Amerikai Magyar Reformátusok Lapja, 1933 (34. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
1933-12-09 / 49. szám
8 AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Kindly send full and detailed information relative to these requests to Joseph Szopo, 8091 South St., Detroit, Mich. Your humble editor, through tlhe efficient medium of his short-wave length radio television, has heen able to sniff around and finally land on a happy gathering of two active C. E. groups in the fair city of Toledo. The time was Sunday, Nov. 5th, and the visiting C. E. Society was from Detroit. The Toledo girls served their famous cookies and you should have seen the smiling Bill Ákos gobble down a few dozen! Joe Szopo was there, too, who promptly and boudly assured the Toledo bunch that Detroit will soon repay their excellent hospitality. The editor will snoop around for news there, too. o=ar===ir=inr=ir^— FIVE STEPS TO THE GALLOWS. In every church you will find a group of young people, who are starting their life’s career wrongly. There seems to be two fractions of young people in each congregation; the workers and the slackers. T he first group you find everywhere they are noble and meritorious. The second you find on street corners with gangs most probably composed of reckless members. You will find that most of these “outcasts” if we may call them so, at heart are not bad. They have merely shifted away from the right group and joined another. The problem of bringing these young people back is a task worthy of persuit. Here are suggestions as a means of bringing these people back. You wdll find that they shrink at the sight of a minister. They fear his presence and will avoid meeting him if possible. Of course the minister should help when necessary. But the greatest task lies with the “working” group of young people. To gain the confidence of these outsiders a personal interest from the church group of young people goes a long way. An unceasing interest and .frequent request to come around and join the real “gang” is a very probable means to an end. You will find that most young people “quit” church etc. because things are stale and there is nothing for them to do there. Find out their hobby and of what they are capable of doing and ask them to do it. Give them some personal responsibility in your society, pep up his deadened spirit and show him that you are very much alive. Y ou must give them what they are seeking to find outside. . . . fun. Ask them teach Sunday School, play basket ball etc. and watch the results! Of course you will find some that you can not move no matter how hard you try. Nice talk and a fair warning as their probable destination and goal in life might do some good. Here is an illustrated suggestion: A man had committed murder, was tried, found guilty, and condemned to be hanged. A few days before his execution, upon the walls of his prison he drew the figure of a man hanging on a gallows, with five steps leading to it. On the first step he wrote, Disobedience to Parents. Solomon says, “The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it,” that is, he shall perish by a violent death; he shall come to a miserable, wretched end. On the second step he wrote, Sabbath-breaking. God in his command, said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Visit your prisons and jails, and you will find that nine tenths of its inmates have begun their downward course by breaking this command. On the third step he wrote, Gambling and Drunkenness. The Dr. Nott, for more than fifty years president of Union college, having been a close observer of human events, truly says, “The finished gambler has no heart. He would play at his broter’s funeral, he would gamble upon his mother’s coffin”. On the fourth step he wrote, Murder. God’s command is, “Thou shalt not kill.” To prevent man from unlawfully taking the life of his fellow-man, God has annexed an awful penalty: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” On the fifth step he wrote, The Fatal Platform. It is almost impossible for us to form a correct idea of the thoughts that must rush through the mind of a man under such circumstances. . . the disgrace and ignominy attached to his name; the pains and agony of such a death; the want of sympathy in the community around him; the fearful forebodings of his guilty soul before the bar of a holy God. Friends! Are you trodding on any of these five steps? Rev. J. Sathmary. Elyria, O. A mult vasárnap tartott egyházi vacsora kitünően sikerült. Iskola termünk zsúfolásig megtelt nemcsak magyar, hanem angol vendégekkel is. A vacsorának összes kiadásait Mr. Bittner fedezte s igy az anyagi jövedelem nagy segítségére lett egyházunknak. E helyen is hálás köszönetét mondunk mindazoknak, akik e vacsora sikeréhez bármiképpen is hozzájárultak. — Az egyháztanács dec. 10-én tartja havi gyűlését.
