What do you think of Truth Magazine? Do you consider it a good medium of teaching? Do you enjoy the presentation of biblical topics which the writers attempt on a weekly basis? Do you appreciate the strong stand taken by the editor and writers for "book, chapter, and verse" in preaching, and teaching, and writing? If you do not, of course we would like to hear from you and have the opportunity to deal with questions or objections that you might have. A letter to the editor or one of the writers would not be out of place.

But if you do enjoy it, and feel that it would be worthwhile to enlarge its circulation - then why not give us a hand? Gift subscriptions are a great idea for many reasons, and you likely know what most of those reasons are, so I will not bore you with them. But have you ever given them? I would venture to guess that there have been many opportunities that we all have missed where we could have given a gift subscription that would have brought sound and scriptural teaching into the home of someone we know and love for fifty weeks of the year - yet we ended up giving something of only very limited temporal importance. How about considering a gift subscription to Truth Magazine next time around.

1. Give a subscription to a Christian located in an area where no sound church exists. Many is the person who is transferred to a place where no brethren are found, where no New Testament church meets, or where liberalism has swept away what once was. What an encouragement it would be to them to receive a weekly paper like Truth. It could be the thing that will make the difference between whether they will be utterly lost to the Lord and His kingdom or strengthened in their trial. There are areas where liberalism has won the day in years past without so much as a fight but because someone had been reading Truth Magazine new opportunities to teach are now available. What about it, is there someone you know that fits our description?

2. Give subscriptions to relatives and friends. Articles in this paper touch subjects of interest to the Christian and non-Christian alike. Denominationalism and its errors are dealt with in a fashion which we hope will be both informative and convincing. If you feel at any time that they are not, then register your complaint. We promise that you will be listened to and not ignored. If you believe in the power of the printed page, especially in fruitful connection with the Word of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16), to alter thinking and so to change men's lives, I should think that you would want to use every means at your disposal to convert those whom you love. We hope that you will consider Truth Magazine as such a means, especially for those who are far away from you geographically.

3. Give a subscription to your children when they move away from home. Often kids go away to college to a strange place where the Lord's people may not be found in abundance. And while their time for reading may be limited while they are away at school, still they will have just a few moments to peruse their mail when they get it and sufficient time to read articles of particular interest to them at the time. When they get married and move away for good, how about giving them a subscription to assure that some sound Bible teaching continues to flow into their home and influences them to remember God in those first difficult and sometimes turbulent years of wedlock. It might make a very great impact upon that new home! Why not give it a chance?

4. Give a subscription to a new Christian. So very many new Christians are lost again to the world that those of us who are trying to encourage them along the way ought to use every conceivable scriptural method to teach and strengthen them. Good reading material in their home is a way that can surely be beneficial. Why not make the little sacrifice that it will take to send the ones that you think could be thus helped a free subscription?

5. Give as a gift to a young preacher. Many is the young man who goes into preaching at great personal sacrifice. His funds are extremely limited in this day of rising costs and spiraling inflation. For him a subscription to a journal like this would be a tremendous boon, but he has to, by virtue of his financial straits, consider it an extravagance beyond the limits of his meager means. Why don't you ask him if he gets this paper, and if he doesn't, give him a subscription as a gift? I will never forget the kind Christian lady who in my first years of preaching subscribed to one of the journals for me when I could not afford it. I read and studied those articles that appeared voraciously, gleaning many sermon ideas and teaching suggestions that I have used continuously in my preaching.

6. When you have finished with it, hand it on to someone else. Don't throw it away! When you see an article that you think would be helpful to someone in particular that you know, give them that issue and ask them to read it. Place old copies in the vestibule of the meeting house as free literature for those to take who wish to read it. Stack them as you finish with them in a convenient place and at the end of the year give them to some preacher who may want to keep them for future reference; or mail them to a preacher in the Philippines or to Nigeria; or keep them for your own future reference and personal edification. You may be surprised how much you will enjoy re-reading them ten years from now. But whatever you do - don't throw them away!

If you really believe in the things that we on the staff of Truth Magazine believe in, how about showing it by putting the paper to work for you. We can all spare a few extra dollars to disseminate a literature that stands for "the faith once delivered to the saints". In a day when Playboy and other gutter-filth enters the homes of millions, Christians had better start throwing their influence around! How about using Truth Magazine to help do it for you!

Truth Magazine XXIV: 50, p. 807
December 18, 1980