Once more unto the breach.

Hyperventilating press releases were flying off the fax machines on July 31 and early in August after President Clinton announced that he would sign this year's welfare reform act. Liberal lobbying groups like the Children's Defense Fund were proclaiming that Congress and a cowed president were ruthlessly eliminating safeguards for the poor.

When our dog died recently, I had to explain to my youngest son, Benjamin, 5, that all dogs don't go to heaven. People have souls that never die but dogs do not, I pointed out.

Ben, cogitating, responded, "Then people are special?" That's right, Ben, that's right-and that understanding separates true Christian environmentalists from the conventional liberal environmentalism that rules the pages of Time and even some Christian publications.

Since I've been traveling so much on airplanes recently, I've repeatedly heard instructions on how to use the oxygen masks that drop automatically from the ceiling in case of a decrease in cabin pressure. To get the flow of oxygen started, the attendant says, "Give the plastic tubing a firm tug."

Occasional readers of WORLD might be mystified by some of our page headings and story headlines, and even our faithful subscribers-the most theologically literate, historically knowledgeable, and altogether terrific magazine audience on the planet-may wonder. So here is a brief lexicon that leads into a discussion of the Supreme Court's latest seizure of power.

On memorial day we should remember soldiers from the armed forces and those with the hardest tasks in Christ's armies as well. My thoughts turn to directors of biblically faithful homeless shelters who will assemble in New Jersey on Memorial Day weekend to take part in the annual convention of the International Union of Gospel Missons-and I think of how they can look beneath the surface of men like Ferdinand Banks.