Editorial Postscripts

CUSTODIANS!—The admonition to "judge not" applies to preachers as well as to lay­men. Our clerical position does not give us license to suspect and to gossip. While there are tale-mongers in every community, and stories and sus­picions are released with rhythmic regularity, we should never be party to their spread. We cannot repeat gossip without being particeps criminis to its evil effects. We should hold every person inno­cent until proved guilty. We should develop the judicial attitude that will demand satisfying evi­dence before believing hearsay. We are to be the custodians of justice, the upholders of fairness. Every person's character should be safe in our hands—though we can by no means clear the guilty. Much is expected of us, and much must be given—but always in harmony with truth and verity.

ENCROACHMENT!—All too often in our committees, councils, and conferences, we allow ourselves to be crowded into an unwholesome pro­cedure. When the pressure becomes intense, our devotional periods are too often curtailed, skipped, or ignored. Because of shortage of time, im­portant groups meet for consultation or discussion, while those not otherwise engaged are left to carry on the devotional period. Important committees , are called, and their members are asked_. to absent themselves. But plans thus devised are in danger of being short of power, and may be without that spiritual enlightenment that is imperative to the conduct of a spiritual work. We gain time by taking time out to seek God and to find His will. We lose time when we rush along, doing business for God but too busy to listen to His word, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." This is an encroachment we need to correct.

NEEDED!—It takes every angle of approach found in the advent movement_ to reach all types of people. No one method and no one approach, however excellent, will suffice to gain the attention or to create conviction on the part of all. Some will not listen to a sermon or a Bible study but will read a book or paper. Some will not read but will listen to the radio. Some will not yield to the religious approach but will be made responsive by the alleviation of their suffering. Others will not tolerate a preacher but will re­spond to a layman. And the extension of this principle involves the fact that no one form of ap­proach in any of these main channels will appeal to every sort of person. That is why God gave us divers talents, backgrounds, and experiences. We must harness every agency—evangelistic and pastoral, radio and literary, health and educational, ministerial and lay—that by all and every means we may reach the most.

HARMONY!—The scene was enthrall­ing, one Sabbath afternoon toward the set of sun, out amid the glories of nature. The beauty of the stately trees and lowly ferns was enhanced by fes­toons of clinging vines and beds of varicolored flowers. The bright rays of the sun from the blue above pierced the foliage and punctuated the som­ber shades below. A murmuring brook, the rus­tling of the leaves, and the spotless white of water lilies in the limpid pool formed the setting. Rain­bow-hued butterflies and blue dragonflies flitted from flower to flower. And God's great symphony of the out-of-doors, comprised of golden-throated birds of every variety and color, was offering one of its grand renditions. In all their individual songs, trills, and cadences, and seeming independ­ence of time and tune, there was nevertheless a majestic harmony, an underlying unity in it all. Verily there is a oneness in the wideness of God's universe. The persisting grandeur of nature, de­spite the fall of man, is one of the great balancing, stabilizing forces left in this old world, where chiefly man is vile.

PROTECT!—By the very nature of their work, ministers and Bible instructors are thrown into close and constant association. The quest for souls calls for effective teamwork. Visita­tion in the homes of the interested is a necessity if the hesitant are to be brought to a decision. But we live in a world of gossip and evil. Every safe­guard should therefore be taken to avoid any occasion for criticism, suspicion, or tongue wag­ging in the church, in the community, among those visited, or in the families of the workers involved. When it is essential for the minister to join the Bible instructor in some interview or study in the home, it is better to meet at that home —the Bible instructor perhaps coming first, and the minister arriving soon after in his own car—and leaving separately in time and conveyance. Or, if they must go together in the same car, the evangelist's wife may well go along. For the sake of the fair name of the remnant church, for the sake of the good name of the minister and the Bible instructor, for the sake of forestalling any improper developments of admiration for each other's work, and for the sake of the minister's home and the avoidance of any surmising any­where, eschew traveling together, or being to­gether, or being seen together under any circum­stances that might bring occasion for misunder­standing by anyone. Lessons from past tragic mistakes through the infraction of this principle should be sufficient deterrent. We must protect the fair name of the church.

L. E. F.