OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Subscribers of ours in Richmond, Indiana started a business 14 years ago for the purpose of providing jobs for the handicapped. Since then over 100 people have been provided full time employment with 100% success. These include deaf, blind, amputees, quadriplegic, paraplegic, post polio. They do electronic assemblies and wire harnesses. 1 wrote to these people that Ouida and I (and our partners) in our new business here in Denton (which we have not yet told you about) are inspired by their example and would like to do more of that ourselves. In our gift manufacturing business we are having the Denton State School (handicapped children) assemble some of our products for us. But we would like to do more. All of our people in business should follow the example of the Richmond Combined Enterprises, Inc. and give the handicapped a chance.

President Ford was a recent visitor to Pepperdine University. In his speech, dedicating the new field house, he saluted the Church of Christ institution as an outstanding example of those voluntarily supported institutions which have contributed so much to America’s greatness and to world progress. He also said:

Such great universities as Paris, Oxford. and Padua — dating from the Middle Ages — have a rich heritage as institutions of independent education. America proudly celebrates its 200th birthday next year. But we would have to reach back still another century to mark the founding of Harvard College in Massachusetts Bay Colony or William and Mary in Virginia or St. John’s College in Maryland. Thirteen other great American universities were founded before the American Revolution. And all share in the distinguished traditions of private higher education.

The Park Row Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas recently had what might be called a Bicentennial emphasis on Sunday morning. The program was of two parts: Our Life in Christ and Our Life in the Nation. Walt Whitman’s “For You O Democracy” was read and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “America, the Beautiful” were sung. Jim Reynolds, the minister gave a sermon on “Christian Faith and the American Revolution.”

A congregation in west Texas has been having a series of group discussions, with about 13 people in each group, which is a new method of study for them. Their bulletin reflects some uneasiness with what has been going on. There is the fear that false doctrine might be injected and there is concern that the class might take over the class from the teacher. A group leader is assigned each group to see that the correct conclusion is reached for each issue.

At least one congregation in Texas took my article on “Crumbs on the Platter” seriously enough to do something about it. They now have the “one loaf” that the scriptures speak of, one of the sisters preparing it each Sunday. It is blessed and broken, just like Jesus did, and placed on several plates for distribution. We may not have to have our own matzo factory after all!

During this Bicentennial year we will bring to your attention books and sets of books that are especially relevant to our history as well as the scriptures. High on our list is Isaac Errett’s Evenings with the Bible, a 3-volume set that we can send you for only 12.00. Errett was the founder of the Christian Standard and an associate editor of Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger, as well as a friend and fellow traveler of Campbell. Ouida and I have been reading from these volumes aloud to each other. His lessons on Joseph and Moses will thrill you. He is surely one of the clearest writers in our glorious history — and did he love the scriptures! These rather short chapters read like fireside chats, and they extend from “God the Creator” in Vol. I to “Bond of Fellowship” in Vol. 3, which is an exciting journey through the Bible. These are handsome hardback editions, but the price is in the paperback range.

Another set is the 2-volume abridged Millennial Harbinger, which is the best of Campbell’s great journal, selected by one of his own contemporaries. These give you about 1,000 pages of his most important writings. The unabridged set is unavailable and these may not be for long. Hardback, beautifully bound. 10.95 for the set.