"OUR PERSONAL GREETINGS"

In this time which we traditionally celebrate the

incarnation of our God, the Editor, his wife and

children pray the kiss of Heaven may grace your

lives in the coming year.

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THE MARRIAGE RING -Part XII

Mutual attachment to each other’s society is a common duty of husband and wife. We are united to be COMPANIONS; to live together, to walk together, to talk together. The husband is commanded to "dwell with the wife according to knowledge." ...It is absurd, for those who

have no prospect of dwelling together, to enter this state; and those already in it, should not be unnecessarily abroad. Can a man while from home, discharge the duties he owes to his household? Can he discipline his children? Can he maintain the worship of God in his family?

...The evenings are the most domestic periods of the day. To these the wife is peculiarly entitled.... It is a sad reflection upon a man when he is fond of spending his evenings abroad. It implies something bad, and it predicts something worse.

To ensure, as far as possible, the society of her husband at his own fireside, let the wife be "a keeper at home" and do all in her power to render that fire-side as attractive as good temper, neatness, and cheerful, affectionate conversation can make it.

-John Angell James

TIS NOT THAT I DID CHOOSE THEE

Tune: "The Church’s One Foundation"

‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,                                      For Lord, that could not be;                                         This heart would still refuse Thee,                                   But thou hast chosen me.

Thou from the sin that stained me                                    Washed me and set me free,                                            And to this end ordained me,                                         That I should live to Thee.

‘Twas sovereign mercy called me,                                      And taught my opening mind;                                            The world had else enthralled me,                                      To Heavenly glories blind.

My heart owns none above Thee;                                          For Thy rich grace I thirst.                                          This knowing: if I love Thee,                                         Thou must have loved me first.

-John Conder

WHY IT IS WRONG TO VIEW MANY TELEVISION DETECTIVE SHOWS,

MOST TELEVISION MOVIES, AND ALL SOAP OPERAS;

AS WELL AS TO READ MOVIE, SO CALLED "CONFESSION",

AND DETECTIVE MAGAZINES; INCLUDING AS WELL,

THE VIEWING OF OBVIOUS PORNOGRAPHIC MOVIES, AND

THE READING OF OBVIOUS PORNOGRAPHIC MAGAZINES

Apart from the criminal waste of time, all the above make deliberate use of "bedroom" scenes or should they fail to picture such scenes as these, they will by the most obvious implications leave no doubt in the viewer’s or reader’s mind, the vile suggestions of the same.

"So, what is wrong with that?" may be queried.

I answer, "Nothing"--except that God has said that,

"Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell " -Matthew 5:28-30

Again, if it means anything, God has commanded, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s...wife.... " --Exodus 20:17b

And, in Proverbs chapter six concerning the "evil woman", God exhorts us in verse 25, "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart.... "

"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent," "Marriage is Honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." --Proverbs 6:27-29; Hebrews 13:4

"Cease to do evil; Learn to do well." --Isaiah 1:16,17.

Hebrews 6:10 --"For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister."

From this verse we see --

           I. That the ministry to the saints is work.

II. That the "work" of his ministry to the saints is a labor of love.

In 1778, the wife of John Adams wrote to her son:

"Dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you In your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless child."

"I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they labor diligently in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt."

-Martin Luther-

December 21, 1807 --John Newton dies: once a slave-trader, now the penman of "Amazing Grace." His life has touched Thomas Scott described as a cultured, scholarly, moral man who didn’t need a Saviour. He will succeed Newton in his pulpit, and will touch a young man described as dyspeptic, melancholy, "too bad" for God to save, but William Cowper will be converted and will in turn touch William Wilberforce, who will touch Richmond, Vicar in Church of England, who will write The Dairyman’s Daughter which will go into 40 foreign translations.