Vol. 36, No. 12
THE CHURCH OFFICERS’ GAZETTE
Private Institutions Can
Contribute to the Cause®
By E. D. NICHOL
As I look at you folk this morning I
am reminded of an incident in the life of
Joseph Bates. During the great advent
awakening, he and a companion were
traveling on the eastern shore of Maryland.
A man came rushing up all out of breath
and accosted them with this question: “Are
you the Millerite preachers?” When they
answered, “Yes,” he pantingly blurted out,
“You look just like other people.” He had
expected to see some strange, weird-looking
creatures, because so many wild stories had
been told about these Millerites,
This is the first time I have ever had a
look at the whole group of those who are
leading out in self-supporting institutions,
and I must say you lock just like the rest
of us.
I like to think that everyone who names
the name of Seventh-day Adventist, and
who loves his God in sincerity, can make
a contribution to the cause of God. And
the more definitely our endeavors are organ-
ized, whether as individuals or as groups,
the more real that service can be. I remem-
ber something that I read one time about
the Roman Catholic Church. It said that
part of the sagacity and astuteness of the
Roman Catholic Church, part of the reason
for its power, expansion, and vitality, is
found in the fact that it always has room
somewhere within the broad circle of its
organization for everybody, no matter how
diverse the ideas, personalities, or concep-
tions of how to advance the cause of the
Church. There are endless orders within the
Catholic Church, some of them having very
few members, and some of them having a
great many members. Somehow {t is large
enough and supple enough to incorporate
all of them and all of their diverse energies,
provided always they give their allegiance
to the head of the Church who lives in
Rome.
Now we can think of this advent move-
ment in a similar way. To the degree that
it is able to find a place within the move-
ment for all those who loyally seek, in one
way or another, to advance the cause, to
that extent the movement will be strong
*Talk at the annual meeting of the As-
sociation of Self-Supporting Institutions,
Takoma Park, D. C.
and will grow and never lack for vitality.
I have often thought that one of the
reasons why God made the universe very
large is to give a lot of elbow room for
great individualists. I have never believed
that the Lord intended us all to be cut on
one pattern. I think it would be bad, very
bad. 1 am glad that the United States is
large and that there is room here for all
of us. There are only about 223,000 Advent-
ists in these vast United States. God help
us if we think we have compassed every-
thing and that there is no more room for
people to expand and to spread out on
every side,
You are on your own. I think it is a
fine thing to be so at times. 1 have been
within the organization all my life, and,
God willing, I hope to dedicate the remain-
ing years of my life to working within that
very definite circle, But I say there is a
place for people to be on their own, in
the proper sense of that word And yet
there is always that balance to be main-
tained between being on one’s own and
being independent. And the finding of that
beautiful balance, it seems to me, is one
of the prime reasons for the coming to-
gether of such a group as this. As I see
it, the creation of an association is the
crystallizing of a consciousness on the
part of a group of individualists—I1 use
the term in the healthy, right sense of the
word—that there is something to be
gained by co-ordinated endeavor, by a
thinking together, a working together, a
tying in of effort with what we generally
describe as the organized work. If we can
have a unity in diversity, then I think we
{Please turn to page 35)
The Challenge and
the Answer
[In this column each month we will pre-
sent valuable quotations or interesting facts
that our pastors, church elders, and lay
workers will find useful in their sermons
or talks. Clip them out for your notebook.}
Why Gamble?
Why gamble in a cheap way when you
can gamble in noble souls? Race-track stuff
is childish and petty; the world waits for
men who still will hazard their lives, day
by day or in carly death, for the sake of
Christ. You have seen the colored squares
on the counter of a game of chance in a
county fair. The world is your counter.
Your soul is the coin. What shall a man
give in exchange for his soul? Now, on
what color~—Pilate or Jesus? You say that
you have tried it and have learned that the
Christian life does not pay off? It depends on
what is meant by “pay off.” You will have
zest that no other venture can give you:
that is rather better than some money-itch.
The log of Columbus read, night after
night: “And this day we sailed on.” . .
“And this day we sailed on.” . . . “And
this day we sailed on.” There was still
no sight of land. But you live in America,
The man who sails by faith in Christ will
reach his celestial country, Or will he?
You can prove it only in the venture.
High religion is “betting your life” there's
a Christlike God—George Arthur Buttrick
in Current Religions Thought, April, 1949.
Religious Publications Banned
in Czechoslovakia
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia—Strict control
over the publication of religious and
theological works is being exercised by
the communist-dominated government of
Czechoslovakia. It is rumored here that
soon only books related to the order of
worship for church services will be allowed
to be published. Even catechisms and Sun-
day-school materials will be forbidden.
A committee, one member of which
must be from the security police, has been
established to pass upon ail works intended
for publication by Church publishing
houses. This committee is also re-examining
books previously published, and those con-
sidered “undesirable” are being destroyed.
{Please turn to page 36)