King's Business - 1958-02

The Stewarts spend a quarter of a million dollars on their Testimony Publishing Company

100,000 were sent, but these volumes were limited to those who requested them. Copies were sent to 21 foreign countries. The cost of this project was around $300,000. Again Stewart was paying back his tithe with multiple interest. Stewart’s interest once more turned to the foreign field. He and his brother Milton pledged the support of 12 missionaries in Korea, a work that was under the Presbyterian Board. They agreed to support these missionaries for five years. Although the mission board was slow in provid­ ing the missionaries, at least six of them sponsored by the Stewarts did finally reach Korea and houses were erected for them with funds provided by the Stewart brothers. Exactly how much was invested in this work is not known, but it was an appre­ ciable sum. It was in January 1906 that Stewart met a man who was to have a profound influence upon his life. This man was T. C. (for Thomas Corwin) Horton. The circumstances that brought them together are interesting indeed. As early as 1894 Stewart’s pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian Church had asked Stewart to con­ tact possible prospects for the position of assistant pastor. While attending a conference at Niagara, Stewart discussed the matter with several prom­ inent ministers who were attending the confer­ ence. Most of the miilisters recommended T. C. Horton as the best man available for the position. However, upon his return to Los Angeles, Stewart found that the church had decided not to call an assistant at that time. Again in 1905 the question was taken up by the church, and Stewart, remembering the splendid recommendations in reference to T. C. Horton, presented his name to the church. This was during the Chapman Evangelistic Campaign in Los Angeles and several of the leaders of Immanuel Church made inquiries of some of the evangelists who were assisting in the meetings as to a suitable man for the position of assistant pastor. Without knowing that others were being asked the same question, each of these men recommended T. C. Horton. The church then authorized Stewart to correspond with Horton. After considerable correspondence Horton accepted the position at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. He arrived in

but was unable to do anything about it at the time, having hardly sufficient funds with which to carry on the Christian work in which he was already engaged; and, as he stated it, "having hardly sufficient funds with which to get back to Los Angeles.” But the importance of the work along the line taken by the magazine continued to impress itself upon his mind and he felt that some work of this nature should be done to "stay the tide of apostasy.” He said, "I was impressed with the thought that a great many good, honest men were teaching error because they have never been properly instructed, many of them being limited in their reading and study to their church litera­ ture, which in many cases, is prejudiced.” Some time later, when Dr. A. C. Dixon, pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, was in Los Angeles speaking in some of the local churches, Stewart attended some of the meetings. On one occasion he felt impelled to ask Dixon for a per­ sonal interview. Up to that time he had never spoken to anyone in reference to the matter of publishing Christian literature. When he men­ tioned the matter to Dixon, the latter replied, "It is of the Lord; let us pray.” In the interview with Dixon, Stewart outlined his ideas and the method by which he thought they should be carried out. Dixon went back to Chicago and organized a committee of strong Christian men who, in turn, incorporated The Testimony Publishing Company to publish The fundamentals. Stewart turned over 3,000 shares of United Petroleum stock to Giles Kellogg, an official in the Union Oil Company, to be held in trust as a guarantee of his good faith in the mat­ ter, and the work was begun. Later, his brother Milton joined him in this project to the extent of one-half of the expense. The plan which was adopted by the committee of the Testimony Publishing Company was to publish a total of 12 volumes and to send them free to all the English-speaking Protestant ministers, evangelists, missionaries, theological professors, theological students and YMCA secretaries. Later, the plan was broadened to include Sunday school superintendents, religious lay workers and editors of religious publications throughout the world. Of the first nine volumes, over 300,000 copies of each were sent out. Of the other volumes, over

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