From Brownwood To Fort Smith
After eleven years in Brownwood, Texas, I shall begin work with the Park Hill Church of Christ in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on June 1, 1959, "if the Lord will".
For eight of these eleven years in Brownwood I have been working with the Southside Church, and I believe my relationship with the congregation is as congenial now as on the day that we began. (I was with the Haldeman Avenue Church in Louisville, Kentucky, for twelve years before coming to Brownwood.)
Southside has an excellent leadership. The elders are men of unfeigned faith, sound judgment and good courage. They know the truth and they love the Lord and His church. I can assure my successor (whoever he may be) that he will not have to stand alone in anything that is right and scriptural. These elders will be fighting side by side with him in every battle for truth and righteousness.
When I came to Brownwood eleven years ago I could see clearly the hand of the great dragon and his beast at work among the churches here. Our fight against worldliness, institutionalism and modernism in general has been long, grueling and without respite. Our enemy is strong and proud. His methods are deceitful and unscrupulous. He has employed all the manipulations and maneuvers of Sanballat and Tobiah. We have had our Judas Iscariots and Benedict Arnolds to desert us and join the ranks of the enemy; a few timid souls who never had the stuff that martyrs are made of have jumped on the band wagon of institutionalism and worldliness. But the elders of this congregation have never retreated one inch, and this church, though small in numbers, still stands like a stone wall against all the onslaughts of Modernism in all its forms. We have had many dark days and a few sleepless nights, but the Lord has stood by us and has given us strength and courage. I have never prayed for flowery beds of ease; my prayer has been for strength to bear whatever burdens may be necessary for the development of those qualities of soul that would make me more like my Lord and better prepare me for his presence.
"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Yet wears a precious jewel in its head."
My prayer has been answered. So far, through all my days my health has been as nearly perfect as one could expect. I am thankful.
And now at the age of 62, in perfect health and with bright hopes and eager anticipations, I joyfully look forward to years of fruitful and pleasant work on the verdant slopes and valleys of the Ozarks.
My mailing address till June 1, 1959, will continue to be P. O.Box 67, Brownwood, Texas. After that date it will be: 1900 Jenny Lind, Fort Smith, Arkansas.