Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, after serving 24 years as editor of the Presbyterian Journal, is leaving that position to become president of Biblical Theological Seminary. The concerns and role of that journal since its beginning ten years before our paper began have in a number of ways been like those of the Outlook, and our readers may find this concluding editorial reprinted from the September 28 Journal illuminating and encouraging. A later editorial from the October 12 issue by the secretary of the Journal pays high tribute to Dr. Taylor’s pastoral work and influence as editor and to his initiative in the founding of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) and of the National Presbyterian and Reformed Fellowship (NPRF), in the organizing of the young Presbyterian Church in America and in its recent merger with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.
When I came to this desk 24 years ago, most Journal readers thought of themselves as spiritually hungry Presbyterians. They shared the concerns of Journal founder Dr. L. Nelson Bell who had concluded upon his return to the States from missionary service in China that the Southern Presbyterian Church urgently needed a conservative and evangelical rallying point.
The Journal had become that rallying point. Disdainfully known as “that Weaverville crowd” (after the publishing address, Weaverville, N.C.), Journal supporters were caricatured in seminary skits and some Journal readers kept their copies hidden between their Sunday school quarterlies. 1can remember how people would greet me at the door of a church following a Sunday morning preaching appearance somewhere. They would lean over and in a half-whisper would say, “I read the Journal and enjoy it!”—then look around to see if they had been heard.
Each summer we staged what came to be known as “Journal Day” in the First Presbyterian Church of Weaverville. Hundreds of friends and supporters would gather in August fo ran occasion which was hardly available anywhere else in Presbyterian circles: a day of inspiring messages from men who believed in the Word of God, and fellowship with other equally hungry Presbyterians.
All that has changed. The opportunity for solid spiritual experiences in Bible conferences and other gatherings of spiritually-aware Presbyterians made Journal Day no longer necessary and it was dropped. The Presbyterian Church in America had come into being and in that fellowship thousands of concerned Presbyterians felt they had found what they had been looking for—in some cases, looking for a lifetime.
The National and World Councils of Churches faded from center stage as objects of special attention—they continued virulent in their negative influence upon evangelical Christianity, but the old resolutions for withdrawal from the NCC and the wee that so bitterly had been fought (and sometimes won) in the General Assemblies of the PCUS now had become rather beside the point. In fact, a new “ecumenism” represented by the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) promised to offer a national , and even international, unity among evangelical and conservative believers of Reformed persuasion.
Today it’s a new ballgame, as they say. The Journal is needed as much as ever, but the vision is a more positive one than that which led Dr. Bell and Dr. Dendy to bring out the first issue in 1941. There are not as many things to oppose as there are things to support-not as many issues over which to cry alarm as there are opportunities to develop for nurture and growth.
The Journal’s constituency today reminds me just a little of the children of Israel still on the march—a new nation, still waiting to enter into its promised identity, still characterized by indecision and immaturity, but already a byword among its neighbors and destined to be the vehicle through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That is not a bitter word or even a criticism, but a statement of fact. I believe the Lord is working and will continue to work until the new thing developing in our time offers a powerful united testimony before the watching world to His grace.
What a time for strong evangelism, for strong Christian education, for strong seminaries! And for dedicated Christians to provide encouragement and support!
I would ask every reader of these comments to remember the Journal in its future ministry—and, if I may further ask, to remember me as I confront an awesome challenge and seek to discharge the new duties that God appears to have thrust upon me.
And may He bless us all.
