The attached article by Joseph Martin Hopkins, was most likely written in response to the 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale. This decision stated that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in government schools. Hopkins had this to say:
- from Amazon:
"Is this what the Founding Fathers intended? It has been well stated that to the contrary, their concern was that the American people enjoy freedom of religion, not freedom from religion." Between 1906 and 1909, the Holy Spirit had come to dwell among the people in Los Angeles. One April day, in a run-down livery stable that was converted to a church, Pastor William Seymore (1870 – 1922) broke out into tongues and so did everyone within earshot. In fact, people blocks away began to speak in tongues and witnessing to all passersby. Within no time, the walls of that "tumble-down shack on Azusa Street" were decorated with the crutches, canes and hearing horns of the recently healed. The attached article was written by one of the few attendees to remain totally unaltered by the righteous energy that permeated the neighborhood. In the early Sixties, American church attendance was dropping as a new spirit of secularism was sweeping across the fruited plains. More and more merchants and restaurateurs were opening their businesses on Sundays and challenging the age-old Blue Laws as a result. This article examines what the Bible said about "keeping the sabbath holy", and why Blue Laws were enacted in so many states. "Somebody said The Lord's Prayer, and the meeting broke up. I walked three blocks to the subway station. Just as I was about to go down the stairs - BANG - It happened! I don't like that word miracle, but that's all I can call it. The lights in the street seemed to flare up. My feet seemed to leave the pavement. A kind of shiver went over me and I burst out crying...I haven't touched a drop since, and I've since set four other fellows on the same road." "I am a firm believer in prayer. Of all things, it has been the most important to me in my life, the surest staff on which I lean. It is my advice to any who come to me in confusion or weakness or with a problem that is driving them to despair. For I believe that it has not only a spiritual but also a concrete, practical value." For believers in Christ, Psalm 22 is the most curious of all of the 150 Psalms. It catches our imaginations not simply because our Savior quoted from it during His final hours, but because it makes a reference to the practice of crucifixion centuries before the torture was ever conceived. It also anticipates His thirst, the coming of the church and the distributing of His garments among His tormentors. We have highlighted these verses and illustrated the prophetic aspects of the psalm with quotes from a recent book on the topic.
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