KFAB Church of the Air, Dundee Church choir and Dr. Louis Evans, 1957.

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    Come now. It's time for worship by transcription in the Church of the Air.
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    [Choral introit]
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    Yes We invite you to come into the Church of the Air now for worship and adoration. These services
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    of inspiration and adoration come from the main sanctuary of Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha,
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    Fifty-fifth and Underwood. We pray that you will be with us each Sunday morning at this time
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    in the Church of the Air.
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    [Choral introit resumes.]
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    Let us pray. Eternal God, Lord of all being, who has shown
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    thy greatness and power in the mighty forces of thy universe, which thou has created.
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    But hast revealed thy goodness and love in the personality of Jesus Christ, our
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    Lord. We come to thee, because we trust thee. And art assured that
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    thou hearest and seest in secret, wherever we are and whenever we come
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    to thee. We thank thee that thou hast made known to us thy care for
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    us, thy care for all of us and thy understanding of our needs. Help
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    us in thy presence to see our true needs, as thou dost see them. Thou
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    knowest all that we want, but we pray with the humble realisation that
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    thou knowest better than we what is truly good for us. To
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    thy higher will, we would learn to yield in humble obedience
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    and loving trust. Thou who didst send thy son to live and die for us,
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    we trust that thous wilt freely give us all things that are best for us.
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    And so we yield ourselves in love and obedience to thee. Through Jesus
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    Christ, our Lord. Amen. [Choir sings "Hear Our Prayer, O Lord."]
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    The choir of the Church of the Air, under the direction of John D. Miller, sings this morning one
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    of the best known chorales of the many beautiful ones in church music from words written
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    originally by Martin Jahn and music composed by Johann Sebastian
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    Bach for his Cantata one hundred forty seven. We hear "Jesu,
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    Joy of Man's Desiring." [Choral anthem sung.]
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    Where two or three
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    are gathered together in my name, sayeth the master, there am I in the midst
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    of them. [Choir sings "Gloria Patri."] These
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    Church of the Air services are brought to you each Sunday morning by Dundee Presbyterian
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    Church, Fifty-fifth and Underwood in Omaha. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian
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    Church in the United States of America is meeting in Omaha this week. At
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    the eleven o'clock service at Dundee this morning, the newly elected moderator of the General
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    Assembly will preach the sermon. On this Church of the Air broadcast this
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    morning, we have the pleasure to present as our guest preacher from the leaders of
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    the General Assembly, Dr Louis H. Evans, former minister
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    of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood California, and now minister
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    at large under the Presbyterian National Board. Dr Evans' task
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    recently has taken him in lectureships to the atomic scientists at
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    Los Alamos to the guided missile scientists at China Lake and
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    to a conference of nearly a thousand called by the Pentagon in
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    view of this recent experience. He takes as his subject for us the
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    Lord is my shepherd or what science is thinking and
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    now Dr Lewis H. Evans. The Lord
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    is my shepherd I shall not want. But if he is not our Shepherd, how we
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    shall want. Now this is a fitting text I think for an age that is just
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    lately trusted so much in technology. Charles Lindbergh, ace flyer and
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    aircraft scientist, said some time ago. Once I was a disciple of man and science.
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    I said science is my shepherd, I shall not want, but now I see that science is
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    no shepherd at all.It is but a sheep, and the eternal spirit must lead us or we
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    will annihilate ourselves. Now this terse statement indicates, I think, a
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    turn in the minds of men, gradual but a turning. Scientism
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    that made a god out of science is bankrupt. If once a technologist was
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    our Messiah, if his laboratory had become our chapel, and
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    the smell of his chemicals our incense rising to a material God. If
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    his chemical chart was our creed, and his test tubes were our sceptres of power,
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    and our psalmody like this science is my shepherd. Then
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    we have changed a bit again to the Lord is my shepherd, we shall not want.
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    Many are searching now for a central aim in life. How do we know if we succeed
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    or fail unless we know what success is? If we are not
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    sure what we are striving for, how do we know whether or not we have attained?
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    If we are within the circle of God's will for us that is fine. But, until you establish
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    a center, you cannot even draw a circle. How then can we know whether or not we stand
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    within the circle of his divine will? Now two choices go to make up
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    your calling and mine. First of all we must choose our vocation. That is the supreme
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    central purpose for living, the magnificent obsession, the fundamental drive, the
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    thing that makes us tick and go. Now there is a single
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    vocation for us all. "Voca." l I am called Christ gave it to us. Thy kingdom come.
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    Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. To make this world a kind of a place where God's
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    will is done in fraternity, sorority, goodness, peace, truth, prosperity,
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    love in Christ like this so that we are all called. And, however you make your living,
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    this must be what we are living for. Now that of course has to do with the human equation.
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    This is dearest to God and it must be dearest to us. What is happening to people?
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    Roger Babson the great business expert put it this way. We all realize now that
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    the preeminent object of all mercantile establishment, banks, stores, churches, schools
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    is to make people healthier and happier. And it's a crime to be in any profession that
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    makes people less happy and less healthy. Now the second choice
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    is your profession. Now that's a particular tool you choose for bringing the kingdom to pass in
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    your own way but that's secondary. Now this is the arresting question then.
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    Is my profession the servant of my vocation? Is my way of
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    making a living ministering to my desire to make a life happier, healthier,
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    more Christ like, and godly? Now, this is the inherent restlessness among the scientists
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    today. Is my profession making people healthier and happier? Now
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    they are encouraged, of course, by the great affirmative side. They have given us
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    the merciful penicillin, the helpful scalpel for the operating room,
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    light that brings brilliance to the church, the chapel,
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    and the home. I stood for months beside an iron lung watching my daughter try
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    to breathe, and how I think God for the merciful scientists then. It gives
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    us an airplane and from that you can drop baskets for the starving in the Berlin
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    airlift. Thank God for the scientist. How selflessly they seek
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    profounder meanings hidden in the lump of moss or the iron ore. How they have found
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    in energy the secrets God smiled to know a billion years before. Counting their lives
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    not dear till they discover some bit of truth. the weigh ins all on get something to make
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    the lives to come the richer when they themselves will shut their eyes and rest.
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    Still Lord God walks with noiseless footfalls, visits the workshops of these
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    patient men, smiles on their test tubes, their revealing lenses
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    and it is good, God murmurs once again. Thank
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    God for that. But the scientists realize is if you and I are careless with our vocation,
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    our purpose is changed and then suddenly everything becomes negative. That scalpel
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    he made becomes a dagger. The light burns a man to a crisp
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    in an electric chair. He does not build a lung, he builds an iron tank.
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    And, when it fires its gun, someone ceases to walk or to breathe for ever.
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    and then he must make a bomb dropped from a plane that
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    burns eighty thousand to cinder and to crisp. That's what's troubling him.
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    The expert making a long range gun to exterminate everyone under the sun would like to get
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    out, but it was heard to mutter, "What can I do? It's my bread and butter." You and
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    I have got to do something with the help of Christ to the heart of civilization so he can
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    use his profession for other things. Now of course that get back
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    to a purpose. A lot of the scientists feel we must be strong.
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    That a doctor must cut to cure any must hurt to heal but this purpose was be behind it all. One
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    Bombardier said that in the World War when he was marching or flying on a bombing mission.
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    He said I read my Bible in German. I said the Lord's Prayer in French, and I talked
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    to God in English. And, I said, "God, those are my brothers down there. They've got to be stopped,
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    but they're my brothers. Can we go to war without hating? I remember
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    one of the first men wounded in the Korean War from our congregation was a young lieutenant. Part
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    of his face was shot away. And, his right eye gone. And, there were shrapnel in his hip. I
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    went up to Letterman Hospital to which he had been flown. And, as he saw me, came limping to me, put his arms around me,
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    and said, "Hi ya, Doc! How's things?" I said, "Fine. Bill, how's things with you?" He said, "Fine, Doc.
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    This is great stuff." I said, "Great stuff? Part of your face shot
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    away and your right eye gone." Well, he said, "You know we set them free." There was no
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    hatred in his heart. Probably Christ would permit
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    us defensive warfare, not the war of revenge. because he said put up thy sword when
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    Peter cut off the servant's ear. But, he said in Luke twenty two, you
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    know, he that hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one. They
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    were going through those robber district of Jericho. And, the disciples came back and said, "Lord.
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    Behold here are two swords." And Jesus said to them, "It's enough." I
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    think Christ would permit us when going through the Jericho of bandit nations all about
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    us, ready to rob us even of our freedom, to carry one or two swords for our defense.
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    but we must keep our motives pure. John Foster Dulles [Secretary of State] said in Chicago some
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    time ago I think I can honestly say that I've never seen the United States of America do a willfully
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    selfish thing in the U.N. May we keep our motives clean. But
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    the scientists realize all the while they are defending us with possible swords against
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    aggression that they must change the soul of man/ I
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    was in Germany this summer with the occupation forces with General von Brunn and General Hodes [Major General Henry Irving Hodes]. And
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    as Mrs Evans and I were driving along, we saw this sign Dachau, indicating the position
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    of that renowned city. If you're ride along with the scientist in the back seat
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    you notice him duck is headed so he didn't notice a sign at all, because Dachau,
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    to the German stands for science without God. Rotting flesh, the smell
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    of the gas chamber, and putrefying bodies. If you go on to Heidelberg
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    University the chancellor might say this to you again as he said it once. We have
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    enough of science without God. Philosophy without God gave
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    us illusions. Physiology without God gave us euthanasia. Physics
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    without God gave us a gas chamber and we have enough of it. That's education
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    for brutality and we're done with it. Now that's the way many scientists feel. That
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    our defenses. These weapons are just a holding power to give us time time
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    time until we can change the human heart. But many know therein lies the trouble.
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    A sergeant in the tank corps, Mannheim in Germany, this summer handed me down in a seven foot
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    leap from the top of a tank and whispered this to me. He said, "You know, Dr Evans, I'm getting out of the service in three
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    months and then I'm going to seminary and going into the ministry. We're going to settle this thing right."
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    He knew there was just one way of settling it right. We were spending some time
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    with high officer of NATO just back from examining the defenses
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    of Europe. And we noticed out there in the beach that he was
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    working on some plans. I said, "Are these defense plans?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are they classified?"
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    private he said No I said let me see them. There were plans for revamping
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    two Sunday school rooms in the National Presbyterian Church of Washington D.C.,
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    where he was Sunday school superintendent. And, he said, "Louis. That's real defense."
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    I was speaking to the guided missile scientists or rather to the Atomic Scientists at Los Alamos.
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    And, I said to the chaplain. "I'd like to meet this great atomic scientist, Dr Graves. Where can
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    I see him?" He said, Evans, he has a pail of paint in his hand and a paint
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    brush. He's out there painting two Sunday school rooms for our annex." sees a great church
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    when I said that The peaceful use of the atom
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    to if God is our shepherd. President Eisenhower wants three hundred fifty million dollars to set up
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    these atomic demonstration stations around the world to give ourselves to the peaceful use
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    of the atom. That isn't much. That's one fifteenth of the military aid we gave to one country alone.
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    This would help us in agriculture. Grow wheat, barley, oats impervious
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    practically to scale and rust and help to feed a half of the world that goes hungry
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    every night. Medicine. Atomic radiation would give us two isotopes
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    that have already helped a half a million people in diagnosis, would give poor nations
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    power that have no water power, no electricity to drive their ships and light their homes.
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    Russia claims to be loving the world but it's bluffing. We've got to prove it and
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    we must take our atomic power not merely to say to the world. We'll show you what we can do to
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    the world. We must say we'll show you what we can do for the world. The
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    world of dying killing. The world people don't merely
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    desire that we make bombs for them, make dams for them, make guns for them.
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    The world wants is to make love to them. and this is our great opportunity
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    now. The God of Love must be our shepherd.
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    The technical then is just the prologue of a possible masterpiece.
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    It is merely a preparation for being of service to God and men. We
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    cannot applaud our means of saying things through wireless, radio, T.V.,
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    and the press until spiritually we have something worth saying to the souls
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    of men. What use is power unless we have
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    a spiritual purpose for the use of that power. Why learned to paint if
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    we have nothing worth splashing on canvas? Why learn to sing
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    if there's nothing more singing about? Why speed in an plane
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    and in an automobile if we don't know where we're going? Why plan
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    plan for interplanetary visitation if we don't even love Africa enough
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    to bring Christ to them? Why be strong in force if
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    we are not iron clad in faith? Science is a shepherd.
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    It is a sheep, but the Lord must lead us. God
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    makes science and technology simply a prologue and let our spiritual
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    service to God in Christ in the world be the final masterpiece.
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    Our motives and our motors pierce the clouds they penetrate
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    the depths of oceans. Microscopes reveal new worlds to conquer.
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    While we dedicate our intellects to strength of stone and steel. We
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    are proud as those who build a tower to reach to heaven. Recklessly
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    we rear our lofty Babels, arrogant with power.
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    How dare we boast of cities while we hear the nation's groping through
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    the dark along this road of life. What right have we for pride
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    till truth is steel and faith is iron strong, till
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    man and God are working side by side. Then let our prayers
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    and labours never cease. We act the prologue of a masterpiece.
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    Should we pray. Lord Jesus Christ, thou great
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    shepherd of the sheep. Shepherd us. Give us a purpose
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    for our power. Add soul to our science. Add mercy
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    to our might. And add love to our limbs of steel.
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    And when the Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want again.
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    Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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    [Hymn: "Praise the Lord, His Glories Show." Tune: Llanfair.]
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    The grace
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    of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all
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    now and forever. Amen.
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    [Choral benediction response. "The Lord Bless you and Keep You."]
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    [Organ plays fanfare from hymn "God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand."]
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    Next
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    Sunday at this same hour
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    we hope you'll join us for another Church or the Air service that is made possible by Dundee Presbyterian
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    Church fifty fifth and Underwood in Omaha. The program is under the general
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    supervision of Dr Edward W. Stimson minister of Dundee, the choir is directed by John
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    D. Miller, Junior. Our organist is Evelyn Smith Swanson. This is your announcer Thompson
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    Holtz inviting you to join us again next Sunday as by tape recording we bring you the Church
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    of the Air.
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    [Hymn continues. ]
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    Amen.
Details
Title

KFAB Church of the Air, Dundee Church choir and Dr. Louis Evans, 1957.

Description

Performance by the choir of Dundee Presbyterian Church, Omaha, Nebraska, and sermon by Dr. Louis Evans entitled, "The Lord is my Shepherd or What science is thinking," at 169th General Assembly, Omaha, Nebraska, 1957.

Creator

Evans, Louis Hadley, 1897- (speaker)

Date

May 19, 1957
1957

Type of resource

sound recording

Genre

sermons
radio programs
sound recordings

Form

audiotapes

Extent

1 audiotape reel : analog, 7 1/2 ips ; 7 in.

Language

English

Subject names

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. General Assembly (169th : 1957 : Omaha, Neb.)
Church of the air (Radio program)

Topics

Religious broadcasting.

Geographic subjects

Omaha (Neb.)
North and Central America--United States--Nebraska--Omaha--Douglas

Rights status

IN COPYRIGHT; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Note

Recorded off-air May 19, 1957, 9:30 a.m. KFAB radio, Omaha, Neb.

Physical location

TAPE 93; Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA

Related item

Dundee Church Choir and Dr. Louis Evans on Church of the air [sound recording].--http://catalog.history.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumbe...

Identifier (local)

tape93_169th-ga-omaha-1957

PID (Persistent Identifier)

islandora:116514

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