Religion: Waiting for a Sign

On April 20, the Rev. J. J. Ivie, 57, a traveling Ozark evangelist of the fundamentalist Assembly of God Church, went home to his cottage in Cherryville, Mo. and quietly told his wife that he was going on a religious fast. In 27 years as a preacher in the foothills, he had come to feel an increasing depression about human sinfulness, and a sense of personal failure in his efforts to lead his fellow men to repentance.

Lately, the "mad rush" of Communism worried him still more. (His youngest son is in the Army in Korea.) He believed that only "speedy evangelization or divine intervention" could save the world, so he had decided to take nothing but water "until God reveals Himself."

This week, after more than 40 days of fasting, Evangelist Ivie, still hoping for a sign from God, prayed weakly in his bedroom. Hollow-cheeked (he has lost about 30 Ibs.), he gave his family strict orders that no doctor is to be called, even if he loses consciousness. "If the Lord wants me to die," he said, "I'm ready to go."