It is now only two months until time for the Fellowship Meeting that will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Landmark Missionary Baptist church of Rockford, Illinois.
    There are indications that more people will be attending this meeting than any we have entertained in Rockford for a number of years - for which we are grateful. Services will begin on Wednesday evening, June 17, and run through noon of the 19th. We look forward to seeing all who will be able to attend, but especially those who have supported these efforts toward a stronger fellowship during the past 37 years.
    Once again, we will try to arrange accommodation for all who will let us know of your plans to attend. If we cannot make you comfortable in our homes (and the space is limited), we will try to provide for you in one of the nearby motels.
    Let me thank those from our sister churches who have assisted in these accommodations through the years - opening their homes to our guests. Should you want to do so this time, you may let me know and we will try to find such a couple, family or individual as will meet your desire.
    Should any choose to make their own arrangements for accommodations, the following motels are located within two miles of the

    As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul viewed himself as being totally dependent on the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who had brought him to see the hopelessness of the legalistic system of Judaism and, so, to yield himself to the rightful lordship of Jesus Christ. Through the church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit had called him to missionary service, (Acts 13:2-4). Nor does he fail to recognize the Spirit's sovereign guidance, (Acts 20:28; 25:28).
    Paul was a man of action - a man with a goal, and all sorts of plans for reaching that goal, (Tit. 3:12; Rom. 15:28). Thus, the Spirit's guidance came in the closing of doors, or forbidding of a certain course, (Acts 16:6-10). There were times when the Spirit alerted him to the dangers that lay in his chosen path, but without attempting to turn him aside. "Bound in Spirit" (mentally constrained by such an overpowering sense of duty as rendered him indifferent to danger and insensible to the pleas of well-meaning brethren), he went to Jerusalem knowing full well that "bonds and afflictions" awaited him there, (Acts 20:22-23). The warnings of the Holy Spirit did not deter him; he drew his own conclusions.
    Paul inferred that, by warnings of danger ahead, God was simply testing him -

whether he was really willing to suffer such reproach for the name of Christ, (Acts 21:4, 11-14). And the Lord appears to have approved of his conduct in the matter, (Acts 23:11). This man of God did not choose the easy-going ways of the flesh, or the path of comfort and indulgence. He chose the "strait and narrow way" - however full of peril and personal hardship! Following the Christ, he had no fear of pain; no ambition for praise! With his Lord, he would gladly suffer for perishing souls, both from outward hardship and inward agony. And, for such a life, he found adequate patience and consolation in the Holy Spirit.
    So utterly did Paul yield himself to the Holy Spirit that the Spirit "filled" (possessed) him, (Acts 13:9). He was eager that others should be so filled, (Eph. 5:18). To him, it was God Who "supplies" men with His Spirit, and "gives the Holy Spirit", (Gal. 3:5; I Thes. 4:8). His first question to the little band of believers at Ephesus was: "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" (Acts 19:1-6). They had not! Apollos, who,

obviously, had baptized them, knew "only the baptism of John". He did not understand the new order that Jesus Christ had established, (Acts 18:24-28). When Paul had baptized these believers "in the name of the Lord Jesus" and "laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied".
    God's blessings are bestowed upon the basis of conditions which He Himself has established. When His conditions are met, in a spirit of humble trust, the promised blessings flow!

    In his work entitled Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches, Francis Wayland made some interesting observations on the subject of true unity among the people of God. To some who insist that unity is preserved, and church members protected from seduction and error, only by such a uniformity of belief as is stated in confessions and creeds, Wayland responds:
"Whether an established confession of faith is desirable or not, with us it is impossible. We believe, in the fullest sense, in the independence of every individual church of Christ. We hold that each several church is a Christian society, on which is conferred by Christ the entire power of self-government. No church has any power over any other church. No minister has any authority in any church, except that which has called him to be its pastor. Every church, therefore, when it expresses its own belief, expresses the belief of no other than its own members. If several churches

understand the Scriptures in the same way, and all unite in the same confession, then this expresses the opinions and beliefs of those who profess it. It, however, expresses their belief, because all of them, from the study of the Scriptures understand them in the same manner; and not because any tribunal has imposed such interpretations upon them. We can not acknowledge the authority of any such tribunal. We have no right to delegate such authority to any man, or to any body of men. It is our essential belief that the Scriptures are a revelation from God, given not to a Pope, or a congregation of Cardinals, or an Archbishop, or a bench of Bishops, or a General Assembly, or a Synod, but to every individual man. They were given to every individual that he might understand for himself, and the word that is given him will judge him in the great day. It is hence evident that we can have no standards which claim to be of any authority over us." (p. 13-14).

In a later chapter Wayland adds:
    "The more steadfastly we hold to the independence of the churches, and abjure every thing in the form of a denominational corporation, the more truly shall we be united, and the greater will be our prosperity. If it be asked, What is there then to unite us? I answer, love to Christ and adherence to principle. When these fail, we shall sink with them. Destitute of these, we ought to sink. If we die, why should we not be buried? If the piety and zeal of the Baptist churches become extinct,

the denomination will be absorbed into other sects and be no more known. This is to me one of the strongest evidences that we are on the true foundation. A church organized after the manner of a civil commonwealth may retain its form long after the last vestige of piety has vanished, and continue for ages an enemy of Christ and a persecutor of the saints. The soil of Christendom, at the present day, is covered with the festering carcasses of churches, from which the Spirit has for generations departed. The moral atmosphere is rendered pestilential by their presence, and neither piety nor humanity can breathe it and survive" (.p. 190- 191).
(All emphasis mine E.G.)
    Desirable as UNITY may be, such impatience as attempts to force it - be it by brainwashing or by intimidation - can never bring true unity; it can only dishonor the name of Him whom we all claim to love and desire to serve acceptably. E.G.

    "Just as the sea absorbs into itself all the debris from the shore, bearing it away into the fathomless oblivion of its own depths, so Christ bears in His own person all the wrongs and ill will of our contaminated characters. He receives into His infinite forbearance all our wretched attitudes, our contorted decisions, our negative impulses. In their place He pours out His love, His care, His forgiveness upon us - new each day - wave upon wave....He alone could be so gracious, so magnanimous, so utterly astonishing."

    On Friday morning, April 17, Bro. John Coleman, pastor of the Calvary Cross MBC, of St. Louis, suffered a heart attack. According to Sister Coleman he was resting far more comfortably by Saturday evening, but no assessment had been made as to the amount of damage. Tests are to be made on Tuesday, April 21.
    Though by the time you see this in print that date will be past, it will still be good to remember this brother, his family and flock in your prayers.
    Should any desire to assist with medical expense, I am certain that a check sent to the Calvary Cross Baptist Church (and designated for medical expense) would not only be appropriate, but greatly appreciated.
    There is more than one sense in which I am to be "my brother's keeper" E.G.

TWO MONTHS ..... Continued

church building:
    With eager anticipation we look forward to this meeting - trusting that the Lord will bless it to the honor of His worthy name and the spiritual enrichment of His people.