Two Years More
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It was just one year ago I announced in these pages I intended to cease publication of MISSION MESSENGER on December 1, 1975. We have just two more years of editing a paper, which began as a little inconsequential journal, and now goes all over the world. I reached the conclusion to halt this phase of my life after more than half or my earthly sojourn has been actively involved in it. It was not easy to do. I wrestled with the matter for months until I felt I had an answer to my prayers as to God's will for my lessening existence.
Editors often tend to feel they are indispensable. They come to the place where they think neither God nor the brethren can do without them. The result is their thinking, which seems so precious to them, becomes ever less meaningful to the saints, who simply quit reading what they write. This causes the editors to feel unappreciated and neglected. They rail at others for putting them on the shelf when actually they crawled upon it themselves to gain a better vantage point from which to snap at those who pass by below.
The paper is now at its highest point in readership. One month this year, July, broke our previous record. This runs counter to all past experience. The summer months have generally brought a drop off. I want the paper to expire gently, as a faithful servant in the arms of those who love him, at the very peak of his strength and virility. I want it to die, as I would like to die, facing the world in vigor until the dart of death brings release. I do not want it to go like an outworn stag making a pitiable stand against a boulder while the slavering jaws of a wolf pack move ever closer, waiting for the inevitable moment for the fight to be ended.
Ever since I announced my decision I have been besieged by letters pleading with me to reconsider. A lot of dear people have said they can hardly bear to think of not receiving the paper each month. It has brought help and comfort to them in difficult circumstances. Most of all, it has brought hope, real hope that the church will return to sanity, even after having gone so far out of its mind as to lash at itself and devour its own flesh.
A good many have volunteered to continue the paper if I would give it to them, and some have offered to buy it. But my decision is irrevocable. If someone else sought to edit it, it would not be MISSION MESSENGER, for this paper is simply Nell and myself. It has been kept alive by our own sweat and blood, and sometimes watered by our tears. It is the two of us coming to visit you each month, like your folks from down home. The paper is not profound or sophisticated. It is not dolled up in Sunday clothes. It is a country journal, the same kind of homely fare in the literary field as ham and grits and red-eye gravy on the kitchen table. I would not be qualified to edit a scholarly periodical if I wanted to do so. Fortunately, I don't want to!
The death of the paper will be as unostentatious as its birth. We began without a flourish and will conclude the same way. The last issue will simply be a farewell. I will not sell the mailing list and I will not give it away. I regard a subscription as a covenant and a faithful trust. I would as soon sell the addresses of our children and grandchildren for others to exploit as to sell the names of my brothers and sisters for profit. I know that is regarded as old-fashioned and quaint, but that's the way it is, and that's the way I am.
For years I have had to resist attempts of brethren to organize us, dress the paper up, get an office, up the subscription price, and pay me a salary as editor. In each instance I've told them to start a paper on their own and I'd advertise it for them without charge, but to let us alone. Nell and I have continued to do all of the work except the printing,
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Some of you will be pleased to know that I'm closing down the paper so I can get on with the things I really love to do--writing books. There are seven simmering on the back mental burner now, waiting for the opportunity to be served up. Most of them have been started. You'll be hearing about them as they are born. I must hurry because time is running out! I plan to submit articles to other journals where they will be scrutinized by other and younger editors who may weed out material which might hinder rather than help.
I have lived to see many prestigious journals fold up because of rising costs. The subscription rate for our little paper does not even begin to pay for its publication. It has been kept alive by brothers and sisters whose hearts have been touched and prompted by God to share their substance with us because they too believe in "bringing glad tidings of peace on earth to men of goodwill." Many of them we have never met but they have been willing to stake their generous giving upon the integrity of Nell and myself. And each year we have ended up with all obligations paid and without a cent of debt. This year is no exception. We owe no one on earth anything except our love!
You do not know who these donors are, but we know and God knows! We are trusting Him to reward their generosity with His mercy and lovingkindness. The greatest risk we have ever faced financially will come in 1975, when we can no longer take subscriptions, while the cost goes on, many hundreds of dollars each month. We are not worried in the least. Many of our faithful helpers will continue with us until the last round is fired and the flag is furled and laid away as a memorial of the power of love, in the battle against partisanship and hostility toward God's wonderful people!
Thank you for reading our feeble offerings through the years. If you desire to continue reading until the end, send only two dollars and you will be enrolled for the duration. If your heart is moved to send more, the surplus will be used to take up the differential in cost of printing and production, and in the fund to mail out free books to college and university students. We have sent in excess of nine hundred volumes of my works all over the earth, without a cent of obligation to students. We have even paid the cost of wrapping and mailing. Praise God for your help!
All of the papers for 1973 will now be bound in an attractive book called "The Question Box." If you want one or more for your library, why not send your order now and we will enclose an invoice for the minimal amount when we send it to you? If you'd like the last three bound volumes simply request Nell to place you on the permanent list and they will be sent as they are ready for mailing.
The articles next year will deal with some of our real organizational problems and I will be saying some things I have long wanted to say. The book which results from the 1974 articles will be called Pure Words. For only ten dollars you can put five of your friends on for the life of the paper. For one hundred dollars you can do the same for fifty members of your congregation. Do you know of a better reading bargain than this? If you plan to send gift subscriptions, please hurry so we can start them with the January issue. If you'd like to receive twenty-five or fifty copies each month to hand out, write for our bundle rate. It will surprise you!
Nell joins me in this expression of thanks and appreciation to all of you. We love you whether you agree with what you read in the paper or not. If you have been accepted by the Father as a child, we accept you as our brother or sister. It is just that simple.