Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 9
May 30, 1957
NUMBER 5, PAGE 5a

That Thanksgiving Meeting

F. B. Srygley

I have heard from several different sources that at Searcy, Ark., at the "Thanksgiving Meeting" of Harding College, the Gospel Advocate was criticized mildly, and I was criticized rather severely on the grounds that I did not believe in missionary work. I do not claim to be above criticism. Any one in a public place may expect to be criticized, and anything written for the public belongs to the public. No public man can expect to get all praise and no censure. This criticism of me, and by insinuation perhaps of the Gospel Advocate, was made before a public audience; therefore, I feel that I have the right to answer the charge made against me in a public meeting in a public statement.

It seems that in the meeting they had different speakers on different subjects assigned to them. Our Brother Sanderson, of Springfield, Mo., spoke on the subject of "Missionary Work," and his speech was simply the Bible teaching on the importance of the question. Brother Sanderson left at the close of his speech, and it seems that the brethren had something like a round-table discussion of the question at the close of his speech. During this public discussion my name and the Gospel Advocate were brought into the matter, and I was especially condemned as being opposed to missionary work. Brother Armstrong was the leader in this charge, and some younger men were involved.

This charge is a mistake. I have never opposed missionary work in Wilson County, and my home, when I had a home, was in Lebanon. In this charge against me Brother Armstrong and these younger men made the same charge and had the same way of trying to prove it that the digressives did against all of us when they started the missionary societies. We told these brethren time and again that we were not opposing missionary work, but the institution through which they proposed to do it. Is it possible that Brother Armstrong and the group who indorsed him propose to treat me in the same way? I have never said that I did not believe in missionary work, but, on the contrary, I have always said that I did believe in it. I have criticized some things which have been done by those who claim to believe in missions without a society. I hate to see my brethren raise a false issue in the discussion of the question.

I have criticized a church, "a Bible-school church," for trying to foster mission work for other churches. I believe they call it "promoting" or "sponsoring" missionary work for others to support. I have opposed missionary agents sent out by one church to promote missionary work for other churches. I have opposed the self-appointed missionary agents who seem to want to have a general oversight of all the so-called "missionary enterprises." I have contended that each church in its organization was independent of all other churches. If Brother Armstrong or others want to correct me, why do they not state my position correctly? I have frequently gotten some satisfaction over the fact that one had to assign me a position which I did not hold in order to answer me.

One brother years ago said of me in one of our papers that he thought that I did not believe in preaching the gospel outside of the United States. At the very time that I read this in the paper I was writing a Sunday-school lesson on the Great Commission that says to go into all the world and teach all nations. I had heard this charge so often that I let it go at that.

I heard also that in the discussion at Searcy some reference was made to old age, but Brother Armstrong is no "spring chicken." He is getting old just as fast as I am, only I began it a few years before he did. He should also remember the "senile dementia" strikes some men earlier than others.

Surely Brother Armstrong was not trying to make a preparation for three parties — one that stands on the Bible teaching on the kingdom, another that stands opposed to it, and one that stands between truth and error. Brother Armstrong should not think that he is so far away from my home because he is in Arkansas. I have done missionary work in many places in that State. I have held meetings in several good churches in Arkansas. I have preached in schoolhouses and rode a handcar pulled by man power to go to and from the places where I was preaching. The State of Arkansas holds the bodies of my father and mother and all of my brothers save one, whose body sleeps in a cemetery of Nashville. All my sisters are buried there save one, who yet lives. I claim a heritage in the State of Arkansas. I say this to show that I have no prejudice against any man who works for Christ in that State.

Will Brother Armstrong and those other brethren make an apology for misrepresenting my position?