From An Octogenarian Veteran Of War
Dear Cled And Foy:
Just received the Bible Banner. It gave me a thrill of encouragement, that you have called N. B. Hardeman's hand on putting colleges in the church budget. I have spearheaded this opposition for you, as you will see, if you have not already, from copies of "Bible Colleges" under separate cover. I paid in full for a whole edition of that tract, and" if you will call attention to it, it is free while the supply lasts. When these are gone I will pay for another printing. There is as certain to come in this generation another division as "whatsoever you sow that shall you reap." I began the fight sixty years ago, and have often felt weary and inclined to quit. But then the words of the Lord came to my mind, "Be thou faithful unto death" and so as long as I have a voice and can find space, I must keep on.
When Abilene's advertisement came out, saying that congregations were supporting it, as such, I started an article, but stopped. When Hardeman came out in the Gospel Advocate I wrote a reply and put his statement in that article by the side of the one he made in 1938, that you will find in the tracts I am sending you. I sent it to him and told him to make his reply and send to the Gospel Advocate. He had it rewritten so as to leave G. C. Brewer and Abilene Christian College out of it, and sent it back to me without any reply. I studied the matter and decided to let it rest awhile. Then C. B. Douthitt came out in a terrific reply, which is far stronger than I could have made it, and many times more effective, coming from a new man. Now Thompson and Howell have struck in the Firm Foundation. This is as it should be. Now you two have struck in the Bible Banner, and so in the providence of God others are stepping into the breach, and must carry the load in the main. I had almost given up hope of any others coming to the task, and know full well that even if I had the age and strength one man can go about so far.
If the putting of the schools in the budgets of the churches, to be supported out of the Lord's treasury is not stopped, and I doubt if there is power enough to stop them, then there will be another division in this generation. And how much can be saved? About 1887, when the other apostasy was getting in full swing, we had the Review, the Leader, the Gospel Advocate and the Firm Foundation, all of them strong. With a larger equipment of papers than the digressives had at that date, we perhaps did not save twenty-five percent. Now there is not a single weekly, the policy of which is against the joining of these schools to the church. The best we can look for at present is freedom of opposition against this plain innovation. You two have strong associates of mature, vigorous, and also young men, all of whom have shown that they have the courage of their convictions. If you take a positive, unyielding stand against uniting the church and the schools and strike hard, it may be stayed for a short time. Unless this opposition comes fast and vigorous the apostasy will soon be well on the way. You and your associates form by all odds the strongest spearhead against the backward movement. Please see that you both read this letter and that each of you carry a copy of the tract, so that you will have at all times the statements of "policy" of the schools nine short years ago.
I am now writing a short article for the Firm Foundation, and I may step out of the picture for a while, and let other and younger men take up the sword. Though I have just passed the eightieth milestone, I am more intensely concerned about the "trends" than in fifty years. May the Lord strengthen your hands and hearts, and raise up a host of young men. From many letters recently there appears to be a great number, many of them, graduates of the colleges, who see the danger.
After G. C. Brewer made his Abilene speech, I said: "There is the Isaac Errett of this generation." Errett headed many digressive movements, and so does Brewer. Every action of his has confirmed that statement.
In faith, hope and love, W. W, Otey, Belle Plaine, Kansas.