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Let's open our Bible together to Matthew Chapter 23. In the word of God, no one is so honored, no one is so respected, no one is so dignified as to the true and faithful man of God. In other words, the genuine spiritual leader who rightly represents God is the single most celebrated individual Scripture apart from God Himself. God lifts up faithful, true servants of His name. And throughout the pages of Scripture we read of the wonderful testimony of these individuals and God calls us to give them honor and give them respect. The apostle Paul went so far as to say that people treated him as though he were an angel or even as Christ Himself, he said in Galatians 4:14.
And speaking of his dear and beloved companion in service, Epaphroditus, he called upon the Philippians in Chapter 2 to give him great respect, to hold him in great reputation because for the sake of the service of Jesus Christ the man was near unto death. And Paul writing to the Thessalonians says those who are over you in the Lord are to be esteemed very highly in love for their work sake. And it tells us in 1 Timothy 5:17 that those who rule well, who feed our souls well are to be worthy of double honor. And in Hebrews Chapter 13, we are told that we are to follow the faith of those who are over us in the Lord. We are to submit to them as those that must give an account so that they may do their work with joy and not with grief. Scripture extols the blessedness of those who are faithful. It speaks of the reward of those who are true spiritual leaders. And on the other hand, no one is so severely condemned, no one is so consummately damned as false spiritual leaders are.
The most furious, vengeful words of judgment, condemnation and wrath are reserved for those who parade themselves as if they are true spiritual leaders, who represent God, but in fact are liars and deceivers and hypocrites. Scripture repeatedly warns about teachers who are void of the knowledge of God. They say they offer to others. Who are strangers to the salvation they claim to proclaim. Who are starving while supposedly offering true bread. Who are warning men of a hell that they themselves will populate.
Richard Baxter, who preached in the 1600's, wrote "many a tailor goes in rags that maketh costly clothes for others and many a cook scarcely licks his fingers when he has dressed for others the most costly dishes." Such false leaders who were supposedly clothing others with righteousness and feeding others the sustenance of God, but in fact, themselves were naked and starving and had no clothes to offer and no food to feed are the scribes and the Pharisees of our Lord's time. And in Matthew Chapter 23, Jesus rebukes them as perishing in the midst of plenty. Starving with the bread of life in their grasp and leading others to the same damning destiny.
Matthew Chapter 23 stands as a peak above all other peaks in Scripture insofar as its condemning terms. Its unmitigated condemnation extends right down through verse 36. And to be honest with you, it's not easy to preach the passage because of its relentlessness in condemning these false leaders. But we must because its here and because it stands as a warning. But the scribes and the Pharisees while they stand alone and should be condemned alone and were condemned alone and suffer alone for their misappropriation of truth, for their misconceptions, for their misleading heresy, nonetheless stand as models of all other false spiritual leaders that existed before them and since them. And consequently, we find ourselves instructed for our own day by learning what it was about them that was condemned.
And so as we look back in history relative to this passage and as we are brought to understand what it was that Jesus condemned in them, may we somehow transport that message to the contemporary setting and make some application to the false spiritual leaders of our own time. And I'm going to leave that application to you. I'm not here to name names. I'm not here to name religions or denominations or movements or whatever, but to give you the criteria out of the word of God so that you can make those kinds of judgments on your own. But you need to be discerning. You need to give respect and honor to those who are true spiritual leaders as Scripture leads you to do and you need to condemn and avoid those who are false as Scripture enjoins you to do as well.
Now you'll remember the setting want you? It is Wednesday of Passion week, two days from the crucifixion. The mounting hostility to Jesus Christ has reached a fever pitch. Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as the Messiah and the religious leaders panicked instantly. They despised Him. They hated Him, because He taught so contrary to their own doctrine. And because He lived a life they couldn't live and because He had a popularity they couldn't attain and because He could do things they couldn't do and say things they couldn't say and didn't know.
He intimidated them every way possible and they wanted to eliminate Him and then when the whole city seemed to be swept up in the fact that He might be the Messiah, their anger was even raised beyond what it had been before. And then when He came in on Tuesday and cleansed the temple, it became a rage. And then when He came back on Wednesday, this day where we find Him in Matthew 23 and pronounced three judgment parables against the religious leaders and told them they would be shut out of the kingdom and somebody put in their place, and then when He shut their mouths with divine answers to stupid human questions. They were at the point of frenzy. And we can understand why it's only two days before they have Him hanging on a cross.
But to cap off the Wednesday dialogue with them, He gives the sermon in Chapter 23. Chapter 22 ends with the thought that they no longer asked Him any questions. He had made them look like fools every time they did, so they silenced themselves. And that leaves Him free on this Wednesday to preach a final sermon. It is the final public sermon our Lord ever preached. And its subject is false spiritual leaders and it is a warning to the people to stay away from them, that's verse 1-12 and then it is a condemnation of them themselves from verse 13 on and ends with a lament over the consequence of the unbelief of Jerusalem, which unbelief was the product of false spiritual leadership.
And so this is a blistering rebuke. In the first 12 verses He warned the people to stay away from them. He showed them that they lacked authority. They lacked integrity. They lacked sympathy. They lacked spirituality and they lacked humility. And having warned the people then, He turns to the leaders, all of whom are gathered around He and His disciples in the temple court at Passover season and face to face in a confrontation He pronounces doom upon them.
Seven times He uses the word woe. Why, which is a very guttural cry in the Greek that's almost impossible to translate. It's nothing more than a onomatopoetic sound uttered from deep within in a moment of pain and grief. He pronounces this kind of curse on them and it is not wishful thinking. It is a divine teat. He isn't saying damn you or curse you the way we might say it to someone we're angry with in our civilization. It is not a wish. It is a divine judgment. And He pronounces the final judgment on the religious leaders of Israel who have rejected Him and led the people in an equal rejection.
Now the seven curses that come upon them are specifically identified down through verse 33 and we're going to look at them. Follow very closely. Let me remind you that verse 14 does not appear in all of the old manuscripts and so we believe that it was added in at a later time by a well-meaning scribe who borrowed its thoughts from Mark Chapter 12, verse 40 and Luke Chapter 20, verse 47. The statements of verse 14 are indeed true and come from those other texts, but do not appear in the original texts of Matthew.
And so we're left with seven curses. First of all, false spiritual leaders are cursed for exclusion, for keeping people out of the kingdom, verse 13. "For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves, neither permit them who are entering to go in." What does He mean by the phrase "them who are entering?" It has the idea of people who are continually endeavoring to enter. John the Baptist had come and prepared a population of people for the arrival of Messiah.
All of Jerusalem and Judea was going out to John and they were confessing their sins and repenting of their sins and being baptized as an outward symbol of an inward desire to be pure, to be ready when the Messiah arrived. And here were these people ready to move, as it were into the kingdom and along came the scribes and Pharisees and shut the door in their faces. False spiritual leaders are not to caudled. They are not to be thought of as nice people who are leading people into moral kinds of behavior and consideration. They are those who shut the kingdom of heaven in the face of people.
Theirs is a damning heresy. And they must be treated in a manner consistent with the damage they do. We considered that one in detail last week. Secondly, verse 15, false spiritual leaders are cursed not only for exclusion, that is excluding people from the kingdom, but perversion. They pervert the people who come into their influence. They not only shut them out of heaven, they usher them into hell. Here come along some people seeking religion, here come people seeking some kind of moral change in their life, people with some kinds of emotional, psychological need, some kind of spiritual desires, and they not only shut them out of heaven, but they pervert them into children of hell. Verse 15 says, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte." That word originally meant and immigrant who came into the land of Palestine to live with the Jews, later came to mean a Gentile who embraced Jewish religion.
You go everywhere you can go to make some convert, not just a proselyte of the "gate," which was a Gentile who just kind of got in the gate. He just took on a few of the elements of Judaism, but a proselyte of righteousness. What William Hendrickson calls a full fledge, legalistic, ritualistic, hair-splitting Pharisee filled with fanatical zeal. You want to make him every bitwhat you are and you'll go every where just to make one of them and when you've done it, you've made him a double son of hell beyond yourself.
The convert to the cult, the convert to the false religion, the duped disciple of the false spiritual leader is more fanatical than the one who brought him in. And the result is a double child of hell. We don't tolerate false spiritual leaders of any kind. They are not to be tolerated. They shut people out of heaven and usher them into hell. Now we spent last week just covering those two points because of the magnitude of their import.
Now I want to take you from there through the rest of these things. The third one, and I want to confess to you folks that I...there's not much I can add to this text. There's not much that needs to be added. You can't guild the lily. And the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are so powerful and so precise and so poignant and so dramatic that anything I say can only detract rather than add to the power of this text.
Thirdly, false spiritual leaders are cursed for subversion, not just exclusion and perversion, but subversion. They subvert truth. They have developed reasoning that undermines truth. It is a mark of one who is in any sense possessing the life of God that truth is important. God is a God of truth. The God who cannot, what? Lie says Paul. God is a God of truth. God says I hate lying in every false way. God is a God who speaks truth. And so any false system is a lying system.
In John 8 our Lord talks about the fact that the devil is a liar and the father of it. False systems are filled with lies, untruths, broken promises and that's exactly what the Pharisees and scribes had developed, a system evade the truth. A system to undermine integrity to subvert truth. Notice how they did it in verse 16. "Woe unto you," and instead of calling them hupokrites, phonies, deceivers, hypocrites, He calls them blind guides, because they lived under the illusion that they were the guides of the blind. Romans 2 says, "You Jews think you're guides of the blind, light to those in darkness, instructors of babes, you giving wisdom to those that are foolish and you don't know the truth. You're nothing but blind guides. That's what our Lord is saying here. In fact, earlier in Matthew 15:14, He said, "the blind are leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind, both are going to fall in a ditch."
So here were the people blind, here were their leaders blind, and the blind leaders trying to guide the blind people; you blind guides. That's a very blistering statement because they prided themselves on their spiritual sight and ability to guide people. "You say whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is the debtor." Now what is this? Well, they were liars to start with and all spiritual...all false spiritual leaders are liars, because only one who possessed the life of God can be utterly true. Only God can break down the lying tendencies of fallenness and replace it with truth. And that is a redemptive work, a sanctifying work, a work of regeneration.
So ungodly people and false spiritual leaders are liars. I mean, that's just part of it all. They lie. But in order to cover their tracks and to appear pious, they had developed a system by which they could lie with impunity. And they would promise this and promise that. They would vow this to God, vow a covenant to some person and then in order to affirm that because people didn't trust anybody then any better than they trust people now. They want a contract, maybe they want to seal it in blood. Every culture has its own way of sort of tying you into your word. In that day, you swore by something. It had come to the point where people lied constantly and there was no way that you could protect yourself unless you design some means of making a person verbally bound to keep their word.
And the fact of this is indicated in Matthew Chapter 5, you remember where our Lord says to them, you have been told by those of old that you can perform your vows, keep your word. But you've developed a system whereby you swear by this, you swear by that, you swear by the other and He goes on to talk about all their swearing. I swear I'll keep my word. I swear this. I swear that by this, by that, the other thing. And the Lord says to them, you ought to swear not at all, right, but let your communication be what? Yes, no. In other words, such a person of integrity, such a person of truth that if I say to God yes, God, then that's exactly what I mean. And if I say no, that's exactly what I mean and I don't have to say I swear on a stack of Bibles. And you know, cross my fingers, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, whatever.
And we've had our little deals too, haven't we. We used to say when we were kids, ha, I don't have to keep my word, I had my fingers crossed. Same thing. A system whereby you could lie, whereby your word meant nothing and they would make vows to God and then they would decide that the money they wanted to give to God originally in a moment of piosity, for example, they would stand up in front of a group of people and say I want to give all my money to God. I'm so pious. And later on they'd find they wanted something else and they'd say oh well, I only swore by such and such and by such and such doesn't count.
That's how they work the system. So they said in verse 16, if you swear by the temple, it's nothing. So they say, I'm going to do this. I vow to do this before God and all of you people. I will keep my word. I will pray eight hours a day, blah, blah, blah. I swear by the temple. And then didn't do it and said, oh swearing by the temple is nothing. If you swear by the gold in the temple that's something. That's what they said. Ridiculous. Just a way of lying. They know what the Old Testament said. The Old Testament said pay your vows. Pay your vows. Pay your vows.
What does that mean? Keep your promise. Keep your promise. Keep your word. God hates lying. So many Old Testament texts in the Psalms particularly. Let me just call your attention to several just as a point of contact. In Psalm 50, verse 14, "Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High." Don't make promises you can't keep. Promise to God, keep your promise. Psalm 56:12, "Thy vows are upon me oh God, I will render praises unto thee. I'm bound by my promises to you oh God. I won't break my word." Psalm 61, verse 8 and these are just samples, "So will I sing praise to thy name forever, that I may daily perform my vows." Psalm 66:13, "I will go into the house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows." Psalm 76:11, "Vow and pay unto the Lord your God." And it goes on like that a lot of places in the Old Testament. Keep your word to God. Keep your word to men.
This is illustrated in Ananias and Sapphira said we're going to give all we receive from the sell of this property to God. Boy it sounded so religious, so pious, so dedicated, so spiritual. They got a lot of money and they looked at it and said we made a mistake. Look at all this. The church budget doesn't even need it. They won't know what to do with it. I'm not sure we can trust them down there. We can't give all this to them. We'll keep part of it. And you know what God did? Killed them in front of the whole congregation. They dropped dead.
I imagine it had a rather great effect on next weeks offering. But the point is they had developed a system where they could lie. And so verse 19, He doesn't even deal with the immorality of it here. He deals with the stupidity of it. It's obvious to everybody that God advocates truth and not lying. He just deals with the stupidity of it. You morons, He says, moroi. You morons and blind. That's what He says.
What's greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? In other words, the only reason the gold could be thought of sacred is because it's in the temple which is sacred because it's where God dwells. What a ridiculous method of cheating and violating your word. And then verse 18, they had another little deal. "Whosoever shall swear by the altar it is nothing." So if you promise by the altar it's nothing, but whatever the gift is on the altar, whoever swears by the gift that's on it, he's bound. You morons, He says, and blind. Which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? What's the gift if it isn't on the altar?
I mean, it's ridiculous. It's illogical. It doesn't make sense. The gift standing alone is nothing. It's only when it's on an altar offered to God that it becomes something. The gold standing alone is nothing. It's only when it's in the temple where God dwells that it's anything. In other words, if you think by doing that you're touching something that's not connected to God, you're wrong. You're wrong. It was just a silly way to evade having to keep your word. And you see false spiritual leaders need that because they lie all the time. So they have to cover themselves in a pure pious and develop some kind of system where they can make their pious promises of what they're going to do and still change their mind conveniently.
So He says, in verse 20, "Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it and all things on it. Whosoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it and him that dwelleth in it. And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God and Him who sits on it." I mean, everything you touch eventually is going back to God, right? You swear by anything that represents God, a gift, an altar, the gold of the temple, the temple, the heaven of heavens, the throne of God and you're going to touch the God who fills it all.
In other words, have you forgotten that God is everywhere, as creator of all and Lord of all. You better tell the truth. They subverted the truth. They developed reasoning that undermine truth. False spiritual leaders don't tell the truth folks, but they parade piosity. Try to cover up for their lying pretense. We need to be careful of that. They subvert whole houses. They by their great covetousness, says Peter, use feigned words to make merchandise out of you. They lie. They say they need money when they don't need money. They say God told them something, when He never told them anything. They say Jesus led them into something, when He never led them into anything. They lie. Beware of those liars who are false spiritual leaders.
Fourthly, false spiritual leaders are cursed for inversion. Not only subversion, that is undermining truth, but inversion. That is reversing values, reversing divine priorities. This in verse 23 is most fascinating. "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees," hupokrites, spiritual phonies, "for you pay tithe," that's ten percent, "of mint and anise cumin." You say what is that? Well, you know what mint is. The Greek word is sweet smelling. It's a little leaf, little mint leaf. And do you know what anise is? Well, actually it's dill, used like with dill pickles. Cumin was a little tiny herb used in the kitchen. All three of these are kitchen items, mint, anise, cumin; mint, dill, and this little herb all used for flavoring food.
Now the Old Testament law, God instructed His people to give one-tenth of all their crops and all their products to the treasury in Israel. In other words, the government was supported by taxation and one of the forms of taxation was ten percent tax on all the product of the land. So every year when you got your crop, ten percent of it went to the government. That's how the priests were supported because the government was a theocracy run by priests. So their sustenance came from the part that you put into the government. There also was another tenth paid and there also was a third tenth paid every third year for welfare, for strangers and so forth. The second tenth was for ceremonies and national festivals and so forth. So you were giving usually about 23 percent a year that you put in, not far off our tax base today.
So they were used to that. And the Old Testament text said in Leviticus 27:30 and Deuteronomy 14:22, that this included "all the increase of thy seed;" all the increase of thy seed. Now what that meant was, you plant your seed and whatever you get of the increase, you tithe that. But these wooden literalists had taken that to the absolute ridiculous extreme. And in the little kitchen pots, they would grow mint and they would grow dill and they would have these little herbs called cumin and that was just a kitchen deal. And when it came time to sort that out, they'd go here's ten little tiny herbs, one for God, nine for me. One for...I mean, it was ridiculous. Absurd. God wasn't saying that when He said the increase of your seed. He meant you tithe the grain and the wine and oil product.
But they were down to this minuscule...you say why were they doing that? Because it made them feel so pious, so righteous, trivia, minutia. They were real good at that, real good at counting out seeds. But they were bad at, and you'll see in the rest of the verse. "You have omitted the weightier elements of the divine law," implied divine, "justice, mercy, and faith." Oh is this amazing? You're real good at counting mint leaves, great fooling around with dill, but bad when it came to justice, mercy, and faith.
False religious leaders get wrapped up in inconsequential minutia and have no capacity to deal with the weightier matters. And the weightier, that word is a rabbinical word. Jesus borrows it from the tradition of the rabbis who believe there were light elements to the law and weighty elements and here He says the weighty elements are justice, mercy, and faith. Spiritual realties, not feeds. By the way, this is a direct parallel from Micah. Our Lord here is not just grabbing three things out of the air, justice, mercy, and faith. The Jews had been taught in Micah 6:8, "He hath shown thee oh man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." That's faith. The walk with God in faith.
To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly. Listen the Pharisees and the scribes didn't do justly, they were inequitable. They were unfair, unjust. And they were merciful, brutal, unforgiving, unkind, ungenerous. They abuse the people. Piling, as it says in verse 4 of this chapter, heavy burdens on them, grievous to be born and not even moving one finger to help lighten the load. And they had no faith. They walked by sight. They walked by works. They walked by law. They walked by their own efforts. And so He says you're real great at counting out kitchen seeds used to flavor food and you've missed the whole point of what is really important, justice, mercy, and faith.
Spiritual matters you've lost. False religious leaders, listen, can get all wrapped up in the minutia of their system. It's just the real spiritual stuff they don't have. At the end of verse of 23 He says, "these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone." In other words, "these ought you to have done," justice, mercy, and faith. And I'm not saying that you should leave the other commands undone. And I don't think He means you should keep counting your seeds. He means you should take care to attend to the matter of the tithe as well. It isn't that I want everything to be concentrated on justice, mercy, and faith so that you fail to obey those other commands. I don't think He's saying necessarily you have to count out all the seeds and the herbs. He's saying, you should have kept these weightier matters and also give attention to the matters of tithe; the proper matters of tithe.
Tithe does have its proper place still in Judaism in the gospel time. The Jewish people are still a duly constituted people. They were still under the ceremonial instruction of God's law. They were still under the obligation to obey the commandments relative to their national identity and to the funding of the priesthood. That had not been set aside yet until the church was born. And so He says you should do that. You should do that. By the way, the tithe is mentioned six times in the New Testament. Three times in the gospels and each time it is mention in the text condemning the abuse of it by the scribes and the Pharisees. Three times in the book of Hebrews when it simply reaches back and describes its historical reality in the history of Israel. At no time is it ever mentioned in the New Testament as binding on the church. It had to do with taxation of the national government of Israel.
So He says do that, just make sure you do this as well. I'm always amazed at how false religious systems have so much minutia and so little reality. I think about that, for example, sometimes when you see "holy wars." Or you see great groups of nations of people who are so religious, maybe they're Islamic people or maybe they're "Christians and Catholics in Ireland." I don't know what, but they sure have all the nuts and bolts of their little religious deal, but the fact of the matter is they operate as people who have no internal spiritual commitment at all, right?
Without massacring each other in the name of "their religions." And there are many ways to illustrate this. I thought of this the other day as I watched a man giving prophetic charts and all the little dits and dots of all the little prophetic things and you know where this is going to go and who's coming here and what's up here and here's the beast and how many heads and horns and he's got every little deal all along and he's living in adultery. And you want to say to the guy burn your chart man and stop your sin. I mean, get your perspective right. False spiritual leaders deal with minutia.
Verse 24 describes them in a very graphic way. "You blind guides, you strain out," it should be, "you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel." You say what in the world is this? Well, you have to understand something about this. The word strain means to filter, diulizo, filter. In the Old Testament, the smallest unclean animal was a gnat. Leviticus 11:42, it's considered unclean. It's an insect, not an animal. But the smallest unclean creature was a gnat. The largest unclean creature that was forbidden to a Jew was a camel, Leviticus 11:4.
So the Jew didn't want to get involved with an unclean gnat or an unclean camel. So He says to them, do you know what you're doing? You're straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. You know what they did? This is what happened. They make wine and as they're making, crushing the grapes, a little gnat is flying around, he lands in the grapes, he gets gobbled up in the grapes, winds up in the wine or maybe he just flies in the wine and lands there. So the fastidious Pharisee drank his wine like this. Then he picked the gnat off his teeth, see.
In fact, he didn't even enjoy the stuff. Sucking out the gnats so they wouldn't be defiled and then swallowing a camel, the biggest unclean animal of all. Ceremonial fastidious sucking through your clinched teeth to filter out a gnat and then swallowing a camel. In other words, you are all confused. You're whole priority system is inverted. You're just fooling around with stuff that doesn't matter. And blind to the enormous evil that you're consuming. You're afraid to eat the tenth mint leaf and then you're allowing into your life hypocrisy, dishonesty, cruelty, greed, self-worship; incredible.
It's amazing how fastidious religious people can be and so far from the reality of what God seeks. So many false spiritual leaders reverse divine priorities, substitute insignificant forms and outward acts of religion for essential realities of the heart. You see, that's the point. So the false spiritual leaders are condemned for exclusion, perversion, subversion, inversion, how about extortion for a fifth; extortion.
"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the platter," and platter is an interesting Greek word. It has to do with a plate used to serve delicacies. You clean the outside of the cup and the platter and within they're full of extortion and excess. You're real big at extortion. You have a ministry that looks pious, but the whole thing is based on taking advantage of other people. You use people. You make merchandise out of people.
The idea is this, here comes a guy with...who's going to offer you a lovely meal. He's got a plate, on it are all the lovely delicacies. It's got a cup and in it is the fruit of the vine and he offers it to you and the plate and the cup have been clean ceremonial, they've been ceremonially prepared. All the ritual, all the whole deal is prepared. Only problem is the food on the plate and the wine in the cup were stolen; stolen. Very...oh we've ceremoniously prepared the platter. We've ceremoniously prepared the cup. It all is so religious and everything in it and on it was gained by extortion. How many false religious leaders are there from one end of this world who are offering people their religious plate and in that plate is nothing but the stuff they've stolen from those very people. Milked them for every dime they could get out of them; extortionists.
Extortion, by the way, is the word harpage. It means to plunder or rape; they are rapists. That's why I get so angry with false spiritual leaders, because I see them raping people, don't you? You see them just plundering people. Just making merchandise out of people for their own gain. And they...it says they are full of extortion, and notice this word, excess. That means unrestrained desire for gain; acarsia. And unrestrained desire for gain; a lack of self-control. So the Lord is saying they appear so scrupulous. They appear so religiously meticulous. They appear so pious in their system and everything they serve you was gained with their filthy desires. Gained by the abusive people. They are greedy rapists and robbers who steal and plunder the souls and the money and the hearts and the minds and the goods of everybody they can touch.
So He says in verse 26, "You blind Pharisee," He personalizes it, "cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also." You better have more than your form. You better be sure that what's on your plate is as clean as your plate. And no dish is clean, which holds unclean food gained dishonestly. So prevalent today, the false spiritual leaders become rich, they become fat, they become wealthy with their paraded piosity and they have the heart of a thief.
Sixthly, false spiritual leaders are cursed for deception. This is unbelievable. Deception and we're going to cover these very quickly as we close. Deception, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees," verse 27 says, "hypocrites, for you're like whited sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead bones and all uncleanness." Now follow this. He says you are guilty of deception. You contaminate people. You aren't what you claim. You look like oh every time I see this guy, Sung Yun Moon, who's supposed to be the Messiah to lead everyone to God and people flocking around him and you see him with his arms open and all these people. And everybody touches that man is contaminated.
He offers himself as one who will purify the impure and he contaminates everyone he touches. And that's the way it is with false spiritual leaders. And he pictures it so vividly. On the 15thavadar, which is the month of March in Israel in the time of our Lord, there was a very unusual custom. It was right after the spring rains and the rains that came washed away many things. One of the things they washed away was white-wash. You say where was white-wash used? It was on walls, it was on houses sometimes, but most specifically the Jews used to white-wash the tombs. They would white-wash those limestone caves and limestone tombs where people were buried, the more prominent people were buried that way. And the reason they did that was because in preparation of Passover, along the roads and the hillsides where people would be traversing, they feared that people might inadvertently touch a tomb and thus be defiled. And because of the ceremonial cleansing process necessary, they could void out certain activities in the Passover season.
And so to accommodate the Passover visitors who might not know where the tombs were and also just to keep the rest of the people clear of them, they went around the city of Jerusalem with white-wash. In some cases, they white-washed the entire tomb, historians tell us. In other cases, they just painted white-washed bones on the outside so that people wouldn't touch them lest according to Numbers 19:16, they'd be ceremonially defiled.
And so as you came into Jerusalem, you'd see these beautiful clean white tombs everywhere dazzling in the sun. But they weren't what they appeared to be. They were so beautiful and so pure and so white, but they were tombs. And anybody who touched them would be contaminated and Jesus says that's what you are, verse 27. You're whited tombs. The word taffos, it means graves. Which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and omnomia, lawlessness. Disregard for the law of God. And anybody who touches you, you look so white and so pure, is contaminated, is defiled. So you pollute, so you contaminate everybody who touches you.
Then the last one. The last one, false spiritual leaders are cursed for pretension. For pretending to be so much better than everybody else. Verse 29, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," may I inject here? Nothing God hates worst than pride. "You build the," the memorials literally, "you build the mnemeion, from the verb to remember. "You build the memorials of the prophets and you decorate the tombs of the righteous." You're really in to memorializing the saints. You're really big on lifting up the heroes of the past. Oh we honor saint this guy. Oh we honor saint that guy. Oh we remember this man of God, this great prophet, this great worker of miracles of the past. God's great man of this era and that era. You lift them up, you exalt them with your memorials and your monuments.
And then you say, verse 30, "If we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." Why we would never have killed the prophets as our fathers have done. Oh we wouldn't have thought of it. We're so much better than they are. You see, we're so much holier than they. We're so far beyond them. This is the ugly pretense of spiritual pride. Great at building monuments, great at honoring men of the past and claiming to be better than their fathers.
Jesus had told them that in the parable earlier in Chapter 21 about how they had...the people of Israel had kill all of the prophets and the messengers from God and the parable of the vineyard and the landowner and the servants and the son. But they claim, oh we would never have done that. And Jesus answered in verse 31 as a direct hit. "Wherefore you are witnesses," right now on the spot, "you give testimony against yourselves that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets." They say oh we would never do that. We wouldn't do that. Oh we raised memorials to the prophets. We would never do what our fathers have done. We're so much more holy than they.
And Jesus says, you are a witness to the fact that you indeed are a son of those who killed the prophets. Why? Why does He say that? Well, what were they right there, right then plotting to do? What? Kill Him. Kill Him. Kill Him. I mean, they were so consumed with their own lying deceit that they didn't even see the reality of the fact that they were killing one greater than the prophets, the son of God. Verse 32, "Fill up then the measure of your fathers." What does He mean? Do it. Go ahead. You're scheming to kill the greatest prophet of all. That'll fill up the full measure of the murderous attitude of your people against God's messengers. Do it.
You ought to underline verse 32. That's Jesus resigning Himself overtly to the fact that they were going to take His life. Do it. Do it. Fill it up. No, they weren't any better. They were worse if anything. And then He pronounces a curse. "You snakes, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell?" What's the answer to that? What's the answer? No way. He damns them to hell. Snakes, vipers, let me conclude this with these words.
Listen, these false spiritual leaders, listen carefully, were guilty of these things and I want you to listen because I'm going to turn the table on it a little bit. They kept people out of heaven. What does a true spiritual leader do? What? Brings them into heaven. They did all they could to send people to hell. To make them as evil as possible, double sons of hell. What does a true spiritual leader do? He is used by God to make men not hellish, but what? Righteous. They subverted the truth. What does a true spiritual leader do? Leads people into truth. They appeared pious, but only used people for their own gain. What does a true spiritual leader do? He serves people, meets their needs. They contaminate everybody they touch. What does a true spiritual leader do? He makes holy anyone he touches. And they proudly thought themselves to be better than everybody else. What does a true spiritual leader say? I am the least of all the chief of sinners. God help us to be true spiritual leaders and to avoid these false leaders. People beware would you? Beware. Be thankful God's given you true leaders.
Father, we do come to You with thankful hearts this morning as we think about all these false religious systems around the world and false spiritual leaders every place. We'd have to say thank You, thank You for the great grace that redeemed us and brought us into the knowledge of the Savior, brought us under true spiritual leaders who could feed us the bread of life. Through rather than leading us to hell have led us to heaven. Who rather than making our character hellish have been used that we might be righteous. Who rather than undermining truth have lead us to truth, rather than reversing divine values have taught us God's priorities. Who rather than using us for their own gain have served us for our own needs. Who rather than contaminate us have made us to be holy and who rather than exercise pride have shown us humility.
Thank You oh God that we have so been influenced by Your choice servants. And Lord God we pray that any in this congregation today who are under the influence of false spiritual leaders will be delivered from that for Your glory and their eternal blessing. While your heads are bowed in a closing moment, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, we would offer to you that same Savior. And if the Spirit of God is prompting and pulling at your heart and revealing to you the need for Christ and the reality of who He is, then open your heart to him. Follow not the lying prophets. Come to the truth of Christ.
If you're a believer and you have been less than thankful and less than reflective on the good grace of God, which has bestowed salvation upon you and kept you from the influence of these evil ones, may your heart be filled this day with a new thanksgiving. And if you desire to be a part of the family of God, desire to be one who hears the truth, desires too out of thanksgiving and gratitude serve God with all your heart, I trust you'll make those kinds of commitments in your heart today.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
SAGAMIHARA, Japan, May 7 (UPI) -- Authorities in Japan said a parakeet captured at a hotel was returned to its owners after it was able to give its address to police.
Sagamihara police said the male budgerigar was captured April 29 at a hotel when it perched on a guest's shoulder and was returned to its owner, a 64-year-old woman, after officers heard it repeating an address Tuesday night, Kyodo News reported Monday.
"We never thought that we could find the owner in this manner," a police officer said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
LinuX-Gamers Live is a live DVD from Germany based on Arch Linux that includes nothing but games. Version 0.9.3 was released in June and provides an excellent means of sampling Linux games or setting up a home arcade, although a few of the games wouldn't run on my machine.
There are no productivity tools, Web browsers, or package managers here; this disc is all play and no work. Because it's a live DVD, no hard drive is required to run the games. Once you burn the downloaded image to a DVD, you have a portable arcade that will run on any x86 system with 512MB or more of RAM. A 3-D accelerated video card is also required for most of the games. Proprietary drivers for Nvidia and ATI-based video cards are included, so you can enable acceleration for those types of cards by simply answering a few dialogs during the boot process.
I downloaded the live DVD via BitTorrent, which as of this writing is the only way to get the live DVD. The download took a few hours. My test system consists of an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, 2GB of RAM, and two Nvidia 8600GT video cards connected by an SLI bridge. The DVD configured all of my hardware correctly, and both video cards were recognized, as well as my sound and network cards. As soon as I finished booting it, I was ready to start fragging.
The 2-D and 3-D graphics of each game looked crisp on my display, and the music and sound effects made good use of my surround sound speakers. The included interface is simple, with icons for each game along the bottom of the screen. The right-click menu allows you to shut down the system (there isn't a reboot option, unfortunately) and opens a terminal that lets you do advanced configuring.
This DVD has something for everyone, with about 16 games included. If you're in the mood for fantasy strategy, Battle for Wesnoth, Glest, and Savage will suit you. Wesnoth consists of each player having a leader, and in most cases (the goal of each adventure may vary) the game ends when you've eliminated all of your opposing leaders. You gain currency by taking over villages, which allows you to purchase more troops to fight for you. Wesnoth is ridiculously addictive and makes a fine addition to this collection. In Glest, a 3-D real-time strategy game, you take control of one of two factions (Tech, which focuses on warriors and technology, and Magic, which consists of mages and summoned beasts) and build up your resources to defeat your enemy. Unlike Wesnoth, Glest allows you to build structures to aid your faction. Savage is unique, as it includes the usual aspects of real-time strategy and in addition also includes first-person shooter elements.
If blasting your enemies is more your thing, Openarena and World of Padman will be of interest. Openarena is a great-looking shooter that contains the gameplay of Quake III: Arena and such modes as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tournament, and Capture The Flag. World of Padman is a shooter that looks even more amazing, with professional quality visuals set in a stylized cartoonish world.
Other games included here are Boswars, Nexuiz, Bzflag, Sauerbraten, Savage, Treeworlds, Thunder & Lightning, Tremulous, Vegastrike, Warsow, and Warzone 2100. All of the games in this collection are top-notch open source treasures that should prove fun for even the casual gamer.
Unfortunately, this collection wasn't all fun and games. When I tried to launch Nexuiz, it crashed and changed my display to an unrecognized resolution, forcing me to have to restart X. Warsow also had issues; it made my monitor display the error message "input type not supported" when I tried to run it, also causing me to need to restart X. A few games wouldn't load for me, but other than that, the experience was solid.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no shortage of games on the Linux platform. While the LinuX-Gamers compilation includes some real gems, there's no way all of the noteworthy games in the Linux library could fit on one DVD. For that reason, I hope that compilations of Linux games on live DVDs becomes a trend that will continue, and additional volumes will be released with different game sets.
LinuX-Gamers is perfect for those who want to build a portable arcade or try out Linux games without repartitioning a hard drive. There isn't any desktop functionality here, but that's OK -- this is a gamer-specific distribution that isn't intended to help you get your work done.


text:
Wichita Falls Nighthawks Stomp North Texas Stampede in Inaugural Game
The inaugural season of the Wichita Falls Nighthawks got off to a glorious start. A Justin Johnson 80-yard scamper along with an incredible 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Tyron Carrier highlighted what was a dominating performance on both sides of the ball. The impressive play of the Nighthawks' led to a 44-15 mud hole stomping of the North Texas Stampede on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The team was also well received by an estimated 10,000 fans for their home opener. "I went as a last second, spur of the moment kind of thing, but boy was I glad I did. It was a heck of a game," said Aaron Culver, my roommate. This may not sound like a huge endorsement, but coming from a guy that is typically extremely critical of all things Wichita Falls this is a ringing endorsement. It was not just big offensive and special teams plays that led the Nighthawks' either. The ' Nightmare Defense' for the Nighthawks was outstanding, causing two fumbles, one for a TD. They also forced an intentional grounding play in the Stampede endzone causing a safety in the process. On the field the team seemed well rounded and very impressive. The only criticism I could find was they were a little heavy on penalties. I had intended to count them but somewhere in the 3rd quarter I lost count.
The marketing team for the Nighthawks' did a great job preparing and promoting the game
as well. The commercials and game promotions this season are fantastic including Sunday' s special guest NFL Quarterback ad Heisman Winner Tim Tebow. Timmy was a huge draw as many fans, I am sure, made the trip to get a glimpse and a chance to meet the beloved QB. "It was really cool how he presented the $5,000 check to that youth group. He could have just shown up and signed some stuff. That showed how good his character was," said Culver. Tebow fans who showed up for the game were treated to a heck of a game. Things are only looking up for the new minor league professional football team as they hope to win it all in their inaugural season. Just because the Tebow has left doesn't mean the game promotions stop either. I for one am hoping to drive home the new Nighthawks' Dodge Challenger that the team is giving away at their next home game on March 10th. With what seems to be a pretty talented team and a great marketing strategy it seems that the Nighthawks' are going to be a force to be reckoned with both for opposing teams as well as when it comes to local sports. One thing is for certain. We Have a TOUCHDOWN!


text:
Vol. XVII, No. 5 BETHEL INSTITUTE, ST. PAUL, MINN. February, 1938
Spring Tour to Take
Male Chorus
Through Minnesota
Singers Will Spend Two
Weeks in State Tour
The Male Chorus has completed
plans for their annual spring tour.
This year their itinerary takes them
through Minnesota.
Beginning April 18 in the South-eastern
corner they will visit Bap-tist
churches in the State complet-ing
the trip by April 30. Houston,
Brainerd, Parkers Prairie, Fergus
Falls, Cook, Virginia, Duluth, and
Cambridge are among the points to
be touched.
Preceding the tour the men will
give a concert in the First Swedish
Baptist Church, Minneapolis, on
March 11. This program will be
held under the auspices of the
Bethel Women's Federation.
Far West Churches Back
Better Bethel Campaign
"Greetings to all from the denom-inational
pilgrim," comes from Beth-el's
President, Dr. G. Arvid Hag-strom,
who is on the last lap of his
Pacific Coast trip to solicit funds
for the Junior College. Dr. Hag-strom
will return to Bethel on Fri-day,
February 18, only to prepare
for his Eastern itinerary, beginning
February 25.
The President has plans to meet
with about twenty-five churches
during his trip to the East, as well
as attend some of the meetings of
the American Foreign Mission
Board, of which he is a member, be-tween
February 28 and March 2.
His visitations will take him into
the states of New York, Connecti-cut,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsyl-vania,
and Ohio. his last meeting be-ing
in Cleveland, Ohio, on March
27, after which he will return to St.
We spent an afternoon in down-town
St. Paul last week, and were
not a little impressed with the elab-orate
valentine displays in all the
stores. We saw all kinds—a few fra-gile
lacy ones, fragrant with old-fashioned
sentiments, humorous
jointed ones performing all sorts of
antics in the process of saying, "Be
my Valentine," dollar ones, penny
ones and a disgusting majority of
those that hinted of burlesque. Wha t
is the story back of all these thou-sands
of little missives with their
lines of "love-ly" verse?
It seems that it was the custom
in olden days for the young folks to
gather together on the eve of St.
Valentine, and after inscribing their
names on little billets, draw them
lottery fashion. The person thus
Dr. F. Agar Lectures to
Ministerial Students
Prolonged chapel services in the
Bethel Seminary on February 8 and
9 featured Dr. Frederic Agar in
practical lectures to the ministerial
Dr. Agar is the Stewardship and
Efficiency secretary of the Northern
Baptist convention.
The Seminary chapel was well
over crowded at the very first lec-ture;
many college students showed
their interest by attending the ses-sions
with paper and pencil. Fol-lowing
the combined chapel service
in the college building the last day,
Dr. Agar continued here again in a
two-period lecture on practical
Speaker Is "Church
Efficiency Expert"
Dr. Agar has become widely
known as the "Church Efficiency
Expert." Formerly he has served
as missionary in Africa, as pioneer
evangelist on the frontier, as pas-tor,
written many books on church
problems, and now is engaged in
traveling through the country lec-turing
on church efficiency to the
ministers as well as to the laity.
Speaking on the duties of minis-ters,
the speaker centered his dis-cussion
on the following headings:
a minister should promulgate the
truth as found in the Word of God;
teach and train his church leaders;
care for the sick, afflicted and un-saved;
be a salesman of the Gospel;
and live a balanced play life.
Primary Objective Is Care of
Sick, Afflicted, and Unsaved
"Sixty per cent of the ministers'
time should be spent in preparation;
uninterrupted study," sums up Dr.
Agar's advice on the minister's
study habits. However, he empha-sized
that "a visit to the sick will
give the sermon the flavor; pri-marily
the objective of the ministry
is the care of the sick, afflicted and
unsaved. Ministers have no note of
power in their preaching because
(Continued on page 3)
drawn became one's valentine, and
for a whole year the young man
was bound to his valentine lady.
These imaginary engagements often
ripened into real ones, because as
Mission, a learned traveler in the
early part of the seventeenth cen-tury
said, "the man stuck faster to
the valentine that had fallen to him
than to her to whom he had fallen."
The connection of this custom
with St. Valentine is purely acci-dental.
It is probable that the cus-tom
of choosing valentines is a relic
of the primitive form of religion in
North West Europe; because at
about this time of the year the birds
choose their mates and so it is only
natural that young men and women
should choose Valentines or special
friends on this day.
The result of a complete reor-ganization
of the gospel teams is
that four gospel teams with four
new leaders instead of the five
teams of last semester are engaged
in the work this semester. The new
leaders are: Herschel Rogers, Wil-lard
Anderson, Earl Sherman, and
Robert Peterson.
New fields of service are being
opened. The schedule at Ancker
Hospital has been doubled. Mrs.
McRae has given some of the girls
the opportunity to help her with
her prison work. She has also prom-ised
to try to make arrangements
for some of the young men to get
into prison work. Sam Schultz has
been going with a group from Elim
church to the Morris Home Mission
in South Minneapolis. Sunday, Feb-ruary
20, a group is going to the
Central Free Church in Minneapolis.
21 Missionary Band.
22 Founders Day.
23 Alexis society.
25 Basketball at New Ulm.
26 Basketball at Bethany
2 Missionary Band.
9 College Club.
11 Male Chorus concert.
16 Alexis society.
Alexis Program Stresses
Life of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, the great Amer-ican
whose birthday we recently
celebrated, was honored at the
Alexis meeting of Feb. 9. Two brief
addresses were presented by Carl
Young and Raymond Martin, stu-dents
in the Seminary, bringing out
various aspects of his life.
Other features of the evening were
trumpet solos by Kermit Johnson
and the treatment of the extem-poraneous
topic "To what extent
should a preacher's wife enter into
the activities of the church?" by
Florence Lindstrom.
The new president of the society,
Andrew Sinkiewicz led the meeting
and Bruce Fleming led in Scripture
reading and prayer.
Women's Federation Refurnishes
Seminary Reading Room
Recently the Women's Federation
refurnished the Seminary reading
room with several new chairs, a
new rug and drapes. New wall
magazine racks constructed by the
N. Y. A. have been installed.
Some new equipment has been
placed in the Seminary kitchen and
dining hall.
For years Bethel students have
looked forward to the day when
they could purchase a bus to aid in
gospel team activity. Definite plans
for purchasing and operating a gos-pel
team bus are being formulated
by the Student Council headed by
Edward Nelson. The goal is to pur-chase
the new bus, a 1938 model of
standard body construction which
will comfortably seat 10 or 12, by
It is hoped that the Minnesota
B. Y. P. U. will buy the bus in con-junction
with Bethel. Under this
arrangement, Bethel will have
charge of it in the spring and the
Minnesota Baptist young people in
the winter. No definite word has
been received from the group as yet.
Bus To Be Highly Insured for
Fire, Theft, and Collision
Purchase of the bus is further
complicated because of a 50,000 dol-lar
insurance for fire, theft, and
collision which will be carried on
the bus.
The bus will be tax exempt under
a provision of the state which ex-empts
busses which transport stu-dents
from tax.
There is 200 dollars in the Bus
Fund with 75 dollars receivable
from pledges.
Olson '36 Honored
At School Reception
Rev. Aleck Olson, '36 Seminary
graduate who has been accepted as
a missionary in Northern Africa un-der
the Sudan Interior Mission, was
honored at an all school reception
held in the College Chapel Monday
evening, February 14.
The talk by Rev. Mr. Olson was
the main event of the program ten-dered
in his honor. The girls trio,
Ruth Olson, Dorothy Beckman, and
Doris Moberg; a duet by John Va-line
and Gordon Peterson; a trum-pet
solo by Kermit Johnson pre-sented
musical numbers.
Charges to the missionary were
given by Dr. K. J. Karlson in be-half
of the school and Andrew Sin-kiewicz
for the student body, and
Dr. Ahlquist for the Alumni.
Refreshments and an informal
song fest climaxed the event.
Electrician Is
On Chautauquan Series
Glenn Morris, noted electrician
entertained and enlightened a large
group showing the wonders of the
electrical phenomena at a Chautau-quan
program held in the college
Tuesday evening, Feb. 8. Mr. Mor-ris
showed how one might light the
fire or put up a flag by means of
the radio. He also demonstrated
that high frequency current will not
kill if properly handled.
Students Plan Purchase of Bus
for Gospel Team Activity
Seek A New 1938 Model Bus; Teams Are
Reorganized With College Men As Leaders
Oh Please! Won't You Be My Valentine?
Page Two THE BETHEL CLARION February, 1938
1480 NORTH SNELLING AVE., ST. Paul, Minn.
Official School Paper of Bethel Institute. Published by the
students every month except July, August and September.
One Dollar a Year
Harold Wilson Editor
Gordon Peterson Ass't Editor
Luetta Schmidt News Editor
Florence Lindstrom News Editor
Dale Jensen Business Manager
Alrik Blomquist Ass't Business Manager
Dorothy Drotz Circulation Manager
Henrietta DeCamp Ass't Circulation Manager
Vivyonne Ekstrum Typist
Maxine Luhman
Carl Young
John Bergeson
Ruth Erickson
Sam Schultz
Olga Shenning
Helen Ward
Gustave Ferre
Robert Seline
Margaret Racer
Dorothy Beckman
Ruth Olson
Miss Effie Nelson Editorial
Dean Emery A. Johnson Business
Entered as second-class matter October 9, 1935 at the postoffice
at St. Paul, Minnesota under the act of March 3, 1879.
Did We Sound Sick and How!
At the conference game with Bethany Col-lege,
our visitors traveled about 80 miles to al-most
out number and most assuredly out cheer
the latent school spirited Bethel student body.
Why? One group went here; another went
there on Gospel teams. A few didn't go any-where.
As a consequence there were only a
few boosters at the game.
We do not minimize gospel team to basket-ball.
We do maintain that they are both im-portant
to a well balanced school life. We need
to spread the gospel while we are at school, but
we realize that the aspiring Christian worker,
the pastor, who has developed interests in extra
curricular activities, will find it much easier to
meet people, to talk to them, and to gain a
point of contact with them.
Isn't our difficulty in a lack of cooperation
in the major extra curricular activities? Can't
some changes be made that the student body
could attend conference games en masse and
on nights of gospel team lend their whole
hearted support to it? It gives appearance of a
problem of coordination to be solved by the
student council.
Want to develop school spirit? Avoid as
many conflicting extra curricular activities as
possible. Back up your Gospel team on Gospel
team night; when the night for the game comes
turn out to root and cheer for Bethel!
Timid Tid-Bits
Wasn't your envy aroused when Bethany
College sang their school song so spiritedly at
the game here? The Bethel school song con-test
closes March 1.
A few couples, daring wagging tongues, and
twinkling eyes are making their debut in Bethel
social ranks these pre-spring days. It's in the
air! Soon the most confirmed bachelor and
most invincible maid will be enticed to the
soft, sweet whispers of spring.
A few comebacks on the last issue came to
ye editor's ears after the last Clarion had been
carefully digested. One said that it was
"trashy;" another that it contained editorial
material that should have been presented per-sonally
rather than being broadcasted in the
paper. The comments do not fall on deaf ears.
We want criticism not soft soap.
Just Filling Space
Yawning depths of white space stare at us
out of the editorial column. Vague ideas flutter
into mind—flutter out.
Topics of war, politics, etc., are well covered
in various papers. We have touched, "Tardi-ness
in Chapel," "School Spirit" and a host of
subjects often spoken about but seldom acted
We feel that we're about "editorialed" out.
However we realize the inconsistency of it es-pecially
when the words of Dr. F. Agar, recent
chapel speaker, are recalled, "There is that
which giveth that tendeth to increase, there is
that which witholdeth that tendeth to lose!"
A friend of Oliver Wendell Holmes reproach-ed
him for giving so many of his ideas in con-versation
hinting that they should be written
out for they had merchantable value. Holmes
replied that the mind must give its thoughts
that new ones may be given birth or it becomes
dulled and stagnant.
The expression of one idea brings out an-other,
a better one, it grows until it may as-sume
great proportions. It may become a
great book. It may be a message that shall live
long in the minds of the hearers.
Flunking is a problem. Recently students
at Rhode Island University formed a Student
Protective Insurance Company which pays for
College make up exam fees to policy holders.
The company also gives tips on how to pass
to undergraduates who pay up their premiums.
Oklahoma University takes an opposite step
and will charge a three dollar fee per semester
hour to the student who flunks a course. The
administration feels that such a policy will
tend to weed out the careless and indifferent
student and that he should help lighten the
burden of the conscientious student by pay-ing
this fee.
How about the student who is conscientious
in his work but fails in a subject? The "F" is
discouraging enough without the extra fee. He
who flunks one or two subjects and hopes to
keep on will pay, the careless student will likely
leave school and the bill.
Such a plan will cause the student to choose
his course more carefully so that he can give
his best effort and whole interest to those sub-jects
he has signed up for.
"And when I saw him I fell at his feet as
one dead." Rev. 1:17
The Apostle John is the penman of this
verse. He is describing the reaction that came
over him when he vouchsafed the vision of the
glorified Christ, walking among the seven
golden lamp-stands. He tells us that when he
"saw Him he fell at his feet as one dead."
As we think about this verse one thought
sweeps over us. It is just this. We too need to
see our risen Christ as He really is, in all His
majesty, glory and power even as John saw
Him. Why do we waste so much time on the
trivial things in life and spend so little time
in prayer? Why do we show such a great lack
of faith and suffer so many defeats? Why do
we deal so carelessly with the things of God
as to become almost irreverant at times? Why
do we allow petty sins to have a place in our
lives and make them unlovely? Isn't it a fact
that these things are true in the experience of
many of us because we haven't the conscious-ness
that Christ who is always by our side is
the Christ of the first chapter of Revelation.
May God give us the grace to be able to
really see Him. Certainly we all need to pray,
"Open thou mine eyes 0 God, that I might
Clayton Bolinder.
On Research
The other evening at the Chautau-quan
program, Glen Morris made
the statement that if there was any
apparent confusion between religion
and science, it was in the mind of
the individual and not in any dis-agreement
between the two. This
same statement was made by one
of our own pastors some years ago
who put the thought in these words:
that true religion and true science
do not run contrary to one another.
Glen Morris also brought out the
thought that man's knowledge is
being used for destructive rather
than for constructive purposes. His
reference was made especially to
war in which natural resources are
employed in the annihilation rather
than in a building up of society.
Science endeavors to find the so-lution
to many of the problems con-nected
with everyday life. An ex-ample
of this can be made by men-tioning
the advancement made by
medicine in its fight against some
of the most disastrous diseases.
During the six days of creation,
man was made last and with com-plete
domination over all of the
other creations of the Lord. This
placed him with special responsibil-ity
towards his own Creator. The
mind which was given to man was
given him so that he might under-stand
many of the secrets of God.
It seems that as time has gone on
since the beginning, more and more
of the wonderful secrets of the al-mightiness
of the Creator have been
discovered. One is surprised when
he realizes that many scientists who
study the great processes of life do
not come to the one and final con-clusion
that behind all things there
is one Almighty Power.
The more and more that any man
delves into the secrets of life, the
more he should become aware of the
fact that the things of the Universe
have not come to pass by chance,
but have come into being, only after
a very careful planning by One who
is the Lord of the Universe.
Appreciation of these facts allows
the young person to pursue scien-tific
research with the hopes of find-ing
still greater wells of faith in
the Lord who made the heavens and
the earth. The Lord has made all
things including man and he has
made man to have dominion over
all things. Research, therefore, is
only a tool given to man to discover
greater reservoirs of faith in the
omnipotence of the Almighty One.
Emery A. Johnson.
"For Me to Live Is Christ"
Is Theme of Meeting
"For me to live is Christ," was
the theme of the Bethel women's
association meeting on Thursday
afternoon, Feb. 10. The theme was
developed in three talks—Mildred
Synnes speaking on "For Me,"
Ethel Ahlquist on "To Live," and
Alice Anderson on "Is Christ."
Ruth Nielson sang two solos. Cab-inet
one, under the leadership of
Dorothy Beckman, had charge of
the program and social hour.
The Bethel Women's association
is a new organization for the worn-en
of Bethel and has for its purpose
the helping of its members to de-velop
a well rounded Christian life,
February, 1938 THE BETHEL CLARION Page Three
Two-Penny Lines
(With all due apologies to the Bard
of Avon.)
Good friends, sweet friends, lend
me your kind attention. I am no
writer but, as you know me all,
a plain blunt lad that loves his
fellow men. Neither wit, nor words,
nor wisdom, style nor color have
I wherewith to charm your eyes
and ears. I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves
do know already. Here, under leave
of the editor, the powers that be
and your kind condescension I write
my poor and halting words; and
shouldst thou read within the nar-row
margin of this page some word
or thought o'er done or come un-seemly
off that dost offend thee to
thy soul, I prithee, gracious friend,
if thou art still a friend, be tolerant
of thy uncouth scribe. Perchance
thou think'st that he warrants repri-mand,
lay on, but scathe him not
with scornful glance nor loathly
shun his company. But if thou
must, I pray thee, grasp him gently
by his auditory organ, and laying
thy expository thumb upon his
written sin, rebuke him thus, "Thou
errest here, and here judicious ones
must surely grieve. Thy youth dost
handicap thee dreadfully but that
great master artificer, Time, may
mend in years to come thy dis-located
joints; and, aye, mayhap if
Fortune smiles, thou mayest even
yet with me possess the Mt. Perfec-tion."
If thus thou speakest, he will
humbly bow and thank thee for thy
gracious words.
I do purpose if mind and Muse
To pen some thoughts that through
my head do flit,
Though they may range from stern
To dissertations on the joys of
On customs, rules, and school tra-ditions
I'll zoom to Parnassus and swoop to
On subjects as low as a class in Zoo
To worries as great as your tuition
None shall elude, my blundering
None shall find refuge beyond my
Nor shall mere bursts poetic, pro-saic
Compose the limit of my column's
The Muses nine I'll essay to ensnare
And drag them here, by jinks, by
the hair.
Of course just how, or when, or
where this task
I shall perform, tush, tush, don't
All I can say is have patience, dear
And peruse the next issue of the
Yours, dedicatorily,
Sententious Cyrus.
"God always was; God always
was God; God created this world.
We are foolish if we serve anyone
else but God; man can fit into no
one else but God because we are
made in the image of God."
Rev. Thomas Williamson.
Dr. F. Agar Lectures
(Continued from page 1)
they don't speak with sinners."
In emphasizing the duties of the
church members, the expert pointed
out that they should take care of
the laity, the deacon should be the
"door to the church" and the "door
out of the church," and all should
support the pastor "regardless of
dislike as long as his character is
Books written by Dr. Agar are
the following: "Local Church";
"Church Offices"; "The Deacon at
Work"; "The Minister and Oppor-tunity."
Schultz, Ferre, and
Anderson Debate
"Resolved: that the National La-bor
Relations Board should be em-powered
to enforce arbitration in
all industrial disputes" constitutes
the question for Bethel's debate
team consisting of Sam Schultz,
Gustave Ferre, and Willard Ander-son,
under the direction of Burnis
Rogness, coach.
The debate team have participat-ed
in practice debates at Macalester
and Hamline Universities, and also
entered the Red River Valley Tourn-ament
at Concordia College in
Morehead in which thirty-seven
schools with ninety teams took
Plans for this semester as yet are
not definite. Debates are being
contemplated with Waldorf, Thief
River Falls, and other places.
The debate coach, Burnis Rog-ness,
is now attending the Lutheran
Seminary, previously having been
the champion debater at Augustana
College, Sioux Falls, S. Dak.
Thirty Six Students Make
Institute Honor Roll
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes
a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
In spite of the fact that the first
half of this saying does not apply
to Bethel students, still thirty-six
succeeded in meeting the require-ments
of the honor roll. Everyone
with a "B" or more average is in-cluded
on the list.
In the Junior College, those head-ing
the list are: Florence Dunning,
Luetta Schmidt, Hilton Hanson,
Gerald Ahlquist, Paul Lundgren,
Archie Weniger, Martha McMillen,
Marie Dahlberg, Dorothy Beckman,
Arthur Slaikeu, Ruth Olson, and
Lawrence Lee. Those enrolled in
the Christian Worker's Course with
a "B" average or better are the
following: Winston Sherwick, Mil-dred
Synnes, Maxine Luhman, Phyl-lis
Swanson, and Olga Shenning.
In the Seminary the following
students had all "A's": Clayton Bo-linder,
Edward Nelson, Lois Sorley,
Wilbur Sorley, and Herman Tegen-feldt.
The following had "A's" and
"B's": Aymond Anderson, Folke
Ferre, Orville Johnson, Maurice
Lawson, Carl Lindman, Florence
Lindstrom, Raymond Martin, Henry
Rahn, Ruth Tegenfeldt, and Maur-ice
Wessman. Bruce Fleming, Rod-ger
Goodman, Egon Hadley, and
Floyd Richert complete the roll in
the Seminary with an average of
"B" or better.
Room Rant
Gordie Anderson isn't the only
one who can seal engagements;
Roger promised to give Ruth a ring
the other night and even specified
the time—thus the reason for Ruth's
phone call at eight that same eve-ning.
. . . Johnnie, Dale, and Folke now
make frequent visits to the girl's
dorm—they are taking piano lessons
(relax again). Enthusiastic Dale in-quired
the exact date of the recital
after his lesson.
. . . February 14 found the girls'
dorm flooded with candy and flow-ers
from thoughtful friends at home
—young gentlemen and otherwise
(the otherwise referring to families.)
. . . Keep it quiet, but Muriel
Trowbridge has two very attentive
cousins. They have good-lookin'
uniforms and everythin'.
. . . Carol Wuerch has already
reached the place of receiving at
least one 'phone call daily from the
same person. Wonder what the
others lack? By the way, their
chief topic of conversation seems to
be radio programs.
. . . D. D. seems to have lost in-terest
in the girls at the dorm. Some
outside attraction seems to be tak-ing
most of her time. Kinda tough,
tho, with only one late leave. Last
week, after that one was gone, she
decided to entertain her company
at the dormitory after 10:30, but
evidently Mrs. Lee thought Dorothy
needed sleep, and therefore broke
up the party.
. . . It has been rumored that
Carol Nelson is going to publish a
booklet "How to Get Plenty of
Sleep Without Going to Bed." She
experimented herself during exam
week by not getting between the
sheets from Sunday until Friday.
The secret seems to be: take a little
nap whenever you feel like it and
wherever you are.
. . . Ten good-sized girls pounced
in on poor little Neoma the other
night to give her an initiation bath-tub
party. The joke was reversed
when the tiny victim calmly walked
to the bathroom and got in without
any assistance.
Boarding Club Adds
To Working Force
Because of an increased number
of members of the boarding club,
the club board met, February 11
and hired another student, a girl,
to work in the kitchen.
The naming of another to the
kitchen force increases their num-ber
to six students and the cook.
Two college students are in charge
of the College "Coffee Shoppe."
About 80 students take their meals
at the Seminary dining hall. This
is an increase of 20 over last year.
Members of the board are Pierre
Tangent, steward; Kermit Johnson,
secretary; Carl Holmberg, Clifford
Dickau, and Harold Wilson. Dr. K.
J. Karlson is adviser to the board.
"II Cor. 5 should be read the first
day of every year; it contains so
many 'new things': a new birth, a
new home, a new faith, a new ob-ject,
a new attitude, a new occupa-tion,
and a new ambition." Rev.
Ralph Stewart.
Heard in Chapel
"Missions are a command but God
does not use force; our obedience is
"Loyalty should be to the church,
not to any one department."
"Worshipping, witnessing, serv-ing,
and giving are the requirement
—or rather should be—of those who
enter church; we could drop sixty
per cent of our church members
and still be stronger than we are
now." Dr. F. Agar.
UP on on h 1 1111 nn no in 1111 rn
Baptist Church
Emerald and Franklin
Minneapolis, Minnesota
41111 40 1111 tIll . 1111 1111 1111 . no on on not
et. nu on " no on on no on on no " uol•
Central Baptist Church
1 1
1 Roy and Shield St.
Rev. ERIC ANDERSON
St. Paul Minnesota i
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I Elim Baptist Church I 13th Ave & Madison St. N. E., Mpls. II,
J. G. JOHNSON, Pastor 1 S. S., 9:45 Morning Worship, 10:40 1
I Swedish, 11:15 B. Y. P. U., 5:30 i
i Gospel Service, '7:45
t. MI an no I n UR Iln no o on lo . ont
,I. Bethel Baptist Church i,
1 24th St. and 28th Ave. S. 1
1 Rev. WALFRED HOLMBERG 1 : 1
Minneapolis, Minn.
4I EVERYBODY WELCOME i .1 ,, ,,. ", ,.. ," ,,. 011 . 1111 110 011 4
till 00 on fin 1111 Iltt on nu on n t . nit
1 First Swedish i
1 BAPTIST CHURCH 1 1 8th and 13th Avenue S. I
1 Pastor, A. E. SJOLUND 1 I Minneapolis, Minnesota i 4. . 00 ' , , u n I n t GU LIU 00 neie
+n BO . uo u nu lh 111 11 1 0
Come To
To Learn To Play
Piano and Organ
Prof. Theodore Bergman, Instructor
Also Information about the
New Hammond Electric Organ
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4. on no u I t
PASCAL AVE. At MIDWAY PKWY.
• Complete Line of Drugs.
• Candy—Gum—Mints
• Foto Finishing Service.
4. nu no nu 41 111 . . on ,' 1111■••110 .4.
tIll ID On 1111 1111 On . no 1111 011 MI 1111 11 21t
I Bethany Baptist Church i 1 Territorial Road & Seal St. i
G. ANDERSON, Pastor
7 10:00, S. S. 11:00, Morning Worship i
1 5:30 Y. P. 7:45, Gospel Service ,. I 7:45, Thurs.—Prayer Meeting i
Page Four THE BETHEL CLARION
February, 1938
Waldorf Warriors
Bethel Team
Scanlon of Waldorf
Best on Floor
The Waldorf cagers, in a fast, ex-citing
basketball game, outclassed a
stubborn, hard-fighting Bethel team
on the Bethel floor, Feb. 4.
The Waldorf Warriors grabbed an
early lead and maintained it
throughout the first half though
Bethel continually threatened to
break in and take the lead. Coming
back for the second half with the
score 15-14 in favor of the Warriors
from Forest City, the Bethel team
gave everything they had in a des-perate
effort to eke out a victory.
Their effort looked as if it might
bring results.
Throughout the third and part of
the fourth quarter, Bethel kept a
two to four point lead. But the pace
proved too swift and the race too
hard for the Bethel five and Wal-dorf,
with their star forward, Scan-lon,
suddenly finding his eye, put
on a last spurt that netted them the
victory. Scanlon, with his fast
break and dead shot, was the out-standing
player on the floor.
In a preliminary game the Bethel
"B" team were edged out by Min-nehaha
Academy 28-27.
Red and White Play
New Ulm for Win
After five straight attempts to
break into the win column in the
conference games, the Bethel cagers
finally succeeded in defeating New
Ulm 19-15 on Bethel's floor. The
game was slow. Bethel played the
worst brand of ball displayed this
season. It was saved from defeat
by New Ulm being unable to take
advantage of the breaks. Richert
and A. Johnson led the scoring for
Bethel gaining 13 points between
Cagers Win Return Game
With "U" Farm School
Bethel for the second time this
season won over the University
Farm school 23-14 after defeating
them 47-13 on their own floor earlier
in the season. Both teams showed
plenty of fight. Bethel showed dis-tinct
improvement in handling the
ball and in their passing.
In a preliminary game the Bethel
"B" team defeated the Farm School
"B" team 25-9.
Bethany College Cops Win
From Red and White
Trying desperately after four
straight conference defeats to win
from Bethany, Bethel's hopes again
were dashed by the margin of three
baskets. Once more Bethel had the
lead in the third and most of the
fourth quarter only to wilt before
a last minute onslaught, Bethany
winning 30-23.
Girls' Team Wins; Drotz
Takes Scoring Honors
In a preliminary game the Bethel
Girl's team trounced Minneapolis
First Girl's team. Dorothy Drotz
led both teams in scoring, swishing
the hoop for 10 baskets.
Donald A. Clover '37, graduate of
the Seminary was ordained to the
ministry at Barron, Wisconsin, Jan.
4. Rev. Clover has been pastor of
the Barron Baptist Church for near-ly
a year beginning his work there
before he graduated from the Sem-inary
last spring.
Aleck Olson '36, also a graduate
of the Seminary was recently or-dained
to the ministry at Karlstad,
While teaching at Litchfield, Leon-ard
Larson is taking post-graduate
work at the University of Minn.
RLou Markell, infant daughter of
Rev. and Mrs. David Guston has
usurped her parent's place in the
Bristol, Conn. church. Rev. and Mrs.
Guston write that they are enjoy-ing
the work in Bristol.
Ruth Adele Johnson is completing
her fifth year as school nurse in
Omaha, Neb.
The Danish Baptist Church in
Newell, Iowa, welcomed their new
pastor, Rev. Fred Swedberg, and
his wife, Feb. 6.
Another Bethelite to join the mis-sionary
ranks is Viola Steve. Miss
Steve expects to sail for Africa Feb.
24 on the S. S. Deutschland. She will
spend six months in France before
proceeding to Africa.
From Leopoldville, Belgian Con-go,
Africa, Mrs. Harry Watkins
(Linda Erickson) writes: "We are
working every day trying to do our
bit. Harry has the Bookshop, which
he started when he came out. . . .
He sells quite a few things locally
to natives and to missionaries pass-ing
through, but most of the buy-ing
is done by correspondence from
the folks inland. I am doing the
mission treasurer work, or rather
helping Harry with it. Then of
course I have my women's classes
every Wednesday and Thursday, so
you see we both manage to keep
Penny-A-Meal Contributions
Mount To Nearly $6,000
Penny-a-Meal contributions to
date total $5,973.99. California
churches as well as the Twin City
churches have reported one hun-dred
per cent on Penny-a-Meal re-turns.
The various conferences
have reported as follows:
California Conference $363.38
Columbia Conference 225.45
IIllinois Conference 1207.97
Iowa Conference 210.47
Kansas Conference 56.70
Lower Michigan Conference 163.47
Middle East Conference .... 143.33
Minnesota Conference 2001.67
Nebraska-Colo. Conference 140.04
New England Conference 230.63
New York Conference .... 352.14
North Dakota Conference 19.40
South Dakota Conference 83.60
Upper Michigan Conference 203.94
Wisconsin Conference 381.60
1 Westlund's Market House
Quality Meats and Provisions
597 N. Snelling, cor. Thomas
We Deliver NEstor 1321
■011-0■1•■•■ Oil -.-•••-■04/
White Caps
Characters: Elizabeth.
Sundry other characters
Act I
(It is spring. Elizabeth, the child,
is playing on a grassy knoll. Her
mother, Marian, is watching her.)
Bird: Tweet! Tweet!
Marian: Dearest, why are you
Elizabeth: Oh, mother, I wanted
the yellow butterfly so much, and
now it has flown up over the trees.
Act IT
(It is spring. Elizabeth, the high
school girl, is standing with Geral-dine
on a grassy knoll. Her arms
are outstretched. Her face is lifted
toward the sky. She has read
Bird: Tweet! Tweet!
Geraldine: But, Elizabeth, I would
be happy if I could play even the
housemaid's part.
Elizabeth: I wanted to be the star.
Act III
(It is spring. Elizabeth, the bride,
is standing on a grassy knoll with
Theodore, her husband.)
Bird: Tweet! Tweet!
Theodore: But, dear, if you are
happy, why do you weep?
Elizabeth: I am a woman. I weep
because I am happy. (Theodore
does not know that Elizabeth is
weeping because of the hurt in her
heart. She loves a talented young
Act IV
(It is spring. Elizabeth is lying
on a grassy knoll. She is dead.)
Bird: Tweet! Tweet!
Midtown Coffee Shoppe
1535 Como Ave.
Malted Milk, Candies, Ice
Cream and Pop
Try Our Delicious 5c
"It Pays to Look Well"
1199 Snelling Ave.
01011•■•• 11 In 1 1 1 11 1 0 0 n UM O.F.
"The secret of successful living is
to have a higher conception of
Christ, and a conception of Christ
for our own lives."
"Paul had greater obstacles than
we have; we do not appropriate be-cause
we look at our own faith."
Rev. Milton Lind.
4. . . . . . . . . .—..—.+
i 1573 University Ave.
I C. J. & H. W. Anderson I
I Jewelers
I Optometrists
MIdway 9910 1
olsn on on 1111 on nn on oR 110 II11 no t t
Complete Line of Bakery and
Delicatessen for All Occasions
1193 Payne Ave. TOwer 2910
Hamline Hardware Co.
t F. 0. Hagen J. W. Hagen
755 North Snelling Avenue, St. Paul i
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Snelling-Como Garage
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1228 North Snelling Avenue
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Como and Snelling Avenue
Phone—NEstor 9120
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Phillips 66 Products
1588 W. Como
Phone: NE. 9193
Motor Tune Up
Our Specialty
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Children have an exceptionally high requirement
for Vitamin "A". Butter and cream are especially con-centrated
sources of this vitamin. Small shortages of
Vitamin "A" can be responsible for functional eye
difficulties as well as sub-optimal growth. Use the
whole milk, Be Sure It Is Pasteurized
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.


text:
Harvest aid decisions have changed significantly for West Texas cotton farmers over the last 10 to 20 years.
New chemistry and new varieties offer growers more options to open bolls and drop leaves, but the capricious nature of weather and the gremlins that often thwart even the most thoroughly thought-out defoliation schedule continue to make the chore interesting.
Crop maturity, medium-to short-term weather predictions, and variety play crucial roles in cotton defoliation, says Billy Warrick, Extension agronomist at the Texas Extension and Research Center in San Angelo.
He discussed defoliation challenges at the recent Concho Valley Cotton Conference at San Angelo.
Last season provided plenty of those challenges.
"Squares were out of kilter," Warrick says. Mis-formed squares affected flowering and "we lost early squares." Unusually hot conditions during May and June affected plants season-long.
"We had about 20 days of temperatures topping 100 degrees in May and early June; on open soil around cotton plants they probably hit 120 degrees."
He says plants developing under stress conditions produce tougher leaf surfaces, which may affect harvest aid performance.
Other in-season conditions also affect how those materials work. Maturity delays, too much nitrogen fertilizer, insect damage, and excess plant growth affect defoliation. Irrigation and rainfall late in the season, when the plant needs to shut down, also create challenges.
"If nutrients are not pulled down to a low level and then rain comes, regrowth is likely," Warrick says.
Cool temperatures at the end of the season also slow the cotton plant's response to harvest aid materials. "Increased rates may be necessary."
Variety selection also has changed the way farmers look at defoliation. "We've seen a lot of changes the last few years. Twenty years ago, we were planting 75 percent stripper cotton varieties; now we plant less than 20 percent stripper types. Picker cotton is easier to open."
Warrick says farmers have more chemical options for defoliation. "Know the products. Evaluate the crop needs and understand the chemistry in each product."
He says desiccants such as paraquat work best when applied late in the afternoon so it can spread over the leaf surface and activate with morning light.
Materials such as Ginstar, Blizzard, Resource, ET, and Aim are light sensitive and, if applied under cloudy conditions, do not perform well. "It's best to apply these materials on bright, sunny days.
"Focus on coverage," Warrick says. "We have no systemic materials, so coverage is critical for best performance. We've had some problems with adequate coverage the last few years. Nozzle type, nozzle size, flow rate, pressure, and height of application are important considerations. It's a challenge to get the material into the canopy, so we need to use plenty of water and adequate pressure."
Adjuvants may improve coverage and performance.
Warrick says farmers must be cognizant of environmental conditions, such as humidity and temperatures, as they prepare to apply harvest aids. "Humidity is best on the high side. And we need warm daytime and nighttime temperatures.
"Be aware of wind speed and direction — drift is a concern with high-pressure applications, so be aware of sensitive areas and don't apply harvest aids when wind blows toward those areas."
He says farmers should be prepared to stop applications if wind shifts or becomes too strong for safe application.
Crop maturity poses a critical challenge. "Maturity affects product performance, so target a maturity range for harvest aid application. Performance will be better when the crop is in the target range. Farmers should select the uppermost boll they intend to harvest and time applications when that boll is ready."
Warrick recommends looking for a tan seed color inside bolls as a guideline for that top harvestable boll.


text:
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text:
that may possibly be called, "the little man that wasn't there"? i know this is random, but a dear woman in her seventies that i work with is trying to remember a poem like this. any ideas?
a dear woman in her seventies that i work with is trying to remember a poem
I, too, am trying to remember it. Here goes:
As I was walking on the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!
Hey, I have a different version. I wonder how many versions there are?
Yesterday upon a stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would go away
to soma:
thank you for your response! that is the poem! but, i think that is all that my friend remembers too. i'll be sure to let you know if i hear anymore.
and i wonder if there are anymore lines! thanks for your reply.
This appears in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (9th ed.) as having been written by Hughes Mearns (1875 - 1965), as reads:
As I was walking up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
Lines written for The Psycho-ed, an amateur play, in Philadelphia, 1910 (set to music in 1939 as 'The Little Man Who Wasn't There')
It's possible that your elderly friend remembers the quotation from having seen and/or heard the musical version around the time it was being performed,in 1939 or thereabouts..
i've never seen your forum before; i arrived her via a google search while trying to find out for my grade six daughter the name of the author of this poem. thanks a lot for your great information!
This is how I heard it in a movie once:
Yesterday, I went up the stairs.
I met a man, who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd go away.
That version was used in the 2003 movie "Identity" with John Cusack and Ray Liota.
1939 news ...
BardWho Penned Man Who Wasn't There Revealed
As I was walking up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
For a good many years, people have puckishly tossed off
those lines, with occasional variations.
There seems to be something fascinating about their
pleasant inanity, a good deal like the fascination which dwells
in Burgess' quote
I've never seen a purple cow,
I never hope to see one, etc.
It has been generally assumed that the creator of the
little man who wasn't there is anonymous.
It took the composition of a song whose lyric is based on
the jingle to bring to light its creator, surprised Prof. Hughes
Mearns of New York university.
Dr. Mearns holds the impressive title of chairman of the department
of creative education, but even now he has his lighter
The little professor conceived The Man Who Wasn't There'' in
1910. eight years after his graduation from Harvard. The
ditty was first intoned publicly in The Psyco-ed,
a play written for a group of theatrical amateurs. It so happens that
both Harold Adamson. who wrote a' complete lyric with the
non-existent man for the chorus, and Bernard Hanighen. who
wrote the music currently popular, are also Harvard men. They
originally thought the jingle was in public domain. Now they split
their royalties with Dr. Meams.
"Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish that man would go away."
Hughes Mearns (1875-1965)
In Identity, with John Cusack, it ended with:
I wish, I wish he'd go away....
Hey there Texas What do you say
are you whistling in the dark
just to scare the ghosts away?
Well I've got something followin' me
that I can't see
I think someone's put an awfull hex on me
A HEX ah Tex
I think your just a little perplexed
Well, if you'd court a load of what I saw last night
you'd have past the yanky clipper on it's maiden flight
Last night I saw apon the stair
a little man that wasn't there
he wasn't there again today
oh how I wish he'd go away
and then when I came home at three
the little man was waiting for me
but when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all
go away, go away, and don't come back any more
go away, go away, and hey, don't slam the door
leads off off into a classic Miller Jam
Tex was a singer in the Glen miller Orc.
Tex Bineeky ( spelling will be way out, sorry)
Tex Beneke
Thanks ilza, I was right, I was way out. I came across this version as a child on an extended player forty five record my folks had. The other tracks, I can't remember, they must have been love songs, no interest to a nine year old.
If the idea of 'little men that aren't there' fascinates anyone else (or am I the only one) Manfred Man put out a song in the sixties called "My name is Jack" on the flip side was a song called "There is a Man".
There is a man who sits in the corner of my room
no one else sees him
When I tell them
There is a man who sits in the corner of my room
they beat me.
Oh go away, you're not really there
and don't come back another day, pleeeeeaaase.
It had a short spoken piece in the middle about taking him home to use as a door stop. I've never seen this track on any of their albums.
There is a man ... was written by Tom McGuinness ( who played guitar)
He still does - my husband had one of his CDs for a recent birthday, and we quite often go and see the Manfreds on tour. Paul Jones manages to stay youthful looking and the others are all pretty aged, so it is a rather strange visual experience, but they sound great both acoustically and electronically (often the first set is electronic and the second acoustic). Don't recall them performing There is a man, though they often do very old stuff in among the new.
'As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there
again today.
I wish, I wish, he'd go away.
Is from a book or television series or something called the tomorrow people. I am pretty sure of it. I am sure that it was in there somewhere
Maybe "The Tomorrow People" did quote it in 70's but it seems to have been written in 1910. (see Peter Symonds' post above)
This is also by Hughes Mearns and called "The lady with technique"
As I was letting down my hair
I met a guy who didn't care,
He didn't care again today -
I LOVE 'em when they get that way!
I was JUST reading about The Tomorrow People yesterday....when i was reading about Craig Hinton's passing:
[en.wikipedia.org] />
I always enjoyed The Tomorrow People. the one from the 70's....with The Mama especially
oh yes, and the Hearts of Soggoth
I was watching Discovery's Candace Bergen narration of "Understanding The Universe" which had me search for the quoted the poem of the discussion on this page, because I had written something similar:
Looking out into the vastness of nowhere
I saw a man standing there,
standing at the bottom of the stairs.
to go up, or to go down?
He did not care.
With an urge, right on up he went
strange sounds were heard below his ascent.
~ Damon Runyon Lesjack, 1988
A modern politician parodied it, when Gordon Brown's honeymoon period wore off,as
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't Blair
He wasn't Blair again today
I wish that man would go away.
Antigonish by Hughes Mearner
the poetic version goes
Yesterday upon the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish I wish he'd go away
theres actually a song written called," the little man who wasnt there," about it which goes:
As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasnt there
He wasnt there again today
Oh, how I wish hed go away...
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldnt see him there at all!
Go away, go away, dont you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please dont slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasnt there
He wasnt there again today
Oh, how I wish hed go away