Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 13
January 4, 1962
NUMBER 34, PAGE 4,12b

We've Moved

Editorial

Visitors to Lufkin will find the Gospel Guardian now comfortably established in our new location — 413 East Groesbeck. This is a much better arrangement for us than our former place of business on the court-house square, and we are sure that the larger quarters will enable us to do a much better job not only in serving our local customers but in facilitating the service to those who know us only through the mails.

Under the capable new management of Virginia Parish the office work will be handled smoothly and efficiently so as to permit the filling of most orders the very day they are received. If we do not have a book in stock when your order is received (and our stock of books is being greatly enlarged and expanded), we begin that very day to try to find the book for you. Whatever you need in the way of books, Bible class literature and helps, Bibles, communion wares, and general church supplies, we either have in stock or will obtain for you speedily and with the least possible delay due to handling. In case where your need is urgent we can have the merchandise shipped directly from the manufacturer or publisher to you, avoiding completely the three or four days delay that might be present if it were routed through our Lufkin office.

In short, we are happy and highly pleased at this forward step in our efforts to render good service to our customers. We are most grateful for your patronage in the past — and solicit it for the future!

— F. Y. T.

We Need Your Help

The Gospel Guardian was originally published as a monthly journal, making its debut in October 1935. After only nine months of publication this paper was forced to suspend operations, and for two years remained silent. Then in July 1938 publication was begun again, and this time under a new name "The Bible Banner." For more than a decade The Bible Banner stood as a mighty bulwark against the threatening tide of modernism and digression. Published at first as a monthly, the general conditions of the war years made it extremely difficult to hold to any certain schedule, and for a while the magazine appeared only as a quarterly. But beginning in 1947 Brother Roy E. Cogdill became the publisher, and from that time forward the regular orderly publication of the journal has continued without interruption — at first as a monthly, and then in May, 1949, going on a weekly basis, and reverting to the original name, The Gospel Guardian.

Ready this Spring to begin its fourteenth year as weekly publication, the Gospel Guardian now finds herself in position to render a service to her readers and friends far greater than any she has been able to give in the past. Our business affairs have taken a decidedly favorable turn in recent months; brethren over the nation are helping us to enlarge the circulation of both the Gospel Guardian and Truth In Love, and we feel much more hopeful as to the continued successful operation of the journal than we have at any time in the past.

New Emphasis

We want more and more to emphasize a positive, aggressive, hard-hitting evangelism in the articles we publish. We think it is fairly obvious to all by now that there is to be no turning back by our liberal brethren in the course they have chosen to follow; their institutions and agencies and cooperative associations will multiply more and more. Church supported schools (both elementary and secondary), church hospitals, youth camps, recreation centers, benevolence societies, and various evangelistic combines and cooperatives are going to increase rather than diminish. The arguments, for the most part, have been made on both sides; attitudes have crystallized, and lines are more and more definitely being drawn.

In view of such, we see no particular merit in a constant rehash of so much that has been said before. We think the time has come to realize that the breach between those who are determined to stick by a "thus saith the Lord" and those who are willing to accept denominational status for the church is here to stay, and is destined to become wider rather than narrower as the years go by. For that reason, we would like very much to see the thousands of faithful gospel preachers and other consecrated disciples set their face resolutely and unswervingly to the great task that lies before us — the carrying of the gospel of Christ into every city and town and village in our nation, and ultimately throughout the world. Let little time be spent in vain regrets or profitless recriminations against those who have led their followers into apostasy; let this energy be directed rather toward converting sinners, building faithful congregations, and edifying and strengthening the brethren.

In such a battle for truth the Gospel Guardian can prove a powerful and effective force for good — by giving articles of simple Bible teaching, articles that encourage and inspire to greater devotion, articles that help the weak, enlighten the confused but honest ones who are in darkness; by giving information as to what steadfast brethren are doing in all parts of the world to advance the truth. This we want to do. This does not mean that we will carry no material on "current issues." We intend to continue that indefinitely. For there are undoubtedly scores of thousands of sincere brethren who are yet enmeshed in the "institutional" churches who will come out of them when they finally realize what is happening. But it does mean that we want to give a new emphasis to articles of a more general nature.

YOU can help — by encouraging a great number of your friends to subscribe to the Gospel Guardian. Let us build our circulation by a constant and continuing effort to gain new readers.

YOU can help — by sending the Gospel Guardian as a "gift subscription" to a host of friends. For only $5.00 per month you can send the paper to thirty families; for only $25.00 per month to 150 families! Just send in the names and addresses; we will put them on the mailing list, and then bill you each month for the amount necessary to cover these subscriptions. You can terminate the arrangement any time you desire.

YOU can help — by ordering your books, Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries and all church supplies through the Gospel Guardian, Box 980, Lufkin, Texas.

YOU can help — by getting the church where you worship to advertize its services in the Gospel Guardian on the "Where To Worship When Travelling" page. This space is only $6.00 per month for a biweekly insertion.

We are deeply grateful for your help in the past. We solicit it for the future. And Happy New Year to every one of you.

F. Y. T.