Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 3
October 11, 1951
NUMBER 23, PAGE 15

The Overflow

F.Y.T.

"Doctor Billingsley is dead." With deep and moving grief these words were borne to us through a thousand miles of telephone wire. The hearts of all who knew and loved this great man of God will sorrow at his passing. Dr. C. B. Billingsley of Fort Smith, Arkansas, was a friend to thousands. A faithful elder in the Park Hill Church, a physician who stood in the very foremost ranks of his profession, a friend to the needy, a loveable and gentle man whose life was radiant with the spirit of Christ, we shall not soon see his like again. Those of us who knew him will feel an unutterable sense of loneliness and loss, and the world will be a sadder and drearier place without his gay laughter, his quick and ready wit, and his sympathetic heart. We shall have more to write of him a few weeks hence, when the first sharp stab of his loss shall have subsided a bit and we can write with a calmer mind.

—O—

Did they fear a "trend" perhaps?

"Brethren Lipscomb and Harding did not allow the musical programs to be held in the school chapel, used since the third year of the school as a church assembly place; but had such gatherings in the dining hall. They feared the influence might be toward the use of instruments in the worship." (R. C. White in "Let Us Make Man," page 83).

—O—

Lucrative racket Brother W. Clyde Poplin from Santa Rosa, California, sends us some interesting clippings on a new religious racket in California. It is called the "American Soul Clinic," and is promoted by some character wearing the name of Fred Demas. Seems the' racket works like this: you send this Demas person your name and address, together with a regular monthly remittance. In return he and his "Prayer Warriors" will start wrestling with the Lord to improve your earthly prosperity—make your cows give more milk, your chickens lay more eggs, your acres grow more cotton, your stingy boss come through with that raise, etc, etc. If perchance your earthly prosperity does increase, you send the "American Soul Clinic" one-half of all increase. But if you go busted—well, brother, that's just your tough luck! Fred offers no guarantee that his prayers won't work in reverse.

—O—

Ouch! that hurts Are they true, these reports we've been hearing of wholesale cancellations by Gospel Advocate subscribers over R. C. Walker's bitter article of a few weeks ago? Word comes to us that no less than fifty cancellations came in from one town in protest against Walker's unfair and vicious attack against Franklin Puckett and Florida Christian College. If the story is true, that's the kind of language that H-U-R-T-S—the financial nerve is reputed to be an extremely sensitive one in the Gospel Advocate environs; a cancellation is sort of like pulling a tooth. Personally, we regret to see the brethren cancel. Brother Walker's little temper tantrum was probably directed against the Guardian about as much as it was against anybody else, and we took no offense. It just struck us as being a childish display of bad humor, and we thought it was silly enough in spots to be funny. Our idea is, let a man express himself! We think most of the brethren have good sense enough to give an article like that about the weight it deserves.

—O—

"The same right"

Brother Douthitt's proposition that the elders of the church "have the same right" to do something as the individual Christian has to do something else (which proposition brother G. C. Brewer wants to defend) convinces us that brethren Brewer and Douthitt ought to enroll in brother James Bales' class in logic over at Harding College. Jim would teach them better than to advance such a proposition. It is sort of like wanting to argue that "A man has the same right to murder his mother that be has to murder his father."

—O—

Why not call it "Quits?"

The funny papers a few months ago carried a story about the Lem Squatley family in the Florida swamps. Seems when their first child was born they jubilantly christened the youngster, "Hallelujah!"; the second was somewhat less enthusiastically named, "Blessing." The third child was emphatically named "Quits." We couldn't help thinking of that story as we have followed brother Showalter's advertisements of the Cecil N. Wright tract these past few months. First notices of the tract (promising it would be ready within the next ten days) appeared late in July, and brother Showalter planned to publish them by the MILLIONS. He felt that "most congregations" could use at least one thousand tracts, and some would want twenty-five thousand. His next statement, a few weeks later, "hoped" that most congregations would take one hundred tracts. Several more weeks went by, and then came the wistful and discouraging notice that "At least one hundred thousand copies" of the tract ought to be printed—or an average of seven tracts per congregation! Why not just call it "Quits," brother Showalter?

—O—

Differentia:

Some of the churches are now publishing "Differentia" in their newspaper advertisements, so strangers in the city will know which Church of Christ teaches which particular doctrine. We saw one like this not long ago, published by a brother who objected to some of the elders in some of the other congregations in his city: "Differentia: We teach that a scriptural church must have scriptural elders." It gets just a wee bit ludicrous when one learns that this brother has "unchurched" himself—the congregation where he preaches doesn't have ANY elders, either scriptural or unscriptural!

—O—

Mixed anatomy Brother Hugo McCord wrote a sort of "tongue-in-cheek" article in the Gospel Advocate recently entitled "I visited Childhaven." Hugo got slightly confused however; it wasn't nearly so much "tongue-in-cheek" as it was "foot-in-mouth." He declares "A. family is an 'organization apart -from - the - church - doing - the -work - of - the - church' when it adopts an orphan ... It is not trespassing on the work of the church. Both a family and the church are commissioned under God to help unfortunates." If BOTH a family and the church are commissioned to help the unfortunate, how is a family doing "the church's work" when it adopts a child? Looks to us like it would be doing its own work. And now will brother Hugo just tell us where Childhaven fits into that picture! Is it "a family?" Is it a "church?" Or is God's commission to "help the unfortunate" supposed to cover organizations, as well as families and churches?