The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1958-06-06

mere II al otter
quoted remark:
THE pioneers Of Or. Foreman
South America came over to 6nd
gold, the North American pho
ncers came to find God" But It ID
also true that great numbers Of
our own ancestors came over. by
their own showing. TO find their
fortune Still 1t Is true that few
nations have had religion inlaid
with their history a S our country has
"Ths Hand Of the lord Is
Mighty"
There are some interesting par.
allels between the situation when
Joshua was about to pass from the
scene OF his triumphs In Canaan.
and the times In which We live
Three Of them can be pointed Up
In phrases drawn from the Bible
stories themselves First is from
Joshua ALP. The hand OF the
Lord Is mighty" Neither Moses
nor Joshua took personal credit
for their achievements. they gave
the glory TO God The rude monu-
ment OF stones described in Josh
ia was not monument to
Joshua. to Moses. nor 10 any OF
their captains. Ii was commemo
ration OF the mighty acts OF God
Many books have been written on
the theme OF God in history Ac-
cording to the prophet Amos. God
Is in all nations histories; yet not
all nations see this And the trou-
bic with Israel was. and continued
70 be. that they supposed that be-
Gauge God had once done mighty
acts on their behalf. he never
would cease to do so God had
started them on their way. there
fore they were a religious nation.
therefore he would never let them
come To disaster. How wrong they
were!
~ You Turn Sack -"
Joshua's farewell address. as
an aged man. to the nation whose
beloved and successful leader he
had been. held up some big IFS
Continued success. eventual great
ness, was by no means to be theirs
without question God is not !
puppct-master He does not de-
eide the fate OF nation and then
no matter what the nation does Ok
is, carry them right through by al
mighty power to the destiny OF
their hearts desire. God had chos-
en- Israel. but the question Joshua
puts before the people is: Will you
choose God? One religious chap
ter in nations early history does
not guarantee that the nation will
be religious forever after. One
chapter OF obedience and loyalty
10 God does not make it certain
that there Will be no chapters OF
neglect OF God, OF disobedience, Of
darkness and defeat One chapter
Of success does not make inpossi-
Bile any chapters OF failure.
"chooss, This Day u"
Maybe every reader has thought
about this before, but it is still
more than striking thought, II
is appalling: In one generation it
would be possible 10 undo and des-
troy the Christian church That is
the strategy OF the various COM
munist regimes. They do not now
attack the church very often. What
they do is to see that no children,
no young people. il the Party can
keep them from it. grow up know.
Ing and loving the church No gen
GRAFTON can choose God for their
children, even less for their chill
dren's children Each generation
must choose for God afresh.
There is no riding to glory on
our grandparents faith So when
We ask ourselves: Is Ameri-
ca Christian natlon7 We can
answer. The hand OF God vas
mighty IN times gone by. We can
look around and see church spires
on every horizon Almost every
family in America. the newly come
or the 'Old Americans, has a
legend or tradition of some ances-
tor or relative who was praying
saint, pillar OF the church But
that is never the point Where are
the praying saints today? When
the present living pillars Of the
church die, are we bringing up our
children to love the same God,
serve the same Christ, to live BY
the same Spirit? II not. we are
helping to de-Christianize America.
BIASED on outlines copyrighted ~ the
Division Of Christian Fdueatien Ma
tienal Council Of the Churches 81 Christ
Ia the L. s. A. Released BY Com n unity
Press service.}
HEST SUSPENSION URGED