That Back-Page Ad
For a special reason this week we are running an "Ancient Landmarks" advertisement on the back page of the Gospel Guardian. We want readers of the Guardian to see what is being done by the Tarrant (Alabama) congregation, and to know of the great possibilities for good in this type of teaching and advertising. The advertisement you see on the back page this week is the one that is run regularly on the 1200 copies of Ancient Landmarks which we mail each month to various people in the Tarrant and Birmingham areas. Each issue of Ancient Landmarks contains some six or eight fine articles on the first principles of the gospel — faith, repentance, baptism, the identity of the church, the Lord's Supper, the divinity of Christ, the authority of the scriptures, the wrongfulness of instrumental music in the worship, difference between the Lord's church and denominationalism, etc., etc. Then, in addition to that, these 1200 copies being mailed in the Tarrant and Birmingham areas contain this ad from the Tarrant congregation.
This is a happy combination of teaching and advertising. It has the great advantage of having the teaching tied in with a local congregation. Thus the reader who becomes interested is within easy reach of those who can fan his interest, answer his questions, and guide him into full and complete obedience to the gospel of Christ. Ordinarily it would not be possible to run an advertisement like this on a regular monthly periodical; but because of the volume of papers involved (1200), we are able to make this special arrangement for the Tarrant congregation. And could do so for any other group willing to use as many as 1,000 papers in this fashion.
Actually the Tarrant congregation is paying for 1400 copies of Ancient Landmarks each month. For quite a long while now they have been receiving 100 copies for their own city and have been paying for 100 copies to be mailed to individuals in a small Wyoming town where they are interested in building up the church. So very successful were these two ventures, and so pleased were the Tarrant elders with the results observed from this work that they decided to undertake a major distribution of the papers in their own area. So by the help of the members and by a careful use of the telephone directory and city directory they compiled a list of 1000 names and addresses. The majority of these people live within a relatively few blocks of the Tarrant meeting-house. Every month they will receive Ancient Landmarks carrying the advertisement which you see on the back of this journal. When the congregation has some special event coming up, such as a gospel meeting, the ad is changed so as to emphasize and high-light that happening.
In addition to the 1000 copies being mailed out each month on this new list, Tarrant brethren have retained both their old lists (of 100 each), and are receiving a bundle of 200 papers for distribution at the church. This makes a total of 1400 papers each month distributed by the Tarrant congregation. By our mailing the papers out from the office (here in Lufkin) we have an accurate check through the postal services of any paper which is not delivered, of any change of address, or other circumstances which affects delivery. Thus we can keep up to date; can substitute new names for any who may die, or move away.
Ancient Landmarks will soon enter its ninth year of publication. Many congregations have used it through these years with highly pleasing results. It is designed wholly for the non-member; and its articles are slanted toward him, and written with him in mind. The vexing problems which arise within the brotherhood are not discussed in Ancient Landmarks, for the "unlearned or unbelieving" could neither understand nor appreciate the points at issue (and sometimes we have serious doubts as to whether the "learned and believing" understand as much as they ought, too!). We reserve these serious and sometimes disturbing matters for the Gospel Guardian, and deal with them in the pages of this journal rather than Ancient Landmarks.
If other congregations are interested in using Ancient Landmarks, we will be happy to explain to you fully concerning our "Individual Mailing Plan," and the very nominal cost involved. We know of one congregation that baptized over a hundred people one year, and every single family from which a person was baptized had been receiving Ancient Landmarks for from one to three years! Not a day in the year passes without our receiving mail from someone in Texas, Canada, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Ohio, Kansas, or some other place (even England and Australia), asking some question about an article in the paper, requesting additional information, asking where the Church of Christ meets in his or her locality, etc., etc.
Write us for full particulars about the paper: Box 980, Lufkin, Texas. — F.Y.T.