The Overflow
The Way To Do It
A certain church in Nashville has been making a $2,000.00 contribution each year to the Tennessee Orphans Home. After some time went by, they asked for a financial report from the Home. No response. A second request was sent. No response. A third request; still no response. Result. that Tennessee church does not contribute to that Tennessee institution any more. Why should not financial reports be made by these "brotherhood institutions?" If they were business corporations, the law would demand financial statements be made to those who had a right to them. If contributing churches don't have the right to such statements, then who does? We recommend the example of that Tennessee church to other congregations who can't get information on the financial management of these institutions they support.
Pistol Packing Parson
One of our preaching brethren in the Hoosier state recently got a bit of newspaper publicity when the church study was burglarized one night, and the thieves made off with the parson's loaded pistol! The preacher told the reporters that he kept the revolver in his desk "for the protection of the church secretary' who often had to work there alone. (Memo to Guardian secretary. Remind us to buy you a six-gun; or else see if you can borrow one of those rifles out of Cled's gun cabinet. We live in parlous times!)
One Notice—five Subscriptions
Brother Ralph R. Givens of Morton, Texas, ran one brief notice in his weekly bulletin mentioning the purpose and value of gospel papers, and declaring that he was sending in his subscription to the Gospel Guardian on the morrow. Result. he sent in five subscriptions instead of one. Can you preachers take a hint?
"Not A Prolific Writer"
Brother Cecil N. Wright, who declares that he is "neither a controversialist nor a prolific writer,' manages somehow to fill TEN PAGES (pages, brother, not columns) of the Firm Foundation and Gospel Advocate with his "non-controversial' writings! (We venture he would describe one of his hour-and-thirty-five minute Sunday morning sermons as "a few brief introductory remarks.') His articles contain nothing new, being merely a warmed-over rehash of the arguments and misrepresentations he made of us last year, and which we answered at the time. He does manage to take a lick at H. Leo Boles for holding the same "extreme views' on church cooperation that the Guardian holds. We post no objection to the company. And we still ask brother Cecil to furnish us with just one bit of scriptural authority (either by (1) precept, (2) approved example, or (3) necessary inference) for one church becoming the "agency' through which other churches work in preaching the gospel in a foreign field. That is the issue, brother Cecil, not whether what some of the churches are doing is "just as scriptural" as what some other churches did in Houston a few years ago! It won't take thirty columns to convert us on this point; one scripture passage will do it. Until that is produced, we see no point in replying again to the old warmed-over re-hash of perversions and misrepresentations which we answered last year.
Really?
Brother Wright's disclaimer of being a "prolific writer' 'reminds us of the dry comment of a certain preaching brother not long ago. He was reading an article on "Who Wrote the Bible" by a Bible teacher in one of the schools. This teacher's typewriter sends forth a veritable Niagara of words — books, pamphlets, tracts, letters, articles to papers, essays, debates, Sunday school material, etc., etc. In his article on "Who Wrote the Bible?' the teacher made the point that "I didn't write it.' To which the preacher commented with a twinkle in his eye, "So he didn't write it. Well, well, that's about the only thing I've read in the last year or so that he didn't write!'
The Age Of Miracles
You can forget all those old sermons you've heard about the age of miracles being past. The church out at Tempe, Arizona, is in the process of demonstrating it isn't so. We've just been shown a letter one of their elders wrote telling of some of their accomplishments. (1) support a full time local preacher; (2) support of a full time worker in a foreign field; (3) support of an orphan's home; (4) support of an old folks' home; (5) a regular weekly advertisement in their local paper; (6) extensive repairs and refurbishing of the preacher's home. And now they are considering seriously the matter of support to another full time preacher in some field here in the states. And they are doing all this on an average contribution of (hold your breath) slightly over one hundred dollars per week! We recommend that those elders be elected to Congress. S-t-r-e-t-c-h that dollar.
Bitter And Intolerant
"I have noticed it in men, I have noticed it in papers. When one starts out to be over-sweet-tempered, to keep out all humanity, he or it becomes one-sided, unfair, and the bitterest and most intolerant of men and papers. They do not show goodness in an honest, open, human, brave way. A paper that starts out to have no controversies, to be overly peaceable, is as sure to be filled with unjust insinuations and innuendoes as that tomorrow's sun will rise. You cannot crush the humanity out of men. Do not look for perfection in human beings nor dispense with the work of God while pretending to be Christians." — David Lipscomb as quoted by J. C. McQuiddy — G. A., 1921.
Including His Own?
"The editor is given the right to blue-pencil all slurs, insinuations, and innuendoes.' — Gospel Advocate, 1939 Does this apply to Childhaven? "There is no organization in the New Testament tying one church, or congregation to another—larger than a local congregation and yet smaller than the whole family of God. The congregation was the only organization through which the early Christians worked."
— Gus Nichols — Sermons, page 9
Yea, Verily
He was an earnest and eloquent young Mississippi preacher, delivering himself one of his most moving and forceful discourses. Preaching on the necessity of standing firmly on the word of God, he reached a mighty climax with this fervent and thundering declaration, "Why, I'd rather be standing firmly on God's word than to be in heaven itself; for Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away'!"