Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 7
June 9, 1955
NUMBER 6, PAGE 14

The Overflow

F. Y. T.

New Goal To Shoot At

Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, "the biggest Church of Christ in the world", has again demonstrated her great ability in the promotional field. Determined to out-strip Madison, Tennessee, in their "friendly rivalry" for the biggest Sunday School attendance, Broadway went over the top with 2508 attending on a recent Sunday. Now Madison has already begun to lay plans to beat that figure come next fall. An elder in a congregation some thirty or forty miles distant from Lubbock writes, "I believe at least a third of our members were gone Sunday (to Broadway) . . . They got a professional golfer to teach a class. What do you think about us trying to get Marilyn Monroe or Betty Grabel or somebody like that to teach our auditorium class? Maybe we could get some of the old men out who never come to Bible class at all."

The Preceptor

Brother Luther G. Roberts of Borger, Texas, is the new editor of The Preceptor. It will be welcome news to all of us that Brother Cope and most of the fine staff who have formerly served the paper will continue to write for it. They have done an outstanding work, and have contributed greatly to the field of Christian journalism. We have read the paper, and enjoyed it, since the very first issue. We expect to continue doing so. It has stood for the truth. Those who know Luther Roberts can have full confidence that The Preceptor will continue to be the power for truth and righteousness that it has been in the past.

Not An Outside Organization

One of the best of all the brief notes given this writer during the recent Lufkin debate was this short comment from J. Early Arceneaux: "Remind him that the Catholic apostasy did not start as an organization separate and apart from the church, but by organizing the church itself in the direction of Romanism." There's f o o d f or thought in that short word.

Curious And Spurious

As one thoughtful brother put it recently that grandiloquent "challenge for debate" which the Gospel Advocate issued a few months ago gets "curiouser and spuriouser" with every passing day. All efforts to get Brother Guy N. Woods into a discussion with either Roy E. Cogdill or W. Curtis Porter have come to naught. Cogdill was rejected because he was "not a representative man." We've not yet heard why Porter is being refused. Many brethren think a discussion between Woods and Cogdill in some place like Dallas, Texas, or Franklin, Tennessee, would go a long way toward clarifying some of the present day issues. We wish it could come to pass . . . but have slight hope now for such.

Announcement Soon

We are in correspondence with Brother E. R. Harper in an effort to set the exact date for our discussion in Abilene this fall. Brother Harper and the Highland elders because of serious illness of Brother Harper's daughter asked for a postponement until then. Perhaps within the next week or so we can announce the date for that event.

"On The March!"

Some gospel journals recently gave great publicity to a big congregation near Nashville which is "On The March!" This congregation, numbering nearly 1,000 members, fixed up flamboyant exhibits to take to some of the college lectureships to show other churches how things ought to be done. Now comes out a financial report showing that in one recent month this great church contributed the magnificent sum of $103.65 for carrying on the Lord's work outside her own borders! That is slightly more than ten cents per member per month. Thank God there are several thousand other churches in the land who don't take that kind of "marching" as their example.

She-Boss Church Of Christ

This page is being written in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, where the editor is engaged in a gospel meeting. Oaks Gowen, faithful preacher for one of the congregations in nearby Columbia, tells us there is a congregation of Christians not far from here known as the "She-boss Church of Christ." We know of some churches where that's a fact; but didn't know of any where it was a name.

The Indianapolis Debate

This great debate (Totty-Watson-Holt) is beautifully bound, and will make a handsome addition to any preacher's library. It will be a cherished treasure on the shelf of many a young man who graduates from a Christian college this month. Why not make a gift of it? The book of 330 pages is priced at $3.50. Order from the Gospel Guardian.

Positive Thinking

Elsewhere in this issue is an article by Hoyt Houchen entitled, "Positive Thinking." We suggest that everybody read it, especially our many readers in San Antonio. It will give some slight indication as to some of the present trends and tendencies which some "positive thinking" ought to check and reverse. San Antonio is by no means alone in the kind of spiritual sickness Brother Houchen reveals; we have found evidences of it all over the nation.

As Spurgeon Saw It

Brother Olen Holderby from Coalinga, California, sends us this interesting quotation from Charles Spurgeon: "I am always afraid of having human rules in a church, and equally fearful of being governed by human precedents. I am afraid of power being vested in one, or two, or twenty men; the power must be in the Lord. . . . Such a church keeps working together without aiming at uniformity, and goes on to victory even though it makes no noise. That movement is right which is led by God, and that is sure to be all wrong which is led in the best possible way if God is absent."

Read The Back Page

We want you to read the ad on the back page. The little booklet "How New Testament Churches Can, And Can Not, Cooperate; Or What Is Wrong With Herald of Truth" is having a phenomenal (almost incredible) distribution. We haven't made any effort to make a check on it, but believe it has gone into almost every state in the Union. We've never had any tract we've printed to be in such great demand so quickly.