Spirit Without Miracles
Sir:
Will you allow me to say that TIME'S concluding account of the Amsterdam Assembly of the World Council of Churches (TIME, Sept. 13), while admirably generous in space, is lamentably distorted in perspective?
Paradoxically, this is due to the fact that TIME'S correspondent at Amsterdam brought to the assembly a preconception of what he loped for from it which was at variance with, and in one sense, loftier than, what either he or the delegates had a right to expect. He wanted a "Pentecost," that is, a visitation of the Holy Spirit like that described in Acts 2:7-11. The fact that no such spectacular miracle occurred does not necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit was not present. For the definitive Christian conception of the Holy Spirit is that not of Acts but of the Apostle Paul. And the authentic proof of the Spirit's presence is not in flames of fire or "speaking with tongues" but in the "fruits of the Spirit" as Paul defines them: "love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." At Amsterdam, these "fruits" were abundantly evident within the World Council Assembly. Time and again in Christian history, there have been dramatic reenactments of Pentecost, with dubious enduring spiritual fruitage. It may well be the judgment of history that the Living Spirit was far more effectively at work in the less sensational but profound spiritual unity of this assembly.
The American press, including TIME, has headlined contradictory attitudes toward the East-West confrontation, suggesting that the assembly's discussions reproduced the shocking scenes of United Nations debates. It would be difficult to conjure up a picture more completely at variance with the facts. At Amsterdam, it was at every point a discussion "within the family," carried on by Christians and friends who recognized and treated one another always as such. Even the divergence in definition of "church" to which TIME calls attention was merely a recording of an old and familiar difference, far less significant than the wholly unforeseen measure of understanding and agreement, greater than in any comparable Christian assemblage ever held. My own impression is that this was the most newsworthy fact about Amsterdam--such differences and stresses as appeared were inconsequential in comparison with what had been expected, and were overshadowed by the truly remarkable sweep of unity disclosed and even more by the fullness of mutual comprehension and appreciation.
HENRY P. VAN DUSEN, D.D.
President Union Theological Seminary New York City
Medical News
Sir:
Untold heartache, disappointment and suffering would be avoided if all editors . . . would accept your article on phenosulfazole [TIME, Sept. 6] as a model of medical reporting, as applied to new and experimental drugs and surgical procedures.
Anyone who has had to look into the eager, happy faces of anxious relatives and patients who have just read that streptomycin is practically a sure cure for tuberculosis, explain as gently as possible that the wonder drug has its limitations and is unsuitable for their particular sufferer, and watch hope change into sickening despair, can attest to the damage done by overenthusiastic writing on such topics . . .
DUANE CARR, M.D.
Memphis, Tenn.
Caldwell's Millions
Sir:
In your review of Erskine Caldwell's This Very Earth ... it was stated that sales of Mr. Caldwell's books were "above 9,000,000 copies" [TIME, Aug. 30]. This properly represents the sales of one reprint publisher. The number of copies of Mr. Caldwell's books in print, at home and abroad, including not only quarter books but dollar books and 75-c- books as well, is at present slightly more than 14 million . . .
JUNE CALDWELL
Tucson, Ariz.
P: Wow!--ED.
Hiccups
Sir:
I read your article on hiccups [TIME, Sept. 6] ... I can stop [them] any time I try ...
I simply inhale as slowly as I possibly can --until I feel that I will smother in the process from lack of oxygen--then exhale in the same manner, very, very slowly. I can do this a couple of times and my hiccups are gone . . .
MRS. G. K. WINES Dallas, Tex.
Sir:
For over a third of a century I have not had an attack that I could not end on the second or third "hic."
Anyone with normal power of will can succeed as I did, I feel sure. In 1910, after an attack lasting several days, I determined to end the nuisance in future by bringing the diaphragm under direct control of the will. During future attacks, as I felt the recurrent spasms coming, I concentrated my will power to inhibit it. This entailed an exhausting struggle worse than hiccups, but it was successful . . . When I find I am hiccuping I simply stop, just as I would stop twiddling my watch chain, for instance . . .
C. B. MORRILL
Valrico, Fla.
Sir:
. While reading the article ... I was shocked to discover that somehow my hiccups of two days' running had disappeared . . .
JAMES E. HEWES JR. Farmington, Conn.
Partisans of Dido
Sir:
Professor Spackman's university students may not agree that the Aeneid contains an exciting love affair [TIME, Sept. 13], but I wish to assure him that high-school students (at least the girls) do. Most of them are strong partisans of Dido. It is some comfort to them and restores Aeneas somewhat in their estimation, to run across the lines where he says he did not leave Dido willingly, but because of the orders of the gods.
I am not completely convinced of the feasibility of Miss Geweke's plan (which I have heard her and her committee explain at several classical association meetings), but I do think Professor Spackman is most unfair to her . . .
MILDRED ESTELLE CARSON Monmouth, Ill.
Toynbee & the Shmoos
Sir:
Please! Now you've gone too far! I don't mind, really, your giving me my news in predigested capsule form . . .
But please leave us to our own interpretation of the works of Al Capp [TIME, Sept. 13]-- undoubtedly the most brilliant satirist of our era. His genius defies interpretation . . . Like fine music, Capp's cartoons mean many things to many people. Don't spoil it!
Just stick to the politicians and the other ordinary problems which beset us human beings . . .
JACQUELINE McCULLOUGH New Orleans, La.
Sir:
As much as I enjoyed your reference to my favorite comic, Li'l Abner, your shallow interpretation of Old Man Mose's warning distressed me. [The warning: "Shmoos, mah boy, is th' greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has ever known!"]
Obviously, Old Man Mose was referring to the fact that without the challenge of environment there would be no growth of our civilization (see Arnold Toynbee). But after the progressive increase in H.C.L. . . . my household civilization seems arrested anyway, so, going along with Li'l Abner, bring on the shmoos . . .
JACK D. PETERSON Toledo, Ohio
Heft at the Met
Sir:
Billy Rose's plan to "improve" the Metropolitan Opera [TIME, Sept. 6] is commendable, but he mustn't let his long affiliation with thousands of thin-thighed showgirls go to his vocabulary when he calls opera singers "hamfats." Does he know that it takes all that "heft" to sing above a vast orchestra? . . . Opera is not supposed to be a flashy, visual affair of housebroken horses and incredible bosoms ... We don't go to look; we go to listen.
BARBARA JORDAN Tenafly, NJ.
Sir:
... I would like Mr. Rose to show me one of his chorines who can sing a complete opera . . . and then eat a dinner that will keep her glamorous figure . . .
SHIRLEY BRANDON
Savannah, Mo.
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