Pauline and I have old friends visiting us.
Colin and Maureen Harbinson are friends from England.( They may be known to you as the authors of "Toy Maker and Son").
If the weather co-operates we will be doing some outings to see the last of the Fall colors.
Also, for anyone who lives in the vicinity of Barrie, Colin will be preaching at the Mount St Louis Christian Fellowship on Sunday morning at 10:30.
I hope to be back serving breakfast next week. I implore your patience and ask you to please keep your hands off the ketchup bottle.
Jubilate.
Ian
It may not come as a surprise when I tell you that the addiction that is causing more destruction, death and havoc in American society is not heroine or ecstasy or pills of any sort, but alcohol.
Plain and simple.
I had a grandfather, who was the soul of kindness but who had afflicted his family with the curse of drink. Therefore, my mother warned me against the evil effects of liquor from my earliest days.
I listened to her.
Contrast some of the "funny" jokes about inebriation with the words of an early pioneer for temperance:
"I am not so think as you drunk I am" John Squire
"Who says that I am under the affluence of incahol?" oft quoted
"I'm no alcoholic. I'm a drunkard.The difference is, drunkards don't go to meetings" Jackie Gleason.
And now this lady, Eliza "mother" Smith.
"No power on earth or above the bottomless pit has such influence to terrorize and make cowards of men as the power of liquor.
Satan could not have fallen on a more potent instrument with which to enslave the minds of men. Alcohol is King."
I think that we should have Eliza as a guest speaker at some of the political conventions and business conferences that are so popular these days.
Or maybe, just maybe, she would spoil the party!
Jubilate.
Ian
An often overlooked truth about America is that it is the only nation in the history of mankind that was founded as a Christian Nation.
When the Pilgrim Fathers came ashore at Plymouth Rock in 1662 they immediately gave thanks to God and dedicated themselves and their new colony into the hands of Jesus Christ.
The covenants that they made have been honored by God until this very day.
Therefore, let us contrast the guiding principles of our forefathers with the modern day take of a tycoon like Donald Trump.
Concerning greed;
"The point is, a person cannot be too greedy."
And the words of Ivan Boesky, international financier ( before he was jailed for fraud)
"Greed is all right, by the way...... I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."
Contrast the words of puritan preacher, Andrew Willett.
"A hog is good for nothing when he is alive: not good to carry like a horse; nor to draw, as an ox; nor to clothe as a sheep; nor to give milk as a cow; but fed only to the slaughter.
So a greedy, rich man, just like a hog, does no good with his riches while he liveth, but when he is dead his riches come to be disposed of. "The riches of the sinner are laid up for the just".
Think about it.
Ian
