O-SD-0.3-Publisher's Preface

Publisher’s Preface

Copyright 1929 By F. L. Rows GOSPEL ADVOCATE COMPANY, Owner
Nashville, Tennessee Copyright Not Renewed Not everyone is so situated that they can know what is going on through the length and breadth of our land. Few are in positions where they can feel the pulse of public sentiment and observe conditions that are conspicuous in social and religious circles. As the publisher of a journal of wide circulation I have been fortunate in being able to observe con­ditions, including dangers that face our great country whose foundation has been the fundamental truths of God’s Holy Word. When men with dangerous imaginations began to destroy the faith of weak ones the older ones naturally sensed the alarm and have been on the defensive. The dangers have become so great that they must be met and handled as open foes. I have seen from every direction an alarming tendency on the part of the careless, unthinking, pleasure-bound people to take up with the theories of modern Atheists and be­cause of their liberal and loose views on many moral subjects give up their love for and joy in Christian doctrine and practice. The great mass of people are giving little thought to religious mat­ters, and the advent of atheistic teachings has contributed its large part in breaking down the faith of those who were easily influenced and didn’t have the depth of thought to know and enjoy the strength of the Christian doctrine. The present generation are not rooted and grounded in God’s eternal truth, therefore it is easy for ideas that recognize no day of accounting to give in and give way and follow the line of least resistance in the enjoyment of everything that satisfies for a time those who have no fear of God or eternity.

We who are older and have seen real life and have seen cowards and brave men die, know that in the last day there will be gnashing of teeth and terrible distress of mind when such deluded crea­tures will cry out in their agony and dismay—"Lord, have mercy!" Such would not believe the Savior if one came from the dead, but in that last day and before this mortal flesh is laid in the ground, every last one of them will call to God for mercy and salvation, but there will be none. The circulation of a book like this debate must do a world of good, and we send it forth with the’ only thought and purpose that it may open the eyes of those who are in darkness and who have been so easily led away from the teaching of Godly parents. F. L. ROWE.