Volume 2 	            Lawrence, Kansas            	January 1962	  	       Number 1

The good ship Bounty sailed from England on a mission to the far west. She came safely around Cape Horn, and in a few weeks stopped at a small South Pacific island. This island was a small paradise of luxuriant foliage, unsurpassed climate and dusky women. There the crew mutinied, and set the officers adrift in an open boat. Remaining on the island, and others nearby, they began an orgy of unbridled lust and dissipation perhaps never excelled in human history. In a few short months many of the natives and all of the Englishmen men except one had been disseminated by violence or disease. A few years later another ship seeking the Bounty came to the island and found this one Englishman living among the natives. All were clean, healthy and well behaved, living orderly moral lives.

The surprise of the newcomers was great, but the lone Englishman explained that in a barrel of goods taken off the Bounty, he had found a copy of the Bible. To while away the many hours of enforced idleness, he began to read God's book. The mere reading of the Bible wrought change in his life, a change not surpassed in human history. Lust, cruelty and selfishness were replaced with kindness, morality and love. In time the island became a paradise of moral cleanliness due to the influence of God's word.

The above true story impressively illustrates the lesson we wish to bring to you. Atheists and Infidels mock the Bible, and brand it as an immoral book of obscene stories; but there is one thing they never can explain--the moral influence of the Bible upon the lives of those who accept it in reverent sincerity. Impure minds, seeking only filth and obscenities, will find what they seek: for "unto the pure, all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." - Titus 1:15. When people will read with an unprejudiced mind this great book of God, their minds are uplifted, and in their hearts is planted a desire for, the higher and nobler things of God.

To the Corinthians, Paul wrote: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Here mention is made of about all the vile moral sins found in the black catalogue of iniquity. All such characters are eternally barred from the kingdom of God. But we are startled when Paul declares, "But such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." - I Corinthians 6:9-11.

This means that - the Bible; when preached in sincerity, will sober the drunkard, cleanse the vile, make the thief honest, and rectify every moral impurity.  

The history of 1900 years is replete with the stories of "twice-born men", who through the influence of the Bible have turned from the darkness of sin, to the purity that makes them children of God. Whenever and wherever an individual will permit the teachings of the Bible to enter their hearts, a great change will of necessity follow. The seed of the kingdom, when sown into good and honest hearts always brings forth a harvest of purity and decency.

Every law that has been passed for the betterment of humanity; every social gain made for the progress of the human race, together with all the efforts for the abolition of war, owe their origins to the influence of the Bible. When it fills the heart and directs the activity of the individual life, that life is a blessing to itself and to all others who come under its influence. What a pity that such a book lies unread and forgotten in so many homes! Reading it will give strength to the character, steadiness to the nerves, and comfort to the sorrowing, and it uplifts every heart toward the higher idealisms of life. To all who read it in humble reverence and godly fear, life becomes more meaningful, the purposes of life are nobler, and the attainments of life are greater. The Bible is the voice of God calling you up from the muck and mire of sin to a higher, and holier life. If the high principles of the Word of God were to be universally practiced, all wars would cease, crime would end, and prisons would be closed, and every neighbor would become sincere and trusted friend. The burdensome taxes that pay for the huge armaments of war could be diverted to peacetime uses that would increase prosperity, give every family more security, and bring a reign of universal peace to the entire world. If that happy condition is to become an accomplished fact, it is each individual's duty to propagate the blessed word of God by practicing its holy precepts in his own life.