The Overflow
Our Nomination
There is at present a mighty striving for place and position taking place among a few gospel preachers who have "flopped" on the institutional issue. It is apparently the idea of some of these unfortunate brethren that they can gain favor and recognition in the "high circles" by heaping abuse and insult on their former friends and co-laborers. Latest to throw in his hat for the exalted position of "Commissar of Insults" is Brother G. K. Wallace. His frenetic write-up of the Paragould debate is the best we have seen for misstatement of fact, perversions, and down-right inventions and fabrications. When it comes to screaming insults and epithets he is truly gifted.
Credit to whom credit is due
Due to a mistake in copying the two fine articles on the "Silence of the Scriptures" recently appearing in these pages were attributed to Brother Keith Thompson of Owen Sound, Ontario. The articles are actually from the pen of Brother Don Gardner of Jackson, Mississippi. Our apologies to both men for the slip-up in accreditation.
Have you ordered?
Don't fail to do so today! "Walking By Faith," the new book by Roy E. Cogdill, deals with present issues. Only $1.00. Order from The Gospel Guardian, Box 980, Lufkin, Texas.
Cogdill's schedule
Meeting schedule for Brother Roy E. Cogdill for the next few weeks is as follows: Camden, Arkansas, March 24-31; Gary, Indiana, April 7-14; Huntsville, Alabama, April 2128; Pine Bluff, Arkansas, May 5-12; Blue Ash, Ohio, May 19-26; Corinth, Mississippi, June 2-9; Rogers, Arkansas, June 16-23; Cullman, Alabama, June 30-July 7; Harrodsburg, Kentucky, July 14-28; Amarillo, Texas, August 4-11.
Disraeli-Gladstone
The Disraeli-Gladstone vendetta raged for years and, short of blood, almost anything went. The other day we heard a lengthy, involved, and highly complicated argument on the "total situation" by a brother trying to defend sponsoring church cooperation. We were strongly reminded both by the argument and by the manner of its presentation of Disraeli's withering thumb-nail description of Gladstone. Said Disraeli: "He was a sophisticated rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity and gifted with an egotistical imagination that could at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and glorify himself!"
Thanks
Thanks to all who wrote us in response to our request for the reader's opinion as to whether or not this writer's editorials are "bitter and vicious." Opinion was divided — by which we mean we got three affirmative letters, and at last count some forty or fifty negative. The letters are still coming in at this writing, so we don't know what the final count will be. But let this brief note be an expression of sincere thanks and gratitude for the letters (all of them) that were written. The favorable letters are more pleasant to receive, of course, but the unfavorable ones probably do us more good.
Church contributions
"For this year, we promised to send $300.00 to Freed-Hardeman College. They have several young men who will not be able to continue without help . . . . Beginning March 1 we want to send $100.00 each month for the next three months."
(Quotations from bulletin published by the West End Church of Christ, St. Louis, Missouri.)
Middle of the road
Some brethren are saying they intend to "stay in the middle of the road" on present issues. Which led somebody to say "Isn't that the fellow who usually gets run over?". There is no "middle ground" between truth and error, between right and wrong, between heaven and hell.
Sister Cuthbertson
Totally unexpected was the swift passing of Sister M. C. Cuthbertson on February 20. After a visit with her daughter in Amarillo, she was returning to the home in Tucson, Arizona, when the grim messenger of death summoned her to a greater journey. Gentle and gracious in all her ways, her life was one of service and self-sacrifice. Those of us who knew her and loved her will weep with Brother Cuthbertson and the children in their sorrow; but it is a sorrow brightened and hallowed by a hope that will not die, built on promises that will not be broken.
To Norway
Brother and Sister Connie W. Adams of Decatur, Georgia, are making plans to go to Norway this fall to work for the cause of Christ in that nation. We rejoice to know of their plan, and trust that brethren will provide the necessary funds. Brother Adams may be addressed at 3111 Glenwood Road, Decatur, Georgia.
The "total situation"
Little Tommy came out of the room where his father was tacking down a carpet. Tommy was crying lustily. "Why Tommy, what is the matter?" asked his mother. "P-ppapa hit his finger with the hammer," sobbed Tommy. "Well, you needn't cry about a thing like that," comforted his mother, "Why didn't you laugh?" "That's what I did," wailed Tommy.
Brother Lyles' articles
We have had quite a number of inquiries concerning the good articles by Brother Cleon Lyles which have appeared in the Guardian in recent weeks. These articles were taken from Brother Lyles' bulletins of some six or seven years ago. They do not necessarily reflect his present attitude and convictions. They are in sharp contrast to the sermon he preached at Tulsa some months ago, and which was printed in full in the Guardian.
Being dead, he yet speaketh
"But the love of success, the ambition for big programs, the tendency toward making a preacher an executive with such a multiplicity of activities to supervise that he has to have a dozen secretaries and helpers, can easily cause the creation of an "institutional" church that has little resemblance to a New Testament congregation."
— G. C. Brewer, GA., 4-12-56