READERS' EXCHANGE

 

Procrustean Preachers

The clarity of your thinking is very refreshing. Also appreciate the other writers you share with us. Orthodoxy dies slowly, equating antiquity with authenticity. But Procrustean preachers have had their day. Keep up the good work.—Kansas City

Now there is a reference for you—Procrustean preachers. In Greek mythology Procrustes was the robber who tied his victims to a bed; if they were shorter than the bed, he stretched their limbs; if longer, he cut them down. So his name means stretcher. It could be that the clergy has been Procrustean, conforming folk to its status quo. Another Greek hero, Theseus, slew Procrustes and freed men from his evil designs. So, if we can have more Theseusean preachers, we can dispose of the orthodox beds by which brethren are measured and allow men to be free in Christ.

Trying to Stay

Again we thank you and ask God’s blessings on your efforts to help up think and to be more understanding of each other. Your publication is eagerly read as soon as we receive it! It is so comforting to realize there are others who understand and care. We are trying so hard to stay. —California

By “trying so hard to stay” the writer means that they do not want to leave the Church of Christ, but to remain and to help us become a freer and more responsible people. This is constructive religion. Some of course have to leave, conditions being as they sometimes are. But those who can stay and work for renewal from within will in the years ahead have unique opportunities for good, for we are changing—mainly because some of our most responsible people, who are tempted to leave, are not leaving. Lest we forget that we are salt, and salt is not to be isolated from what it hopes to influence.

Commendation

I continue to enjoy your work. The articles are stimulating and sometimes startling, but always helpful.—Illinois

Keep up your good work. It is refreshing and inspiring to me to have your publication provide the penetrating insight we need to many vital problems of living the Christian life in the present age.—Nebraska

We have just enjoyed our first copy of Restoration Review, the March issue. If it is any consolation to the boy “way out in left field,” he has just acquired two new fans!—New Mexico

I thought this last statement so delightful that I took it to Ouida in the kitchen and read it to her. We got quite a bang out of it. The readers will recall in the last issue that a fellow editor had put me way out in left field, a relegation I gladly accepted in that it had me both on the field and in the game. And now we see that playing out there is not so bad, with two new fans applauding from the sidelines.

Being an editor, especially a controversial one, may have its difficulties, but a rewarding part of it is the people we come to know and love, having never seen, all over the country and the world. I especially appreciate the sense of humor so often evident. I’ll always remember the brother who wrote that, after discovering Restoration Review late one night, he awoke his wife to tell her about it! And there’s the sister who asked that two copies be sent to her address, for she and her husband fought over the one copy as to who would read it first!

The many dear friends we have made through the mail we may never get to meet on this earth, a fact I dislike, but I am old-fashioned enough to believe that the joy of acquaintance will be ours in a fairer land.

Campbell Slogan

You left Campbell’s slogan a little open-ended, after all, the failure to recognize that it is open-ended—a principle to be interpreted, not a formula to be mathematically applied—has caused many of our difficulties. A better atmosphere is prevailing; we are learning that free investigation and personal interpretation, among committed Christians at least, does not mean anarchy.—Alabama

Pigeonholes

I am sorry that the brethren are having difficulty finding the right pigeonhole for you. I am thankful they in the last few years God has given me wisdom to see that pigeonholes are for pigeons, and that we ought to quit trying to stuff our brethren into them. When we label a man, we so often libel him, don’t we? Continue urging us to proclaim the Word rather than our traditions.—Missouri

Lord’s Supper

I got a copy shortly before the recent ACC Lectureship and took it with me. I read about half of it on the flight up and thought it was great. I had looked forward to finishing it after the lectures. Somehow it got away from me. Enclosed is a 1.00 for another copy.—Texas

I am young and am in college and I am aware that I need to learn. Thanks to men like yourself and Warren Lewis, for many of my questions are being answered. I believe The Lord’s Supper will be worth a lot to us, for it will help many of us to give up our pride.—Louisiana

Why in the world was the book banned?—Florida

I suppose Dick Smith got it right when he said that Lewis’ The Lord’s Supper was rejected because it asked us to think rather than to accept what has always been said. If men get themselves fired, imprisoned and even killed for thinking instead of conforming, we need not be surprised when a book gets into trouble for making such a demand.

As we go to press for this issue we still have copies of the book at 1.00 each.—Ed.

More on Holy Spirit Retreat

Your view of the Dallas retreat was largely from a standpoint of human wisdom. You have the spirit of the Greeks who looked only for wisdom. They also would have expected the interpretation of a tongue to be “weighty and relevant.”

You were looking at some of the activities, especially the exorcism, from a natural, or unspiritual, standpoint. I am not in the least surprised that you were disturbed about it. Nothing that happened has any place in unspiritual thought. This is particularly true of (the man who left). He probably had more demons than anyone else in the room and that is why he left. He was unwilling to let go of them. There would be no reason for driving them out against his will, because he would only accept them right back.

On the other hand there were many things that you saw with spiritual eyes—the heartfelt praise of God. the love between people who had hardly met before, etc. Your warning against the three dangers was especially good and very much appreciated by everyone I have talked to about the article.—Tennessee

This is only part of a long letter, which I will answer personally, from a young man brought up in the Church of Christ, son of an elder of a congregation in Nashville. He says, “I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in August of 1967 after a summer of extreme discouragement and depression.” He writes a sweet, Christian letter (“I love you, Leroy, and pray that the Lord will richly bless your ministry in the Review”), all of which I appreciate.

I pass these paragraphs along to the readers so that they might realize that such ideas have made their way deep into the life of our people. I could quote from letters telling of “Spirit meetings” from various parts of the country, gatherings in which the baptism of the Spirit is sought and received. In some cases I am asked not to quote from such letters.

I am not here making any value judgments. I would only remind the young brother in Tennessee that our Lord drove out demons when neither the demons nor the one who possessed them was cooperative.—Ed.

 

The Quest of God, the bound volume of this journal for 1968, will be ready in June. Reserve your copy now, please, though you need send no money. You will be billed. This is a 200-page book on important religious themes, with its own introduction, table of contents, and colorful dust jacket illustrating God’s quest of man. Restoration Review is published each month, except July and August, 20 pages each issue, and the subscription rate is only 1.00. We urge you to subscribe for two years at a rime. Remember our club rate of only 50 cents per name in groups of 6 or more. RESTORATION REVIEW, 1201 Windsor Dr., Denton, Texas 76201