The Overflow
Want This Job?
We know a church in South Texas that is looking for a preacher. This congregation has several members (some of them active in the leadership) who are mixed up in marriage and divorce complications. So it is being made known to the brethren who "try out" for the place that no sermons are to be preached on this subject. The result: four or five good gospel preachers have already refused the job. Congratulations, brethren.
Growth Of Materialism
"Because modern science is forgetful of the soul and treats almost exclusively of the body, we are gradually sinking into a mechanical and materialistic view of the world, the worship of the machine, or techniques and the utilization of matter. The fear of 'blind natural forces' is taking hold of us, the cult of the atom, pale apprehension of the bacillus. We fear the infinitely small because we no longer revere the infinitely great. Faith in a wonderful God and in His miracles cannot thrive in such a soil."
—F. Bettex
Facts Of Life—sad
"In a recent article in the Gospel Guardian, Brother Wallace Thompson mentioned my name as being aligned with the (Pepperdine) college group and the premillennial group out here in an 'insult to the church.' Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that I spoke to a fellowship meeting of brethren who met in the dining hall of the college. It is also true that E. L. Jorgenson was present; but he was not invited, his name was not mentioned publicly, and in no way was he personally recognized. I have preached against the modernistic influence of the college group and the premillennialists in many congregations in the state of California. I plan to continue the same in a great many more this year. I have 12 meetings for this spring and summer, and I plan to warn the brethren against the dangerous influence of the college group and against Jorgenson and premillennialism in every one of them. I may have erred in judgment in speaking at the fellowship dinner; but neither Brother Thompson nor anyone else is going to convince the brethren who know me out here that I have aligned myself with anybody in any way in an insult to the church."
—Albert G. Lovelady, Bellflower, California.
That "Stinking Piano"
An Associated Press dispatch from Tyler, Texas, says the Malakoff Baptist church was embarrassed no end the other day when it was discovered that a polecat had taken up his abode within the piano. We opine these Texas Baptists will likely find it much easier to deal with their skunk and his devotion to the piano than some of our Texas brethren found it under similar (if not quite identical) circumstances sixty years ago.
We Salute A Man Of Conviction
Our hat goes off to a certain brother in the Weslaco, Texas congregation. When his daughter refused to abandon an adulterous marriage which she had willfully entered, and the church withdrew from her, this heart-broken father affixed his own signature to the letter announcing the withdrawal to other congregations in the area. Such devotion to duty is rare in these days as it is heartening.
One Way To Look At It
A few weeks ago when it looked like the Gospel Guardian was about to become involved in a first-class scrap with some of the brethren, our subscription list took a deep breath and suddenly shot up like a jet plane taking off. We wrote to Floyd Thompson, Santa Ana, California, that while we rejoiced in the increase, we could not avoid a feeling of sadness at the thought that some of these subscriptions had probably come largely because of the prospect of a fight. He replied, "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to take the Guardian. Some indeed take it even of envy and strife; and some also of good will; the one takes it of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction, but the other love, knowing that it is set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, the Guardian is taken; and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."
Central Christian College, Bartlesville
"We expect all our teachers, whether in the Bible department or elsewhere, to be men whose soundness cannot be questioned, whose lives are above reproach, and who are loved and respected by the entire brotherhood."
—L. R. Wilson, President
"Prayer And Protest"
We see where members of the Dallas congregations have been having some mass meetings to discuss the establishment of some sort of recreational "youth center" in Dallas for the "Church of Christ" young people in that city. Well, since this seems to be the day when things are done by "prayer and protest," we're going to "pray" the Dallas brethren to give this thing an awful lot of careful and prayerful study before diving into it, or else some old fogy who is "opposed to all our young people" is liable to stand up on his hind legs and utter a "protest" against the church becoming involved in such a venture.
As We Grow
The Gospel Guardian is going to double its size in four more weeks. We'd like, of course, to double the number of our subscribers at the same time. We can do it if you... and you... and YOU will send in a subscription for a friend. How about it? If the paper is worthy of your reading, it is worthy of your support.
Even So
Then there was the woman who was boasting to a friend that her husband had given up smoking. "My," said the friend, "that takes an awful lot of will power." "It certainly does," the wife agreed, "and that's just what I've got."
As Srygley Saw It - And Said It
"It is said that a man in Kansas claims that he has discovered a process by which he can make eggs, which will actually hatch chickens, faster and cheaper than hens can lay them. Possibly so. Many preachers claim that they have discovered a process by which they can make Christians without preaching the word of God which is the seed of the kingdom of heaven."
—F. D. Srygley (1891)
Typical Of A Whole Sack Full. Thanks!
"Though I am not an expert on religious (or any other kind) of journalism, I do think your fairness in presenting both parties in the February 23 issue of the Guardian is worthy of praise. I am not about to stop my subscription to a paper that is so edited. I may not always agree with everything that appears in the Guardian, but its editorial policy is surely endorsed by every true American."
—Arthur W. White, Safford, Ariz.
The Divorce Tangle
Two Hollywood children were talking. One of them said boastfully, "I've got two brothers and one little sister. How many do you have?" The other boy answered, "I don't have any brothers or sisters, but I have three daddies by my first mother, and four mothers by my last daddy."