God Gives and Takes

An important part of learning how to live with some measure of peace of mind and hope for time's tomorrows consists of acquiring some ability to adjust to the philosophy which Job expressed so well, when he said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.: Job l:21b.

My wife helps in keeping some of our records for mailing purposes. She does not see all my mail. So, when she announced, a few weeks ago, that our new subscriptions, for the month just ended had averaged four a day for that four week period, she was confirming the first part of Job's statement. Against those one hundred and twenty-four invitations to enter new homes there were two letters she did not see. They were from friends who wwere upset by some of the contents of The Researcher and The Berean Ambassador. One was about an article we copied from The Standard Bearer, a Christian Reformed paper from Grand Rapids, Michigan. This writer said, "If you do not retract that article, or get its author to apologize, I will support your work no more." We have not retracted. The short expression in question may have been a bit too harsh, but it dealt plainly with a principle and a trend about which Christians need to re-think, so we let it stand and leave God to judge. If we lose five or ten dollars a year and the goodwill of a cherished friend, we shall hope that the Lord will make up, but still enable us to appreciate the privilege of having and using some measure of editorial freedom. It hurts to be misunderstood and criticized, but it hurts worse to be a slave to fear or the love of money. For a word about the other complaint, see Intent of The Researcher.

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