, and years eaten by the locust—is obvious.”

Ultimately two different conceptions of man lie behind the traditional and the so called humanitarian approach:

“To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’ is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image.”

It is the supreme limitation of the humanitarian approach that it ignores the doctrine of original sin. It does not reckon seriously with the fact that human nature is fallen. Lewis comments:

“The practical problem of Christian politics is not that of drawing up schemes for a Christian society, but that of living as innocently as we can with unbelieving fellow-subjects under unbelieving rulers who will never be perfectly wise and good and who will sometimes be very wicked and very foolish. And when they are wicked the Humanitarian theory of Punishment will put in their hands a finer instrument of tyranny than wickedness ever had before. For if crime and disease are to be regarded as the same thing, it follows that any state of mind which our masters choose to call ‘disease’ can be treated as crime; and compulsorily cured. It will be vain to plead that states of mind which displease government need not always involve moral turpitude and do not therefore always deserve forfeiture of liberty. For our masters will not be using the concepts of Desert and Punishment but those of disease and cure. We know that one school of psychology already regards religion as a neurosis. When this particular neurosis becomes inconvenient to government what is to hinder government from proceeding to ‘cure’ it? Such ‘cure’ will, of course, be compulsory; but under the Humanitarian theory it will not be called by the shocking name of Persecution. No one will blame us for being Christians, no one will hate us, no one will revile us. The new Nero will approach us with the silky manners of a doctor, and though all will be in fact as compulsory as the tunica molesta of Smithfield or Tyburn, all will go on within the unemotional therapeutic sphere where words like ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ or ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’ are never heard. And thus when the command is given every prominent Christian in the land may vanish overnight into Institutions for the Treatment of the Ideologically Unsound and it will rest with the expert gaolers to say when (if ever) they are to re-emerge. But it will not be persecution. Even if the treatment is painful, even if it is life-long, even if it is fatal, that will be only a regrettable accident; the intention was purely therapeutic.”

Lewis is under no illusions concerning the peril which confronts us. He says it is essential to oppose the humanitarian theory of punishment, “root and branch.” He clinches his argument with these final reflections on the therapeutic theory of punishment.

“It carries on its front a semblance of Mercy which is wholly false. That is how it can deceive men of good will. The error began, perhaps, with Shelley’s statement that the distinction between Mercy and Justice was invented in the courts of tyrants. It sounds noble, and was indeed the error of a noble mind. But the distinction is essential. The older view was that Mercy ‘tempered’ Justice, or (on the highest level of all) that Mercy and Justice had met and kissed. The essential act of Mercy was to pardon; and pardon in its very essence involves the recognition of guilt and ill-desert of the recipient. If crime is only a disease which needs cure, not sin which deserves punishment, it cannot be pardoned. How can you pardon a man for having a gum-boil or a club foot? But the Humanitarian theory wants simply to abolish Justice and substitute Mercy for it. This means that you start being ‘kind’ to people before you have considered their rights, and then force upon them supposed kindnesses which they in fact had a right to refuse, and finally kindnesses which no one but you will recognize as kindnesses and which the recipient will feel as abominable cruelties. You have overshot the mark. Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful. That is the important paradox.”

Norval Morris, then Professor of Criminology at the University of Melbourne, endeavored to reply to these incisive criticisms.

“We face this task with trepidation, seeing ourselves as Davids with literary slings incapable of delivering a series of blows as incisive as even one phrase from the armoury of Goliath Lewis.”

Norval Morris asserts that it is possible to use psychiatry without surrendering to its totalitarian claims. The psychiatrist, he says, “can be kept on tap and yet not on top.”

Morris discounts the dangers to which Lewis refers: “The Courts have to hand excellent techniques for controlling the exuberance of the expert in criminology or penology. Let the ultimate control always reside in the Courts, let the expert always be accountable to them, let the criminal always have access to the Court, let the controls of natural justice which the law has built up be applicable, and, it is suggested, the tyranny which Lewis foreshadows will not eventuate. This type of protection of the individual citizen is surely not beyond the wit of a Nation that has built up the concept of a Parliament and the idea of a Jury.”

More positively, Norval Morris points out that the retributive conception of punishment is inapplicable in all circumstances:

“Thus for child delinquents, for habitual criminals, and for those on Probation—to take only a few—the punishments accepted by all civilized societies as suitable are not ‘deserved’ punishments in any expiatory talionic sense. This concept of ‘desert’ is really the lynch-pin of Lewis’ article. As he sees it, the idea of the ‘deserved’ or ‘just’ punishment is an acceptance that for each offense, calculated in the light both of the crime committed and the history of crimes perpetrated by that individual, there is a price of punishment known fairly widely throughout the community—that there is, in other words, a price-list of deserved punishments. This may well be a true picture of what is in many men’s minds; but it is only true for those people who consider a static situation in crime, who consider only two parties to any crime—the criminal and his victim. Now the contrast with this is the Humanitarian Theory which sees crime as a dynamic situation, not involving two parties, but involving many parties: not only a criminal and his victim, but a whole list of future potential victims who, unless they are protected with the best means at our disposal, are likely to suffer hardship.”

He claims that law has a limited efficacy: “It may be that a vital cause of our different view of punishment from that accepted by Lewis lies in our lower estimation of the efficacy of law as a means of social control. Law stands below Custom and well below Religion as a means of guiding men to the Good Life. It is a relatively blunt instrument of moral control, and should not be thought of as a means of achieving expiation of sin or completely just retribution for evil-doing.”

No one can fail to be grateful to C. S. Lewis for raising these points in such trenchant form.

Segregation And Dr. King

Stride Toward Freedom, by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Harper, 1958, 230 pp., $2.95) is reviewed by E. Earle Ellis, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

For over a year Negroes of Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted city buses in an effort to change certain discriminatory practices against Negro passengers. This is the frankly partisan story of that boycott as told by its leader. Simply written, it reads—apart from its tragic implications—almost like an adventure story. The mounting tensions, climaxes, and the hero-villain contrasts are deftly woven into the story to present the author’s position in an effective and moving manner.

To end the boycott, the Negro leadership demanded (1) courteous treatment, (2) segregated seating—but strictly on a first-come, first-served basis (along with driver discourtesies this grievance, and not segregation per se, gave rise to the boycott), (3) employment of Negro drivers on predominantly Negro routes. It is not without irony that the rejection of these moderate proposals by the segregationist city fathers served to strengthen the contention that segregation cannot be equitably administered. “Even when we asked for justice within the segregation laws, the ‘powers that be’ were not willing to grant it. Justice and equality, I saw, would never come while segregation remained …” (p. 13). If the South is to get any relief from federal force bills, it will be only with the sympathy of fair-minded persons in the North and West. The conduct of the Montgomery authorities here did nothing to enhance the reputation of Southern leadership in the rest of the nation.

The story is not without its amusing aspects. The picture of frustrated city and bus officials seeking some way to fix blame on the meticulously legal boycotters caused many whites to smile (though not, mind you, before a Negro or a ‘Yankee’ reporter). Dr. King may have found ‘non-violent resistance’ in Thoreau and Gandhi, but his followers were inspired by a philosophy much closer to home. And Southern employers had experienced it many times when they had assigned Negroes an unwanted or unjust burden.

It may be questioned whether there is any real analogy between Gandhi’s India and Dr. King’s Southland. In any case, it was not non-violent resistance but the order of the Supreme Court which brought victory. In the ecstatic words of one Negro, “God Almighty has spoken from Washington, D. C.” (p. 160)—an estimate of the court which, in less enthusiastic tones, many Southerners share.

Dr. King, 30 year-old native of Georgia, is a Baptist pastor. His book is important, for it reveals a type of Negro leadership with which the white South must live and work in the years to come. It is welcome because it may signify a return of Negro leadership to the South—where the problem must in the end be solved. It is, on the whole, free of the sophisticated rabble-rousing one sometimes finds in ‘Southern exposures’ of this type, largely, no doubt, because of the Christian concern with which the book is written. Besides his activity in the boycott, Dr. King has led in establishing a Negro loan association. He also has recently been appointed editor at large of the Christian Century. Because of his commitment to do all things in agape love, he has potential as a constructive Negro leader to be instrumental in developing an interracial dialogue in the South. The present book is devoted to crusade; at times it talks at the white South, but never to it. One may hope that in the future Dr. King will speak to the South. For today, when the intransigence of the Court and the resistance of the South forecast a widespread transition from public to private schools and when interracial discussion is virtually confined to integrationist strategy meetings, there is a need for dialogue in which differences can be faced frankly in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Dr. King probably knows that he is speaking ‘evangelistically’ when he writes that the leadership of the white South speaks only for “a willful and vocal minority” (p. 200). The heirs of the ‘planters’ may not be adverse to limited integration; but the heirs of the ‘populists’ represent the man on the street. He may be willful but he is not a minority. While probably amenable in time to a partnership segregation, the mass of Southern whites are quite firmly opposed to merger.

Concerning the future, Dr. King reveals that, while his methods are moderate, his ideal embraces a throughgoing integration. The “Negro’s primary aim is to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law!” but any social stigma or legal barrier to intermarriage is wrong because “marriage is an individual matter that must be decided on the merits of individual cases” (p. 206). The source of the economic plight of the Negro lies in the failure of Reconstruction to “guarantee economic resources to previously enslaved people—as much entitled to the land they had worked as were their former owners” (p. 202). Today “equally oppressed” white and Negro workers look to the labor movement to obtain for them “a fairer share of the products of industries” by “organizing them together in social equality” (pp. 203 f.). After “court orders and federal enforcement agencies … bring men together physically,” the Negro’s pattern of nonviolence will induce “reconciliation in the creation of the beloved community” (pp. 219 f.).

Dr. King has pointed to some glaring injustices and to some legitimate aspirations of the Negro. Political representation is perhaps the most basic. Quite apart from the Fifteenth Amendment (and admittedly, as Mr. Bowers’ Tragic Era has shown us, its historical genesis hardly qualifies it as a moral ‘soap-box’), it is apparent that even under Calhoun’s doctrine of concurrent majority, Negroes have achieved a group status which requires that they be represented in the governing councils. ‘Black belt’ states could learn from British East Africa here. Will the South continue to stall (as with the ‘equal’ in segregation) until a federal force bill imposes a much worse alternative?

In criticism, one may ask Dr. King if it would not be consistent with an agape love to request Negro integrationists to refrain from forcing entrance into white schools in communities where Negro school facilities are equal and whites desire to be segregated? Although he would doubtless be villified by extremists as a “Booker T.,” this could rally Negro moderates and give white moderates a talking point with their people. The unfortunate answer is that the radical character of the integration philosophy forbids any such compromise except as an interim ethic. The ‘freedom’ which Dr. King envisions is not merely a freedom from domination or discrimination but a freedom from difference. Injustices caused by distinctions based on race can be remedied only by doing away completely with the ‘race’ category in human relations. While nonviolent resistance is the irritant which can bring legal action with the least animosity, the state is the major instrument to achieve this revolution. It is within this ideological framework that Dr. King opposes, in principle, even laws against intermarriage. For here, too, society is recognizing and imposing differences inconsistent with the goal of racial sameness. The Southern white’s real crime is that he refuses to accept the ‘same’ label. Unsame is unequal and unequal is unjust.

In a proposal to outlaw private schools, a British Socialist MP recently declared, “I am against racial segregation and I am against social segregation.” If we may reverse the figure, (at the risk of being accused of using scare words), one may suggest that the philosophy underlying racial integration is racial socialism. That is, as economic socialism enunciates the ideal, ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,’ and identifies economic class distinctions with injustice, so racial socialism proclaims ‘one race’ and calls distinctions based on racial differences evil. As the abuses of capitalism gave rise to the former, so racial injustice is a mighty weapon for the integration crusade. Within the socialist ideology, it is the distinction of class qua class or race qua race which is the besetting sin, and the power of the state must be imposed to erase it. Its method today may be token integration in Alabama, but its logical goal dawns in New York City where Negroes are transported to distant white schools to maintain a proper ‘race mixture’ and thereby prevent ‘inequality.’ Today in Alabama it is the ‘public’ school, in New York it is the white ‘social’ fraternity that must be outlawed. The true character of the integration philosophy is revealed in a current joke illustrating opposition to limited integration: A father of five asks his wife, “Are you pregnant again?” Her consoling reply: “Just a little bit.”

The underlying strength of the integration movement is its social ideology, an ideology which, with nationalism, is most powerful in today’s world. In most clashes of ideas there is a theological basis, if one cares to look for it long enough. Some years ago a British friend remarked that he could not be socialist because socialism does not believe in original sin. That is, socialism holds that ‘people’ are basically good and, if one can remove the ‘willful minorities’ who make barriers between ‘people,’ the ‘people’ would live together in harmony and sameness. Without here attempting a theological treatise, one may suggest that the Christian faith has considered this estimate of man too optimistic. Dr. King properly recognizes communism as a Christian heresy (p. 93) but fails to realize that a part of its heretical character is implicit in his integrationist ideology. In attempting through legal action to achieve the classless society—whether racial or economic—one must, somewhere along the line, coerce the recalcitrant. Conceivably the Supreme Court, with its remarkable capacity for building dogmatic mountains on textual hairs, could interpret many integrationist goals into ‘constitutional rights.’ But this path is sure to be full of rising animosity and resentment on the part of the coerced Southern minority and the final goal of ‘beloved community’ may prove to be as elusive as the equality of economic socialism. Once in our century idealism opened its arms to a vision and embraced a bear. Even idealist British socialism, as Russell Kirk has noted in Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, has largely given way to mere statism. The larger question, therefore, is whether, in the context of a fallen and variegated world, the goal of a state imposed classless society is morally or practically proper—either in the economic or racial realm.

One is disappointed to see Dr. King brush aside the question of intermarriage as “a distortion of the real issue” (p. 206). For many Southerners, this is a very real issue which is accurately defined by Virginius Dabney (who long ago advocated an end to bus segregation in Virginia), “There is no question here of racial superiority or inferiority but rather of wanting to preserve the ethnic and cultural heritage of one’s own race, and not to have it diluted or destroyed through the comingling of a race which has a sharply contrasting background” (Life, September 22, 1958). There is a need for compromise today which will lay bare the many injustices of the status quo and will point the way toward a genuine racial partnership but which will also recognize the moral right of each race to separate social institutions. One fears that the integrationist’s insistance that his philosophy shall, in time at least, dominate every area of life may make any real compromise impossible. Dr. King is not yet ready for such a compromise but he does manifest a spirit of love and concern which may provide the means for it in the future. In this, his book has a real lesson to teach all of us—segregationist and integrationist alike.

E. EARLE ELLIS

More Than Heaven

Heaven in the Christian Tradition, by Ulrich Simon (Harper, 1958, 310 pp., $6), is reviewed by Harry Buis, minister of Vriesland Reformed Church, Zeeland, Michigan.

The author of this volume teaches Hebrew and Old Testament at King’s College in the University of London. In this book he covers a much broader field than the title indicates. The first chapter briefly traces the changing concepts of heaven from crude mythology to the latest theological trends. Next the Hebrew and Christian ideas concerning the place of heaven in the universe are considered. Another chapter deals with the relationships between early concepts of God and heaven. Here the names describing God are especially considered. The next chapter deals with angelology and the following with demonology. This is followed by a study of the conflict between God and the forces of evil.

The seventh chapter deals with heaven itself. The author sees much of the Old Testament period as a time of conflict between the this-worldliness of the prophets and pagan beliefs in immortality. After the Exile, however, the emphasis shifts to a new heaven and a new earth. The New Testament ideas on the nature of the resurrection body are considered at length, as are the aspects of continuity and discontinuity between earthly and heavenly life. The central place of Christ in heaven is rightly recognized. The questions of activity vs. rest and of endless time vs. timelessness are also discussed. The author’s method is to present evidence rather than to come to definite conclusions with regard to these questions. The concluding chapter shows how the various aspects of Christian worship are directed heavenward.

While the evangelical will find many points of interest in this book, he will not agree with many of the ideas presented because of the author’s use of his sources. Dr. Simon possesses a commendable knowledge of extrabiblical sources, especially Philo and the Rabbis. However, he makes no real distinction between these sources and the Bible. To him the Bible is evidently the record of Hebrew and Christian beliefs, which are often contradictory, and not the authoritative revelation of God.

HARRY BUIS

How To Become Holy

Temptation and Sin, by John Owen (Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1958, 330 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by John K. Mickelsen, Minister of Canoga Presbyterian Church, Seneca Falls, New York.

The publishers are to be thanked for this reprint of three of John Owen’s writings: Mortification of Sin, Temptation, and Indwelling Sin.

The first work is based on Romans 8:13. After expounding this verse, Owen affirms, “Mortification is the duty of the best believers” (p. 9), and, “The Spirit [is] the only author of this work” (p. 16). He then shows what mortification of sin is (pp. 24–33), and points out that mortification will be accomplished only in the believer who desires the mortification of every sin (pp. 33–43). He then gives nine preparatory instructions (pp. 43–78), such as, “Get a clear and abiding sense … of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin wherewith thou art perplexed” (p. 50). Owen concludes (pp. 78–86) by showing how active faith in Christ, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, results in mortification.

The treatise on temptation is based on Matthew 26:41; and the one on indwelling sin, Romans 7:21.

Though Owen’s language tends to be difficult and tedious, the persevering reader will find his diligence richly rewarded; for John Owen was a profound, devout, and methodical student of the Bible.

It is to be hoped that this book will accomplish four things. First, that it will introduce the massive wealth of Owen’s piety to contemporary evangelicalism. Second, that it will lead to the reprinting of more of Owen’s works. (Owen’s The Glory of Christ was reprinted by Moody Press in 1949.) Third, that it will give evangelicals a desire for more substantial Christian literature. And fourth, that it will challenge writers to produce more profound reading material.

JOHN K. MICKELSEN

Our Musical Heritage

Early Moravian Church Music, ed. and arr. by Clarence Dickinson, English trans. by Helen A. Dickinson (H. W. Gray Co., Inc., New York, 1954–58, and published in conjunction with the Moravian Music Foundation), is reviewed by F. R. Webber, author of A History of Preaching.

This is not a book, but a collection of 22 anthems of unusual excellence. Dr. Clarence Dickinson, organist at Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, and his wife, the late Dr. Helen A. Dickinson, have made a significant contribution to the musical heritage of our American churches by making available these 22 beautiful and deeply devotional anthems. The texts are Christ-centered and Redemption-centered, and the musical settings are of chaste beauty.

In a recent sacred concert at First Moravian Church, New York, a number of these anthems were sung. It is not possible to forget the touching beauty of “Go, congregation, go! Go and see thy Saviour in Gethsemane,” by John Antes (1740–1811)—to mention only one.

The little Moravian denomination, with 190 congregations and 60,800 communicants, is famous for its missionary zeal and the excellency of its music. In the year 1741, at a time when men paid little heed to Christmas in the American colonies, a group of Moravians assembled in a log house at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and celebrated Christmas with the hymns of their native land. In 1743, violins, French horns, oboes, and flutes were used to accompany the hymns and the liturgical services. In 1746 the colony had an organ with four sets of pipes. Church organs were very rare in the American colonies. Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, had an organ at least as early as 1703. About the same time an Episcopal church in Port Royal, Virginia, imported an organ. King’s Chapel, Boston, had an organ of six stops as early as 1714, and it still exists.

The Rev. Jeremiah Dencke (1725–1785), the Rev. Immanuel Nitschmann (1736–1790), and especially Johann F. Peter (1746–1813) were among the first of a long list of gifted Moravian church musicians. These men copied musical scores by hand, and from these scores, Haydn’s The Creation was sung in 1811 by a Moravian chorus, accompanied by full orchestra. It is possible that this is the first presentation of that oratorio in America. Handel’s The Messiah, and other such compositions followed. So famous did the Moravian choir, orchestra and trombone chorus become, that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, Lafayette, Pulaski, and other famous men attended the festivals at Bethlehem.

The Moravians have given the world such composers as Johann F. Peter, Johannes Herbst, John Antes, Peter Wolle, Jeremiah Dencke, Simon Peter, Francis F. Hagen, Ernst W. Wolf, Johann C. Bechler, Karl G. Reissiger, and Christian Gregor. Theodore F. Wolle, J. Frederick Wolle, and Albert J. Rau were among the first to acquaint America with Johann S. Bach’s choral works. The Moravians have made important contributions to the church music of America, and their annual Bach festivals draw thousands of visitors.

F. R. WEBBER

Neglected Doctrine

The Holy Spirit, by Edwin H. Palmer (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1958, 174 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by R. J. Rushdoony, Minister of Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Santa Cruz, California.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit has suffered both from neglect and abuse, having been subjected in the past to extremes in treatment. On the one hand, as Palmer points out, the Holy Spirit has been institutionalized, as in the Roman Church; and the church rather than the Holy Spirit has been made the authority in interpreting Scripture. At the time of the Reformation the true interpretation of the Spirit in this regard was given. “In opposing Rome’s teaching that the priest was essential in applying to man the unbloody sacrifice of Christ in the mass, Luther and Calvin set forth the necessity of the Holy Spirit in applying the sacrifice of Christ in our lives.”

At the other extreme, some have made the Holy Spirit into another God, a more “spiritual” one, concerned with the “regeneration and sanctification of the believer” and acting independently of Scripture to illuminate and guide the believer. Such a view is a product at best of anthropocentric or man-centered theology rather than Christocentric theology, and limits its outlook to “salvation, prayer, Bible reading, and matters confined to Sunday and prayer meetings” (p. 19). Experiential priority in religion leads to a limited and warped theology.

A true doctrine of the Holy Spirit, following after the important biblical studies of Calvin, John Owen, and Abraham Kuyper, sees His relation to all creation (including even the vegetation, as Scripture does in Psalm 104), to common grace, the Christian vocation, the Church, the world, and every aspect of life. Since all things owe their existence to the triune God, and are to be interpreted in terms of his Word, then the Holy Spirit is properly relevant to all subjects.

Palmer, in terms of this scope, has written an exceptionally fine book, useful not only as a manual to the student, and as a guide to a series of sermons by the preacher, but a delight to the lay reader and the scholar as well. His treatment of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, in illumination and guidance, in prayer, regeneration and sanctification, is masterly. The chapter on “The Holy Spirit and Divine Sonship” is, like several others, a little masterpiece. His treatment of practical matters, all of especial importance to him, is consistently outstanding, as one witnesses in his handling of the problem of sin (pp. 88 ff).

Since a sound Christian ministry and life, apart from a sound knowledge of and reliance on the Holy Spirit, is an impossibility, Palmer’s masterly book needs to be read and used by ministers and members alike. This study will assist greatly in rescuing the vital doctrine of the Holy Spirit from long neglect and abuse within the visible Church. One minor misprint occurs on p. 122; the name of the artist Rubens is misspelled.

R. J. RUSHDOONY

Key Washington pulpits saw abandonment of traditional year-end sermons in deference to delegates of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which held its 125th annual meeting in Washington, December 26–31.

Nation’S Capital

At Washington Cathedral—“In thinking be mature,” Dr. Paul Tillich counselled 500 scientists. “Such an admonition one would hardly expect in the context of apostolic writing. But here it is [1 Cor. 14:20], appearing in the same letter of Paul in which he contrasts sharply the wisdom of the world with that foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of men.”

Tillich, eminent Harvard University theologian, centered his guest sermon on the topic of mature thinking and what he continually referred to in approving terms as “divine foolishness.”

His definition of a “mature man”: “One who has reached his natural power of life and thought and is able to use it freely. He who is mature in thinking has not reached the end of his thinking, but he has reached the state in which the human power of thought is at his disposal.”

Having thus intimated that maturity is divorced from moral connotation or dimension, Tillich continued:

“[Christians] often bury their power of thought because they believe that radical thought conflicts with the divine foolishness which underlies all wisdom. But this is not so, certainly not for biblical thinking. Radical thought conflicts with human foolishness, with spiritual infancy, with ignorance, superstition and intellectual dishonesty.”

“The decisive step to maturity,” he said, “is the risk to break away from spiritual infancy with its protective traditions and guiding authorities. Without a ‘no’ to authority, there is no maturity. This ‘no’ need not be rebellious, arrogant, destructive. As long as it is so, it indicates immaturity.

According to Tillich, “the way to maturity in thinking is the hard way. Much must be left behind: early dreams, poetic imaginations, cherished legends, favored doctrines, accustomed laws and ritual traditions. Some of them must be regained on a deeper level, some must be given up. But for this price, maturity can be gained, a manly, self-critical, convincing faith, not produced by reasoning, but reasonable and at the same time rooted in the message of the divine foolishness, the ultimate source of wisdom.

Tillich’s arguments, some observers noted, prompt such questions: What are the norms of a reasonable faith? Why not gain maturity by saying “no” to Tillich’s idea of maturity?

His concluding assertions: “The divine foolishness of thought and the divine foolishness of life are united in the symbol of Christmas: God in the infant, God as infant, anticipating and preparing the symbol of Good Friday—God in the condemned slave, God as the condemned slave.”

At National Presbyterian Church—Dr. Edward L. R. Elson, minister at the stately house of worship frequented by President Eisenhower, began his “Science Sunday” sermon with a reading:

What, though in solemn silence all

Move round this dark terrestrial ball?

And though no real voice nor sound

Amid the radiant orbs be found?

In reason’s ear they all rejoice

And utter forth a glorious voice:

Forever singing as they shine

The hand that made us is divine.

—Joseph Addison

“Now we may have to revise that hymn—or reinterpret it,” said Elson. “During the past week an orb made not by divine hands but by American hands has been circling round this ‘terrestrial ball.’ And there was a ‘real voice’ and ‘sound’ emitted from the orb. It was the sound of a man’s voice—the voice of a man who last Sunday sat in this church.”

“Whatever else this fantastic phenomenon suggests,” Elson continued, “it surely underscores the dominant feature of our age—the spectacular triumph of applied science.”

With little more introduction, Elson was driving a point across: “All science is based ultimately upon faith. To suppose that science simply begins by inquiring, wholly without presuppositions, is to be naive indeed. For one thing, all scientific work, including all experimentation, rests upon moral foundations. Science, as we know it, would be quite impossible apart from a tremendous and overarching concern for honesty.”

“If all men need faith,” he added, “and if scientists need it with especial urgency, it is highly important to be selective in our faith.”

Echoing Elton Trueblood’s The Yoke of Christ, Elson suggested a faith which (1) produces genuine humility, (2) involves trust in what is permanent, (3) speaks to the whole man, and (4) meets the tests of intellectual integrity.

“The work of a scientist,” Elson said, “takes on a great new seriousness if he is a believer, because then he is not really inventing; he is discovering. The ideas are not merely the puny efforts of his own mind, but represent the thoughts which were before the world was made, and will be when the world is gone.”

At St. Matthew’s Cathedral—The Right Rev. Msgr. William J. McDonald, rector of Catholic University, said “the Christian” will welcome each scientific advance “because he knows that every spark of knowledge is an additional ray of light reflected in the mirror of creation.”

‘In The Beginning God’

The convening of the 86th Congress was reverently marked by a 45-minute communion service at National Presbyterian Church and chaplains’ invocations in the Senate and House.

President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon led a party of government dignitaries present for the 8 a.m. service at the church, which was nearly filled.

After the benediction Eisenhower, walking briskly and nodding smilingly to worshipers in aisle seats, went to the door with Dr. Theophilus M. Taylor, moderator of the United Presbyterian General Assembly, who was among clergymen officiating at the communion table.

In the Senate, Dr. Frederick Brown Harris prayed God “to give humility, understanding, and the grace of receptivity to those who in thy name and for the nation’s sake in this hallowed chamber are entrusted by the people with the solemn responsibility of governance.”

Dr. Bernard Braskamp began the House session by quoting Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God.” He then asked God to grant that “all our citizens may invoke the blessings of thy grace and favor upon our chosen representatives” and concluded with recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Bishop’S Mishap

Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam was reported recuperating early this month at his apartment in the Methodist Building, in the shadow of the Capitol. Oxnam suffered a concussion and a broken left arm in a traffic mishap in New York on the day before Christmas. He was confined to a New York hospital for five days and cancelled all January engagements.

Oxnam was hurt as he and his wife alighted from a cab. His overcoat was caught in the cab door and the vehicle pulled away, throwing him to the pavement and dragging him 10 feet before the driver realized what had happened.

The Oxnams had planned a family reunion Christmas. The Oxnam children, their wives and husband, and seven grandchildren were present in the home of their son, Robert, president of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

Illegitimacy In Washington

Unwed mothers account for nearly one out of every five live births in the District of Columbia!

Negroes are responsible for some 75 per cent of illegitimate babies, a Washington Health Department doctor notes. He adds, however, that latest available statistics also show illegitimate pregnancies among the Washington white population to be the highest of any comparable city in the nation.

And of 185 pregnancies reported in the District of Columbia public school system recently, 129 were in junior high schools!

All figures given are based on firsthand evidence, but they present the problem conservatively. Officials are certain that there are many more illegitimate babies born who are not reported as such. The rate of abortions is also high.

The illegitimacy statistics for the District of Columbia were publicized last month as the result of a report prepared by Dr. John R. Pate, director of the city’s Southwest Health Center.

Pate said the most current statistics indicate that about 37 per cent of unwed mothers are teen-agers. Most pregnancies occur among girls in the lowest socioeconomic group.

Federal figures point up Washington’s problem even more sharply. According to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, out of 34 states reporting the legitimacy status on the birth record, the city of Washington totals surpassed 20 of them.

Among whites in Washington, most recent totals reveal 48.7 illegitimate pregnancies per 1,000 live births or 4.9 per cent, twice the rate for this group on a nation-wide basis. In the non-white group, while not the highest, the illegitimate birth ratio was 268.7 per 1,000 live births or 26.9 per cent. This makes a combined average for both race groupings of 185.7 per 1,000.

“A clinic setting doesn’t seem to be the right environment nor clinic personnel the proper individuals to moralize, sermonize or sit in judgment in these problems,” Pate said. “But surely there must be some way to reach these young people and we must find it.”

The doctor added:

“It must be emphasized that creating life is a right but that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation and every possession a duty.

“In some areas of the nation, for example, cities in the Far West and Far Northeast, the statistics are not nearly so staggering as those we find here in this area and especially in cities in the South and along the Middle Atlantic seacoast. It may be that social patterns in other areas are different or their opportunities and interests have different goals and different methods of expression.” (Since government jobs attract many from distant places, Washington is a city of lonely women exposed to special temptations.)

Pate did not pin down proposed solutions, but he did emphasize the need for clergy cooperation if the “deplorable situation” is to be alleviated.

While Pate did not criticize the work of churches, his report represents an implicit indictment of clergy and laity alike in the Washington area. Many Christians will see that the widespread immorality indicates lack of adequate propagation of Gospel principles.

Formally unrelated to the Washington report but indirectly akin are statements by two national leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church last month.

Dr. Conrad M. Thompson, evangelism director, charged that many congregations are concerned only with their “beautiful sanctuaries” instead of the souls of men outside the church.

Dr. Philip S. Dybvig, home missions director, described Americans as “largely ignorant” of the meaning of true Christian righteousness. He blamed the situation on a “do-goodism stemming from a humanistic unchristian zeal for religion.”

Both leaders made their observations in reports to the Home Missions Board of their church in Minneapolis.

Thompson said emphasis on organization and activities in local congregations tend to make people satisfied that “all is well with our souls.”

Too many pastors, he claimed, lack the proper urgency in their preaching with the result that “the line of demarcation between the lost and the saved is rubbed out.”

He called for a clear interpretation by pastors to laymen of the theology and meaning of “the priesthood of believers—the role of the layman in person-to-person witnessing and in his vocation.”

Dr. Dybvig urged increased emphasis on a cardinal Lutheran tenet, the doctrine of “justification by faith, without the works of the law.”

To stem the “contrary winds of humanism,” he challenged pastors to “delineate more clearly between law and Gospel, and thus help our people to that true and abiding peace which comes only when we know Christ as our Saviour.”

Views In The News

Whither Evangelicalism?

Retiring president Warren C. Young told delegates to the 10th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society that they “will best be fulfilling its (the society’s) function when the sincere efforts of others are evaluated in an atmosphere unclouded by theological witch hunting.”

“Let us strive as brethren in Christ,” said Young, professor at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago, “to judge the efforts of others in the spirit of love which should motivate all the work of Jesus Christ.”

Delegates to the meeting voted to extend the scope of the professional society of evangelical scholars and theologians by establishing a new “section” to cover Middle Atlantic States. Prior to the society’s meeting December 30–31 at Nyack Missionary College, 25 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River, the group had “sections” in New England, the Midwest, South, and Far West. The new regional division will be known as the “Eastern Section.”

In addition to a national convention held annually by the society, which now includes 495 active members, each regional division sponsors yearly meetings. Membership is open “to all evangelicals who subscribe annually to the doctrinal basis: ‘The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and therefore inerrant in the autographs.’ ”

Young’s address, entitled “Whither Evangelicalism?” noted that “if, as we search for truth, we do err, let others be ready to point out the nature of the error and so lead one another back to the center of our evangelical faith. If we shall aid one another in this way we shall make real advances for the cause of Christ and we shall not deviate far, nor long, from that normative center which should always be our goal. Let us strive to know as best we can the truth that is found in the Christian gospel and to relate it to a constantly changing world.”

Delegates voted to dress up the ETS quarterly bulletin, and it was announced that the third in the society’s “Monograph Series” would soon be released—a volume entitled Darius the Mede, by John C. Whitcomb, Jr.

Highlighting the sessions was a panel discussion with four papers on “Early Chapters of Genesis.” Other papers presented at the convention included these titles: “An Excursion with Ginomai,” “Communism and Religion in the United States,” “The Coptic Gnostic Texts from Nag Hammudi,” “The Imminent Appearing of Christ,” “Rudolf Bultmann’s Concept of Myth,” “Moses Amyraldus and His Hypothetical Universalism,” “Justification and Regeneration in the Theology of John Witherspoon,” and “The Soteriology of Karl Barth.”

A Missionary’S Indignation

“The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” caught imaginations of many a U. S. movie-goer this month, but the courageous woman missionary whose adventuresome life the film depicts was still indignant.

Miss Gladys Aylward, who is in Formosa and has yet to see the film, protests (1) failure of 20th Century-Fox to show her the script, (2) selection of Ingrid Bergman for the leading role, and (3) producers’ use of romance in the story.

Miss Aylward says she has received detailed reports of the picture from friends. She says the reports indicate that the film story has inaccuracies.

The Aftereffects

There is evidence that with gross distortion of facts, U. S. Communists may be exploiting the Cleveland World Order Study Conference’s recommendation that Red China be recognized by the United States and admitted to the U. N.

The Communist Worker, published every Sunday in New York, came out in its November 30 edition with this headline: 38 MILLION PROTESTANTS TELL IKE: RECOGNIZE CHINA. The text beneath referred to 600 Cleveland conferees as “spokesmen for 38,000,000 church-goers.”

Actually, the 600 conferees were not spokesmen for constituent churches of the National Council of Churches, under whose sponsorship the meeting was held, and have never claimed to be!

The Worker also used the situation to observe, with no basis in fact, that conference speakers reflected “the growing will of our populace to achieve a genuine policy of peaceful co-existence with the socialist orbit of the world.”

Meanwhile in Formosa, representatives of 57 Christian churches and missionary organizations throughout Free China, in a special meeting at Taipei last month, voiced opposition to the conference’s recommendations. Those who attended the meeting voted to send cables to the National Council of Churches in New York, the United Nations, and to President Eisenhower. Text of the cables:

“With very deep sorrow we have learned of the recommendations of the World Order Study Conference advocating the recognition of Red China and its admission into the United Nations. This we believe to be terribly misguided judgment which the church of Christ throughout the world should reject.

“We, the responsible leaders of the Christian churches of the Republic of China, hold to the divine commission for the preservation of truth and righteousness. We unitedly oppose atheistic communism and pray for the recovery of the Christian churches on the mainland of China.

“We present to you the following requests: Immediate rejection of the recommendation that America recognize Red China and allow its entrance into the United Nations and further that you repudiate the entire letter of the World Order Study Conference; that you hold fast our Christian truth and faith and refuse absolutely to compromise with atheistic communism which is persecuting believers and destroying churches. We should realize that world communism under the leadership of Soviet Russia will not stop with the conquest of the mainland of China and this area of the world. Their final objective is the communizing of the entire world including the United States. Unless we immediately stop this evil we will be lost beyond remedy.

“In the spirit of Christian love, we solemnly warn you not to compromise with godless communism nor to cooperate or seek to co-exist with it. The will of God is clearly revealed in the Bible, 2 Cor. 6:14–17. We look forward to your reply and count on you to reject the resolution of the World Order Study Conference.”

The cables were signed by Hou Tien-Ming, acting president of the Chinese Christian Association.

[In Washington, a deluge of mail flooded CHRISTIANITY TODAY offices in response to a request that readers voice their views on (1) whether the United States should recognize Red China, and (2) whether the United Nations should admit the Peking regime. (See December 22 issue.)—ED.]

Religious Literature

Calvin Memorial Year

A number of significant books are scheduled for publication this year in connection with the 450th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin and the 400th anniversary of the final edition of his epoch-making Institutes of the Christian Religion. These are among volumes which are to appear in 1959, now being called “Calvin Memorial Year”:

Thine Is My Heart, devotional readings from the writings of Calvin, compiled by John H. Kromminga. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Life and Teachings of John Calvin, by John H. Bratt. Grand Rapids: Baker.

John Calvin—Contemporary Prophet, edited by Jacob T. Hoogstra. Grand Rapids: Baker.

Tracts and Treatises on the Reformation of the Church, The Henry Beveridge Edition, with historical notes and introduction by T. F. Torrance. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Calvin’s Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, by T. H. Parker. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

The Rise and Development of Calvinism, edited by John H. Bratt. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

John Calvin, by Albert-Marie Schmidt. New York: Harpers.

S. C. M. Press of London will offer a new translation of the Institutes edited by John T. McNeill. The same translation will be made available in the United States by The Westminster Press of Philadelphia in 1960.

Doubleday is scheduling for 1960 a volume by Edward A. Dowey, Jr. representing a translation of key extracts from Calvin’s work. The book’s introduction will tell of Calvin’s life and work.

Ancient Manuscripts

Publication of two recently-discovered ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of John, one in Greek and the other in Coptic, were reported last month at the “American Textual Criticism Seminar,” held in New York in connection with the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

One of the manuscripts contains the latter portion of John in Greek and dates from about 200 A.D. The other, with most of the Gospel in the Bohairic dialect of the Coptic language, was believed to have been written in the fourth century.

Their publication was announced by Dr. Bruce M. Metzger, professor of New Testament language and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. He said the Greek fragments of John’s Gospel were published by the Bodmer Library of Geneva after it had acquired them from an antiquities dealer in Egypt. The text of the Bohairic Gospel of John, he reported, was published recently in Louvain, Belgium.

Metzger also disclosed acquisition of another ancient Coptic manuscript—the First Epistle of Peter in the Sahidic dialect-believed to date from the third century; and three-fourths of the Commentary of St. Ephraem on an Harmony of the Gospels which weaves together into one narrative the four separate gospels. The commentary is in the Syriac language and dates from about 500 A.D.

The epistle was obtained by the University of Mississippi and the commentary by Sir Chester Beatty, British collector of antiquities.

Auca Epilogue

Harpers is adding an epilogue to its best-selling missionary volume, Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot. The epilogue will consist of a brief chapter added in a new printing of the book.

Since writing the volume, Mrs. Elliot has made successful contacts with the Auca Indians of eastern Ecuador who killed her husband and four other young missionary men three years ago.

Church Construction

Toward A Billion

After five years of upturn, expenditures for construction of churches “and related facilities” leveled off, according to official government statistics.

But the prediction is for about a 10 per cent increase in 1959, which would send the total toward the billion-dollar mark. Last year an estimated 865 million dollars went into the construction category which the Departments of Commerce and Labor label “religious.” The total thus fell slightly short of 1957, when a record of 868 million dollars was set. The government figures generally are recognized as the best available, though federal statisticians admit they cannot be precise about construction of churches. Totals given for church construction actually include funds expended for specially-constructed cemetery vaults, mausoleums, crematories and funeral parlors, as well as for churches, Sunday Schools, seminaries, mission houses, and novitiate buildings. Government spokesmen say, however, that the costs added by the burial-related statistics are “virtually infinitesimal.”

The figures do not represent the sum of completed construction projects. They are based on contract awards as reported to the government by the F. W. Dodge Corporation. Experts judge how long individual jobs will take, then estimate accordingly. Predictions are based on current trends.

Despite qualifications, church construction expenditure totals as released by the government do provide year-by-year indications of the amount of religious building, especially when adjusted against rising costs (see chart below).

In 1959, church construction is expected to take about a dollar out of every 55, or slightly less than 2 per cent of the total U. S. outlay for new biuldings. Over-all U. S. construction this year may reach one billion dollars a week, a total of $52,300,000,000.

Construction by nonpublic schools and private colleges, many of which are church-related, will also set a record in 1959, the government forecasts. New buildings valued at $600,000,000 will be built by these educational institutions, the forecast says, compared with $565,000,000 last year and $525,000,000 in 1957.

Construction by private hospitals, homes for the aged, and other institutions, many of which are also church-related, will maintain about the same record level in 1959, according to the government. Building activities in this field were estimated at $605,000,000 for 1958, compared with $525,000,000 in 1957.

Cathedral Of Tomorrow

With World War II and its travel difficulties past, the Humbard evangelistic party looked to increased opportunities of service. But the touring musical family had hardly realized their new beginning when fire swept a public auditorium in Daytona Beach, Florida, where they were holding meetings. Virtually all possessions were lost, including $20,000 in musical instruments and a truck used to haul them.

But from that setback came a determination to preach the “old-fashioned Gospel” as never before. And within a decade, the oldest of the Humbard children was heading up one of the most ambitious church building programs in U. S. history. The result was one of the world’s largest and most modern church buildings, completed last year at a cost of some $2,500,000. The church, called the Cathedral of Tomorrow, draws in three Sunday services an aggregate of 12,000 worshippers. Two other buildings are planned for the site in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a suburb of Akron. Plans also include regular national network telecasts from the cathedral’s built-in studio-type facilities.

It all started with a 17-day evangelistic campaign in Akron little more than six years ago. It was a campaign much like hundreds of others the Rev. Rex Humbard had led in 17 years of touring America. But after the meetings were over, Humbard recalls that “the Lord began to speak to me about staying in Akron to start a permanent work.” A state charter was obtained for an interdenominational assembly, and attendance at temporary quarters soared.

The talented Humbards are known for selections of the “country music” variety. A brother still tours with a musical party. The father now pastors a church in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Some churchmen criticize the interdenominational approach of the Humbards, while others (e.g. American and Southern Baptist, Nazarene, and Assembly of God) have at times sponsored their campaigns.

Still to be built on the 21-acre Humbard tract in Akron are a chapel and a library. The Cathedral of Tomorrow, which took two and a half years to complete, was dedicated last May 26.

Almost a million dollars of the $2,500,000 spent on the cathedral’s construction has been paid.

Morning, afternoon, and evening services are held in the cathedral each Sunday. Average attendance at Sunday School and the other three meetings is about 4,000. Mid-week services draw about 2,000. Telecasts are now carried locally, but Humbard hopes eventually to extend coverages to a large network. On New Year’s eve, six stations carried more than seven hours of telecasts from the cathedral.

Humbard has four ministerial associates including a brother-in-law, the Rev. Wayne Jones. Others are the Rev. Jackie Burris, the Rev. Will Chandler, and the Rev. George Pryor.

The cathedral’s main sanctuary is built like an auditorium, and has seats for 5,400. Another 2,300 can be accommodated when the glass fronts of adjoining classrooms are opened. There are 154 Sunday School rooms in all.

The giant structure features a dome made of glued laminated arches which provide a main auditorium free of posts.

At one end of the auditorium is a 168-foot stage with mechanically operated curtains. A speaker’s stage, 25 feet wide, rises on a hydraulic lift, as does a television camera located in an aisle. The lectern-pulpit is equipped for radio and television broadcasting.

Upstairs there is a nursery with 200 beds, a toddlers’ room, and youth rooms.

A prayer room beneath the stage accommodates 750 worshippers, and a chapel for smaller congregations is open 24 hours a day.

Dominion Of Canada

Mission In Toronto

The United Church of Canada is planning a new $950,000 building to replace Toronto’s Fred Victor Mission.

The new building will house a church, a home for the aged, accommodations for transients, and a plant for good-will industries. It will occupy the space now taken up by the old building, which is being demolished, and an adjoining lot. Some $600,000 of the cost will be borne by the United Church Home Missions Council. Another $150,000 will be available from the present mission’s building fund, and the Province of Ontario will help to finance the home for the aged section.

The new Fred Victor Mission will accommodate 60 aged men and beds for 110 transients.

Anglicans And Union

Christian unity should be dear to the hearts of most Canadian Anglicans, but not at the price of division in another realm, the first edition of the new-format Canadian Churchman asserts.

“Of what advantage would it be,” the editorial asks, “to become part of a great national church if it should mean separation from a world-wide communion embracing customs and tradition of often wider divergence?”

Entitled “Time Is Not Yet,” the editorial was written by the Rev. A. Gordon Baker, editor and general manager of the monthly, official organ of the Anglican Church of Canada.

The clergyman asked why there seemed to be so much consternation over the apparent failure of union negotiations between the Anglican Church and the United Church of Canada. Merger discussions between the two bodies, initiated by the Anglicans about 15 years ago, have been at a standstill for some time.

The new Canadian Churchman is a semi-tabloid publication with 12 five-column pages. Inside are church news, book reviews and a children’s section.

Republic Of Korea

Faith Or Fraud?

Park Tae-sun, Korea’s best known faith-healing leader, was in a Seoul prison this month on charges of “fraud and intimidation.” He had been investigated by civil authorities for three months about fatalities allegedly connected with his “praying message.” Park’s chief accuser, Kim Sung-kon, charges the faith-healing leader with a real-estate swindle and with responsibility for seven deaths. Park allegedly advised against medical treatment.

Southeast Asia

‘Profitable’ Riots

Buddhism in Ceylon is realizing profit from last May’s communal riots between majority Buddhist Sinhalese and minority Hindu Tamils. The Tamils suffered much more property loss and probably the greater part of the fatalities (officially estimated at 158 but commonly believed to be much greater). Among relatively small property losses sustained by the Sinhalese was the destruction of two Buddhish temples in the northern part of Ceylon. One of the temples, located at Nagadeepa, was particularly sacred to Buddhists. Governor General Sir Oliver Goonetileke, fearful of Buddhist uprisings, had promptly ordered government workers to restore the Nagadeepa temple.

Observers report that not only has the temple compound been restored, but a new house for the priest and an electric generating plant have been thrown in for good measure by the government. Officials say that Ceylon should thus make up for the favoritism which they claim has been shown to other religions by foreign governments of the past.

The government of Ceylon regularly subsidizes Buddhism in various ways despite a small but respectable minority of priests who decry government aid and warn that such aid will bring more harm than good.

Ban Hit Again

A three-year-old national ban on commercial showing of the film Martin Luther was assailed anew last month by the Philippine Federation of Christian Churches, which urged President Carlos P. Garcia to lift the restraint.

This move was dictated by a decision of the federation’s executive committee to use the Luther movie to raise $5,000 for the 10th World Jamboree of Boy Scouts to be held in the Philippines next July. The amount was allocated by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines as the Protestants’ share in the drive for Jamboree expense funds.

In a letter to President Garcia, the Church group’s president, Dr. Gumersindo Garcia (no relation) said the request was made because exhibition of the feature-length film in Protestant churches “where facilities are very limited was never satisfactory.”

Charging that Protestants had been discriminated against by the ban, the federation head said, “We can find no reason whatsoever to allow pictures of banditry and gangsterism, and those which arouse the bestial passions of men, and disallow the showing of a film like this which portrays great strength of character and heroism.”

The ban was imposed in March 1955 by 11 members of the 12-man Philippine Board of Review for Motion Pictures, a government agency. All the reviewers are Roman Catholics. Because the twelfth member protested vigorously and appealed the order to the late President Ramon Magsaysay a compromise was reached whereby the film could be shown exclusively within the confines of Protestant churches.

Christian Students

Seven Americans were among 85 delegates and observers on hand last month for a week-long Asian conference sponsored by the World Student Christian Federation in Rangoon, Burma.

Purpose of the conference was to discuss the life and mission of the Church in the Asian countries. The countries and areas represented included Burma, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Okinawa, Malaya, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Korea and Thailand.

Among countries which sent observers to the conference were the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon and Nigeria.

The delegates and observers were welcomed by Dr. Hla Bu, Cabinet Minister for Burma’s Kachin State and chairman of the Burma Christian Council.

The American participants in the conference were the Rev. Charles Long, WSCF secretary in Geneva, Switzerland; the Rev. John White, Disciples of Christ student worker; Delmar Wedel, YMCA Student Department Secretary in Japan; Robert Bates, WSCF Southeast Asia secretary, whose headquarters are in Ceylon; and two student delegates.

Top 10 Religion Stories

Religious Newswriters Association, made up of newspaper religion editors of many faiths, conducted a poll of members and came up with this version of the top 10 religion stories of 1958:

1. The death of Pope Pius XII and the election of Pope John XXIII.

2. New moves by the nation’s church bodies against segregation.

3. Death of Cardinal Mooney and Cardinal Stritch and the elevation of Cardinal Cushing and Cardinal O’Hara.

4. News in which birth control principles figured.

5. World Order Study Conference of the National Council of Churches.

6. Merger of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. with the United Presbyterian Church of North America.

7. Election of Arthur C. Lichtenberger as presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

8. Statement of bishops at last summer’s Lambeth Conference in London.

9. Demands of Protestants and Other Americans United that Catholic presidential candidates answer three questions on public schools and representation in the Vatican.

10. Dismissal of 13 professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

Selection of the story on segregation cited declarations by United Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics.

On birth control, the Lambeth Conference view and the New York hospital controversy were specifically mentioned by the RNA poll.

Top item of interest to the World Order Conference was the recommendation for U. S. recognition of Red China and its admission to the United Nations.

Of the three questions referred to relative to the POAU demands, the editors said, the one which aroused the most interest was:

Do you approve or disapprove of your (Catholic) church’s directive (Canon 1374) to American Catholic parents to boycott our public schools unless they receive special permission from their bishops?

The other questions would ask (1) the candidate’s position on Catholic bishops’ denunciation of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the religion clause of the First Amendment, and (2) his policy concerning appointment of an envoy to the Vatican.

Protestant Panorama

• A $4,000,000 training school of Gospel radio and television technique will be established in Atlanta, Georgia, in honor of Dr. E. Stanley Jones, veteran Methodist missionary evangelist and author. The school, to be known as the E. Stanley Jones Institute of Communicative Arts, will serve as a teaching affiliate of the Protestant Radio and TV Center of Emory University.

• Sister Georgina, member of the Order of Notre Dame de Sion, is enrolled as a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first nun ever to matriculate there.

• American religious and voluntary organizations contributed $128,769,000 worth of relief and rehabilitation supplies to needy persons overseas during the fiscal year 1958, according to the Department of State.

• The executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has approved for submission to the next session a 1960 record budget of $18,500,000, an increase of $1,000,000 over the 1959 budget.

• The City Council of St. Thomas, Ontario, unanimously passed a resolution last month which called for provincial legislation to authorize physicians to order blood transfusions to save a child’s life “despite the objections of parents or guardians on religious grounds.” The action was instigated by the death of a Canadian youngster after his parents, Jehovah Witnesses, refused to permit blood transfusions to be given him.

• As the first step toward establishment of a Lutheran college in Toronto, the Canadian district of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is sponsoring a 250-seat chapel on the campus of the University of Toronto, which already includes one United Church, one Presbyterian and two Anglican church colleges.

• The Protestant Council of the City of New York says non-whites comprise more than 55 per cent of the estimated 960,000 Protestants who are active church members in the five boroughs of New York City.

• A group of Protestant churchmen met in New York last month to plan a series of network television programs and to discuss what theological issues could and should be presented on TV. The meeting was sponsored by the United Church of Christ Office of Communication for the National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission. It was reportedly the first time that pastors and theologians took an active part in planning a TV network religious series. The programs will be televised on the NBC-TV’s “Frontiers of Faith.”

• Closed circuit television is helping a number of overcrowded churches across America. One such is the Brookdale Baptist Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where some 500 regularly attend the sanctuary service while another 200 take part via the TV screen in a downstairs auditorium.

• The Federal Communications Commission granted a construction permit last month to Moody Bible Institute of Chicago for a new standard broadcasting station to be operated at East Moline, Illinois, 150 miles west of Chicago.

• Some 23,000,000 Baptists in more than 100 countries were urged to offer prayers on February 1 for world peace, religious freedom, and evangelism in a special message issued in Washington by the Baptist World Alliance. The plea was made in connection with Baptist World Alliance Sunday, February 1, when the alliance marks its 54th anniversary as an international fellowship of Baptists.

• A twelfth century copy of the Hel-marshausen Latin Gospels and Eusebian Canons was purchased in London last month by a New York dealer. The price, highest sterling amount ever paid at auction for a rare manuscript, was $109,200.

• Mary Johnston Hospital in Manila, built in 1908 through a gift from a Methodist layman in the United States, marked its golden jubilee last month at ceremonies attended by church and civic leaders. It is the oldest Protestant hospital in the Philippines.

People: Words And Events

Deaths: Dr. Alvin W. Johnson, 63, retired world director of the Seventh-day Adventist Religious Liberty Association, in St. Helena, California … Dr. Tillman M. Sogge, 55, chairman of the Joint Lutheran Union Committee, in Northfield, Minnesota … Dr. R. L. M. Waugh, 65, former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, in Belfast … Dr. William W. Sweet, 77, Methodist educator and church historian, in Dallas … Dr. W. Graham Scroggie, British Bible teacher.

Elections: As president of the Canadian Lutheran Council, Dr. Albert G. Jacobi … as Lutheran bishop of Harnosand, Sweden, Dr. Ruben Josef-son … as executive secretary of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, E. Harmon Moore … as president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Professor Gilbert H. Johnson; as vice president and program-arrangements chairman, Dr. Allen A. MacRae … as Bishop of the Eastern District of the Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Czechoslovakia, Dr. Stefan Katlovsky.

Appointments: As circulation manager of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Roland E. Kuniholm … as secretary of the Commission on Theology of Mission (WCC-IMC), Dr. David H. Stowe … as president of the society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Robert M. Grant … as vice-president-at-large with World Vision, Inc., Dr. Paid S. Rees … as business manager of Youth for Christ International, Peter Quist.

Resignations: As president of the Danubian district of the Hungarian Reformed Church, Dr. Albert Bereczky … as executive secretary of the Southern Baptist Education Commission, R. Orin Cornett.

Retirement: From the Anglican primacy of Canada, Archbishop Walter Foster Barfoot.

Award: To Dr. Clarence Sherman Gillett, the Fifth Order of the Sacred Treasure by Japan, in recognition of 30 years service to the people of the Japanese nation.

BOOK OF THE FORTNIGHT

This remarkable venture improves the best features of scores of book purchasing plans. More books are sent to fewer readers more often with less obligation. You do nothing. Absolutely nothing. No applications to fill out, no forms to return. If you do not wish to keep the books which you receive, give them away or throw them out. Under no circumstances are you obliged to read any of them. This ultimate plan is made possible by the generosity of a select group of authors who pay handsomely to have their works printed. Publishers are invited to participate with choice “surprise” stocks (trade term for works they are surprised to find still in stock).

Book of the Fortnight offerings are reviewed in this column (although not all books here reviewed can be included in the plan). If you wish to become a member of the Fortnight Club, keep subscribing to this paper, and keep wishing. Perhaps your name will be chosen at the next centennial meeting of our board of directors. But remember, do not apply; you do absolutely nothing!

Our first offerings include:

Strange Stranger, by Ella Mae van Buiten. A novel for heart burn. Glee Hopewell finds herself strangely drawn to this strangely forbidding stranger. Must she learn the secret of Agent 33? (Answer classified.)

Counseling Counselors, by an Anonymous Analyst. The author was the prominent director of a famous Viennese clinic, who has recently been institutionalized. He writes from a first-hand knowledge of the field. In-service psychoanalysis is recommended through a new input-output tape recorder proposed by the author.

The Committee Man, by the Committee on the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Committee Work. This book represents the fruit of five years of committee investigation into the self-image of the committee man. It is composed of a symposium of self-portraits and a joint declaration which is useful as a master committee report for any occasion.

Dead Sea Treasure Guide, by Ali von Totenmeer. Are the fabulous treasures described in the copper scroll of the Qumran Community still buried in Palestine? See for yourself with this do-it-yourself manual for the amateur archaeologist. Complete directions, Arabic dictionary, pick, shovel, etc.

CHRISTIAN AND JEW

You are to be congratulated on your materials … on Christian and Jew and the need to win the Jew to Christ (Dec. 8 issue). Our own people do not understand the change that has taken place in the past quarter century in the Jew—his attitude towards life and God and in his attitude towards Jewish culture. Christian people are tragically indifferent to winning Jews. This almost criminal indifference indicates that something is basically wrong in our approach to the task of evangelism. I rejoice in your courage in facing this task.

The Sunday School Board

Southern Baptist Convention

Nashville, Tenn.

I promptly showed them to a Jewish friend …, and he too is so impressed that he would like to have some extra copies.… One of the difficulties I have run into in talking to my Jewish friend is, being a reformed Jew, he takes an extremely liberal view of the Old Testament, which … to a certain extent kicks the props out from under the New Testament.

Pensacola, Fla.

I trust that you will not consider it an impertinence if I venture to state that, in my judgment, the conception of the pre-Christmas issue was … inspired.

Miami Bible Institute

Miami, Fla.

Despite diverse viewpoints, the Niebuhr essay and recent articles in CHRISTIANITY TODAY focus attention commendably on the importance of reconciling natural man, Jew and Gentile, with God. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) to teach and baptize all nations is universal, given by Christ after he came to his own who received him not (John 1:11). Paul, the Pharisee of Pharisees (Acts 23:6), calls it the “ministry of reconciliation” of man with God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:18). Again, as “Apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), he sums Jewish-Gentile relations before God, reminding them that “the natural branches” (Jews) were broken off because of unbelief, that the “wild branches” (Gentile believers) are grafted in by faith, but that they dare not be “highminded, but fear,” knowing that “the natural branches” shall be (re)grafted “into their own olive tree” (Rom. 11:20–24).

We Christians have no choice but to honor Christ’s commission, being most effective as we remember Paul’s admonitions, also his assurance that the gospel of Christ is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first.…” (Rom. 1:16). He exhorts our ministry to the Jew, while counseling patience in what the Rev. Buksbazen calls the “uphill task.” Paul says the Christian must not be ignorant of the fact that “blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25). Then Christ comes to regraft the natural branches (Israel), pouring upon “the house of David … the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.…” and “the Lord shall be King over all the earth” (Zech. 12:10; 14:9).

Rabbi Gilbert observes that many Jews, going to Christianity, fail to find a cessation from prejudice and finger-pointing. Jews embracing Christ do so, knowing they must also suffer prejudice and finger-pointing from their own—learning Christ’s standards that “he that loveth father or mother … or son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). Who but the Son of God, the Messiah, our very own Creator (John 1:3), has authority to make such a demand of mortal man in order to redeem his immortal soul?

Bringing the Jew to recognize Christ as his Messiah is difficult because of Israel’s partial blindness. It does require exceptional love and understanding and a goodly measure of practical charity. But of many fields of Christian service, I know of none that is more blessed of God or more satisfying than to bring one of His “chosen” back to his inheritance. There is always the exciting possibility of guiding another Paul through his self-imposed blindness to full spiritual vision, from darkness into the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

Vice President

American Board of Missions to the Jews

Washington, D. C.

The article by Victor Buksbazen in exposing Niebuhr’s unbelief is worth the price of subscription.

Bethany Baptist Church

Rushtown, Ohio

The article … by Buksbazen is superb in every sense of the word. How Dr. Niebuhr could ever utter publicly or privately that it is wrong to evangelize the Jews, is beyond human comprehension, and beyond biblical truth.

First Baptist

Mason City, Nebr.

As to … Niebuhr’s … writings: one of the prime difficulties in getting a good theological education today is that you have to read so much that is not so.

As to the brilliantly sincere rabbi: that man can write.… It was strange, though, why he stepped aside … as to the “Bible Belt.” We welcome his fuller investigation. A Jew is doubtless safer in the Bible Belt than any other area of the same size on earth. We deplore our few real crackpots as much as anybody.

Niebuhr … introduced a discrimination that is worse than those the good rabbi had in mind, when we were asked to omit the Jews from our Christian witness. Who is Niebuhr to make the great commission, as given to Christian Jews, read: “Go ye into all the world except to the Jews …”?

First Baptist

Vardaman, Miss.

How striking that a Jew(!) must tell Niebuhr this fact … [of] the unique character of Christianity.

Christian Reformed

Modesto, Calif.

The rabbi ventures a contrast, saying that “the earth-rooted revelations of Judaism” are “profoundly more relevant to the kind of world in which we live—God’s world—than the other-worldly promises taught in the name of Christianity.” … In … the “Westminster Shorter Catechism,” nearly half of the 107 questions and answers deal with the Ten Commandments. This has made what is called “the Presbyterian conscience.” The rest of the catechism is taken up with God’s correction of sins against the commandments.

First Presbyterian

Prince George, Va.

The rabbi … gives himself and his cause away! “… The Jewish people shall be the ministering priests unto … men”—that is when they eventually control the world. This is Zionism’s main aim. All Jews are not Zionists, but those with most of the money and influence are …, and they have and will use any means within their power to attain this end.…

Have you ever thought that perhaps the premillennial view has been concocted by the Jews? I have heard many say that we should practically bow down to the Jew because he is God’s chosen race. What do Romans and Galatians say though? We are all equal in God’s sight. We are all sinners and we must all come through faith.

Pauma Valley, Calif.

Indeed did Rabbi Gilbert make me “bristle.” … “… Redemption is a gift that must be earned and deserved.” This is exactly the point at issue. He recognizes that redemption is a gift, yet he insists on earning it, as if it were wages or a bonus for good work, instead of a gift freely offered. He … desires the redemption of society, believing that “man must evermore urgently dedicate his hands at shaping and reshaping the stuff of this life. Right here he and Niebuhr are identical; redemption is the product of man’s hand.…

The quotations from Niebuhr indicate what has been long suspected, that this eminent theologian regards Christianity as more of a religion than a faith. Of course, he is not alone in this. Many Protestants, forgetting their Reformation protest against institutionalized salvation, seem to be covetously eyeing organization as the means of redemption. If these people are correct and modern Christianity is more of a religion than a faith, then indeed is it a product of our Western Gentile civilization and not the product of Christ or the Apostles; and Niebuhr’s conclusion is correct: God does have two ways in which to redeem society, one way for the Jews and another way for the Gentiles, and we ought to stop trying to assimilate the Jews into a Gentile religion.

… Only a short while ago … we all saw the institutional glory of Rome.… Why couldn’t [Luther] have left well enough alone?… Simply because the institution couldn’t deliver the salvation it promised to him.… Speaking and acting as though the Church can redeem society, whether Judaism, Roman Catholicism or Protestantism, is to point up our need for another reformation.

We seem to be in an age enamored with man’s power and accomplishment, even sincere Christians no longer objecting to glorification. We parade our statistics and laud our churchmen, proud of the position to which we have attained. We raise to places of distinction those of our number who are able by devious paths to thread the intellectual needle and thus make Christianity compatible, yes even respectable, in this world of tension. I say this humbly and tearfully, none of us has cried out to stop the adulation of the press in praises of our denominations and our leaders. On the contrary, we have been proud of it, counting it no more than our just due, helping to counteract the tremendous strategic advantage of the Roman Catholic Church. There is no worse offender than I and the Church of which I am a member, for it and its leader have been singularly praised. Shades of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Acts 14:8–18)! Have we forgotten that we, too, are men of like passions? Is our vision so distorted that we think we are the savior of the world—that our words of wisdom will save it?

St. Paul’s English Evangelical Lutheran

Philadelphia, Pa.

MASS MURDER

Where in all the world, in any country or state, has the church, officially and unreservedly, stood positively and boldly for the renunciation of mass and legalized murder? Where, over the centuries, have the peace-making Pacifists, in Jesus’ name, ever been prayerfully and actively supported by the historic churches as a whole? On this matter our Saviour Christ weeps over the Church, through his Sermon on the Mount, daily.…

St. Mary’s Rectory

Cupar, Sask.

PICTURES OF COLOR

Permit me to express sincerest appreciation for the splendid message … by Lee Shane (Dec. 8 issue). Not only was the underlying emphasis of his message very good, but I doubt if I have ever read a message where so many word pictures show forth to stimulate the mind and the imagination. To my mind it made the message as much more colorful and impressive as color pictures are superior to black and white.

First Baptist Church

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

This is capable of two meanings: either that those are blessed who are afflicted with the loss of friends or possession; or that they who mourn over sin are blessed. As Christ came to preach repentance, to induce men to mourn over their sins and to forsake them, it is probable that he had the latter particularly in view, 2 Corinthians 7:10.

Godly Sorrow

Mourning is a wringing or pinching of the soul upon the apprehension of some evil present, whether it be privative or positive, as we speak; that is, when a man finds that absent that he desires, and that present which he abhors, then the soul shrinks and contracts itself, and is pinched and wringed; and this is what we call mourning.

RICHARD SIBBES

This mourning is by no means to be confined unto the initial experience of conviction and contrition, for observe the tense of the verb: it is not “have mourned,” but “mourn”—a present and continuous experience. The Christian himself has much to mourn over. The sins which he now commits—both of omission and commission—are a sense of daily grief to him, or should be, and will be, if his conscience is kept tender.

ARTHUR W. PINK

Luther refers it to patient endurance as an element of religious character. Earthly afflictions, as leading to higher attainments in holiness, may be included in the mourning here spoken of. But it evidently refers primarily, if not exclusively, to spiritual sorrow, in view of the feelings of a corrupt sinful nature. A mourning spirit is nearly allied to one that feels its impoverished condition, and hence this beatitude follows very naturally the preceding one.

JOHN J. OWEN

Satan comes, says St. Paul, as an angel of light. So sorrow, methinks, though it walks the earth veiled and draped in black, with dust upon its bent head and steps that fail, will yet be found to wrap within its weeds the light and blessedness of heaven; and he who should entertain this guest aright, will find, when the disguise is laid aside, that he has “entertained an angel unawares.” As a messenger of God’s grace, this angel of sorrow knocks at our door, charged to lead us, if we will, to that “godly sorrow” which “worketh repentance.” If, instead of putting it from us as an unwelcome visitor, we will sit meekly at its feet to hear its voice, it will fetch forth from its dark bosom the very consolations of God.

J. OSWALD DYKES

Whosoever hath sin must mourn. Let him take his time and place, whether he will do it in this life or in that which is to come. Sin must have sorrow, that is a ruled case; and he that will not willingly mourn, shall, will he or nill he, in another place.

RICHARD SIBBES

The Consolation

The promised consolation corresponds to the mourning which is called blessed: and here the consolation is not given by mere words, but in fact (Luke 6:24). This consoling efficacy is only one of a thousand virtues which come forth from the kingdom of God to bless men. In hearing this comfort, the hearers must have had brought before their view the consolations promised for the Messianic time: for comfort and consolation were expected to come to men with His kingdom (Isa. 40:1; 61:2; 66:11), nay, the Messiah and his kingdom were expressly called the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25; Jer. 31:6).

A. THOLUCK

These seem worse off than the merely poor in spirit, for “they mourn.” They are a stage higher, though they seem to be a stage lower. The way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in ourselves. These men are grieved by sin, and tried by the evils of the times; but for them a future of rest and rejoicing is provided. Those who laugh shall lament, but those who sorrow shall sing. How great a blessing is sorrow, since it gives room for the Lord to administer comfort! Our griefs are blessed, for they are our points of contact with the divine Comforter. The beatitude reads like a paradox, but it is true, as some of us know full well. Our mourning hours have brought us more comfort than our days of mirth.

CHARLES H. SPURGEON

Buddha sought to comfort the mother whose babe had died, by sending her round the city with a bowl, instructing her to beg a peppercorn from each house, but to take none from any house whose parent, spouse, or child, or slave had died. And when, having fulfilled her instruction, she returned without a single grain, he pointed to the commoness of sorrow, and exhorted her to endure what all must suffer. His whole religious system was directed to training men so that they should not feel sorrow. Buddha’s view is the world view—that sorrow is the great evil; that its commonness is our only comfort; and how to endure it is our chief concern. But the Saviour’s view is directly opposite. He does not say, “Pitiable are the mourners;” but Blessed are they.

RICHARD GLOVER

It is touching to find what impatience real mourners have of every false comforter. You try to heal their wounds with the usual salves of society. You tell them it is a common lot; and grief is vain; and it were better to bear up with a will, steeling the soul to hardness and coldness: for grief, you say, is profitless or hurtful. You bid them seek for a change of scene, and look out for solace on fair nature’s face; or you send them into cheerful company, and trust to time, the healer, to soothe the smart.… No mourner who is true to himself will have such comfort. God never meant he should. God would have men mourn on, and mourn deeper, till their heart has pierced through to the real root of all affliction, in its own separation from Himself; and then He would have them mourn for that till He has brought them to Himself to be comforted in Him. He has put this blessedness into all mourning, that he means it to lead to mourning for sin; and He means all mourning for sin to lead to repentance, and all repentance to the blessed comfort of pardon and purifying.

J. OSWALD DYKES

Does this refer to all mourners? What class of mourners was Christ anointed to minister to? See Isaiah 61:3, first clause. What is meant by “mourners in Zion?” (Those whose mourning is of a spiritual kind—for their own sins, and to the sins of others.) What is promised to them in this verse? When is this fulfilled? (Partly in this life, partly in the life to come.) What comfort is given them now? Matthew 9:2. What comfort have they under chastisements? Hebrews 12:11. What comfort shall be given them hereafter? Revelation 7:16, 17. Is not such mourning, then, a happier and more blessed thing than the joy of the world?

THE FAMILY TREASURE