Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 19
February 29, 1968
NUMBER 42, PAGE 5b-6

Office Notes & Quotes

Fanning Yater Tant

All dressed up. Walter Hooper once told C. S. Lewis about an epitaph he had seen on a tombstone which read, "Here lies an atheist; All dressed up but with no where to go." Lewis replied, "1 bet he wishes that were so!"

These Florida lectures. I heard many, many comments this year that the lectures at Florida College last month were the "meatiest" that had been given in many a year. Especially worthy of note were the day series presented by Franklin Puckett, James Adams, Roy Cogdill and Homer Hailey. The outline books were all sold out before the week ended, but plans were being made to do a re-run on them. I ordered a supply of them (if the reprint plans materialize) and will have them available for Guardian readers who want them. Presumably the price will remain the same — $2.00. But further word on this will be coming along shortly.

Sharon. "Did I tell you about my grand-children?" asked the doting grandpa. "No," replied his friend, "and I really do appreciate it." So I'll tell you anyhow. Sharon Lee Tant was born five years ago with a defective heart — a large hole in the dividing wall which separates the two large chambers of the heart. The defect was discovered when she was only one month old, but the doctors thought it best to defer corrective surgery until she was about five. So for five apprehensive years we have all lived under the shadow of the impending event. Little Sharon spent those years blissfully unaware of the problem. On February 2, this year, she underwent open heart surgery at Emory Hospital in Decatur, Georgia. As of this writing (a few days later) she is making beautiful progress toward a happy, healthy and completely normal girlhood.

The operation appears to have been eminently successful. Let all the Tants (and Hartsells) say "thank you" to a great host of friends and brethren whose thoughts, and prayers, and good wishes have been with us through these years.

From the mail-bag. "I do appreciate the special issue on John T. Lewis. He was a good soldier of Jesus Christ...He was perfectly and brutally frank. Thirty years ago or more I remember I was preaching at West End in a meeting. My lesson was on I Kings, chapter 13, and I had something to say about the Lord sending the 'young prophet' to Bethel. Brother Lewis sidled up to me after the service and wanted to know just where I found out that the prophet was 'young'!" ... Please send me 50 copies of the "Lewis Special." Yours for truth and right, Fred E. Dennis, Marietta, Ohio."

Highly probable. I am still wrestling with the problem of "cost control," and trying to reach a decision as to a possible increase in subscription rates for the Gospel Guardian. It did look like it might be possible to maintain the $4.00 rate — until we got hit with the increased postal rates. That may just be the last straw. Anyhow, if our subscription price goes up it will not be until May 1 (the beginning of our year); and until then the old prices prevail — one year for $4.00; two years for $7.00; and FIVE years for $10.00. And even though this is the first mention made of the matter on these pages, an unusual number of those five-year subscriptions have been coming in. Incidentally, the Gospel Advocate, with far less to offer in Bible teaching, advanced their price to $6.00 recently. That price is not being considered, but an increase to $5.00 per year is highly probable.

Can anybody help? A letter from Annie May Alston, librarian of the Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, Tennessee, says their library has all the Gospel Guardian except Volumes 6 and 7. Can any of our readers give any help in finding these two volumes for that library? If you know where the bound volumes are available, contact Miss Alston (1000 Cherry Road, Memphis, Tennessee 38117). If you do NOT have the bound volumes, but do have single issues of those two years, contact me; I will try to help her find enough single issues to make up a complete file for the missing years. Thanks.

The mystery is solved! I've often wondered why it is so generally the practice to omit the third stanza of some songs. But in looking at a certain third stanza the other day a great light dawned. The mystery was solved. That third stanza reads, "Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold." Obviously such a declaration causes pain and discomfort to a great many. It is better to omit than to embarrass!

Elza Gary. On February 1 Brother Elza Gary, faithful elder in the Gardiner Lane Church of Louisville, Kentucky, was killed in a car accident near Lewisburg, Tennessee. A few hours after his death I called his family in Louisville. I had stayed with them while in a meeting at Gardiner Lane some months ago. I felt the sting of tears in my eyes as I struggled to find some word of sympathy or help for the grieving family. But there were no tears in Deanie's voice as she answered me with calm assurance, "Daddy was on his way to Mississippi to see about another church building. He was in good health, in good spirits, and doing the kind of work he loved. It's hard to give him up, but he died instantly at a time when his life was full and happy. That's the best way for a Christian to go." It reminded me of old Balaam's comment on Jacob's death: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

Luther's last days. When Martin Luther was an old man, he wrote a friend, "Aged, weary, and almost blind, yet I have as much to do as if I had never preached nor acted. I am weary of the world now, and the world is weary of me. The parting will be easy — like that of a guest leaving an inn. I pray God will be gracious to me in my last hours. I shall quit the world without reluctance."

Could be. Quote from Homer Hailey: "Somebody once said that perhaps the reason why James made reference 'unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror' might be because the occasions when a woman can behold her natural face in a mirror are rare indeed."

Hospitals and schools. In S. H. Hall's book, "Sixty Years In The Pulpit," I found a report of the Russell Street Church for the year 1933. The report is signed by T. B. Bonner "Chairman of the Board of Elders and Deacons." Makes you wonder what kind of "overseership" that church had! I was not surprised at all to see in the report that this church took some considerable pride in their medical clinic (reporting 4,500 patients visiting the clinic for medical attention) and also, "We gave David Lipscomb College $80.00."