The Overflow
Year-end reverie These lines are being written on the last day of 1951. During this year we have held twenty-four gospel meetings, involving perhaps 25,000 miles of travel (California, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Canada, and Kansas); preached at six Sunday appointments, two of them being with our home congregation, the College Church at Abilene, Texas; written some fifty editorials for the Gospel Guardian, in addition to editing all the articles that go into the paper each week; kept up a fairly heavy correspondence (fifty to seventy-five letters received each week, and about thirty written); and, alas!, gained some weight.
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Coming We call your attention to a series of three articles, beginning this week, entitled "Hats, or Hair?" Next week we begin a series of articles by brother Jesse M. Kelley, "Identifying the New Testament Church." This is a revision and an enlargement of a fine series which brother Kelley published' several years ago in The Gospel Light.
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Was that letter type-written?
E. L. Jorgenson has distributed a long "Answer and Defense" replying to brother Wallace's indictment of his song book. In his "defense" he refers to a letter from J. D. Tant which he thinks is favorable to him. The "quotation" has so many deletions as to arouse suspicion. We opine that if that letter is in J. D. Tant's own handwriting, E. L. Jorgenson is just guessing at what it said! And if it is typewritten, why the deletions?
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Presbyterial authority California has everything! Latest item to come to our attention was the action of a certain preacher in the San Francisco Bay area who had few members in the congregation where he preached whom he thought ought to be disciplined. Since that congregation had no elders, this preacher went over to a neighboring congregation, borrowed their elders, and had them come over to withdraw from his unruly brethren!—Diocesan elders again. Page Cecil N. Wright!
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Robert F. Turner Comes a letter from brother Robert F. Turner of "Rocky Roost," Iron Springs Road, Prescott, Arizona, telling us that he is going into full time meeting work. He will be of real service in that work, as he has been in local work; and the churches where he preaches will hear the kind of preaching that is needed (and so often lacking) in our day. No congregation can make a mistake by inviting brother Turner for a meeting. He'll do you good .
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Surrounded!
Brother R. C. Walker continues to be worried and troubled over last year's Florida Christian College lectures. He thinks brother Gatewood was "ganged up on." It reminds us of a story we read a few weeks ago concerning a certain gentleman who was inebriated. Staggering down the street, he bumped into a telephone pole. For twenty minutes he carefully walked around the pole, feeling it high and low with his hands. Then with a despairing shrug of his shoulders he muttered, "Sno use. I'm surrounded!"
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Fast Work Some of the Louisville, Kentucky, churches have gone for a generation or two without elders—contending that nobody has been qualified during these years to serve. On the other extreme was the action of the Richmond, California, church. They had a man to be restored one Sunday morning (he had been worshipping with the Christian Church), and appointed him elder that same Sunday night.
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Washington, Goebbels, and Wright George Washington could not tell a lie; the late Joseph Goebbels could not tell the truth. And a reading of brother Cecil Wright's recent articles convinces us that he can't tell the difference! We mean no disrespect to him; we believe he has become so completely hypnotized by his blind fury against the Guardian that he honestly and sincerely is incapable of rational treatment of the subject. We shall continue, as we have in the past, to plead for equality and independence among all the. New Testament congregations; there can be no delegation either of authority or of responsibility from one to another.
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Song leader A letter from brother Raymond Whittington of Carthage, Texas, tells us that brother Charles Nelson would like to spend the summer in leading singing for gospel meetings. Brother Whittington says, "Brother Nelson is as good as they come in the field of song directing. His work here is that of Choral Director in the high school, and he is our regular song leader in the church here. He is a fine Christian man as well as one of the best of song leaders. His address is 404 Stadium St., Carthage, Texas."
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From Tennessee
"And may I remind you that there is not one word in the Bible about the churches sending money to some sponsoring church to be forwarded to Paul? They sent directly to him. You can make of it whatever you will. There is no Bible example of funneling money into one congregation to be distributed over the world by that congregation. According to the Bible they sent to the preacher. You may think you know of a better plan but that's the Bible method."
—Harris J. Dark (in The Preceptor)
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"Do It Right"
"One of the leaders of a group that uproariously called for a vote, and ousted their elders, was being reprimanded by a fellow-Christian. Convinced that the action taken was wrong, he said that he would admit this, ask the ousted elders to forgive, and then they would get them out by disfellowshiping them. Ummmmm! A little like saying, Forgive me for shooting, I meant to stab you in the back'!"
—Son-Light (Phoenix, Arizona)
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Those Pepperdine lectures A few weeks ago, at the very time brother Showalter was featuring E. V. Pullias as a front page writer on the Firm Foundation, this same brother Pullias was preaching for a digressive (Christian) church in Bakersfield, California, and inviting people to become members of that apostate body. Such actions as this (and scores of others like it both by Pullias, Hugh Tiner, and other faculty members of Pepperdine College) have long since convinced the loyal and faithful preachers of California that Pepperdine College influence is destructive and sinister; it is practically impossible for the College to get a faithful California preacher to appear on their lecture program. It has definitely reached the point in California that any man appearing on these programs immediately has a question mark placed against his name by all the faithful ones in the state. Brother Showalter, long a defender of Ralph Wilburn and a pro-motor of Earl Pullias, was one of the principal speakers this year. Brother Showalter has carried no notice of brother Wilburn's defection to the Christian Church. If Pullias is ever removed from the school, he will undoubtedly follow the example of Reedy and Etter and join some modernistic denomination, where his sympathies have long been,—and we predict the Firm Foundation will not report that either!
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Hell We've always been intrigued by philosopher Hobbes description of hell. He says, "Hell is the truth discovered too late."