Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 12
August 25, 1960
NUMBER 16, PAGE 2-3b

The Passing Years

Editorial

I have wandered today to the scenes of my childhood. Or, more accurately, to some of the scenes of my childhood. This article is being written in Tularosa, New Mexico, just twelve miles north of Alamogordo. I have just returned to my room after having spent a good part of the day in Alamogordo.

My first look at Alamogordo was nearly a half-century ago; on Christmas Day, 1912, my mother and her six children got off the train in this little frontier town after a long and tiring trip from Tennessee. Father, having preceded us by a few days with our household goods on the freight train, met us at the station. Five days later, on December 30, in this wild and new country, I passed my fourth birthday.

How sad, and yet how stirring the memories that filled my heart as I walked again today those hallowed spots. The brooding facade of the Sacramento Mountains forms a solid wall to the east; the dazzling White Sands are plainly visible to the west. Very few of the people I knew in those days are still living. For nearly twenty years my father has slept beneath the soil of Texas, awaiting the final call. My mother and her six children still live; but in the course of natural expectations her days on earth are rapidly drawing to a close. All of us with inexorable tread are moving down that one-way road toward a certain and inevitable termination. How short is a half-century in history; yet how long in the lifetime of an individual! I am now the age my father was when he moved his family to the West; and I am confident I shall never attain the four score years which measured his allotted span of life. The passing years move on, and the pace grows even faster Those of you who have read "J. D. Tant - Texas Preacher" may perhaps recall the struggles and the heartaches that attended those tragic years in New Mexico. You may remember how desperately my father tried to build up the cause of Christ in the new state. Soon after settling in Alamogordo, he wrote:

"New Mexico is almost four times as large as Tennessee or Kentucky, still we have only about one dozen loyal preachers, less than twenty small congregations, and only two church houses in the State." (Firm Foundation, January 21, 1913).

And that "one dozen loyal preachers" included every man in the state who would even talk on Sunday or preach in any fashion. Not a single one of them was supported by the churches; all made their living by farming, ranching, school teaching, or otherwise.

As my mind travels back across the years, and I remember the sacrifices, the toil and heartache, the tears and prayers, that went into the building of the Cause of Christ in the State and throughout the nation, and then view the present condition of the churches, it cannot but bring sadness and deep sorrow. Yet, there is an aspect of the present chaos which is most heartening. For even the casual observer cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that a "sifting" of the church is very much in evidence today. The worldly minded, the materialistic, the proud and arrogant, the professional "do-gooders", the dancing, drinking, carnally minded are increasingly drifting into the big worldly congregations. Lines of separation and divergence are Inevitable between this group and that humble, sacrificing, God-fearing element who are primarily interested in reaching heaven, and who care little or nothing for "making a name for the Church of Christ" among men.

Indeed, the very suffering and distress that comes to the faithful because of the ostracism, isolation, and opposition which they endure may be all to the good. God has a way of "chastening" his people which they sometimes do not recognize, but which under His providence works out for their good. And we doubt not for a moment that when the present conflict dies down, and the final separation takes place all over the nation between the "liberals" and the "conservatives" among the churches of Christ, those who remain faithful to "the old paths," be they few or many, will be a much cleaner, purer, and more consecrated group of Christians than was the case before the battle began. And it will then be recognized of the liberal-minded brethren that "they went out from us because they were not of us."

Alamogordo, a dusty frontier village of less than two thousand people when I first saw it, is now an attractive little western city of nearly 20,000 people. It is a melancholy truth that the church in Alamogordo is largely under the control of brethren who are identified with the liberal trends among us; although there are certainly some in that congregation who are more interested in reaching heaven than they are in "making the governments of the earth sit up and take notice that the Church of Christ is to be reckoned with" (to cite the argument of one well-known preacher who was defending the Herald of Truth Cooperative). But the "sifting" process continues, and will continue for many years yet to come.

As for me, the passing years keep bearing down with ever mounting pressure; the time left me is so short! the task to be done is so great! Valiant soldiers, one by one, fall in the battle. "But the victory belongeth unto the Lord." And that victory is sure and certain for those who in the love of truth keep themselves in the love of God.

-F. Y. T.