Our Greatest Assets
1. Our greatest asset is truth. "If God be for us, who can be against us."
2. Our next greatest asset on earth is faithful young men who are set for the defense of the church as God gave it, and as it is revealed to us in the New Testament. These young men have a potential service of fifty years or more, and will certainly take over year by year the burden and responsibilities which are now carried by the middle-aged. Let these godly young men be encouraged, strengthened, and helped in every right way.
3. Our third greatest asset as we face the new apostasy is a large number of faithful congregations in strategic centers. There are three such centers in California — San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — in which scores of faithful congregations have taken a firm and unyielding stand for the truth. At Odessa, Texas, and in that immediate vicinity there are strong and powerful congregations which will not go with the modern promotions. San Antonio, Texas, with four or five strong churches is another such center. Castleberry in Fort Worth is probably doing more to preach the gospel than any congregation of like strength in all that area. In the southeastern counties of Texas the faithful congregations are considerably in the majority. Not to mention such places as Birmingham, Alabama; Akron, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky, and a great many others. These great centers, holding firmly to the truth, present a far different picture than that of the last apostasy. Then a few small congregations in Nashville, one in Detroit, one or two in Louisville, and with these exceptions not a church of any size or strength was saved in any great city. They all went with the digression.
4. Our fourth greatest asset is the unity of purpose and the brotherly love which characterize those thousands of faithful Christians and congregations who have determined to fight the rising tide of innovations. Such unity and love were lacking in the former great battle. There was then almost no bond between North and South; suspicion, mistrust, and a fearful lack of the love which Christians ought to have toward one another presented a tremendous obstacle to recovery from the near fatal blow given us by the Digressives.
5. Finally, I will mention the zeal and enthusiasm which is now everywhere so evident among the faithful. I doubt if such an aggressive zeal had been equaled since the early days of the church. Certainly it was appallingly absent sixty and seventy years ago. The zeal, "drive" and enthusiasm were then almost wholly on the side of error. But what a difference there is today! It is the churches who stand for truth now, not those promoting error, who are filled with burning desire to start new congregations, support faithful preachers, and bring the gospel to the lost. If the 1,000 or more faithful gospel preachers from whom I have had personal letters in the last few years will go forward in their present unity and zeal, you will see such a glorious growth of God's kingdom as will rejoice every heart! I am confident that such will come. My eyes shall not behold it, but for many of you who read these lines, perhaps for most of you, such a development is certain and inevitable — if the present unity and zeal are preserved. May God grant that such shall be the case!