North Carolina Newspapers

ti THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1957 THE PILOT—Southef n Pines, North Carolina Page THREE f I* r; '.4 Some Looks At Books By LOCKIE PARKER THE THIRD EYE. Ihe Autobi ography of a Tibetan Lama by T. Lobsang Rampa (Doubleday $3.50). The author, son of one of the leading men in the govern ment of Tibet, had to endiure the hardest kind of training. All small boys of the upper class are taught to ride a horse almost be fore they can walk and the book opens with the author having a riding lesson at the age of four. His taskmaster, told by the boy’s father to “make'or break him,” did full justice to these orders, but the boy lived to be grateful many times for the ^toughening and hardening process to which he was subjected. At th") age of seven he was sent to the Lamasery to be train ed as a priest-surgeon, his ca reer having been decided by the two most experienced astrologers in the country. So we see him' leaving his palatial home, alone and on foot, to go to the Chak- pori Lamasery, the Temple of Tibetan Medicine, several miles away. He is rudely met at the entrance and told to walk forty paces backward and sit in an at titude of contemplation without moving an eyelash until told to do otherwise. This lasted for three days, though he could relax there at night and was then given some food. . / Thus his rigid training began, but his father had told him‘that if he failed to make good in his work and studies he could not re turn home, and this spurred him on. He was a remarkable student, and the Lama who was his spe cial teacher was greatly pleased, although he said much of what he acquired had been learned in a previous incarnation. The astrologers decided that just before his eighth birthday would be a good time to “open the Third Eye.” This proved to be quite an operation, consisting of boring a hole into his forehead into which a sliver of wood was inserted and left there for three weeks, while he remained in a darkened room with only the barest mecessities of food and drink. At the end, when the sliver of wood was removed, the Lama told him he was now one of them and for the rest of his life would be able to see people as they really are and not as they pre tend to be. He continued to gain favor and was even received by “The In most One,” the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. He was selected as he grew older to go on many perL lous excursions for finding the rare herbs needed for their medi cines, and to take part in their kite-flying experiments, kites large enough and strong enough to lift a man several hundred feet into the sky. His last and final test, called the Ceremony of the Little Death, caused him t6 be taken four himdred feet below the Lamasery to the tomb of the Long Past Dead where he was to lie on a stone slab for three days alone, having previously ob served a rigid fast for twenty- four hours. After this he was con sidered an “Initiate” able to see the Past and know the Future and was commissioned to leave the Lamasery and go to many covmteies. During the Sino-Japanese war he served in the Chinese Air Force. Later in World War II he was captured and became a med ical officer in a l«rge Japanese prison camp. It was here that he learned English from some of his fellow prisoners. This is a fascinating and pro vocative book, written in an easy and readable style, holding the interest steadily throughout. —EMILY FISH MANO MAJRA by Kushwant Singh (Grove Press $1.25). Here we - have . another ..novel about Tnrfia but this time an unusual one. The time is 1949, the place a small village -on the border be- A profitable place to ... SAVE All Accounts Insured —UpTo— $10,000 ACCOUNTS OPEiMhU ON OR BEFORE THE 10th EARN INTEREST FROM THE 1st Accounts Conveniently Handled by Mail. FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS and LOAN ASSOCIATION 223 Wicker Street . - - - - SANFORD. N. C. W. M. Womble. Exec. Vice-President Established in 1950. Assets Over $4,000,000.00 tween Pakistan and India. There for many years the Sikhs, a Hindu sect, and the Muslims had lived peaceably together,—and later not only these two religious groups but also refugees from Pakistan. At the time of this story a train comes in from Pakistan, laden with the dead bodies of murdered Hindus. The Sikhs be come enraged 4nd plan their re venge, the ambush of a train fill ed with Muslims who have been deported from their village. *1116 outcome was changed from a tragedy of revenge by the heroic action of one man, a Sikh peas ant. This book can be highly rec ommended to anyone who is try ing to vmderstand India and the Peirti^ion. It was chosen as win ner of a thousand dollar prize from two hundred and fifty en tries. The author is a specialist on Indian affairs for UNESCO. —JANE H. TOWNE THE MAGICIAN by W. Som erset Maugham (Doubleday $3.75). This is sometiiing of a lit erary curiosity, the reissue of an early novel by this highly suc cessful novelist and man of let ters. Its date was 1908, five years before “Of Human Bondage”, and, as Maugham tells us in his preface, it is the only one of his earlier novels that held his in terest when he reread them and that he was willing to have re printed despite its “lush and tur gid style.” Mr. Maugham is a critic of parts and he has accurately as sessed the status of this book, a good yam but undistinguished writing. The publishers have tried to make something of the story as a foreruner of science fiction but it belongs rather to the past. “The Magician” is a somewhat Favistian character, a modem dealer in black magic who stud ies the records of the medieval alchemists and the “arts of the East” and is dyed dark morally with the evil of his trade. While contemporaries such as H. G. Wells were seeing science as opening great possibilities to men, this book belongs with Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll” to a school of thought where men who get too curious come to no good end. Personally I have a predilec tion for the tales of this school which can still make us shiver at the idea of dark mysteries be yond our ken, and this one is a most effective example. You get as contrast and cUitagonists of the evil magician a sceptical and un imaginative doctor and two like able English women, the buoy ant spinster, Susie, and tiie beau tiful Margaret, fiancee of the doctor. What the sinister Oliver Haddo does to this cheerful trio makes a thrilling tale. FOR RESML'TS USE THE Pk LOT’S CLASSIFIED COLUM'' Keystone Income FunJ- Series K-1 A ^versified mvestment m securities selected for current INCOME. . THOMAS DARST & CO. McKenzie Bldg. Southern Pines. N. C. Please eend me proepeetoses deeerlb- Ing jroor Income Fond, Sertes K-L estii Get Better Sleep ON A BETTER MATTRESS Let us make your old mattress over like new! Any size, any type made to order 1 DAY SERVICE MRS. D. C. THOMAS Southern Pines Lee Bedding and Manufacturing Co. LAUREL HILL, N. C. Makers of 'LAUREL QXJEKN” BEDDING Intamational Uniform Sunday School Leuona fBY DR. KENNETH J. FOREMAN Backgrround Scrlptore: Matthew 24>25. Devotional Reading: Matthew 24:32-44. Last Judgm'ent Lesson for March 31, 1957 Dr. Foreman All human judgments are im- perfect, and some of them aighly unjust; because no man knows all the circumstances of ■any act, not even his own. We are notoriously poor judges of our own actions; but we are no juster o others. Judgments of ourselves ire spoiled by pride; judgments obout others are - ipoiled by prej- dice. We never io really see any action in all its dimensions. We can never judge the conse- quences of an act because we know only a small fraction of them. We cannot well judge the motives of an act, because we mis-read (or read through rose- colored glasses) our own motives, and the motives of others we can do no more than guess at. Final Judgment Nevertheless, most of us are called onto pass judgment on others in various ways. And when we are honest we do try to come as near to God’s viewpoint as we can. That is, we try to take ‘every thing into consideration. But try as we may, we must admit first and last that only God can be the final judge, lor only he has all the facts. There are many pic tures of the “Last Judgment” in the Bible and they do not agree in details, since they are pic tures of what cannot really be imagined. But back of all the pic tures, stern, compellipg, chilling as some of them are, we discern some plain truths. One is that not only is God the final Judge of every man, but his judgment is final because he and only he has all the facts, and he does not render his judgment till nil the facts are in. True, God’s udgment is going on all the time, ind we can read them in history. 'I can read his righteous sentence ■>>' the dim and Haring lamps" as he poet s.ays. This is true of men, ind nation.s. that the divinq judg ment i.s interwoven with their lives. God settles many of the af fairs of this planet, on this planet. But in the ultimate future, and only then, will all the facts be in. No judgment before then, not even God’s, is final. The Great Separation AU sorts of efforts have been made to dull the force of Jesus’ terrific picture of prophecy of the Last Judgment in the parable of the sheep and the goats. It has been said that this is a judgment of nations, not individual persons; but anyone who can read Greek can see that is not the case. 'The word “them” in Matt. 25:32 plain ly does not refer to nations but to persons, (furthermore, how do “nations” fit into the end of the story?) It has been said too that this is not a separation of the “saved” from the “unsaved.” But the Issues of the Trial, as Jesus pictures it, are eternal life and eternal death. The fact is, this is Jesus’ picture of the Last Judgment of mankind, and there is no getting out of it. At least two points stand out, etched as it were by fire. One is that the anal judgment against a man is not necessarily lor what he has done but lor what he didn’t do; did not even think about doing. The other point is that the basis of judgment is a man’s human relations. True, deeper than that is a man’s relationship to Christ; but in this parable, Christ identifies himself complete ly with the troubled sufferers of the world What we do, or do not do, about human misery, we do or fail to do for the Lord. The Judgment Seat of Ciirist Another strange thing appears in this overwhelming portrayal of judgment, vast and final. The Judge, the King, is the Son of Man, Jesus Christ himself. This fits in with other passages in the New Testament where sometimes Christ, and sometimes God, ap pears as the Judge of all. This is a tremendous claim on Jesus’ part, to have tlie right to sit on t’no throne of the universe. No where is the deity of Christ more, strikingly affirmed than right here. Oq the other hand, he is still the Son of Man. He is our Elder Brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, “made like his brethren in every respect” as Heb. 2:17 says. God ip bfs final judgment, acts with and through his Son who was and ever shall be one with God and one with man. We cannot deceive him. He is one of us. (Uaaed on cutUnos copyrighted by the Division of Ciiristinn RducAtloh, Na tional (. onncll of the Chu' ches of, Chri-. in the U S. A. Released by Communi... I'riiss Service.) , Bookmobile Schc^dule Tuesday—J. D. Lewis, 10; A A. McCaskill, 10:15; Paul Green, 10:30; Ben Blue, 10:45; Farm Life School, 11; John Blue, 12; C. F. Wicker, 12:15; H. A. Blue, 12:30; Miss Flora Blue, 1; Ray mond Wicker, 1:15; Ed Love, 1:30; E. B. Cook, 1:45. Thursday—Miss Sara Inman, 10; Highfalls School, 10:30; High- falls, 11:30; Mrs. Helen Maness, 12; Glendon, 12:45; Miss Alma Edwards, 1:15; R. F. Wilcox, 2:15; Miss Irene Nicholson, 2:45; Car thage, 3. Friday—Mrs. H. W. Ehrhardt Jr., 10; Taylortown, 10:30; W. E. Graham', 11; Jackson Springs Post Office, 11:30; J. C. Blue, 11:45; James Hicks, 12; George Ross, 12:15; Carl Ticker, 12:30; Mrs. Margaret Smith, 12:45; J. W. Blake, 1; Miss Adele McDon ald, 1:30; George Hunt, 1:45; Ed Smith, 2; Linden Road, 2:15. ^ PILOT ADVERTISING PAYS M & J UPHOLSTERY SHOP P.O. Box 556—RAEFORD. N. (^Tel. 347 FURNITURE REPAIRED and REBUILT Platform Rockers $22J)0 and up Sofa Bod $28.50 Workmanship Guaranteed MRS. D. C. THOMAS. Representative—Southern Pines BIBLES: KING JAMES and REVISED VERSIONS CHILDREN'S BIBLES TEACHERS'REFERENCE ' FAMILY BIBLES $1.65 to $25.00 also religious boolEs and Bible storYbqpks CeraVEY BQOESBEP Attend The Church of Your Choice Next Sunday i Consider... After the bleakness of winter comes Spring. Fulfilling a promise of long ago, the seasons follow one another in divinely planned suc cession. All around us we see evidence that evil pre vails throughout the world, but the Church gives positive assurance that God is ever present. As Spring brings new life to nature so Cod, through the Chnrch, brings more abundant life to human beings. Consider the daffodil—its freshness and beauty speak of hope. Consider the Church— its steadfast faith reaches out to undergird and streng;then mankind. God creates daffodils without our help, but intelligent cultivation makes them even more beautiful. Likewise, He depends on us to work in His Church, helping to spread its influence, to broadcast its mes sage, to make a better world. Let us accept this tremendous challenge and become a part of God’s Church today. the CHURCH FOB AU AU FOR THE CHURCH The Church is the greotest fac tor CO earth tor the building of character and good citizenship It K a storehouse of spiritual values Without a strong Church, neither den^acy nor civilization can survive. There are tour sound r^ns why every person should mtend seizes regularly and sup- ^ the Church. They are: (1) For his children s sake. (3) For the sedee oI h« community and nation. (4) wmeh needs his moral mA terial support. Ptosi to go to Btole F°ur tevJSlst S Wednesd’yMark 4 Thmday. Luke is Friday... .John m Saturday. .1 John “ l-«7 18-30 10-$Z 1-10 1-18 1-17 ; .-iCopyrisbt )9S7. K«t9ter Adv. Serriee. Slr*d>urg, Va. •w Is, i ^ S BROWNSON MEMORIAL CHURCH (Presbyterian) Cheves K. Ligon. Ministur Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Wor ship service, 11 a.m. Women of the Church meeting, 8 p.m. Mon day following third Sunday. ■The Youth Fellowships meet at 7 o’clock each Sunday evening. Mid-week service, WedneMay, 7:15 p.m. CHRIS'nAN SCIENCE CHURCH New Hampshire Ave. Sunday Service, 11 a.m. Sunday School, 11 a.m. Wednesday Service, 8 pjn. Reading Room in Church Build ing open Wednesday 3-5 pjn. xriE CHURCH OF WIDE FELLOWSHIP (Congregational) Cor. Bennett and New Hampshire Wofford C. Timmons, Minister Sunday School, 9:45 a.ni. Worship Service, 11 a.m. Sunday, 6:30 p.m.. Pilgrim Fel lowship (Young people). Sunday, 8:00 p.m.. The Forum. EMMANUEL CHURCH (Episcopal) East Massachusetts Ave. Martin Csildwell, Rector Holy Communion, 8 ajn. (First Sundays and Holy Days, 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.) Family Service, 9:30 ajn. Church School, 10 a.m. Morning Service, 11 a.m. Young Peoples’ &rvice League, 6 p. m. Holy Communion, Wednesdays and Holy Days, 10 a.m. and Fri day, 9:30. Saturday—6 p. m. Penance. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH New York Ave. at South Ashe David Hoke Coon. Minister Bible School, 9:45 a.m. Worship 11 a.m. Training Union, 7 p.m. Evening Worship, 8 p.m. Scout Troop 224, Monday, 7:30 p.m.; mid-week worship, Wednes day 7:30 p.m.; choir practice Wednesday 8:15 p.m. Missionary meeting, first and third Tuesdays. 8 p.m. Church and family suppers, second Thurs days, 7 p.m. MANLY PRESBYTERxAH CHURCH ' Grover C. Currie. Minister Sunday School 10 a.m- Worship Service, 2nd and Ui Sunday evenings, 7:30. Foinw Sunday morning, 11 «,m- Women of the Church meeCiag. 8 p.m., second Tuesday. Mid-week service 'Ihursdair at 8 pjn. ST. ANTHONY'S (Catholkl Vermont Ave. at Asha Father Peter M. Denges Sunday masses 8 and 10:30 aJU., Holy Day masses 7 and 9 a.m.; weekday mass at 8 a.m. Conlea- sions heard on Saturday between 5-6 and 7:30-8:30 pun. SOUTHERN PINES METHODIST CHURCH Midland Road Robert L. Bame, Minister Church School, 9:45 a.m. Worshin Service, 11 a tn.: W. S. C. S. meets each third Monday at 8 p. m. -This Space Donated in the Interest of the Churches by- GRAVES MUTUAL INSURANCE CO. CITIZENS BANK & TRUST CO. CLARK & BRADSHAW SANDHILL DRUG CO. SHAW PAINT & WALLPAPER CO. CHARLES W. PICOUET MODERN MARKET W. E. Blue JACK'S GRILL & RESTAURANT UNITED TEI.EPHONE CO. JACKSON MOTORS. Inc. Your FORD Dealer McNEILL'S SERVICE STATION Gulf Service PERKINSON'S, Inc. Jeweler SOUTHERN PINES MOTOR CO A Sc P TEA CO.