Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Preacher's Magazine Church of the Nazarene 12-1-1958 Preacher's Magazine Volume 33 Number 12 Lauriston J. Du Bois (Editor) Olivet Nazarene University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Du Bois, Lauriston J. (Editor), "Preacher's Magazine Volume 33 Number 12" (1958). Preacher's Magazine. 324. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm/324 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Preacher's Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DECEMBER 1958 ^ Jhe f-^ rea clier 6 ^l /^ /a cja zin e Volume 33 December, 1958 Number 12 CONTENTS Cover— Floyd W illiam Nease (See page 4) Editorial, The Close of Jubilee .................................................................... 1 The Preaching of Floyd William Nease, Bertha Munro ................... .. 4 “Conceived of the Holy Ghost,” Kenneth V ogt ...................................... 7 Christ, the Unspeakable Gift, Joseph T. L a r s o n .................................... 10 The Bribing Priests, J. Ray Shadowens ...................................................13 I See an Altar, Willard B. Airhart ............................................................. 17 “Preach the Word” (III), D. Shelby Corlett ..........................................18 Gleanings from the Greek New Testament, Ralph Earle ...................21 The Altar Call—Moment of Supreme Importance, Fred Thomas. .26 Rights of Our Laymen (II), a fellow pastor .......................................... 30 Sermon Workshop, Nelson G. Mink ........................................................... 33 Book Briefs ..........................................................................................................40 I n d e x ...................................................................................................................... 42 Lauriston J. Du Bois, Editor Contributing Editors Hardy C. Powers Samuel Young G. B. Williamson D. I. Vanderpool Hugh C. Benner General Superintendents, Church of the Nazarere Published monthly by the IMAZARENE PUBLISHING HOUSE, 2923 Troost Avenue, Box 527, Kansas City 41, Missouri. Subscription price: S I.50 a year. Entered as second-class matte; at the post office at Kansas City, Mo. Printed in U.S.A. The Close of Jubilee TP h e J e w i s h p e o p l e had a year of than was the original meeting half a Jubilee occurring every fifty century before. years. It was a time looked forward But the celebration is over! The to by the oppressed and the poverty- banners are coming down; the band stricken, for in this year all debts is breaking up; the people are going were canceled and all property re­ home! There will be little mention verted to its original owners. God of jubilee or anniversary or events outlined the idea in detail and it was historic for a long time to come. The carried out more or less consistently voices that have been raised in well- through the history of the Hebrew deserved honor of a young denomi­ people. As a system of economics it nation will be silent. The pages which probably had more relevance to that have by colored ink and bold, printed day than to now. H ow ever, as a re­ declarations cried, “ ’Tis a time of ligious celebration and a time when jubilee,” will now see only black ink the people acknowledged their heri­ and they will speak of mundane tage and recognized the basic debt things, of births and deaths and per­ they owed to all other men, it does haps an occasional fire. have its counterparts today. There will be no other like cele­ The Church of the Nazarene has bration in our lifetime, for there will been celebrating its jubilee, its Fif­ be no occasion short of a Centennial tieth Anniversary, during this calen­ Anniversary, a double jubilee, and dar year 1958. It all began in the that will be fifty years from now watch-night services, December 31, (should Jesus tarry). And most of 1957. It has progressed through these us preaching now will not be on the months with challenging goals in giv­ scene when that time comes. ing (highlighted by the more than And so your editor has yielded to one million dollars in the Easter Of­ the impulse on this last month of this fering) , in new churches organized, grand year to ask the question, What in membership increases in the has this anniversary year taught us? churches, increases in Sunday If it has done for us what it should schools, youth groups, and missionary have done, then we need not too long societies. The climax of the year came mourn its passing. We shall not have on October 13 when at Pilot Point, to wait fifty years to feel its benefits, Texas, a Fiftieth Anniversary service for they will be felt tomorrow and in was held at the site where the de­ all of the tomorrows beyond that one. nomination officially began in 1908. Let us see what we should have At that time a monument was un­ learned. veiled which marks the spot where 1. We should have learned a bit the Church of the Nazarene was born. about the importance of our historical This service was only slightly less moorings, for history is important to significant as a history-making event all of us. It would be well for all of 1 us to take note of the great move­ 3. We should have learned, also, ments which have been founded and the importance of denominational sol­ do now live upon certain historical idarity. The story of our origin speaks facts. Judaism walks knee-deep in vividly of widely separated forces history. Young Jews of today are coming together on a common ground. taught the minute details of data The West, the East, the South—with locked in the history of their people. no unified leadership these groups Christianity is a historical religion. It were formed. When they came to­ gether they came with differences of cannot long survive without its facts background, differences in what they linked with history. God becoming a felt to be ideal church polity, differ­ part of human history through His ences with respect to the place of Son is a basic tenet of Christianity. strict ethical discipline and the like. And our church also has its roots in But all of these men and women were history and we really can never get brought together, molded into a com­ far away from that history. The rea­ mon purpose, and dedicated to a son of our beginning as a denomina­ common end. Our church today is tion, the manner of our beginning, the result. We need this lesson today. the men and women of our begin­ Every now and then there is one who nings—these are historical facts; and feels that the entire church should if we attempt to bury them or neg­ come under his particular pattern of lect them, then we will tend to be life and manner of doing things. He something else than what we are. is content as long as he lives among those who do conform to his cut. He 2. Closely related to this is the im­ has ecclesiastical dyspepsia when he portance of frequently recalling the runs into some who do not quite so significant factors in our history. conform. But our church today is Deuteronomy is an account of God’s made up of a variety of people. That dealings with the children of Israel. is why we can be an international Moses gave this message toward the church. Instead of being a weakness, close of his leadership in order to re­ this is actually our strength. A move­ mind the younger generation, that ment with freedom in nonessentials group upon whom the plan of God but with unit in essentials is stronger was to be worked out, of the reason than one in which there is a forced for their existence, of the hand of uniformity in every detail. Reviewing God in their lives, and of the faith­ our history should help us see this fulness of God in seeing them point. through. “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,” is a good historical truth 4. We should have learned, fur­ for any younger generation to know. thermore, the startling fact that his­ Some neglect the past because they tory is not made when the historians are for one reason or another ashamed compile the data in years to come but of it. Others at the other extrem e rather it is made in the now. Our dote on the past as if the mere re­ leaders of half a century ago made calling the memories (or retelling) of history. We are making history to­ days gone by will have some saving day! Your editor was looking at the virtue today. We should learn to record of the pastors of Kansas City avoid both of these extremes. Such First Church in the Bible School a time of jubilee as we have had may Journal in July. There were the help us find a proper relationship to names of the men who had served the past. the church and the years they had 2 (530) The Preacher's Magazine served. On the cold record we could nomination, properly understood. We see that some stayed one year, some are not as another who had real in­ two, some four, one nine, one twelve ternal conflict and controversy years. But each man in the year or throughout its history with respect to years he served as pastor was writ­ Wesley’s teachings. The Church of ing a part of the history of the famous the Nazarene was committed to a church.