The Overflow
That "Special"
Still they come! Names and orders for that "Special Issue." This is going to be an "all out" effort on the part of all of us to promote UNITY among the churches on the basis of New Testament teaching. Fine articles have already been received from Cecil B. Douthitt, C.E.W. Dorris, C. D. Plum, Robert H. Farish, and Robert C. Welch. Others are coming from John T. Lewis, Bryan Vinson, Marshall E. Patton, Homer Hailey, A. Hugh Clark, and a number of other great and faithful preachers of the gospel. Our own staff will of course have material in the "Special." We have thousands upon thousands of names and addresses to whom we would like to send this issue. The only thing that will prevent it is lack of funds. Fifteen dollars will send the paper to 100 people. Do you want to help in this great effort to UNITE the Lord's people and head off division? If so, why not buy 100 papers to distribute? You can either send them out yourself, or we will be glad to do it for you. Let us hear from you!
J. T. Marlin stabbed
Newspaper reports a few days ago carried the story that Brother J. T. Marlin of Sweetwater, Texas, had been painfully stabbed twice in the chest by a brother in the congregation who suddenly went berserk. (He had been under treatment for a nervous disorder.) Somebody asked us if the stabbing was done by somebody who objected to Marlin's preaching. Obviously not! The newspaper report says Marlin was stabbed in the chest. Those who would stab a man because of his preaching would have sunk the knife to the hilt — in the back.
Warning!
A faithful gospel preacher from Florida tells us that some of the tapes of the Tant-Harper debate now being circulated have been "edited," and that Tant's speeches are only fifteen minutes long. He says he timed them as they were played, and found Harper's speeches almost twice as long as Tant's. We don't know who did the "editing" — but we would advise all who may be listening to the tape recordings to check them for length of speeches, and demand your money back if you get "doctored" tapes. Both disputants should have exactly the same length speeches. Better still, order the book; read it for yourself. Pre-publication price is only $3.00.
Success
A number of times lately Brother Reuel Lemmons has been admonishing elders all over the land to be "on guard" against hobbyists and "anti" brethren who are troubling the church. Well, the good elders out at Vandalia Village Church in Lubbock, Texas, have taken him at his word and have deemed it to be their duty to warn the flock in which God made them bishops — against some of Lemmons' false teaching! You may read their fine statement on another page in this issue.
"Modern Divine Healing"
This is the name of a new book, 334 pages, by Waymon D. Miller. It is carefully documented, and is an authoritative treatise. It should be in the hands of every gospel preacher and Bible student in the land. The book sells for $3.00, and can be ordered from us. We are happy to recommend it.
Doubled!
Not too many months ago some of the preachers who had met in a "lectureship" at Lubbock were generally agreed that "not over 5%" of gospel preachers were opposed to the institutional promotions which they were advocating. Now we hear the figure has been revised to "10%" and maybe even more. Well, if the opposition has doubled within so short a time, we take it as a highly hopeful sign. If the "split" which some of the "promotin' brethren" desire, and for which they are working so assiduously (under cover) can be postponed for five or six years, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. For once the "promoters" become convinced that they are on the little end of the deal, and would be aligned with the minority in any division, they will not split the church!
That old "quarantine" at work
Brother Bryan Vinson, Jr., sends us a bizarre item from a newspaper which tells of a negro man in Danville, Illinois being sentenced to life imprisonment for having shot and killed his pastor last December "in a dispute over church doctrine." They were both members of the "Israel Church of God of the White Horse Army." This colored boy certainly "quarantined" his pastor — as some of our own brethren would probably like to apply it if they could!
We told you so!
Thanks to Ed Farish of Lexington, Kentucky, for a brief clipping from the local paper. It tells of the confession of a professional burglar who had been caught robbing churches. "The detectives said Sanger told them he was a foundling who had been adopted into a 'fine family' when he was young. But church authorities took him away from his foster parents and sent him to a church orphan home." This, said the burglar, was the beginning of his down-fall. And there you are.
"History of the Christian Church"
"History of the Christian Church In the West" is a new booklet of some fifty pages containing re-prints from articles by Barton W. Stone which appeared in "Christian Messenger" periodical in 1827-1832. The material is of great historical value and interest. It tells of the union between Campbell's followers and Stones, with many interesting sidelights on the events surrounding the final union. We have about a hundred of these booklets in stock, and will mail them at 50 cents each to the first who order them.
Add two more
Steve Hudgins of Gainesville, Georgia, writes: "I wonder if you have heard of the Commandment Keepers Holy Church of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth the House of Prayer For All People? I met a colored man the other day who said he had been a member of it, but had quit because they no longer kept the commandments. So he pulled out and started one of his own — the New Jerusalem Zion Church." And Vester Daugherty of Seattle, Washington, writes of a congregation there in his city bearing the name of The Church of the Anew. Born. (And that punctuation is the way they have it on the sign!)