Letter 22, not despising the day of small things. For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice. Zechariah 4.10 Three lines of thought are suggested by these words. First, in the history of the church there are periods which may justly be termed the day of small things. Second, the temptation arises to disparage God's work at such times because of its smallness. Third, Assurance is here given that despondency shall give place to gladness. They who lightly esteem the lesser displays of God's gracious power shall be followed by those who rejoice. It was a day of small things when the little remnant of Israel returned from their captivity, repaired the walls of Jerusalem, and built the house of God. The temple of Solomon far surpassed in splendor the one erected by Zerubbabel. As God said to the Jew through Haggai, Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yea, when many of the ancient men saw its foundations laid, they wept with a loud voice. Ezra 3 verse 12. Nevertheless, the Lord was working, and therefore did He issue this challenge to their hearts, who have despised the day of small things. Even the minor displays of God's power and the lesser blessings of His mercy are not to be disparaged. Our lot is also cast in the day of small things. When present spiritual conditions are compared with those of fifty years ago, the difference is most marked in the number of faithful preachers of the truth, and the number of homes where the family altar is maintained, and the demand for really helpful literature. The cause for this contrast may be looked for in two directions. First, in the sovereignty of God, for He does not act uniformly. Some seasons enjoy a much more bounteous supply of rain and sunshine than others. As it is in the natural realm, so it is in the spiritual. Second, the unfaithfulness of the Lord's people. Where light is given, and if it be not walked in, where great privileges are granted and there be no corresponding fruit, the Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched, and further blessings are withheld. Both of these factors explain the present situation. Yet God is still working. In various places there are showers of blessing, even though the former rains be withheld. Oh, there is much that calls for exercise of heart, humiliation of soul, and confession of God, yet there is no warrant for abject despair. The question asked in Zechariah 4.10 is a challenge, and perhaps a rebuke to some of us. Shall we despise what God is now doing because it is a day of small things? If God is still maintaining a testimony for the truth, and a few souls are being blessed here and there, that is proof he has not entirely abandoned Christendom. Moreover, a divine promise is coupled with a challenge, all for faith to lay hold of it. For they shall rejoice. Brighter days are ahead. Christ will yet crush the serpent's head beneath his feet. It is in the spirit of Zechariah 4.10 that we desire grace from on high to carry on this work. The past year has been one of severe testing. Hitherto the Lord has moved many of the readers to send in their contributions early in the year, which for the magazine begins December 1st, so that by the end of March only a smaller amount was needed each month to meet expenses. But this year it was otherwise. All through it has been a case of from hand to mouth. And sometimes the meal in the barrel was almost, though not quite, exhausted. Yet to the praise of our faithful God be it recorded that He has graciously moved different ones to send in something each week. Four pounds, twenty dollars, is needed every week the year round. so that only one bill is before us, and before that is due, we fully expect to have sufficient on hand to more than meet it. We also have been much exercised over the smallest of the circulation. As each year passes, we are finding it harder and harder to locate those who really relish spiritual literature. The popular demand is for that which is light and superficial, or for that which is startling and sensational. Many prefer anecdotes brief articles or comments upon the latest doings of Hitler and Mussolini. Few are willing to study that which calls for concentration of mind, and few are still articles which search the conscience. But we dare not lower the standard. Many of our older readers have been called home, and it is very difficult to find new ones to replace them. Very few cooperate with us in seeking to make this magazine known to fellow Christians. How many would really be sorry if we were obliged to cease publishing for lack of support? How many are endeavoring to prevent this by their efforts? We have now to remove from our list several hundred names to whom we have sent studies this year. Those whose names were given us by friends or who applied personally themselves, but who have manifested no appreciation of its contents, owing to the smallness of our circulation, It costs 90 cents to send each person for a year. Where are we going to find new readers to fill their places? Unless we do so in the near future, we will not have sufficient names on our book to carry on. We know that some readers have done their best to interest others, but there are many quite indifferent. If half of our readers could introduce us to just one Christian who would welcome this magazine, it would be a great relief to our minds. Show your copies to those likely to be interested, not to those looking for something for nothing, but those hungry for soul food. Do please carefully consider this appeal. Another thing which is deeply concerned the editor is that no doors have been opened for oral ministry. From the human side, two things place us at a great disadvantage. First, having lived almost all our Christian life in the USA and Australia, we are virtually unknown in Great Britain. Second, not being prepared to join any denomination or sect makes most of the churches unwilling to use us. Do any of our readers know of any undenominational cause or independent church anywhere in Great Britain where a man of truth would be welcome? Or any mission conducted on scriptural lines where there would be openings for Bible conference addresses? are preaching us along the same lines as our magazine articles. Some readers have a wide acquaintance and may know of suitable openings and God may use them to give us contact with places that would welcome an uncompromising and soul-edifying message. Please pray over this and write us. The days are evil, the need is great. Many of Christ's sheep are being starved. Very little real gospel is now preached. Soon our race will be run. What little time has yet left us? We desire to be used holy for the Lord and to be made a blessing to his people. Many churches and places we could not enter because of their heterodoxy and worldliness. How are we to make contact with sound ones for a week's special meetings? Cannot you be of assistance here? If not, will you please definitely supplicate the throne of grace on our behalf? By the mercy of God, we have both been preserved from all illness through another year. earnestly soliciting your prayers with hearty Christian greetings and with all good wishes we remain yours by God's abounding mercy. Letter 23 Receiving the Word Practical Counsel Our beloved brother and sister in Christ, greetings in the blessed name of him who bids us receive with meekness the engrafted word, James 1.21. Our first duty is not to understand God's word, but to receive it. It is at that point so many fail. They are not prepared to receive what Scripture says on election, on baptism, on separation from Christ's dishonoring churches, on the law, and on many other things until they think they have understood it. That is because of pride, little as they may realize it. Scripture must be made to bow to their intellect rather than their intellect to the Scripture. But more especially, It is because of self-will. What scripture says crosses their sinful desires in conflicts with their views. Hence, James 1.21 says, Receive with meekness. Though often confounded with it, meekness is an entirely different grace from humility. Meekness is pliability of spirit, moldableness of heart, being clay in the hands of the potter, Your very welcome letter of November 19th has come to hand. I am happy to know you are persevering in your study of the law in relation to the Christian. You are laboring at a great disadvantage, for not only is the whole trend of present-day thought and teaching on the subject opposed to the truth, and it is always difficult to roll against the current, but the whole of your old man hates the law, Romans 8 verse 7, though you may be but dimly conscious of the fact and it will seek and use every advantage to prejudice you against the truth. I am therefore happy to find that, as you say, James 1, 5, and 6 have been much on our hearts of late. Continue Colossians 4 verse 2, pleading it before God daily. I may say that the word wisdom has a wider meaning and more comprehensive significance in James than it has in other epistles. He uses the term almost synonymously with godliness, piety and grace in its utmost latitude. Compare James 3.17 for the force of the term. It is only as that heavenly wisdom is communicated that your heart will be easily entreated by the law. I suggest that you take as your starting point receiving and suffering nothing to shake you under the law of 1 Corinthians 9.21. Probably your mind at once recalls the not under the law of Romans 614. Therein your meekness is at once put to the test." Pride and self-will would say, well Romans 614 comes first and 1st Corinthians 9.21 must yield to it. Humility and meekness would say, I may not understand how the two statements can be made to agree, but as there cannot be any contradictions in God's word, I receive them both as true. I refuse to pit one against the other. Taking the two declarations together, there must be a sense in which a Christian is not under the law, and there must be a sense in which he is under the law. What are those senses? Answer, he is not under the curse of the law, but he is under the rule of the law. Again, he is not under the law as in the hands of God the judge, but he is under the law in the hands of Jesus the mediator. Hence the fourth of under the law to Christ in 1 Corinthians 9.21. Please do not hesitate to mention any particular difficulties or special verses on the subject which puzzles you. Many thanks for your further kind offering to the Lord's work in our unworthy hands. May He richly bless you for the same. You will rejoice to learn that by the great goodness of our faithful God we had a record November so far as gifts for the magazine were concerned. And that after paying every bill promptly we closed the year on the 30th with a nice credit balance. Oh, Alleluia! We serve a great God, and He is greatly to be praised. The new year has also opened very promisingly, though we are still much exercised over our small list of names for 1936. Please continue in prayer about this. I note the prospect of your moving to occupy half of a bungalow. In my heart I am secretly hoping the Lord may have intervened, for I rather fear such an arrangement could hardly prove satisfactory to you. There is an old saying that no house is large enough for two families. And I have seen the wisdom of it exemplified in quite a few cases. However, the Lord takes various ways and means of reminding us that this is not our rest. He loves us too well to suffer us to become satisfied with any earthly condition. As soon as we do, He generally stirs up our nest. Thorns and briars are often needed to detach our hearts from the things of this world. You will probably recall these sentences in days to come. But no matter what wilderness, buffetings, and ruckings you may be called on to endure, my earnest prayer is that you may be kept from doubting either God's love or wisdom. May I utter a word of warning against acquiring many books? Life is short and time is valuable. The Puritans were very wordy, and one often had to read many pages to get only one or two helpful thoughts. A few really helpful books, thoroughly assimilated, count for far more than skimming through many ordinary books. I would like to write more, but this is my seventh letter today, and I have still another I must answer. May the Lord graciously work in each of us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, and grant us all needed wisdom to receive and follow His holy word, no matter what the cost of the flesh, with our united love and every good wish, yours by God's abounding mercy. Letter 24 Glory in Prayer Beloved in the Lord, greetings in the holy and blessed name of him who declares, but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3.18 The glass in which the glory of the Lord is revealed is, of course, the Scriptures, but the Scriptures are divided into two testaments. the respective contents of which may be summed up as the law and the gospel. The glory of the Lord, John 1.14 and so on, has reference to his moral attributes, for we are never conformed to his incommunicable perfection, his omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability. Now it is in the glass of his law that God's holiness and righteousness are exhibited, while in the glass of his gospel we see his grace and mercy. As by the Spirit's enabling operations we are beholding this glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image. That is, answering principles and affections are communicated to and wrought in our hearts. There is a love for holiness and righteousness and a desire to exercise grace and mercy in dealing with our fellows, all of which is only another way of saying that God writes His laws on our hearts or stamps His image upon us. Colossians 3 verse 10. Thus, from glory to glory denotes that this divine work of moral transformation, the Greek word for change here is the same one used of Christ in his transfiguration, Matthew 17 verse 2, is a gradual and progressive one. Consider further the more and more of Proverbs 4 verse 18. The first degree of this change is wrought in us at our regeneration. The second degree of it is affected during our practical sanctification. The third and last degree occurs in our glorification. If someone has said, won't we be beautiful when God has finished with us? That which exercises and so often distresses a sincere Christian is that, as he honestly examines himself, he can discover so very little evidence that he is being changed into the same image. But my dear Lowell and Evelyn, if God permitted us to see through the clouds of dust and dirt which the constant exercise of indwelling sin stirs up within us, and discern beneath His workmanship which is secretly going on in our souls, renewed day by day, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16, would we not in our present condition be filled with pride? Verily, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a manner." Proverbs 25, verse 2. We as kings, Revelations 1, verse 6, are to examine ourselves, 2 Corinthians 13, 5, and to seek to make sure that the root of the manner, Job 19, 28, is within us. Remember, dear friends, that as his countenance reflected the glory of the one with whom he had spoken face to face for forty days, Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone. Exodus 34, 29. He was unconscious of the changed rod in him, but others perceived it. Your ever-welcome letter of the tenth is to hand. Yes, Luke 18, verse 1, is very blessed in searching. In reality, Lowell, I believe that you pray much more, or I should say, much more frequently than you realize or as registered in your memory afterwards. I mean brief ejaculations for divine help under pressure. Prayer is a spontaneous unburdening of the heart to God and a cry for divine aid. This is a vastly different thing from saying prayers or going through a religious exercise such as millions of the unregenerate do daily. Don't attempt to pray by the clock. be quite artless and simple, and remember that a groan from the heart reaches the ear of God as quickly and truly as does a song of praise. Almost all the so-called praying in Christendom today is as non-spiritual as the belief accompanying it is non-scriptural. And each of us has been more contaminated by this state of things than we realize. In like manner, almost all that is written today on the subject of prayer is not only worthless, but positively injurious. Yes, I am thankful to say that our new living quarters are confirming our first impressions. It is truly a peaceable habitation. Thank you for answering my query about our sister's 1928 volume. May it please the Lord to make its contents a real blessing to Mrs. Foley. We are so glad to hear that the Lord has dealt graciously with Evelyn. and have sought to bring her case before the throne of grace. Thank you in his name for your further kind gift to the studies. You will be pleased to hear that the Lord continues to send in funds freely. I trust you spend a part of each Sabbath in reading the magazine. May the Lord be very gracious to both of you to supply all your need with our united Christian love. Letter 25 Practical Considerations Our dear fellow members of the body of Christ, greetings in the blessed name of him whose word records, and he found his ship going to Tarshish. Jonah 1 verse 3, what a strange sentence to begin my letter with, is it? Is it not a part of holy writ and so written for our learning? Ponder it a moment, in view of its context, and see what line of thought, what valuable lesson it inculcates. The Lord had bid Jonah go to Nineveh, verse 2, but that was a most distasteful commission to the prophet's state of mind. He rebelled and determined to flee to Tarshish. But that involved a voyage, and ships were not so plentiful in those days, nor did they sell according to our modern schedules. However, when Jonah reached the dock, here was a ship to hand, all ready to sell, going to the very place on which he had set his mind. How providential! How gracious of the Lord! Of course he must be displeased at Jonah's unwillingness to go to Nineveh, but then he is very merciful and remembers we are dust. So in his long-suffering goodness, he now undertook for his servant, showed himself strong on his behalf, yes, opened up the way for Jonah to go to Tarshish. How very easy for Jonah so to conclude. How natural for him so to interpret this providential interposition on his behalf. There was a ship ready to carry him. The captain making no demur when he proffered himself as a passenger. Surely this was God's provision for him, but was it? No, far from it. Be not deceived, God is not mocked with impunity. When we mock Him, He often mocks us in return. True, He opened the way for Jonah. But the sequel was disastrous, and only sovereign grace prevented his death. And this particular incident is recorded for our learning. But why have I called your attention to it? Ah, dear friends, cannot you apply to your own case a principle which underlies it? The providential interposition of God is not a rule for us to walk by. The Word has given us for that purpose. Oftentimes God, as it were, sets before us an open door, not as intimation He would have us enter it. but to test our hearts. How often the wish is fathered to the thigh. How readily we jump to a conclusion that such and such a thing is the Lord's will for me when that conclusion coincides with our secret desires. What I have written thus far has been suggested not as a rebuke, but for you carefully to weigh and keep in mind by what you said of a possible new home. First let me say that neither the nearness nor the remoteness of Christ's return is a rule to regulate us in the ordering of our temporal affairs. It is parallel with the possibility of death. Spiritual preparedness is a great manner. With regard to temporal things, while youth and health is ours, our responsibility is to act accordingly, for example, not to refuse to marry because death may strike us down within the next few days. On the other hand, our house should be set in order. For instance, I hope you have already made a will Second, let me say very emphatically that I think you would act very unwisely if you purchased any property. I know of more than one or two brethren in Christ in the USA who heartily wish they had never saddled themselves with property. Take only one angle of it. Suppose you bought a house, it being exactly suited to your needs, and two years hence you are transferred to New York or Los Angeles. It is one thing to buy property and quite another to sell. Third, I can quite understand your desire to remove from where you now are from the first my letters have intimated that no house is large enough for two families. But I do hope you will not jump out of the frying pan into the fire, as they say here. You need to pray for good judgment, a thing needs considering from many angles. Don't make haste. I have no advice to offer, but would indicate general principles. God has so ordered things that there is a law of compensation governing all things here. Everything earthly has certain advantages and certain disadvantages, gains and losses. This is true of marriage, true if you have children or are without any, true whether you be an employer or an employee, so of the location of a residence, whether it be in the city or in the country. There are certain drawbacks whichever you select. In the country, the air is purer. There is more quietness and privacy. On the other hand, time is wasted going to and from work, and buying a cheap car has its disadvantages as well as advantages. A wife is more exposed and has less protection against tramps and so on. Shopping is a bigger problem, and if goods are delivered beyond the city limits, you have to pay more for them, directly or indirectly. Fewer friends call on you. The doctor is harder to reach in case of sickness. especially at night time and so on. All these points have to be considered. I thank you in his name for the enclosed gift. Please convey my thanks to Evelyn's father for his share therein. I thought I had answered briefly your query about reading newspapers and so on. Much depends on your motive and what it is you dwell on. Anything necessary to keep you posted on business manners or world events is legitimate, but shun all political speeches, murder cases and such like. Yes, there is much in the experiences of Elijah which contains valuable instruction for us. If I am spared, and it is the Lord's pleasure for studies to continue, I intend to follow David's life with a briefer series on the life of Elijah, and then on Elisha. I am so glad to hear of your father's spiritual progress. If you have not already purchased and decide to get Manton, I believe I can secure his 22 volumes for much less than $30. Your little one is now approaching her most attractive stage, and much wisdom and patience will be required to strike the happy medium between laxity and undue severity. I am thankful to say that all is well with us. The Lord be very gracious to you and yours. Lead you not into temptation, but deliver you from evil. With our united love, yours by God's abounding mercy." Letter 26, Discovering the Will of God. my dear brother and sister in Christ. Greetings in the holy and blessed name of Him, who declares many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Psalm 34, 19. On occasion these afflictions are in the form of anguish over the discovery of our inward corruptions, at other times over the low state of Christ's cause in this world, or our sympathy for some of His suffering members, If still othered, they are occasioned by our adverse circumstances. Some of these afflictions are part of the entail of our fallen Adam. Many of them are caused by our own folly. Some of them are due to our faithfulness to Christ. But out of them all the Lord ultimately delivers us. No, dear brother, I do not have more time than formerly for letter writing. As each year passes, the composing of many articles, which are read by many of the same readers, requires more and more of my time. I am very far from thinking that you are ungrateful for the efforts I have made in my letters to be of some help to you. Yet I realize today more fully than ever that neither you nor any other of the younger ones whom I love in the Lord can want by my faith or profit from my experiences. Each one has to live and learn for himself. General principles of conduct I may set forth, but the application of them to the details of your life will have to be worked out by yourself. If I write fewer and shorter letters to you in the future, it will not be because I have lost or have less interest in you both, or because I consider that my efforts have resulted in no fruit in your lives, but because I have already given you the substance of the best of what God has given me, and because I shall be seeking God willing to pass on the same to others. It is indeed a splendid thing when we really desire God's will and nothing else to rule our lives. Yet, as I have several times suggested in recent articles, desiring God's will is a very vague and often a most confusing expression, and the all-important question of how his will is to be known generally leaves one in a state of utter perplexity. Let me illustrate. Am I to purchase a new suit of clothes for this winter? My natural and fleshly inclinations say yes. My spiritual instincts raise the question, would it be for God's glory? I'm now undecided. I tell myself I want God's will in a manner and not my own. Yes, but how is His will to be ascertained? There is no specific verse of scripture on the point, nor will the state of my finances supply an infallible answer. True, if my pocket be empty, that settles the matter, for I must never run into debts. But suppose I have a hundred dollars in hand? Well, that in itself does not justify me buying the suit. What then am I to do? Wait on God and ask Him to make His will clear? But what good would that do? We are only brought back to our first query of how is His will to be ascertained by me? Perhaps you reply, suppose after such praying I was unexpectedly to receive a gift of fifty dollars or a rise in a salary. Would not that be clear intimation that God wanted me to buy the suit and was here providing the money for it? Not necessarily. He might thereby be testing you. No, the better way would be to ask Him to give you good judgment and act on it. God holds us responsible to use our common sense, carefully to weigh pros and cons, to learn lessons from past experiences when we acted hastily and rashly, to profit from observing the mistakes others have made. It is always God's will for us to use our best judgment after praying Him to give us such. Now, for the example in hand, do I really need the suit? Would I, by purchasing it, make it impossible to buy other things which I or my family need more, or are more important? What am I likely to lose, my appearance at business, and so on, if I don't buy the suit? These and such light questions must be carefully considered and answered. Thus I change the vague question of, is it God's will for me to buy the suit, to, is it right, necessary, wise to do so? I would suggest that you carefully re-read the articles on divine guidance in 1934 studies, pages 212, 260, 281, and in January 1935. And here I must stop as several other important and difficult letters require my attention. A young preacher in Chicago earnestly desired to prepare experimental sermons another from a missionary in Salvador, begging a solution to some nasty problems in his field, and so on. The Lord be very gracious to you and yours, our united love and best wishes as ever, yours by God's abounding mercy. Letter 27, Christian duties. Beloved friends in Christ, greetings in the holy and blessed name of him who commands whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10, Which means, put your very best into it. Do it as unto the Lord himself, whether it be manual labor, work in the office, or domestic duties. Your welcome letter of the 13th is to hand. I'm glad to know that your new employer is strict and requires accuracy, and I regard this as a gracious providential provision from God furnishing needed discipline. Scripture says it is good that a man bear the yoke in his youth. Slackness and carelessness are inexcusable in a child of God. He should ever present a model and example of conscientiousness, painstaking care and exactness. Purfully ponder Ephesians 6, 5-8, Titus 2, 9 and 10, 1 Peter 2, 18-20. And remember that these exhortations are as binding upon you as the Ten Commandments. It is obedience to these precepts which God requires from you, and not going around speaking to people about their souls. I know from experience of both that the former is a much harder task than the latter. What I am here pressing upon you is practical Christianity. Unless your reading of the studies in my letters have, under God, made you a better workman in the office, more conscientious and reliable, they have profited you little indeed. And until you faithfully discharge your responsibilities in the office, it is most unlikely that God will ever call you to minister from a pulpit. I believe you may glorify Him more where you now are than in any sphere of Christian service. May the Lord grant you a hearing ear. a note from your letter that you have read and discussed with your father and uncle, my booklet on the law and the Sabbath, though you do not state how conclusive or inclusive you have found them. I trust you are now more definitely established on these most important subjects, not only on the leading Puritans, but Jonathan Edwards and Spurgeon taught that the moral law is a Christian's rule of life. No, the treasury of the Old and New Testament does not duplicate exactly the sermons by Spurgeon found in the 20 volumes published by Funk and Wagnall, though many of the same occur in both, permit me to say again, lovingly but earnestly, the money you spend on books ought to be placed in a savings account and not touched for anything except serious illness. It is a tempting of God to be in steady employment and not saving something each month. You are disobeying God if you do not lay by for a rainy day. I feel very strongly on this point. I gave the same scriptural counsel to others twenty years ago, who were then of the age you now are, and today they bitterly regret their disregarding of it. Hearty thanks for the kind enclosure. Please express my thanks to your father, father-in-law, and missus. With Christian love and every good wish, yours by God's rich mercy. P.S. Thanks very much for the stamps. The boys are delighted, and would value a few of South and Central American states. If any come your way. 28. THE OUTBREAK OF WAR Beloved in Christ, greetings in the blessed name of him who assures us, my times are in thy hand. Psalm 31, 15. When faith is exercised upon that truth, what comfort is ours, how the heart is stabilized. Your good letter of August 16th written from Hiram came duly to hand. Please accept our hearty thanks for the kind enclosure. May the Lord truly bless both givers and gifts. I had expected to write to you last Lord's Day, but conditions were such that we were not in a suitable mood. Just after 11 a.m. the nation was informed we are now at war with Germany. Less than an hour later we received the first air raid warning conveyed by loud sirens lasting two minutes. All around the coast we have airplanes patrolling on the watch for advancing enemy planes, and as soon as they see any of them they flash the news inland. As soon as the warning sirens sound, everyone on the streets must at once take shelter indoors. Those already at home retired to the room specially fitted up for protection against poison gas. We have been living for the past three years in upstairs rooms rented already furnished. Our landladies have fixed up the living room downstairs in their part of the house, which is large enough to accommodate us as well for a limited time. This prepared room has been rendered airtight so that no air from the outside can enter in. This is a precaution in case the enemy should drop bombs filled with poison gas. The general expectation is, however, that if an attacking squadron of German airplanes were to penetrate our defenses, they would use incendiary bombs filled with high explosives in an inflammable manner. Against that form of attack, civilians are helpless until they prepare deep dugouts in the back gardens and strengthen these with concrete sides and roofs. A few have made this provision, but we have not, and we do not expect to. The government has furnished us all with gas masks, which we have to carry in a box slung over our shoulders, whether we leave home to shop and so on. The air raid warning last Sabbath morning came as quite a shock, for we did not even know that war had been declared. However, I am thankful to say we were both kept quite calm though rendered uneasy because our landladies were away at church. It turned out that the alarm was quite unnecessary, and an hour later the all-clear signal was sounded by the sirens. It was stated that a friendly plane had been sighted by our observers, which at first they were unable to identify. Two days later we went through the same experience, but with the same harmless sequel. We are thus kept in a state of more or less tension all the time, for we have no means of knowing what hour, day, or night we may be bombed. Yet there is no panic or jitters among the people. At the moment I can make no definite statement as to the future of the magazine. I have written to my printer, but he has not yet replied. Our desire is to continue publishing, and if God is pleased to spare our life, as he assuredly will if he has any further service for us down here, I fully expect we shall do so for another year at least. I hope to make a definite statement in the November or December studies upon the matter. We look for a regular mail service to be maintained between this country and the USA. Those sailings will probably be less frequent, and thus letters take longer to come and go. It will be quite in order for you to transmit money by international money order, but please have the orders made out to us at Hove and not Brighton. If your post office at East Point will not do this, please send from Atlanta. Do not be unduly worried about us. We are quite safe in the Lord's hands. Proverbs 1.33 Please make a point of praying daily for God's saints in Germany. From the contacts I have had with those who handle a lending library, I think they are more bothered than they are worth, and I would not advise you to saddle yourself with one. Thank you very much for the promise to send me the stamps if Mrs. C. gives some to you. We have noted the new address of your father. Am thankful to say this leaves us both quite well in every way, except that I have a head cold. We have abundant cause to praise the Lord. May he continue his favor to each of us, and keep us faithful to the end, with our united love, yours by God's abounding mercy. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, Thank you. by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.