Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 7
February 9, 1956
NUMBER 39, PAGE 4

Avalanche

Editorial

The "Special Issue" of the Gospel Guardian seems to be gathering speed like an avalanche. Already, nearly three full months before it is to appear, we have in hand and promised nearly SIXTY THOUSAND names of those who are to receive the paper. Our initial goal had been set at 100,000; but if the present trend continues, we may well have to double that figure.

And this brings us to a serious problem. We are going to be compelled, in view of the tremendous response made to our announcement of the "Special," to revise our price for it upward. We had originally set the price at five cents per copy, which is only about one-third of the actual cost of printing and mailing. We had estimated that we could stand the additional cost of $10,000.00 for 100,000 copies without jeopardizing the Company too much. But we can't stand twice that figure! The Gospel Guardian is a non-profit organization; we have no capital gains laid up for such emergencies. A heavy drain like this would endanger our future operations.

For this cause, and believing those who are ordering the paper will understand and be willing to share the load, we are setting the price for the "Special Issue" at fifteen cents per copy. This applies regardless of how many are ordered. Many of you who have ordered have indicated in your letters a willingness to help in this venture above and beyond the price charged. So we are going to do this: All orders received after the date of this paper (February 9) will be billed at the scale of 15 cents per copy. All orders received prior to February 9 will be billed at five cents per copy. If any who have already ordered want to pay at the higher rate, your help will be deeply appreciated; but there is no obligation.

We regret the necessity of this, and offer our sincere apologies to all for the change. We simply had not anticipated the tremendous response our "Special" would bring forth. But orders for it have poured in like an avalanche down a steep mountainside. The idea seems to be gaining momentum with every passing day. Many people are writing that they would like to send the paper to the whole membership in their respective congregations if they were able to do so. Well, send what names and addresses you can get, and whatever amount of money you think you can spare on them; and we will try to raise enough from interested friends to make out what you lack. In addition to the thousands who are ordering, we already have a "back-log" of many thousands of names to whom we would like to send the "Special" if funds were available. Your help in this particular will mean much.

The supreme effort of this issue will be to promote UNITY among the churches of the Lord on the basis of Bible teaching. The articles will deal objectively with current matters, and will set forth plain Bible teaching on such subjects as "The Mission of the Church," "The Sufficiency of the Church," "When A Bible Example Is Binding," "The Church and Human Organizations," "Evangelism," "Benevolence," "Edification," "The Scriptural Issues Involved In Current Controversies," "How Is Bible Authority Established," "Congregational Cooperation," and a number of other themes. The very best writers we can find in the church are to write on these subjects — not reviewing anybody or any argument particularly, but simply setting forth incontrovertible Bible teaching on the subject assigned.

Send in your list of names today! Our typists are working every day on the address labels; we need to have your order NOW.

— F. Y. T.

Purely Personal

Because so many have written, and the load of work makes it impossible to answer all letters, the editor wants to say a word about a very special person — Mrs. J. D. Tant. Those who were attending the Indianapolis debate know that we were called to Texas in the middle of that discussion because of her critical illness. We left with a heavy heart, expecting to hear the sad news upon reaching San Antonio that her life had ended. But in the providence of God we were spared that grief, at least for a while. When all her children had gathered at her bedside, expecting the end within a matter of hours, she weakly murmured, "You all have come down here to bury me; but I'm going to fool you. You'll have to make another trip for that." And she was right! At this writing she is out of the hospital, back in the home of her daughter, and gradually regaining her strength. On February 13 she starts her eighty-fifth year.

Within the last eight years this unusual woman has written nearly 8,000 personal letters for the editor — most of them two-page single-spaced typewritten letters in the interest of Ancient Landmarks and the Gospel Guardian. We estimate that her untiring efforts in these eight years have brought no less than 40,000 readers to the number of those who have been helped by Ancient Landmarks. She averages twenty letters a week (every week!), and is right now calculating how many letters she will have to write additional to make up for these weeks of illness when she has been away from her typewriter.

We express deep gratitude for the letters that have come, and for the many, many prayers that were offered in her behalf. This notice will bring joy to all who have known her through the years. She is improving — and says she wants to live "as long as I can be of any use to anybody."

— F. Y. T.