Congregational Subscriptions
Gospel Guardian Company P. O. Box 470
Lufkin, Texas 75901 December 2, 1966 Dear Brother Tant:
I am happy to once again attach my check ($150.00) to cover cost of Gospel Guardian subscriptions members of the church of Christ here and to add to this list the members of church. It is my humble judgment that the local congregation is stronger in faith since they have been reading the Guardian during the past year; and it is my hope that I may be able to continue this work in the years that lie ahead.
Very truly yours, This letter (with check attached) came last month. We have been receiving such letters from this faithful Christian for several years now. He is not alone in this practice, although the number of men who send in lists this big (75 family names) is not as great as we could wish. But we print this letter to call attention to the fact that those brethren who DO send in such lists are convinced of the worth-whileness of their project. They sincerely believe (and some of them have had many years in which to observe results) that ANY congregation will be strengthed in faith, in zeal, and in evangelistic fervor if every family receives the Gospel Guardian every week.
We believe there are literally hundreds (more likely THOUSANDS) of Christians who receive the Gospel Guardian who could send the paper to five or ten other families with very little effort or sacrifice. Clubs of five or more (up to fifteen) are only $3.00 per subscription; if there are fifteen or more in the list, the price is only $2.00 per subscription. And for all those who desire to pay on a monthly basis, you can subscribe for THIRTY families for only $5.00 per month. We would surmise that we have very few subscribers who really could not afford the small sum of $5.00 per month and that amount brings the Gospel Guardian into THIRTY homes four times each month! Surely, it would be difficult to find any other way of getting so much of God's truth to so many people for so little cost.
And what about that great (and increasing!) number of small congregations over the nation, so valiantly struggling to plant the pure gospel of Christ against strong opposition both from the secular world and from our own institutionally-minded brethren? The Gospel Guardian coming every week into every home will prove a tremendous force for truth and righteousness. It will serve to encourage the members to greater activity, and to an unswerving loyalty to the truth of God. Fundamentals of the faith will be constantly stressed; without laboring the point, "the issues" will continue to be an important and vital area of teaching. And as our erring brethren go deeper into digression and apostasy, writers for the Gospel Guardian will carefully point out the cause (and cure) for such departures.
On this point (apostasy), we urge you to read carefully the article by brother Herschel E. Patton "Chickens Come Home To Roost" appearing on the front page of this issue. More than fifteen years ago brethren were being warned that the "institutional orphan home" was but the beginning of departures; and that if God's word were set aside in one area, this would open the flood-gates to every kind of false teaching and practice that inventive minds might devise. The warning was heeded by many thousands---and ignored by even more thousands. And now the results are becoming so obvious that they can no longer be concealed or denied. Even the most fanatical defender of "institutional homes" and the Herald of Truth would have recoiled in horrow twelve or fifteen years ago at the idea of ANY preacher of the Church of Christ would ever teach such things as "speaking in tongues," "direct operation of the Holy Spirit," "the Lord's Supper on any day of the week," and "institutional music in the worship is optional." Yet ALL of these errors (and some even more bizarre) are now being openly promulgated by some of the strongest advocates and defenders of Herald of Truth and the institutional homes. (So far as we know, or can find out, not one single conservative preacher has embraced ANY of these errors.)
We believe the time is fast approaching when faithful Christians may find opportunity to make a tremendous, all-out effort once again to get many hundreds of thousands of baptized believers to reconsider, and evaluate once more the general course of digression. For there are still a huge majority of our liberal brethren who are NOT YET ready to accept the "miraculous tongue speaking," "direct operation of the Holy Spirit" heresies. They may yet be won back to a more conservative stand, and to a more faithful adherence to God's word. The Gospel Guardian for many years has been in the fore-front of this great battle for truth and righteousness and now YOU can help --- by (1) subscribing for as many of your friends as you can possibly afford, and (2) by getting the congregation where you worship to subscribe for the paper for every family in the church.
We know you are interested in the case of truth (otherwise you would not be receiving the Guardian yourself); let us encourage you to use this means of reaching others with the same Gospel of Christ.