Subscription Price To Increase
We held out as long as we could! But rising costs of production and the prospect of increased postal rates have left us no choice: we must increase the subscription rate of the Gospel Guardian. On and after November 1, 1962, the regular yearly subscription cost will be $4.00, either for new subscriptions or for renewals.
But here is the good news! Our readers have nearly six full months in which to (1) renew for themselves at the rate of two years for only $5.00; (2) send in new subscriptions at the club rate of $2.50 per year for six or more subscriptions. Why not get busy NOW (regardless of the expiration date on your address label) and send in your own renewal for two full years, and also send in a club of new subscriptions.
Gift Subscriptions
We remind you also of our great number of "gift" subscriptions. The rate on such will continue at thirty subscriptions for only $5.00 per month until November 1. At that time the rate will go to thirty subscriptions for $7.50; or twenty for $5.00 per month.
Several churches have sent in lists of as many as 500 names, paying for the subscriptions on a regular monthly basis. They have found this a particularly effective way to get the truth before many hundreds of people who would never have any opportunity to hear it from the pulpits of the churches they are attending! As a result of such distribution of gospel literature, a great number of sincere, and honest people have made up their minds to make a determined fight for the "full gospel" in the churches they belong to, and, failing to persuade the elders to let the full truth be taught, establish faithful congregations wherein it can be taught and where they can worship God without violating their consciences. The Gospel Guardian is happy to have had a part, however small, in encouraging such brethren to stand firmly for the truth of God! We would call attention to this service, and would like to encourage scores of congregations to consider the great possibilities and opportunities in such a work. If misguided and untaught elders (however sincere they may be) will NOT permit the full truth to be taught in the pulpits of the congregations they serve, and seek to keep members in those churches insulated and isolated from truth, then it becomes the duty of every faithful Christian on earth to do what he can (and all he can) to reach as many brethren as possible.
We know of no method more effective, no avenue more readily available, for such an endeavor than our "gift subscription" plan of the Gospel Guardian.
— F. Y. T.
Those "Faithful" Churches
A couple of good brethren have become a bit exercised over our plea for "faithful" churches to list their services in our "Where To Worship When Traveling" page. They point out that simple opposition to the Herald of Truth and the benevolence societies does not necessarily make a church "faithful." And they further suggest that a congregation might well be solidly opposed to institutionalism, and at the same time condone such things as "the old Fuqua position on marriage" and "engage in such worldly things as mixed bathing, etc."
Let us once again seek to make it abundantly clear (as we have so often before) that the listing of churches in the Gospel Guardian is intended simply as a convenience to thousands of traveling brethren telling them where they may find churches in various parts of the nation churches in which they may worship God as it is written in His word, where they may freely and generously contribute of their means with full confidence that no part of that contribution will be spent in promoting and supporting institutions and associations which they conscientiously believe to be heretical in teaching and schismatic in nature.
This does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that we endorse and condone everything that may be done by the members of those churches; nor do we think our readers would ask of us that we guarantee the sanctity and holiness of every individual of any congregation before listing it. How could we? We suspect that, if the truth were known, there might even be a couple or three tobacco-users, divorcees, Masonic sympathizers, or "mixed bathers the very congregations where these good brethren preach. But this worldliness, distressing and hurtful as it is, does not corrupt the worship of those who attend there sincerely desirous of serving God.
And our "Where To Worship" page purports to be only that...a listing of various congregations where faithful Christians can engage in an uncorrupted worship of God; where promotions and campaigns and societies and human institutions are not competing with the church of God for the worshipper's attention, interest, and support!
So, once again we ask "faithful" churches over the nation to consider the wisdom of listing your services on our "Where To Worship" page. This is a service for which many thousands of Christians are grateful; and it is something, that in reality will cost the average church — nothing! For one or two visitors per month, worshipping there because they saw the listing in the Guardian, will more than offset the nominal cost of only $6.00 per month. Study the list. Take it with you when you travel!
— F. Y. T.
"Birds Of A Feather?
Our long time friend, James Lacy Lovell of California, has begun publication of a sheet he calls "Action." We read it now and then with interest. The issue of March, 1962, contained an item over which we are still chuckling. If Jimmy did this deliberately, it is funny; but if, (as we suspect) he was not aware of the implications of his paragraph, it is hilarious! In either case, whether done consciously or otherwise, this paragraph shows something of Lovell's evaluation of Jim Cope: —
"Many of you will read with mixed emotions the following: Wm. P. Reedy lives in Los Angeles and attends, I believe, the Evangelical and Reformed church. Carl and Grayce Etter live in Los Angeles and attend the congregational church. The R. C. Cannons, Woodrow Whitten, and the Robert Boxes live in San Diego, Calif., and attend the Christian Church. Hugh M. Tiner also lives in San Diego. Ralph Wilburn teaches at the University of Kentucky, and Roy Key is preaching Disciples Church In Iowa. No recent news of Don Hardage. Guy Click is dead. Jim Cope is President of Florida Christian College.
There you have it — a paragraph of apostates, renegades, traitors to the cause of Christ, a convicted dope peddler, a confessed leader of a gang of burglars and robbers — and Jim Cope!
Oh, well, it does relieve the monotony of a hard job now and then to come across an occasional paragraph like that in "Action." (P. S. — You don't need to send this paper to Cope; we have already sent him the original.)
— F. Y. T.