Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 7
January 26, 1956
NUMBER 37, PAGE 6,11

Reading The Bulletins

Charles A. Holt, Box 365, Franklin, Tennessee

FROM HERE AND THERE: Brother Nolon N. Wallace is now working with the church in West Columbia, Texas. He moved there from Whitesboro, Texas. The promoters of the big brotherhood projects among us helped "move" him from Whitesboro. He is off to a good start in West Columbia . . . . Brother Ralph Kidd is moving from Gallatin, Tennessee to Dayton, Ohio, where he will work with the Haynes Street Church. Brother Arthur Atkinson, Jr., the former preacher, is now living in Columbus, Ohio . . . . Brother Grover Stevens is now working with the new Caprock church in Lubbock, Texas. The church is off to a fine start and the future looks very bright. It is good to know that there are still brethren in Lubbock who have convictions and desire to stand by God's word. Most of the Caprock members came out of the College Avenue church "because of the unfair and unrighteous action of three of the elders in attempting to dismiss the preacher without allowing him a hearing on the charges filed against him and over the strong protest of the fourth elder . . . . this action simply climaxing their long dissatisfaction over the dictatorial condition existing in the eldership" ... . Brother Harold Sam is now working with the church in Linden, Tennessee. With a nice bulletin and a radio program, he is really "stirring" up the sectarians of the area .... Brother Cecil Willis, preacher for the Irvington church in Indianapolis, is to meet a Mr. Norris Hutchison in a religious discussion. Hutchison is to represent the United Pentecostal Church. The definite propositions and the date are yet to be worked out . . . . After two years with the Red Bank church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Brother C. C. Abbott is moving to Duncan, Oklahoma, where he will work with the Westside church .... There are many things opened by mistake, but nothing so often as the human mouth .... Brother Robert Jackson, of the Riverside Drive church in Nashville, was recently put off Radio Station WNAH and their program cancelled. The Station said this was due to the fact that Jackson's preaching was being criticized by some in the radio audience and that he was criticizing other religious groups. Jackson had been exposing the errors of the Baptist church. This is a rather common occurrence and would be even more frequent if there was more plain, positive preaching. Radio stations have no right to take such action nor to draw up rules that restrict one in preaching the truth. If a few radio stations were sued for time in such instances, it might help bring back "freedom of 'speech" to the radio preacher — at least to those who want it.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: Baptist Blunders is the title of a 110 page booklet written by the late Joe S. Warlick. It has now been reprinted, this being the fourth edition. It contains some of Brother Warlick's very best material and ought to be in the hands of every member of the church. It is rich and very informative. Brother Warlick was a recognized champion in debating. He engaged in three hundred and ninety-one public debates. One can find more valuable information arranged for easy use in this book than in any other of its size. Be sure to order a copy. The price is $1. Order from the Gospel Guardian Company.

Another work by Brother Warlick which is nearly of equal value is Methodist Dynamite Exploded. The third edition of this work as published by Brother Warlick is available and at the original price-35c per copy. It is a 64-page booklet filled with good things. Don't fail to order this booklet also. Order today.

THERE WAS NO DEBATE! The Bible teaches (Acts 15) open discussion and debate when brethren differ over spiritual matters. As long as brethren will meet in honest investigation the church will be pure; when brethren cease such discussions the church is doomed for apostasy.

Such a discussion was scheduled this past week in Dallas concerning Freemasonry. If one brother was condemning that which was right he needed correction; if one brother was in something condemned and wrong he needed correction. The proposition read as follows:

"One cannot scripturally be an active member of the Masonic Lodge and remain in fellowship with the New Testament church."

Affirm: Brother Royce Ingersoll Deny: Brother W. B. Andrews

(Both of these men have been masons; Brother Ingersoll renounced it, and Brother Andrews is still an active member.)

Your editor went for the sake of knowledge. I never intend to condemn that which is right; yet I never intend to tolerate that which is wrong.

Like the rest of those attending the discussion I was shocked to learn Brother Andrews called the last minute saying he would not come to fulfill his part. Also, like the crowd, I desired to know why he would not come. This is in substance (not verbatim) his answer:

"I cannot come because of pressure from the Masonic Lodge. They have threatened me with a Masonic Trial if I fulfill my part in the agreement." He further said: "Brother Ingersoll, you have been tried by this same court; those that exerted this pressure were brethren (not outsiders) belonging to masonry."

Knowing nothing else but this, anyone would conclude Freemasonry is wrong:

1. Anything having power and pressure enough to shut the mouth of an alleged gospel preacher is wrong.

2. Anything a gospel preacher is in that he cannot and will not defend is wrong.

3. Their inconsistency is wrong. They threaten a man who opposes them; they threaten a man that will defend them.

4. Something that will not defend itself is wrong. If it could be defended why did they threaten one willing to make the defense.

5. A thing dividing churches and firing gospel preachers is wrong. The ones exerting the pressure to Brother Andrews were brethren in the Lodge. The fact that they tried Brother Ingersoll for leaving them signifies they care more for the sanctity of the lodge than for the purity of the church. This preacher bowed to Baal bound by the cable-tow of Satan. Are we losing our ground of speaking where the Bible speaks, and being silent where the Bible is silent?

Brethren, don't join something you cannot defend; don't visit places you cannot defend; don't live a life you cannot defend. And above all, never tie yourself down to anything your pride will not let you cut loose from! — Taken from a bulletin by Charles Hodge, Seagoville, Texas.

ARE YOU GUILTY? A man sitting by his window one evening casually called to his wife, "There goes the woman that Charley Brown is in love with." His wife, in the kitchen, dropped a plate she was drying, ran through the door, knocking over a lamp, and looked out the window. "Where, where," she cried. "There," he said, "that woman in the gabardine suit on the corner." "You idiot," she hissed, "that's his wife!" "Yes, of course," he replied sweetly, "whom did you expect?"

— Selected from Sweetwater Christian Sweetwater, Texas

A NICE STRANGER: I am a nice stranger. I never complain. I never create a scene. When I go to church I never object if the usher leads me down to the front and puts me in a chair in the aisle, while the members of the church crowd the back seats and crane their necks to watch better my embarrassed march. No, I just take a seat like a gentleman. I am a nice visitor who never growls aloud when I have to push by the feet of selfish members who hog the aisle seats and wouldn't move out of their favorite places if it meant the salvation of a soul. Not me, I just sit down meekly. I am an ideal church stranger. I don't complain at being surrounded by crying babies and prowling children who walk on my clothes, sit on my hat, and make so much noise I can't hear. I guess they don't have a nursery. Anyway, I wouldn't hurt a little one or embarrass a mother. I am a nice stranger. I never create a scene if, at the close of the service, nobody speaks to me. No, when they gather into their little groups, it doesn't bother me. I am a nice stranger, and I am too cultured to say anything about all this — I just don't go back!

— Selected from The Riverside Reminder

Fort Worth - George Tripps, Editor The drink that makes one a drunkard is not the last one but the FIRST. One will never be a drunkard unless he is first a drinker. The one drink he never should have taken was the first one.

— Church Street News, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee