By Steve Wolfgang
During the week of October 24-30, 1977, members of the Expressway Church of Christ, 4437 South Sixth Street. Louisville, Kentucky, had the privilege of hearing Brother Roy Cogdill speak by invitation of the elders in a gospel meeting. The meeting was well attended by Expressway members and by a number of community visitors who are not members of the Lord’s church. Truth Magazine readers who have known Brother Cogdill through the years will rejoice to know that Brother Cogdill has regained a measure of health and strength and came preaching with the same fervor, force and clarity which has been characteristic of him through the years.
We do not wish to turn the pages of this paper into an “adulation sheet” for the worship of any man (as some publications among our liberal brethren have become), nor to think more highly of any man than we ought to think, but we do feel that good news regarding those who have fought long and valiantly in the Cause should be reported. Although Brother Cogdill’s health has not been the best in the last few years, at this time he appears to be in better health (and seems to feel much better) then he has for some time. He spoke each night for nearly an hour, sometimes more, to above-average crowds (which puts the lie to the idea that brethren will not abide lengthy sermons; they will, so long as the preacher has something to say!). At a special Saturday morning session on the Charismatic Movement, Brother Cogdill spoke for nearly two hours and answered questions from the audience. He spoke three times on Sunday, and participated in the call-in radio broadcast with this scribe and Jamie Sloan of Douglass Hills (where Brother Cogdill held a meeting last fall). Brother Cogdill went from Expressway to Danville to conduct a meeting there, and we have received a good report of his continued good health and forceful preaching to good audiences there. While we do not wish to fall victim to the wrong of thinking of men “above that which is written” (1 Cor. 4:6), we feel that Brother Cogdill’s long experience (he marked his 55th anniversary of preaching on November 20) and his evident ability make him an exceptional proclaimer of God’s word. His love for the souls to whom he preaches is manifest in the earnestness with which he preached the gospel. The saints at Expressway were truly edified.
In our opinion, one of the main contributions Brother Cogdill has made in his efforts to teach the truth as widely as possible has been the numerous books, debates, and tracts which he has authored. Perhaps the best known of these has been The New Testament Church, first written nearly forty years ago (1938, to be exact). Besides going through nearly twenty printed editions of perhaps nearly a quarter of a million copies, the book has been translated into nearly a dozen foreign languages and, in Brother Cogdill’s own words, “Has done a lot of preaching at places I could not or would not be allowed to go.” While Brother Cogdill was here, he replied to a recent request from the American Braille Society in Los Angeles to grant permission for them to publish The New Testament Church in Braille so that even the blind may now have access to this thorough and scriptural study of the Lord’s church.
This scribe counts it a,rare privilege and honor to have been associated with Brother Cogdill in this effort and to have had the benefit of sitting at his feet during this period. We bid him Godspeed and wish for him continued health and many more opportunities in preaching the gospel.
Truth Magazine XXII: 6, pp. 103-104
February 9, 1978