The Overflow
The Urge To Purge
We Wonder How The "Quarantine" Campaign Is Going These Days. This Writer Has Not Had A Meeting Cancelled In Nearly A Year. But We've Heard Of Several Brethren, On Both Sides Of The Controversy, Who Have Had Cancellations. And We Wonder About The Brother Who First Had This "Urge To Purge" And Wrote Brother Goodpasture Suggesting That The Advocate Head Up A Campaign To "Quarantine" Many Thousands Of His Brethren — Is He Real Pleased And Happy With His Evil Campaign Of Hatred And Ill-Will? We Wonder.
Louisville, Kentucky
This Page Is Being Written In Louisville, Kentucky, Where We Have Just Closed A Fine Meeting With The Wendell Avenue Church. This Is "Home" Territory To The Editor, As We Did Our First Local Work Here, Went To School Here, Married While Living Here, And Have Returned To The City A Number Of Times For Gospel Meetings. The City Is Filled With Friends — And Memories. We Know Of No Church Anywhere That Has Better Prospects For The Future Than This Healthy Three-Year-Old Congregation On Wendell Avenue. Robert C. Welch, Their Preacher, Has This Week Won An Outstanding Triumph For Truth In The First Public Debate In Louisville With A Premillennialist.
Schedule
Itinerary For The Next Few Weeks: Taylor, Arkansas, December 2-9; Home (Abilene, Texas) For The Christmas And New Year Holidays; Del Rio, Texas, January 6-18; Henderson, Tennessee, (Fhc Lectures) January 14-17; Harrison, Arkansas, January 20-27; Paragould, Arkansas (Porter-Woods Debate) January 29-February 1; Marshall, Arkansas, February 3-10.
Luther's Last Days
When Martin Luther Was An Old Man, He Wrote A Friend, "Aged, Weak And Almost Blind, Yet I Have As Much To Do As If I Never Preached Nor Acted. I An Weary Of The World Now, And The World Is Weary Of Me. The Parting Will Be Easy — Like That Of A Guest Leaving The Inn. I Pray God Will Be Gracious To Me In My Last Hours. I Shall Quit The World Without Reluctance."
This Explains It No Wonder The Brethren Are So Often Prone To Omit The Third Stanza Of The Song. One Third Stanza Reads, "Take My Silver And My Gold; Not A Mite Would I Withhold." — Exchange David Lipscomb On Organization
"All Meetings Of Churches Or Officers Of Churches To Combine More Power Than A Single Church Possesses Are Wrong. God's Power Is In God's Churches. He Is With Them To Bless And Strengthen Their Work When They Are Faithful To Him. A Christian, One Or More, May Visit A Church With Or Without An Invitation And Seek To Stir Them Up To A Faithful Discharge Of Their Duties. But For One Or More To Direct What How All The Churches Shall Work, Or To Take Charge Of Their Men And Money And Use It, Is To Assume The Authority God Has Given To Each Church. Each One Needs The Work Of Distributing And Using Its Funds As Well As In Giving Them." (First Published In The Gospel Advocate, March 24, 1910; Reprinted In That Journal April 2, 1925. Again Reprinted And Enclosed In Special Box In The Issue Of April 16, 1925.)
No Pattern, No Example, No Precedent "The Apostles Were Over The Elders. And A Statement About A Church Sending To Paul Is No Precedent To You, Because You Are Not Paul!" — G. K. Wallace Back Volumes Wanted
Brother J. Farris Baird, 919 Drummond Drive, Nashville, Tennessee, Preacher For The Rains Avenue Church In That City Would Like To Get Hold Of Volumes Three And Four Of The Bound Gospel Guardian. Can Anybody Help Him? If So, Write Him At The Above Address.
Trouble In The Camp?
It Looks Like A Real Storm Might Be Brewing In A Quarrel Between Highland Avenue Church In Abilene And Some Of The "Contributing" Churches As To Whose Work "Herald Of Truth" Is. Brother Jack Meyer In Birmingham Declares It Is The Work Of "The Churches Of Christ"; Elders In A Contributing Church In Flint, Michigan, Have Also Taken That Position. Brother Harper Has Lately Been Writing Some Rather Heated Letters Insisting That "Herald Of Truth" Is Solely, Exclusively, And Absolutely The Work Of Highland Church! The Flint Elders Don't Like That Attitude; They Insist That Their Contribution Makes It Partly Their Work. We'll See What Happens!
Elders, Too
In Jesse Brookshire's Article Of November 1, He Is Made To Say, "Thus We Rightfully Conclude That The God Given Organization For The Local Unit Is A Plurality Of Deacons." Of Course, What He Actually Said Was "Elders And Deacons." We Make This Correction Just To Forestall Anybody's Thinking We Have Joined The Popular Notion That Deacons Have Authority In The Church. They Have None; They Are Servants, Not Rulers. In God's Plan The Elders Are To Have The Rule; And The Deacons Are Servants, As The Very Word Signifies.
Ask To See Them
We Keep Running Across Letters With Which Brother E. R. Harper Is Flooding The Country Inviting Various Brethren To Come To His Office And Examine The Manuscripts, Proof Sheets, Etc., And See For Themselves That This Writer Saw And Approved All That Went Into The "Harper-Tant Debate Book," And That None Of Tant's Material Was Deleted. Here Are A Few Items We Suggest You Ask To See: (1) Ask Brother Harper To Show You The Chart Tant Used In His Major Affirmative Argument On "The Church And The Individual" (It Was Deleted From The Book); (2) Ask To See Tant's Chart On "Bible Authority" With His Explanatory Notes On It (This, Too, Was Deleted); (3) Ask To See The Proof-Sheets Tant Approved On The Sixty Pages Of New Material Introduced Into The Book By Harper (Tant Never Saw Any Proof Sheets On This; Nor Even Knew The Material Was Being, Put Into The Book). If You Want The Book, Be Sure To Order From The Gospel Guardian Company, And Get The Book With The "Supplement" Which Contains The Deleted Material.