The Overflow
The Ox And The Ass
It was in December, 1905, that the noted Methodist preacher, R. H. Pigue, met Bro. Joe S. Warlick in debate in Henry County, Tennessee. Both men had considerable reputation in the field of religious debating. When the hour came for the discussion to open, Pigue looked disdainfully at Warlick ,and said, "So this is the great Goliath of Campbellism, whose staff is like a weaver's beam, the long-horned ox from Texas who has never been lassoed, the wild bronc who has never been ridden! Well this time he's going to be lassoed, curried, tied, and ridden." Warlick jumped to his feet, grabbed Pigue by the collar, and retained a firm grip on him while he roared forth to the audience, "Brethren, if what this man says is so, then we have here a positive violation of God's ordinance in the Old Testament. I am teamed up with this man in a religious debate; he says I am an ox. But the Bible plainly declares that you shall not yoke the ox and the ass together!"
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Communiqu from the Chronicle
"Some folks imagine that because the Chronicle is committed against carrying controversial matters of a personal type, it is a supine, easygoing sheet that will not disturb anybody... I have never been opposed to the very frank discussion of religious matters. Indeed, I am highly in favor of it. For the vague sentimentalism that wants to cover everything with a mantle of false charity and pretension that there is nothing but peace and prosperity, I have no use."
—Olan L. Hicks
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Ten reasons We recently picked up a tract somewhere entitled "Ten Reasons Why the Church of Christ Is Right". Now we want somebody to write a tract on "Ten Reasons Why God Is Right". Then maybe somebody else will make it a triology with "Ten Reasons Why the Devil Is Wrong".
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"Church of Christ" folks There is a perfectly legitimate and rightful way to use the phrase "church of Christ". Paul used it so.
But nowhere did he speak of any "Church of Christ" preacher, congregation, teaching, etc. To say a `Church of Christ congregation" is redundant and silly, besides being sectarian.
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Lock on the smokehouse door For years the digressives have gone all over the land charging that the restrictive clause in the deed was a "creed in the deed." Foy E. Wallace, Jr., put the right slant on that in his debate with Homer Strong a few years ago when he said, "The restrictive clause in the deed is simply to prevent the theft of the church property. It describes the rightful owners and prevents the sort of thievery that robbed thousands of faithful brethren of their church buildings. It is not a "creed- in the deed" at all; it is simply the lock on the smokehouse door!"
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Diocesan elders again We inadvertently did an injustice a few weeks ago to a fine group of loyal and faithful gospel preachers in Lubbock when we reported that one Lubbock preacher (whom we did not name) had been advocating the idea of diocesan elders. In fairness to the other Lubbock preachers we should have named the one man we had in mind. But now even that would not be proper; Bro. Joe Banks of Amarillo writes us that he has talked with the preacher in question and that the brother has informed him that he "believes no such thing". Either our original informant was mistaken, or else the preacher has changed his views in the light of further study. To the other Lubbock preachers we offer our apology for not having named this brother; and to the unnamed brother we offer our apology for misrepresenting him if we did; and congratulate him for changing if we didn't.
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Wide circulation We've just received a copy of the magazine "The Protestant World' printed in New South Wales. The issue carries a reprint of an article we ran in "Ancient Landmarks" nearly a year ago. The article was on the subject of the Catholics' veneration of Mary, entitled, "The Glories of Mary". It was written by Thomas Allen Robertson, then of Woodward Oklahoma, but now of McLean, Texas
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Fried preacher Then there was that family who at Sunday dinner. They didn't like his sermon, didn't like his tone of voice, thought he was hard to know, objected to his mannerisms, didn't like the clothes he wore, etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Until somebody aptly remarked that along with their fried chicken this family had fried preacher for dinner every Sunday.
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Restoration history Bro. Earl West of Indianapolis has written a truly remarkable history of the Restoration movement —at least the first volume deserves that description. It is highly readable, giving life and reality to men who have often been only names in books. As one reads the book, it becomes increasingly clear how tremendous is the victory that has been won against entrenched error. Nearly every tenet for which denominational preachers fought so furiously a hundred years ago has today been abandoned. Gospel preachers have a new crop of errors with which to contend — many of them errors within the church which grew out of the very completeness of the victory over sectarian opponents. Bro. West's book is simply invaluable in providing a background for the great struggle which is developing within the church — the fight again over the problem of institutionalism. Order from Earl West, 25 N. Layman, Indianapolis, Indiana. The price for Volume I is $4.00
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Who's knocking at my door?
Speaking of Earl West, we have a delightful story from his secretary, Miss Normajean Cloutier, She didn't exactly say this happened to her boss, but we don't know why else she'd send it to us... Seems there was a certain lady with a rather mischievous pet dog whom she named "Satan". One day hearing a persistent rattling at the front door, the housewife, busy with her cooking, called out in rather irate tones, "Go away, Satan!" Instantly the rattling ceased; then an aggrieved and puzzled masculine voice replied. "I'm sorry, madam, but you are mistaken. This is not Satan. I am your minister, calling in the interest of your soul"
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