A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Two statements from the Psalms of David sound the keynote of prayer for today. The first is in Psalm 25:5, “Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me”; and the second is in Psalm 43:3, “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me.” Stated more succinctly, they read: “Lead me into Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.”
The special need of this prayer for our time is due to the fact that we are living in an era of unprecedented lying and deception. Lying propaganda has always been the chief causal agent in the breakdown of orderly society. It was used prior to the expulsion from Eden, where the tempter said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” It deluded the people of Noah’s time and buried a civilization in a watery grave. Lies played their part in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the downfall of every nation and civilization from that distant time to the present century.
Speaking to the drunkards of Ephraim and to all the “scornful men” of his own generation, the Prophet Isaiah said:
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.” (Isa. 28:15-19.)
Such leaders as Isaiah portrays in this chapter are never concerned about truth. They feel secure in the refuge of lies concocted for them by false prophets, faithless priests and political hacks. Always bent on their own evil schemes, they never inquire, “What saith the Lord?” They do not want to know truth, nor do they want to be led by it. It was available to them, as it is to us. So much Divine truth is set forth in the writings of Moses that men who had access to them were without excuse if they failed to heed his teachings; however, access to both Old and New Testaments ignore the wealth of revelation at hand.
Later, as Isaiah looked down the centuries and saw the Israel peoples regathered under the covenant of their Redeemer, he was saddened by the vision that confronted him. In chapter 59, the prophet gives a remarkable description of conditions as they exist today in the United States, in Britain, and in all the other nominally Christian lands of the Western world. We quote in part as follows:
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity….The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
“Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us:…in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.”
What could better describe the tumult, the conflicting opinions, emotions, uncertainties and confusion of the present time? Truth is fallen in the street. Consequently, equity cannot enter and there is no righteous judgment. When this condition exists, those who depart from evil become a prey, the victims of liars themselves are responsible. Truth must be rescued and reinstated in Christian society if our nations and churches and freedom are to survive.
What is one to believe? How can he know what is true and what is false in the midst of bedlam? There is only one way to know --- and that is the way of prayer --- earnest, prevailing prayer. When Israel’s beloved King and Psalmist faced problems similar to our own, he prayed:
"Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day….O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” (Ps. 25:4-5; 43:3.)
Now, in this crucial election year, Christians of the United States should keep this in prayer in their hearts and lips. Already the political campaigns are heading toward an all-time low in demagoguery. The former Democratic and Republican parties, in which each served as a balance wheel to the other, no longer exist; they are now merely two arms of the same international body, which General Douglas MacArthur referred to in one of his speeches as “the invisible government.” Unless a powerful new movement arises from the grass roots soon, voters will have no choice at the polls in November. Both parties have been captured by anti-Christian international conspirators. A vote for either party promises to be a vote for more Socialism to speed Zionism’s dream of World Government.
The editor of Christian Economics writes as follows under the headline, “Are We Disfranchised?”:
“In his new book, Affairs of State – The Eisenhower Years, Richard H. Rovere points out that the Eisenhower administration resembles the Truman administration. Harry and Dwight are more alike than either would suspect or admit….
“Both believe in increasing socialization not only in fiscal affairs, but in schools, ‘social security,’ conscription, universal military training, enormous payments to farmers in return for producing goods that are not needed or wanted at the prices demanded, and special privileges for unions that amount, in some cases, to subsidizing Socialist governments abroad, thus increasing their grip upon the people and so postponing, if not preventing, the achievement of more freedom which would result in greater production and increased well-being.
Both pay lip service to free enterprise, while following a program that leads more and more toward statism. We said before the last election that, if one wanted more Socialism, he could vote either ticket and be sure of winning. How true that prophecy has proved to be! The country is urgently in need of a new political alignment that will permit those who wish to vote against Socialism to register their convictions at the polls.” (May 15, 1956.)
Unless Christian patriots with influence and wealth launch immediately a new political ticket dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States, the means with which to do this, both monetary and legal, may be wiped out overnight by judicial or executive order.
It is time to emphasize the fact that a Christian has not done his full duty when he supports a church program and maintains his respectability. As a citizen in the “Commonwealth of (Christian) Israel” (Eph. 2:12), he is responsible for righteous government under God’s direction and laws. If one doubts his responsibility toward the maintenance of good government, let him note what happens to churches when nations lose their freedom. We need to pray for an awakened sense of obligation, not only in national affairs, but in the separate affairs of our forty-eight state governments. Many of us have known the truth about the Divine source of good government, and our duty to uphold it, yet we have failed to let that truth lead us into active participation in the processes of free government.
Nonparticipation on the part of good men and women has left the cultivation of political fields in the hands of the wrong kind of people. No wonder the tares “sprung up” and brought forth evil fruit “while men slept.”
In American Mercury, June 1956, Board Chairman Russell Maguire wrote:
“World Government is the Beast who will lead us to destruction….Never forget there are two strings on the Devil’s violin:
“1) You can get something for nothing.
“2) It’s too late; you can’t do anything about it.
“Both are phony promises. You definitely can do something about it! Will you?”
We would like to add a third string to the Devil’s violin:
“The Supreme Court has spoken. It is the law of the land. Nothing can be done about it.”
What fools people are to accept such palpable untruths! Any schoolboy with a smattering of civics ought to know better than that. The Supreme Court is not a legislative body; furthermore, its members, being liable to the elected representatives of the people, are subject to impeachment by Congress for improper acts and decisions.
Editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Lynn Landrum, who is versed also in legal matters, made some pertinent observations recently in his column: “Thinking Out Loud.” We quote a characteristic bit of wisdom which heads the column and follow with excerpts from the article:
“When judges write the laws
To make us bond or free,
The throne is then the bench
And bondsmen all are we.
“In the opinion of the column, our present Supreme Court of the United States is dangerously subversive in that it tends mightily to destroy and set at naught the system of restraints on power which the Constitution of the United States established. Indeed, we are drifting rapidly toward a situation where what the Constitution says will make no difference to the court and little to the country….
“The present court, packed by the New Deal --- Queer Deal --- Re-deal (Roosevelt, Truman & Eisenhower), has lost respect with the country and has just about lost with it the practicing bar. Numerically, gravest accountability is on Roosevelt and Truman. But Eisenhower’s Chief Justice Warren is a toothy sample of as an unqualified judge as ever sat in such company. Mr. Warren was a Governor and his teeth are good. And he is on the bench. Therefore, he is Chief Justice of the United States….Not being real judges when appointed --- with such exceptions as, by their nature, add no prestige to the court --- our nine gentlemen on the bench cannot agree with themselves. Indeed they cannot stay of one mind on one case for as long as 24 months in succession, with the inglorious result that a litigant who wins a judgment confirmed by the Supreme Court is not safe in taking the money, lest, after he has spent it, the Supreme Court turn upon him and demand it back again.
“Mr. James F. Byrnes, himself a former Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, thinks Congress can do something about all this. Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution is what he is talking about. And Mr. Byrnes is not a man to talk through his hat. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is subject to exceptions and regulations ‘as Congress may by law direct.’ It is time to direct.
The chief aim of deceivers is to make us think that we are helpless, that there is nothing we can do to counteract their ruinous policies. Truth falls in the street when citizens believe their lies and submit to their outrageous depredations. The Lord sees it, Isaiah reminds us, and it displeases Him when His people exercise no judgment in dealing with traitors.
All Western nations are being shoved toward destruction by widespread deception in high places. We have touched briefly on deception in the realm of government. But its poisonous tentacles reach into every phase of our personal and corporate lives. It would require volumes to record the ramifications of lying propaganda in the vast areas of education, both secular and religious, and in the various channels of public information --- the press, radio, television, cinema, et cetera.
Among the people who regard themselves as exemplary Christians, there are many who do not realize what a serious thing it is to tamper with truth. It may surprise some to find that the Bible puts liars in the same bracket with the lowest of criminals. Consider the following thought-provoking statements:
“A sword is upon the liars.” (Jer. 50:36.)
“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers [kidnappers], for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” (I Tim. 1:9-10.)
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:7-8.)
Surely it is time to pray to be heard throughout all Christian lands. Someone has said that Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. James says in his Epistle, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7).
The Scriptures contain many helpful prayers to guide our thinking. He who seeks them out and makes them his own will grow in grace and truth and wisdom. Suppose all who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ would pray in sincerity every day: “Lead me in Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.” Who can measure the power for truth one such prayer could generate in the world today?
Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
OTHER BOOKS AND BOOKLETS BY THE AUTHOR
One Man’s Destiny
An Emerging Civilization – out of print
The Basic Principles in Bible Study – out of print
The Bible and Modernism
The Bible and Segregation
Facing the Sunrise
Origin and Transmission of the Bible
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