Here is a second editorial from Christmas Day 1920. It is a follow-up to last week’s Throwback Thursday article. This editorial looks back at the year 1920 and forward to 1921. The editor’s mention of unanticipated events during 1920 might cause us to chuckle, as might his referring to issues of Christian Standard as “numbers.”
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The Closing and Opening Chapters
An editorial
Dec. 25, 1920; p. 10
This is the final number of the Christian Standard for 1920. The next number will be dated Jan. 1, 1921.
It seems but yesterday when we were “planning” the Standard for 1920. We quote the word “planning,” because, as we look back over the years, we are reminded that
“The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley.”
If we could only foresee the course of events, how different would be our plans!
The year 1920 took turns in every sphere that none had anticipated. And this has been especially true in the sphere wherein we, as a people, have moved.
The Standard, as a newspaper, and as an agency of the Restoration movement, has endeavored to keep in touch with things as they came and went, and frequently its “plans” have been necessarily sidetracked. However, when it is necessary for a “plan” to give place to something more important, the “plan” must go. This is a rule in the Standard office—a rule we shall not revise, because we think it a good one just as it is.
"When it is necessary for a 'plan' to give place to something more important, the 'plan' must go." Share on XAs we close the 1920 chapter, we have no regrets—save for mistakes we have made. Our one motive—that of serving the cause to which the paper is dedicated—has been steadfast and true. And our mistakes—well, we can say with a clear conscience that they have been of the head and not the heart.
The new chapter opens! What will it record? How will it end? We do not know. We know that it is about to begin—and that’s all.
Have we “plans” for 1921? No, not walled-in plans. Plans, however, plans that are elastic, and at the same time comprehensive, are, and have been for some time, taking shape in the Standard office.
Hitherto, we have announced, in part only, a constructive program to which we shall give special attention all the year through.
Controversy there will be—of this there can be no doubt. The millennium is not here. Nor are the issues that have disturbed the peace, and interfered with the prosperity, of the brotherhood, all settled. There are signs, very conspicuous signs, of returning sanity in circles where wild faddism has reigned. Nevertheless, the tornado that has laid waste much of our missionary enterprise has not yet spent itself; the college situation is by no means ideal; the rationalism that has cursed some of our pulpits and blasted the work of congregations, is not yet a thing of the past. And so long as these conditions prevail, even in a negligible way, the Standard will continue to oppose them to the limit of its strength.
Should it not pursue this course, it would be untrue to its mission. Nor do we fear the verdict the brethren will render. Even our severest critics, when pinned down to the discussion of facts, admit that the conditions against which the Standard inveighs are unscriptural, abnormal, destructive, bad through and through.
However, it is our purpose to devote the major part of our space during the year 1921 to the expansive program which is now being so extensively and heartily endorsed by the brethren. This program will be emphasized in essay and editorial, and it will have the right of way in our news pages.
So far as the Standard is concerned, 1921 will not be a year for grinding axes. It will, however, be a year for grinding an axe—the Lord’s axe. In other words, the cause for which we are all praying, and in which we all rejoice, must be pushed, pushed, pushed!
"The cause for which we are all praying, and in which we all rejoice, must be pushed, pushed, pushed!" Share on XAll the Standard asks is the opportunity to serve, and it yearns to render in 1921 the greatest, finest, and best service of its history. We, therefore, do not covet so much the cooperation of the brethren, as we covet the privilege of co-operating with them in the great work God has committed to their hands.
May 1921 be a great year for the Restoration movement—the greatest of all its great years. And that it may, let all pull together.
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