Old Paths Advocate - Church of Christ

PAGE SIX
‘.
’ THE OLD PATHS ADVOCATE . JANUARY, 1946 d
McGaughy-Holt
Brother Edward McGaughy and Sister Helen
Doris Holt were united in matrimony, December
12, at the Fourth Street Church of Christ, in
Waco, Texas. The building was filled with friends
and relatives to witness the occasion. They are
to make their home in Waco. We wish for them
many happy years together. The writer, a cousin
of the bride, officiated.
-Cyrus Holt.
GOOD ADVICE
Do more than exist-LIVE! Do more than
touch-FEEL,! Do more than look-OBSERVE !
Do more than hear-LISTEN! Do more than
listen-UNDERSTAND ! Do more than think-
PONDER! Do more than talkLSAY SOME-
THING! -Selected.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Many people ask the above question, -saying
they are not able to preach, teach a lesson, lead
a song, lead a prayer in public, etc. While that
may be true, yet there are many things that all
can do, just as Paul tells us. Hear him: “AS We
therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto
all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith” (Gal. 6:lO). This does not
even hint that we are to do good only to them
who do good to us. Opportunity is defined by
Webster to mean, “occasion.” Hence, every time
we have an occasion to do good to anyone, let us
do it cheerfully. Note, too, that Paul says to
do good. Therefore, anything that is good we may
and should do unto all men. Never are we admon-
ished to do evil to anyone. Well, -it is good to
visit the sick (Matt. 25:36, 40). It is good to
help the widows and orphans (Jas. 1 :27) ; and
it is good to read the Bible, to pray, to teach oth-
ers privately, to give to the needy, to attend the
meetings of the church. It is good to “add to your
faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge
temperance, to temperance patience, to patience
godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and
to brotherly kindness love.”
I feel certain that most members of the Church
of Christ know that they should do these good
things, but so many continue to neglect their
Christian duty on these matters, but let us take
heed how we continue to neglect these important
matters. Heay James: “Therefore, to him that
knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is
sin” (Jas. 4:17). James teaches us that to leave
undone the good that we know to do is sin. But,,
Jesus says, “If you die in your sin, you cannot
come where I am,” And,“sin is the one thing that
will keepus out of Heaven. Let us not forget
that every time we have an occasion to do good,
we are commanded to do it, and, “Blessed are
they that do His commandments” (Rev. 22 :14).
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this
is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).
Jesse French.
GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE
PREACHERS
James Wyman (Jim) Russell,
755 Orange Ave., Fresno, Cali-
fornia, was born at Everton,
Arkansas, September 8, 1912;
son of Ambrose E. and Alma
(Mallard) Russell.
In April 1933, Bro. Russell
was united in matrimony. to
Mary Semple, to which union one
daughter, Elizabeth, has been
born. . .
Brother Russell obeyed the
gospel May 8, 1938, and imme-
diately began to take an active
part in the public work of the
church. He worked three months with the classes
and cups brethren before meeting Bro. Paul
Hays, who taught him the way of the Lord
more perfectly. Me then worked and worshipped
with the Sanger congregation, and being encour-
aged by those brethren, he soon began preach-
ing the gospel. In 1942, he secured a house in
Fresno, and employed Bro. Clovis Cook to hold
a meeting which resulted in the establishment of
a congregation, which today owns its own church
building, at 755 Orange Ave. It is considered
among the substantial congregations of faithful
.
brethren in the state.
Brother Russell is a very tireless and zealous
worker in the cause of Christ, being opposed to
all innovations. He supports his family with his
own hands, and at- the same time does much tGward
the advancement of the Church of Christ,
publicly and privately, being encouraged by his
Christian wife in all his labor.
-John L. Reynolds.
RESPONSIBILITY
We are confronted almost daily with the most
perplexing problem of the age-juvenile delin-
quency. The sectarians, the Catholics and even
some who worship under the name “CHURCH OF
CHRIST” claim that they are solving the prob-
lem by: (1) dances for teen-agers, (2) young
peoples clubs and societies, and (3) the Sunday
School.
-We of the “faithful” congregations of the
Church of Christ hear preachers and congrega-
tional leaders consistently maintain that all these
organizations are erroneous in the light of Holy
writ, therefore, none of them are pleasing or ac-
ceptable to God. However, we must admit that
those practicing the use of Sunday School etc.,
are doing a good job of putting these organiza-
tions over with the people. When we discuss such
matters, particularly the Sunday School, with
those who believe in its use we have to admit that
they are doing a better job of teaching in ERROR
than we are of teaching in TRUTH. Is there a
beam in our eyes? Can we safely criticise the Sun-
day School man for his method of teaching when
our effort to do the same job RIGHT is practic-
ally nil? Never has God taken anything away
-
JANUARY, 1946 THE OLD PATHS ADVOCATE PAGE SEVEN
from man without giving him something better customed to doing;” and others will say, “It mak-
in its place. If we are going to teach that in God’s es me so nervous to do these things.” Well, Paul
due order the Sunday School must be eliminated, says in Phil. 2 :12 to “work out your own salvation
then let’s search for God‘s instructions as to some- with FEAR AND TREMBLING.” Training our
thing better to take its place. children certainly has to do with our salvation.
After crossing the Red Sea, God gave instruc- We all plan to begin doing our duty before we die
tions to the Israelitish parents regarding the but that will not suffice in most cases. A child
TEACHING OF THE CHILDREN. “And thou must be trained while it is in the training age.
shalt teach them (the words of the Law) dili- Brethren, when we concede that the things
gently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them suggested herein are our duty, and begin to prac-
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou tice obedience of them, then and only then can
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, we safely teach against the Sunday School and
and when thou riseth up” (Deut. 6 :7). In other its kindred organizations without our’ “HAVING
words, the fathers (parents) of old were to be A BEAM IN OUR GOWN EYE.” We can do
teaching and acting or obeying the Law all the much better than we have been doing; shall we
time. Today, i.n this present dispensation, the join hands together and do it?
Word of God instructs fathers to: “Provoke not
your children to wrath: but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:
4). Is there any difference in these two com-
mandments? We must admit that they both
cover, very well, the same subject.
We learn that parents have the full responsi-
bility of teaching :‘their” children and that the
parent must be an example. Eph. 6:l teaches
us that children are to obey their parents in the
Lord, therefore, the parent must of necessity
command, demand and expect something of the
child. Some will say: “Children are young only
once so we’ll just let them be wild.’’ Others will
say: “I don’t know how to control my children.”
It IS my opinion that the Word of God will give us
the answer and that we must do what it says in
order to please God.
As parents we have a greater responsibility
than even the greatest of-rulers and as CHRIS-
TIAN PARENTS we have a duty which we must
fulfill or be held accountable. When we learn to
realize that just one act of neglect of duty, one
excuse offered for not doing the things we ought,
or just one “little” sin committed by us may cause
our own children’s blood to be on our hands and
cause them to spend eternity in a devil‘s hell,
perhaps we’ll begin to do a little better than we
have for the past generation. The FAMILY AL-
TAR has disappeared-WHY? Are our activities
so great that we neglect the supreme duty? Did
the “cares of the world or the lusts of the flesh”
take the place of family Bible reading and pray-
er? For the most part we’ll have to answer, “Yes,
they did.”
There-is something that we can do about this
situation, Christian friends, and I fear that if we
fail to do it we’ll stand accursed on the day of
judgment. Beginning now we can, in our homes,
re-establish the system of daily, family style Bi-
ble reading and prayer; we can be more careful
of our language in order that the children have
the proper example there ; we can make our every
act be ad honest one; and we can be careful that
we not forsake the habit of giving thanks before
meals. To do these things properly teaches our
children by example and as they become old
enough we can teach them to do their part of the
reading, praying, etc.
Some of us, as parents, will say, “It’s so em-
barrassing to do the things that we are not ac-
James W. Russell
755 Orange Avenue
Fresno, California
. FROM THE PAPERS
An editorial in the Memphis, Tenn., Commer-
cial Appeal:
It is about time now to quit calling them “con-
chies,” a word that carries a touch of approbrium,
and to acknowledge that they were men of cour-
age and conviction, even if their ideas were not
in accord with those of the rest of us.
In New Haven, Conn., a conscientious objector
who had volunteered for dangerous work in med-
ical research died this week, a victim of infantile
paralysis. He is just as dead as if he had stopped
a Japanese bullet in Okinawa.
Those conscientious objectors objected to the
sorry business of war as a principle. Others were
fighting a war to guarantee the right of human
individuality, the right of men to think and speak
and act as conscience dictated.
War, a pernicious institution, silenced many of
us, but it did not deter the conscientious objector
from making his own sacrifice in his own way.
Is there any greater courage than that which
enables a man to brave the taunts of his fellows?
They have become guinea pigs, they have *per-
formed menial tasks, they have suffered indig-
nities and imult for a principle dearer than life
and honor.
. If the human race had been made up of con-
scientious objectors there would have been no vio-
lent deaths on Anzio and Okinawa.
They had the highest type of moral courage,
the kind that is not rewarded with Purple Hearts.
Through life, perhaps, they will have to dodge and
duck their fellows, but some of them are as dead
as those who perished on the beachheads.
Is there anything nobler than dying for a de-
cent principle ?
Comment
It surely is regrettable that more people did
not learn the things, which this editor has to say
about the conscientious objectors. There were
thousands, who, really and truly, did not believe
in war in anyway, but, as this article says, they
“were silenced’’ and many boys who were badly
in need of help from the preachers and leaders
of the congregations did not get it, all because