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My Ninth Anniversary Message
“What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken
by the wind? —-Matt. 11:7.
DO NOT know that it has occurred to
you that today, at this hour nine years
ago, I preached my first sermon as a
pastor in the city of Atlanta, and today
is, therefore, my ninth anniversary as
a pastor in this city. 1 remember very
well that morning. It was as bright
and beautiful a day as I ever saw. The
circumstances that confronted us at
I
that time, and the circumstances that confront us
at this time, are vastly different. The difference
is so great that I feel this morning that God would
have me review with you some of the very inter
esting changes that have occurred in the life of
this church during those nine years, and I do this,
not simply with the idea of acquainting you with
the facts, but also with an idea of endeavoring, as
I trust I shall be able to do, to impress upon you
certain conclusions which I feel ought to be drawn
from this very interesting statement of facts.
Nine years ago we were not on this corner, but
we were a considerable distance from here, in what
was known as the Third Baptist church building,
which is now known as the building of the Jones
Avenue Baptist church; a small band of worship
pers gathered there from time to time; a band not
at all to be compared with the great congregation
that throngs this place. I believe I should be safe
in saying that the average congregation at that
time in that church building would not be over two
hundred and fifty, if that much; and a Sunday
school, according to an old record that I happened
to stumble on, that numbered not exceeding two
hundred; a total contribution to all objects that
did not exceed $2,500. But in that band, poor in
this world’s goods, and small in numbers compared
with what we are today, there were some of the
best men and women that I ever ministered to.
Our prosperity began from the first. We soon
found that it was absolutely* necessary to seek
other quarters, and it was unanimously resolved
that we should come upon this corner and begin the
work which is now known as the Baptist Tabernacle
of Atlanta.
Not long after that it was decided to divide the
congregation and membership, and about half the
original membership of the church remained at
the old place and half came over to this corner and
began this -work.
SMALL BEGINNING.
I remember very well when the lot on which this
building now stands was purchased. It was as hard
and rainy and stormy a day as I ever witnessed,
and some of us stood in the drenching rain and
pooled our little interests in order to get the pur
chase money for this lot. Since that time more
than $30,000 have been expended in this building
and its equipment.
The first Sunday that we came into this building,
a Sunday school numbering 133 met. Since that
time the work has continued to progress until the
present hour, and I feel that it almost unnecessary
to recount to you the blessings that have come to
us.
Our present membership is seventeen hundred
and seventeen; between five and six hundred in
addition to those have been granted letters
or otherwise dropped from the roll, which would
make a total of twenty-two hundred and seven
teen. Nineteen hundred and seventeen of these
have joined the church since we came on this cor
ner during the last eight years, making a total
net gain for each year of two hundred and thirty
nine; nine hundred and fifty eight of these by bap
tism and the rest by lettter.
The Sunday school, which, eight years ago, num
bered one hundred and thirty-three, today numbers
fourteen hundred, with an average attendance of
more than eight hundred, and this does not say any-
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
thing about the mission stations that the church
supports.
Tn addition to this, the financial status of the
work has made corresponding progress. The cur
rent expenses of the church during the past year
amounted to $8,034.34. This is the running ex
penses of the church proper. To the Home Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention, $443.07. To the
cause of Foreign Missions, $1,785.11. This has
been given to our Foreign Mission Board at Rich
mond, Va., and other foreign missionary work sup
ported by individual members of the church. Other
items, including the items that are spent for City
Missions, make the total expenses ot the church
proper during the last year, $16,672.88, all of which
is accounted for in a thorough, up-to-date business
like manner, and audited by a committee of trust
worthy and competent men in the church.
THE INSTITUTIONS.
Then there is what we may term the “church
without,’’ or the institutional work of the church,
which is so large that I am afraid many of us, even
those who are most intimately connected with the
work of the church, cannot take it in.
To begin with, there is the Bible Conference.
During these eight years we have built up and main
tained a Bible Conference for Christian workers
that ranks second to no conference of- a similar
character in this country. I believe it is really
third in point of size in the United States. I think
that Winona would rank first in point of numbers,
Northfield, second, and ours certainly will rank
third, and yet, for the regular size of the audiences,
we would scarcely be below either of the others,
though they are not held in a great city like this.
In this Bible Conference we have been able to
bring to this city the very best and most widely
known preachers, expositors and teachers that the
world contains, to bless, not only our own church
and congregation, but our whole city, and all the
Southland as well.
Then, there is our Infirmary. During these years
we have built up, organized, and are today operat
ing a hospital and a training-school for nurses that
will take its rank by the side of any Christian
institution in this country. The only way we are
hampered in this work, as in so many of our other
departments of work, is in the lack of adequate
quarters in which this blessed work of ministry is
conducted. Around this work is grouped a company
of the very best, I will not say the best, but cer
tainly among the very best, physicians and surgeons
that are in the city.
Then we have our Girls’ Dormitory, a place in
which the girls who come to this city who have
no home, and are ignorant of the ways of the world
and the wiles of the devil, can come and share the
protection and the chaperonage of the Christian
church.
Recently a new dormitory has been opened for
the accommodation of the people who are coming
to attend the regular studies in our Bible Training-
School. Both of these institutions are simply lim
ited in their capacity to do by the lack of room.
It will surprise you to know that during the years
that the Dormitory has been established, we have
had more than two thousand young women to pass
through its doors and receive the impress of our
love.
And God, and God alone, can tell how many a
girl has been helped and blessed and comforted by
that work.
Our Tabernacle Lecture Course has become a
permanent institution in this city, doing what a
great lecturer told me the other day had never
been successfully done in his knowledge; that is,
maintaining a great, first-class lecture institution
upon a $1.50 season ticket for from ten to fifteen
cents for each attraction. This is done by wise
and thoughtful' management. We make it possible
for many to get the wisdom and influence of the
best lecturers and musicians that are to be obtained
when they could not pay the larger prices.
The Golden Age for March 14, 1907.
Then there is the Colportage Department of our
outside wos<. This Colportage Department has
had for its object the placing of tracts, literature
and books of the most spiritual character in the
homes of the people; and thousands and thousands
of volumes have been distributed that jou have
never heard about. Forty-seven hundred books
have been distributed through this agency to the
prisons in the State of Georgia. Not long ago I
got a letter from one of these old convicts who had
served his term and had gone home to try to live
a new life, and he said that he owed his conversion
to a book that we furnished him, and he felt like
he wanted to tell me about it.
THE BIBLE SCHOOL.
Then, there is the work of our Bible School,
which is the last institution of our organization.
During these years we have developed the necessity
for teaching the Word of God. Me have been the
pioneers in this Southland of this kind of work,
and we have built up, and are now operating, a
regular, systematic Bible training-school, conducted
every day in the week. To this Bible school we
have been able to bring the very best teachers that
this country affords. I do not need to say to you
who have had the privilege of hearing her, that this
little babe, hardly yet able to open its eyes, under
the blessings of God, has been able to bring here
the best Bible teacher among women that I believe
is to be found in the world, and I do not know that
I need to state that by the use of the| term
woman I refer to Miss May N. Blodgett. Then,
this year, we have been able to add to the faculty,
Brother W. L. Walker, whose work in teaching has
not only astonished his friends, but has astonished
himself. We have also secured Miss Booker with
her superior genius in teaching New Testament
Greek.
I feel that I ought to say at this time that much
of this has been due to the fact that there came
to us a few years ago in the person of Miss Beulah
D. Fuller, a woman whose heart and whose means
had been laid upon the altar of a Bible school.
It will, perhaps, astonish many of you to know
that this whole combined plant at this time is sup
porting fourteen regular staff workers, who give
all of their time, either with salary or self-support,
because they have outside means, to the work of
the church and its combined institutions, and all
but three of these are supported entirely outside
the current expenses of the church proper.
THE GREAT CONTRAST.
This outside church, or institutional work, last
year expended $30,830.64. Much of this was in
service for which we received no remuneration at
all other than the consciousness and satisfaction
of duty done. The total financial income and ex
penditure last year of the church and institutions
were $47,407.52.
Now, when we contrast this as a financial state
ment with the statement that I gave you in the
outset, of nine years ago, I feel to raise the question
of the text. There is no man today than can look
at this and say that it has been the mere shaking
of a reed by the blowing of the wind; and if there
is a man or a woman here who is at all skeptical
about this situation, I only want you to be honest
and frank, and look at these facts that I have
outlined and tell me, do you think that this has
been nothing more than the mere shaking of a
reed by the blowing of the wind? My brethren,
the only answer that can possibly be given to these
facts is God Himself.
These things have not come about without soul
travail. There has been great soul travail. There
has been deep heart prayer. There has been long
and tedious figuring and anxious and thought
ful planning, sometimes far ahead of judgment, and
yet within the light of faith. There has been self
denial and sacrifice, and toil and struggle, and per
secution and criticism that has blistered and burned
and worried until sometimes emaciation has almost