Pilgrimage of .Joy. . . No. 39

OUR ENDURING HERITAGE
W. Carl Ketcherside

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Only that traveling is good which reveals to me the value of things at home, and enables me to enjoy them better.” it was in 1964 we built our new house, and moved into it shortly before Thanksgiving Day. It was five minutes from the air terminal and Nell could drop me off there, and come and get me on my return without ever going to the public parking lot. The house was designed to enable us to handle the paper and my books, and proved to be ideal for our need.

And we needed something to make travel more convenient. During the year, among many other places I spoke at Milligan College; at the Bond County Fellowship Meeting at Mulberry Grove, Illinois; at the alumni meeting at Lincoln Christian College; at the Southern Illinois Christian Convention; at Roanoke Bible College, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina; at the Tri-State Fellowship in Weirton, W. Va.; at the Statewide Fellowship Meeting at Boise, Idaho; at the Statewide Rally at Little Rock, Arkansas; at Ozark Bible College, Joplin, Missouri; at the Fellowship Forum, Casper, Wyoming; at the Arizona Christian Convention, at Phoenix; and at Oregon State Christian Convention, at Turner, Oregon. This was but a little of my travels during the year.

In the meeting at Milligan College, I first came in contact with Dr. Robert Burns, and liked him from the start. I had corresponded with him many times but it was a great privilege to know him personally. At the time he was minister for the great Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta and a genial gentleman.

Present with us also was Dr. James DeForest Murch, of Silver Springs, Maryland. He knew the history of the restoration movement like few others I have ever met. He had just edited a history of it called Christians Only. He had always been intensely interested in unity as evident in the Witty-Murch discussions. He was a co-founder of the National Association of Evangelicals, and editor of their journal United Evangelical Action. He was founder and president of the National Sunday School Association, the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, and the Evangelical Press Association. He was also managing editor of Christianity Today. He was author and composer of the song “I’ll Put Jesus First in My Life.” We began a great friendship which lasted until his death, and the times he spent in our home meant much to me.

On March 4, 1964, Harvey Bream and I met in a 3 1/2 hour public conference with Dr. Clyde Funkhouser, District Superintendent of the Methodist Church, at Fairfield, Illinois. The subject was “Current Views on Christian Unity.” Harvey was editor of The Restoration Herald but has since become president of Cincinnati Bible College. The encounter was great and confirmed me in the belief that we needed to cross over lines for dialogue.

It was about this time I formulated a policy with reference to other journals. I was under attack from some of them in every issue. I was being called a heretic, a Judas Iscariot, a Benedict Arnold, a compromiser, and a liberal. It was not popular in those days to affirm that every child of God in the world was your brother. So I simply resolved to mention the various papers and urge my readers to send for a copy and read what was being said about me for themselves. It proved to be a good method of dealing with the situation and I pursued it as long as I continued to publish. It was about this time someone sent me a little motto which read: “Love Your Enemies, It Drives Them Nuts.”

During this year Leroy Garrett made a monthly out of his paper which had previously been edited as a quarterly. This gave him the opportunity to write articles which were geared more closely to the times. The result was a great increase in the number of subscriptions. The paper has been a monthly ever since and has accomplished profound good. Leroy has never been free from attack, much of it unprincipled, but his patience and tolerance, have turned this to great growth. The paper you now hold in your hand is an indication of what has been accomplished to the glory of our Lord.

The following year, 1965, brought three things to pass which were of note in my life. First, I was invited to speak at the World Convention of Churches of Christ, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The World Convention was begun by Jesse M. Bader, to provide a chance for the varying restoration groups to meet together and listen to one another. The first one was held in Washington, D.C., in October, 1930. There were more than 9,000 present.

I was the first participant from the non-instrument group who had ever been present. When I arrived in San Juan, there were 6000 people present from 32 countries. The evening meetings were held at Herman Bithorn Stadium on the outskirts of town. Buses were used to transport people to the place and back to the hotels. The address of welcome was made by Florentino Santana, who was president. I was on the speaker’s stand with Ray Blampied, president of the college at Dunedin in New Zealand, who was to be the first speaker. Brother Blampied’s speech was characteristic of those who take a liberal theological approach to the sacred scriptures. It was apparent that many of the common folk did not like it very much.

Mine was entitled “Our Enduring Heritage” and my closing paragraph said, “Our enduring heritage! My entertainment in infancy, my instruction in youth, my inspiration in manhood, my invigoration in approaching age, my illumination on the coming journey through the valley of shadows! Oh, may I never forget it, but love it, revere it, and through it be faithful unto Him whose word it is. And amidst the clamor of disputed claims, the shouts of sharply separated scientific scholars, and the propositions of antagonistic professors an pundits, may I never forget that it is better to know the Rock of ages than to know the ages of the rocks.”

I was hardly prepared for what transpired. People from the Congo, from South America, and from Australia, pressed around me to shake my hand. They were thrilled to hear someone defend the Word as inspired of God and revealed from heaven. After my speech I was sought out by various ones who wanted to discuss the bearing of my remarks upon their national life and conduct. I began correspondence with some of them, and we continued to write to each other for years. It was as if God had arranged everything to His glory.

The next speaker after I finished was George R. Davis of National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. He spent his entire time defending the president, Lyndon Johnson, who was a member of his congregation. The contrast in speeches was so great that a lot of brethren from other parts of the world were turned off. One of them said to me, “We came thousands of miles to hear about the Savior, and it is a new wrinkle to learn that his last name is Johnson.”

The second thing which meant a lot to me was the study in depth conducted at Highland Church in Louisville, August 2-6. It was strangely successful, bringing together brethren from 12 states, 4 continents, and 6 segments of the restoration movement. Brethren affiliated with congregations which held the premillennial view were always intensely interested in souls. They had gone to the remotest parts of the earth with the message of life and had labored under great difficulties to tell the story of the cross. It was a blessing to have some of them in our audience.

The third thing which affected me was the cessation of the American Christian Review, after 110 years. This truly marked the end of an era. It did not make the impact it would have made if it had stopped a few years before. For a long time it had been simply picking up and reprinting older articles and it was no longer geared to the times. It had outlived its usefulness and was ready to die. But it brought a touch of nostalgia to me. It was the first religious paper I had ever seen. When I was a mere lad it came to our home. I used to lie flat of my stomach on the floor and read every word of it.

Brother Daniel Sommer was born of German immigrant parents in 1850. After a boyhood of poverty and hardship, he enrolled in Bethany College when he was nineteen years of age. On January 28, 1873 he married Katherine Way, daughter of Francis Way, an elderly Quaker. In 1886 he purchased the American Christian Review which had been started and printed by Benjamin Franklin, until his death near Anderson, Indiana, in the autumn of 1878. Brother Sommer changed its name to Octographic Review, in honor of the eight writers of the new covenant scriptures. A great many of his humbler readers did not understand the meaning of the word “Octogaphic” so by the time I arrived on the scene it was changed again to Apostolic Review. Eventually, it was returned to its original title.

It was W. T. Moore who said, “The restoration movement does not have bishops—it has editors.” For years our fate as a people was wrapped up with the Apostolic Review. Indianapolis was regarded as our headquarters, although anyone of us would have been quick to affirm that we had no earthly headquarters, but heaven was our home. Brother Sommer was a commanding figure. What he said was accepted as “law and gospel.” When he read the Sand Creek Address and Declaration, and issued the ultimatum that those who persisted in the unscriptural clergy system, and in worldly ways of raising money for the support of the gospel, would no longer be regarded as brethren—that did it!

The fate of the Sommer family was our fate. When Sister Sommer became editor she debarred Daniel from writing and would not publish his material. Upon her death the editorship went to Chester and Bessie. D. Austen, who thought he should have been chosen, broke with them and started his own paper. It now became fashionable to speak with disrespect of the Review and with pride of the Macedonian Call. But editors have “feet of clay” and it was not long until D. Austen proved to be untrustworthy, as we saw it.

I am glad to be delivered from the unholy mess we created by our strife. But I want to see others also made free—free to love, to receive and to welcome all who are in Christ Jesus. Better times could come immediately if all of the papers among us would begin to urge upon us community instead of conformity. We will never see everything alike. If we did it would be but a short time until we differed about something else. What gain will come from calling for division where God has commanded peace?

Certainly, it would require an about-face. But what have we gained by pursuing the direction we have been going? Have we united the Christians in all of the sects? Have we brought peace to a body troubled with fighting? Is the heartache and bitterness, the hostility and hatred, to be our heritage to the bitter end? Will we continue to strike down every man who pleads with us to turn away the sword from shedding the blood of a brother?

Do not most of our division represent our faith in our opinions rather than in Jesus? Do they not exemplify our trust in our own infallibility. Do not the words of Oliver Cromwell apply to us today, “I beseech you, brethren, in the name of God, to consider that you may be mistaken.” Are not there thousands upon earth who love Him as sincerely as we do, who revere His word and seek to follow in His path? What do we gain by giving them a shove instead of a helping hand? Shall we continue to shake our fist, rather than to wave our hand at a passing pilgrim?

Editors have gained too much power among us. They dominate our thinking. They determine our stand upon issues. They domineer in the realm of faith. And they make us pay for it. Let us choose wisely whom we shall follow.