Sunday School Lesson
(Continued tram P**? S)
Temple officials.
What the Scripture Sara to Us
A lot of words in the vocabu
lary of Christianity need a vaca
tion. They have become so fa
miliar that we do not really hear
the meaning they were intended
to convey. We are much like a
man who has lived beside a rail
road track tor so long that he
no longer hears the trains as
they go by.
The title of our lesson con
tains two such words ? eonfes
sion and covenant. They refer to
a situation in which people were
being brutally honest with them- i
selves and with God and were i
promising to be completely at
tentive to God in the future.
Perhaps the lesson title would
have more meaning for us If it
were "Honesty and Attentive
ness."
Honesty Before God
Man's relation to God involves
two types of honesty ? honesty
as to how we understand God
and honesty as to how we see
ourselves.
Part of our human inperfec
tion is a tendency to think that
God's claims upon us are un
reasonable. We brush aside the
Sermon on the Mount, for ex
ample. Should we make no pro
test when a thief steals our auto- I
mobile? Is this really the style !
of life God demands? Of course
not, we say. Thus we "water
down" the New Testament.
Such dishonesty as this de
stroys all our attempts to wor
ship, for honesty is at the heart
of worship. Honesty in worship
demands that we openly admit
that we have rejected God's
claim on us. It requires our ad
mission that we have made a
god we can control ? or at least
outguess. Such honesty is con
version of sin. Repentance is
turning to God in honesty.
This honesty about who we
are and what we have done as
sumes that we are honest also
about who God is. In true wor
ship we honestly admit that God
is God. He is not the tame,
American-style mperman that
we like to pretend. God is the
one who is concerned for the
well-being of his entire creation
? our enemies as well as our
selves. It is he who takes up
both the evil and the good that
men do and uses it to open the
door of the future.
Attentivenesa to God
The other element of our re
sponse to God suggested in tha
Nehemiah passage is attenttve
ness.
Using traditional language, w*
have often said that the covenant
was at the heart of Israel's life.
To be in covenant relationship
means to be attentive to what
God is doing In the world daily.
Such attentivenesa means to be
ready to recognize that God does
(Continued on Pace 4i
What Makes the Piedmont Qreat
L
: everyone appreciate! a relative who
ads rumors. But Dr. David Caldwell and
Not
r*l - vuriu VAiUTTWU OliU
wife, Rachel, were eternally grateful for the
rumor spread by Rachel's sister, Mary Dunlap.
Dr. Caldwell was truly an all-around man.
From 1.768 to 1824, he served as minister to
two congregations in die Greensboro area. He
was also a self-taught doctor of medicine, an educator and an
outspoken critic of British tyranny.
In fact, he was so influential, he was forced to spend almost
the entire revolution in hiding.
One day he returned to his home and was seized by the enemy.
It was a great moment for the British, but only a moment
The next move was a mistake. They decided to ransack his
home before taking him back to their camp.
Leaving him with a guard, they set about their destructive
work. Mary, who happened to be with the Caldwells at the time,
saw this as an opportunity and gambled. She approached Dr.
Caldwell and whispered, just loud enough for the guard to
hear, "Shouldn't Gillespie be coming?" Gillespie was the leader
of a small but effective army of patriots. Ana he was nowhere
in the area. But the guard didn't know that So, fearing that be
and his men were about to be attacked, he warned the officer
Ttymor
Duke Power
Working for tho Piedmont
in tho spirit thot mod* if groat.
in-charge. The officer rounded up his men and
hurried away, leaving Dr. Caldwell and his
wife in peace. It is difficult to measure fully
Dr. Caldwell's influence on the people of his
time. But we do know that five-state gover
nors, fifty ministers and many physicians,
lawyers and judges received their classical edu
cations in his little school.
Had Dr. Caldwell been taken away that day, he might never
have continued his work. But thanks to the imagination and in
genuity of Mary Dunlap, he carried on.
Mrs. Dunlap's rumor happened almost 200 years ago.
But the imagination and ingenuity it demonstrates continues
today.
At Duke Power, imagination and ingenuity have always been
a part of our philosophy. When Duke Power was founded in
1904, the company's concept of turning the Entire Catawba Rivei
Valley into a hydroelectric system was an innovation.
For the 1970's we're putting imagination to work in building
one of the world's largest nuclear generating stations at Oconee,
South Carolina.
And our philosophy will continue to work for the people of
the Piedmont as long as we serve this area.