TRIUMPH -- October 1981 - The last issue
THE ULTIMATE TEST
Well, I am home from the hospital. I was in for a week (the last week of July). While there I had several tests to try and determine what was causing my anemia. Most of them were rather difficult to get through, especially for someone paralyzed from the neck down. My breathing, or lack of it, was of no little concern to the doctors and myself. As each test drew near, I would repeat to my wife, who was beside me all the way, the verse found in Philippians 4:13: "I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST, WHO STRENGTHENETH ME." Each test brought a new challenge, but Christ always provided the strength needed to meet it. I grew more apprehensive as each test neared. And sometimes it seemed like the heavens were brass and that Christ didn't care, but after each test was over, I could look back and see the evidence of His presence and help. He gave me strength at just the time I needed it most. Elsewhere He promises, "I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE." When the week of intensive tests were finally over, I thanked the Lord that He had kept His Word; He had been there all the time and had worked everything out for me. The Bible says He is a very present help in trouble. I can say "Amen" to that.
Now I have to face the ultimate test. The specialist who was working on my case came in one day and said he had just been down to look at my X-rays. He said a dark spot had shown up on my colon. When my wife asked him what that meant, he said it was a tumor and the liver scan had shown that it had spread to my liver and I had cancer of the liver. I listened in stunned silence as he told us this. My wife asked what my life expectancy was. He didn't know. So we left the hospital the next day with this bad news hanging over us like a black cloud. I have had some time to think since then. And I realized that this was just another test in which Christ could show Himself strong. He hasn't failed me in the past, and I know He won't fail me now. Everyone has to die, sooner or later. I guess I'm going to be sooner. I don't have the strength to face it alone. But "I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST, WHO STRENGTHENETH ME." So, as of this moment, He has given me peace of mind and heart. And no matter how difficult this ultimate test might turn out to be, I am trusting Jesus to give me grace and strength, as He always has in the past.
God always gives to His own, the grace to live, and the grace to die. "THERE HATH NO TEMPTATION (or test) TAKEN YOU BUT SUCH AS IS COMMON TO MAN; BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL, WHO WILL NOT PERMIT YOU TO BE TESTED ABOVE THAT YE ARE ABLE, BUT WILL, WITH THE TEST, ALSO MAKE THE WAY TO ESCAPE, THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO BEAR IT" (I Corinthians 10:13). The psalmist, speaking of the "valley of the shadow of death," said, "I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FOR THOU ARE WITH ME." This is the heritage of every child of God. We do not face death alone. Our Lord and savior is there. He will carry us through this valley. I am weak and cannot face this experience alone, but the Lord is with me. So, I expect to pass the ultimate test with flying colors, not in my own strength but in the strength Christ provides. He took away the sting of death. "O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING? O GRAVE, WHERE IS THY VICTORY? THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN; AND THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW. BUT THANKS BE TO GOD, WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" (I Corinthians 15:55-57). I have had a measure of victory in life; why shouldn't I have victory in death, with His provision of strength? He said, "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU; MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS" (2 Corinthians 12:9). I am the weakest of the weak, but He is strong and longs to show Himself strong on the behalf of all who believe. We must learn to rest our case with Him.
What about the future of TRIUMPH? I don't know. We will continue with TRIUMPH as it is, as long as we can. When we cannot continue, we will let you know.
Thanks for your prayers and support over the years. We will see many of you on the other side. God bless you and keep you in His care
--Editor
MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE
One of the nicest things about living in the country is getting up in the mornings to hear the birds singing. Our favorite is the blackbird that whistles cheerfully in a tree in the garden, come rain or shine. One morning of very unspringlike weather when everything was hidden in thick mist and drizzle, our eight-year-old exclaimed "The blackbird is singing, even though everything is so horrible outside. He must be thinking of the sunshine we shall have tomorrow."
There are times when we need more than just a little faith to look forward to a "bright tomorrow," times when the last thing we feel like doing is singing, and when it needs a real effort not to think about our own problems or our pain. Yet what blessing comes to us if we can raise our heart to God in prayer and our voice to Him in praise. Never mind if our voice is nothing to listen to--the psalmist tells us to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." He doesn't mention that we need a sweet voice to do it. We never know who may hear us, or just how God will use our witness.
How much better it is to use the voice God has given us to praise, rather than in grumbling. Yet that is what the Jews who were taken captive to Babylon did. When their captors asked them to "sing one of the songs of Zion," the psalmist tells us that they wept, and the psalm ends with a cry of vengeance against their enemies. How much more pleasing to God if they had used the opportunity to witness to His love instead. A line in a favorite hymn says: "Faith can sing through days of sorrow--All, all is well." And the more we sing about our faith, the more we value that in God, all is well.
--Pat Parkinson
Reprinted from the "Vital Link," a publication of Disabled Christians Fellowship in Great Britain.
The Story of SOLOMON L. GINBURG
By Charles L. Feinberg
"TO WHOM does the prophet refer in this chapter?" It was the question from a boy of fourteen to his father, a rabbi. The rabbi and his followers were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. The boy had opened a copy of the prophets at a passage evidently often examined, chapter 53 of Isaiah. The boy repeated the question to his father. Quiet fell on the company. When the lad repeated his question, the father, in confusion seized the book and slapped his son in the face -- an excellent way, surely, to fix an idea in the mind of the boy.
In such an Orthodox home, Solomon L. Ginsburg was born in Suwalki, Poland. At six he was sent to his mother's native city, Koenigsberg, Germany, to get a better education than was available for a Jewish boy in Poland. His mother's father was a wealthy, learned, widely traveled merchant, who took the boy with him often on his journeys.
At fourteen, his father insisted he return to Suwalki. Solomon revolted at the rigid traditional Judaism at home. Moreover, his father wanted him to be a Jewish teacher. The plan included marriage to the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family. Since his bride was twelve and he was fifteen, and the wedding was being prepared without his wishes being consulted, he ran away.
After many experiences he came to London, where his mother's brother took him in and employed him in his large dry-goods store. Here his life was changed. Walking through the Whitechapel district one Jewish Sabbath afternoon, he met a missionary to the Jews who invited him to the Mildmay Mission to the Jews to hear him explain Isaiah 53. At once the incident which occurred during the Feast of Tabernacles when he was fourteen came before him. Curious, he decided to go.
At the mission, he did not understand all the interpretation, but a deep impression was made on him. His subsequent reading of the New Testament convinced him that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Messiah of his people. He struggled for three months, counting the cost of declaring his faith. At a meeting where John Wilkinson of the Mildway Mission spoke on Matthew 10:37: "HE THAT LOVETH FATHER OR MOTHER MORE THAN ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME," the words went right to his soul. Finally completely convinced, he arose and said with trembling voice: "I want to be worthy of Jesus." Joy, peace, and forgiveness flooded his soul, and tears of happiness flowed.
The next morning his uncle asked him the reason for his radiant face, and Solomon told him of the struggle, ending with the decision he had made. When efforts to change his mind failed, he was driven from the home without his belongings. For a year he heard nothing from his people. Then his father's brother came to London to dissuade him from his so-called apostasy. He had to decide between his new belief, and excommunication and disinheritance. He was given a week for the decision -- a long, trying, agonizing week. When his uncle, along with several elders of Israel, pleaded with him to renounce the faith, he refused. So they cursed him. In his mind he visualized the Messiah bearing the curse for him on the cross.
At once Ginsburg began to tell others the news of salvation. He was repeatedly stoned, knocked down, kicked, and injured until unconscious. After three years in the printers' trade and another three years in a training college, he answered the call to missionary service in Brazil, the largest political division of the Western hemisphere -- larger than the US without Alaska, and sixty-five times the size of England. He was sent to Portugal to study the language. By the end of the first month in Portugal, he had written a tract in English, translated it into Portuguese, had it printed, and went about the country selling it.
His labors in Brazil read like modern chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. He decided to follow Paul's example in confirming new converts. God used him to found scores of churches in different areas of Brazil. In some centers as many as a thousand persons were won to Christ in a single year. Solomon L. Ginsburg was called a Jewish crusader in Brazil.
He placed high value on the printed page. From his own small funds he bought a press and a few fonts of type to publish a little monthly. The work grew mightily, and when the work of several mission stations was united and taken to Rio de Janeiro, he was chosen to head the work. The literature went to all parts of Brazil, a lasting monument to his faith, labor, and ability. He trained many converts.
He was called home after thirty-three years of labor for Christ in Brazil. The Southern Baptist Convention of the United States, under which he labored, spoke of him as "decidedly the greatest all-around missionary of any denomination in Brazil." His work lives yet in the hills, valleys, plains, and churches and hearts throughout Brazil.
-- From "America in History and Bible Prophecy," edited by Dr. Thomas McCall, published by Moody Press, Chicago.
Arthur E. Gordon, The Polio Pastor, has died. We are deeply saddened at the loss of our special and long-time columnist. The Rev. Gordon was 56 when he died at his home Wednesday, August 14, shortly after learning he had cancer.
For over 20 years, the Rev. Gordon wrote a weekly column for the PRESS' church page under his byline, "The Polio Pastor."
He was 31 and a newly ordained Baptist minister at the Williamsburg Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Ohio when a polio epidemic ravaged that community in 1955, leaving him a quadriplegic dependent on life-supporting breathing equipment.
After a two-year rehabilitation period, the Rev. Gordon and his family moved to his parents' home in Russellville where he completed a correspondence course from the Christian Writers Institute in 1957 and continued a unique ministry from his wheelchair.
In addition to his weekly "Polio Pastor" column for the PRESS, the Rev. Gordon wrote religious messages for various magazines and edited and published monthly, TRIUMPH, Inc., a religious paper for shut-ins and the physically handicapped. The free publication was distributed to more than 4,400 people throughout the world.
No small feat, the Rev. Gordon, who was paralyzed from the neck down, typed his weekly column with the aid of a mouth stick affixed to his wheelchair and also, as he said in a 1979 interview for the PRESS, "with the Lord's help."
The man whose indomitable spirit and inspirational faith sustained him throughout his severe handicap, once said, "Yes, Christians do have someone they can rely on in every circumstance of life."
The Rev. Gordon resided with his wife, L. Marilynn Boggs Gordon, in Russellville. Born in Unionville, he was the son of the late Charles N. and Violet M. Whitworth Gordon.
He graduated from the Oxford Area School in 1943 and served in the U.S.Army during World War II. He was a 1948 graduate of the Bible Institute of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and a 1954 graduate of Grace Brethren College and Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana.
Serving as a student pastor at the Salem Community Church in Wilmot, Indiana, Rev. Gordon was called to Williamsburg, Ohio in 1955 where he served 11 weeks before he contracted polio.
He is survived by his wife, two sons, Jack E. of Greenville, SC; and James E. of Oxford; daughter, Joyce, wife of Robert Landis, Greenville, SC and five grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, August 18, 2:30 p.m. at the Beulah Baptist Church in Russellville with Rev. Earl Osborn, of Lancaster, PA and Assistant Pastor Joe Kelly officiating. Interment was in the adjoining church cemetery.
A viewing was held at the church from 1 p.m. until the service. Arrangements were by the William Q. Johnston Funeral Home, Oxford.
Through Rev. Gordon's column last week entitled, "The Ultimate Test," readers learned that the Polio Pastor had cancer. The "ultimate test" he referred to was about facing death--his own.
His final column entitled, "A Warrior is Fallen" appears in today's issue. Although the "fallen warrior" he describes is about another individual whom cancer felled, Arthur Gordon was likewise a courageous warrior who refused to let his physical handicap conquer him. With his unswerving faith and trust in God, he continued to spread the Lord's message until he died.
The Polio Pastor and his column will be greatly missed. His courage and strength and above all, his faith in the face of insurmountable odds were remarkable. His comforting words were a source of inspiration to all who read his column.
EDITOR ABSENT FROM THE BODY
PRESENT WITH THE LORD
Victory in Jesus
