READERS' EXCHANGE

 

We found a quote to share with you: “Falsehood imitates truth and it seems impossible to know which is which. What therefore is the difference between the upholders of truth and the champions of falsehood? This is the unfailing sign: men of truth are especially dedicated to the task of redeeming captives. They hate slavery. This is the test by which you can tell the difference.” —Ron and Debbie Hall. Brownstown, IL

… I can give you an example of what I mean: two visitors sign our visitor’s card. One checks the box that reads “Member, Church of Christ,” while the other writes in the space provided for remarks, “I am a Christian.” Watch what happens after the benediction. The “Member of the Church of Christ” is showered with attention, while the one who says he is simply a Christian is shunned and feared as if some kind of freak. What a sad commentary this is on our thinking and attitude. —Charles Gillen. Oakland. CA

Thank you! Just finished reading your article, No Hope for the Divorced?—a question you answered well. “Yes, by God’s grace there is hope for the divorced!” —Arthur O. Peterson II, First Christian Church. Monticello. IL

We will be moving to Albuquerque, the Lord willing, sometime this Spring, if it ever comes to this frozen North. We know almost no one there, so if you have any friends there that we could fellowship, we’d appreciate knowing. Thanks for occasionally inserting “she” for “he” in your writing. Ev and I get a chuckle out of that. —Helen Champney, 123 N. Madison. La Grange. 1L 60525

(Praise the Lord! Someone noticed. Ed.)

As one who has pondered the use of musical instruments, I wonder how a bunch of slaves used to “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” became Christians without a few “thou shalt nots” if they were valid. Maybe they realized they were free men in Christ who could sing and make melody in their hearts with the instrument. One doesn’t invalidate the other. Your paper has helped me to put things in proper perspective. —Vera Chitwood, Unionville, IN

It was at a particularly frustrating time that we were given copies of your paper. I t was as if we were hearing, “Yes, Elijah, there are 7,000 other faithful men out there!” I honestly think we would have given up had it not been for your gentle yet firm encouragement. —The Roberts’, Hawaii

Do you have any readers in this area beside myself? 1 would enjoy fellowship with Church of Christ people in this area, but 1 realize I have a dread disease, a piano, that makes me dangerous. Is it true that the choir at David Lipscomb sings a capella on the road and practices with the piano at home? —Gary Knapp, Franklin, KY

(I do not know about the Lipscomb choir, but you realize that what would be sinful elsewhere is not sinful in Nashville. As Perry Gresham responded in one of our unity meetings in Nashville a few years back when asked where he thought Campbell would reside if he lived today: In Nashville. of course! —Ed.)

Thou hast made us for thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in thee. —Augustine