Pointers for Preachers

THE VITAL FACET IN SICKNESS

The Journal of Health, Physical Education and Recreation for September, 1960, contains an article by Dr. W. W. Bauer, health education chairman of the American Medical As­sociation. The article is entitled "Facets of Sick­ness," and on pages 24 and 25 of the journal the doctor makes the following statements, which we feel will be of help to our ministers in their pres­entation of true health for Christians.

"A Balance of Work and Play—Man eats his bread in the sweat of his brow; theologians call it the curse of Adam. Yet our experience indicates that the necessity for working in order to live, which faces most of us, is no unmixed evil. None is so unhappy as the person with nothing con­structive to do. But the one who must work aPointers for Preacherst uninteresting, uninspiring tasks or under un­healthy or unhappy conditions, is equally miser­able. Happy is the man or woman who has the opportunity—or makes it—to work constructively, under good conditions, in a relaxed and congenial atmosphere, at a job worth doing, with appropriate recognition for a job well done. The feeling of satisfaction, of well-being and of accomplishment, which comes out of such labor goes far to assure continued fitness—mental, emotional, and physical. This is beginning to be recognized as an important factor in guarding against many of the diseases now being attributed, in part, to stress factors in living. Satisfying work is a vital facet in fitness.

"Peace of Mind and Soul—Only when he [man] turns to the God whom he has neglected and denied will he find the serenity, the peace of mind, the peace of soul, which he has sought elsewhere in vain."

H. W. L.

DARE WE FIDDLE?

Humanity is on a one-way street whose end is destruction. Voices fill the air, all sorts of voices. The voice of science predicts the suicide of the race within five years. The hoarse voice of the politician fills the air with promises of Utopia, if he is elected. Voices of threat and counterthreat emanate from heads of state. From oppressed lands new voices are heard raising the thrilling, rhythmic chant of "freedom." But there are other voices—disturbing ones. The voices of the hungry crying for food, and the diseased seeking relief. Voices of the dis­tressed seeking comfort, and voices of the dying begging final assurance.

But above all these there is the collective voice of the heart-hungry millions calling for truth. The world is sick of half-truths. It seeks the whole. Who has it? You? Then let your voice be heard. Not in the half-muted tones of an uncertain apol­ogist, nor in the timid whispers of the fearful. "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet." You have the truth. The world needs it, yea, it dies for lack of it. For Jesus' sake, tell it! Tell it in your pulpit. Tell it on the radio. Tell it in the newspaper. Tell it in tents, in halls, in homes. Anywhere you can get a hearing, tell it! Dare we fiddle while hearts yearn?

E. E. C.

MONOTONOUS CONFORMITY

In Life magazine, March 7, 1960, there appeared a pic­ture of 82 "alert and com­manding" business executives of a certain commer­cial company gathered to honor the president's twenty-fifth anniversary with the firm. The re­markable thing was that the 82 faces were identical, explained by the fact that each man wore a mask that resembled the president. Humor was provided by the fact that the unmasked president stood smilingly surveying the 82 facsimiles, and the ed­itor's comment called him "the only man who didn't look like himself."

There is a homily in that picture. Has not our civilization almost reduced us to a monotonous . uniformity? We dress alike, and eat alike; we must have the same things, the same kind of homes. We more or less follow the same daily programs and habits. We talk about the same old things, and to be frank, they are usually inconsequential and often inane. We. read the same papers, magazines, and books, though not many of the latter in too many cases. The truth is we have reached the point where we almost think alike. Often we think after we know what someone else thinks—the boss, or the wife, or some other person of influence. Then we think we think!

It would do every preacher good to rethink his way carefully through every doctrine we teach. I was recently with a man who, when crossing the Pacific Ocean, calmly dropped all his sermon out­lines overboard. He said it made him think afresh! I suspect that he has been a better preacher as a result.

One of the priceless freedoms left to us is the freedom to do at least some of our own thinking. "To live is to think," said Cicero. Many people think that living means talking. No one is more exasperating or more intolerable at times than the person obsessed with the ridiculous idea that personality implies incessant, aggressive talking. By contrast with the resounding emptiness of too many people, we have Matthew Arnold's comment: "The kings of modern thought are dumb [silent, or quiet]."

H. W. L.