With the December, 1992 edition, Searching the Scriptures will cease publication. That issue will complete 33 years of service to our readers. Several things have combined to bring us to this decision. The continual financial pressure from printing and postal costs, plus other necessary expenses certainly have been a factor. But the principal cause for this decision is the need for relief from the taxing deadlines with which this editor and publisher has lived for the last 191/2 years.

Since 1975 I have been involved in gospel meeting work for nine months of each year. Every time I have returned from a meeting, there has been one or two monthly deadlines to face. Some work had to be done on the road along with the busy activities of gospel meetings. The years have taken their toll. It is necessary to relieve some of the pressures under which I have been working so I may devote my remaining days to the work which has always been first with me - preaching and teaching the gospel.

Agreement With Guardian of Truth

I have entered into an agreement with the Guardian of Truth to the effect that all rights to the name Searching the Scriptures will be owned by them to prevent any further publication under that name and to guarantee that our subscribers will receive their money's worth for any unfulfilled portion of their subjections. Guardian of Truth has agreed to supply one and a half issues of their magazine for every one that was due from Searching the Scriptures. In other words, if you still have six months remaining on your subscription to STS, you will receive nine issues of GOT. All church ads will be fulfilled in GOT on a one-for-one basis. Our readers will get more than their money's worth from this agreement. Guardian of Truth is ably edited by Mike Willis with a staff of capable writers. That magazine is published twice a month and contains 32 pages per issue. We have only had 24 pages once a month.

Editor to Write for Guardian of Truth

I have been asked to write regularly for GOT and have consented to do so. I am comfortable working with Mike Willis and the able men who assist him in his work. The two papers have cooperated with each other through the years. Our general aims and purposes have been the same. It was my privilege to serve as an associate editor for what was then known as Truth Magazine (which later became Guardian of Truth) from 1965 until June, 1973 when I became editor and owner of Searching the Scriptures. I left the staff of that paper with goodwill and continued to urge people to subscribe and read it. It will be a great pleasure for me to do the same again. Those who have followed my writings in STS for the past 191/2 years will now be able to find what I write in GOT. In addition to a column which will appear frequently, though certainly not in every issue, I will continue to write the short items which have appeared in STS under the heading "Editorial Left-Overs. " This has been a popular feature in STS and many readers have told me that they always look for that first.

In addition to that, it is hoped that many of the writers for Searching the Scriptures will continue to write and submit their good material to GOT. Without the faithful work of these men, we would have been out of business long ago. Their reward for their labors has been the good they have done for their readers.

Our final issue will include a history of the paper from first to last by H.E. Phillips, who, along with James P. Miller began this work in January, 1960. As you might expect, we will take a nostalgic look back and then we will consign Searching the Scriptures to the archives of history where its merits or demerits will be judged by those who have read it through these years, or those into whose hands bound volumes may fall. I will sit down to write that last editorial with mixed feelings. But I am thankful for the opportunity to teach the word through these pages and grateful for the good men who have helped in so many ways and for those who have subscribed for themselves and for others. Over the years many kind words have been written and spoken about this paper (and some not so kind). We will cherish the kind words and try to learn from the other kind.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).

Guardian of Truth XXXVI: 22, pp. 673, 695
November 19, 1992