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THE VARACA BIBLE CLASS
The National Convention of Baraca and Phila
thaa now being held in the city of Atlanta, has
given the outside world a better conception of the
strength and nature of this movement than they
ever had before. In conception and in the method
of its operation, the Baraca Bible Class for young
men, and the Philathea for young women, is the
simplest and yet the most successful organization
yet created for the specific purpose of reaching
the consciences and touching the lives of young
men and young women, and influencing them along
the lines of their higher impulses into the fold of
active Christian work. There are now twenty
three hundred of these classes in America; eighteen
hundred being for young men and the remaining
five hundred for young women. The immense num
ber of lives that are touched by this organization
and the scope of its influence for the betterment
of humanity, can scarce be computed. That the
Baraca work has had the blessing of God upon it
from its conception, cannot be doubted after a brief
consideration of its history. The first class was
organized by Mr. M. A. Hudson, a layman, of Syra
cuse, New York, on October 10, IS9O. He was a
busy business man who had opportunity as he went
about his duties to see the temptations which be
set young men, and the results which grew out
of bad company, evil habits and un-christian lives.
He was moved to undertake some plan whereby at
least a few young men might be reached and helped.
So he organized in the First Baptist Church of
Syracuse, on the date mentioned, the first Ba aca
class. The name is a shortened form of Ber
achah, taken from 2 Chronicles, 20: 26, meaning
11 Happy” or “Blessed,” the shortened form being
more convenient to get the letters into the pin
which is now familiar to every one. Mr. Hudson
thought the Sunday school the proper medium
through which to reach young men, but he realized
the need of something more alive; some method
besides the cut-and-dried form of catechism so com
monly used in class work, to catch and hold the
attention of vigorous, live young fellows. So he
began along a new line. He found in organizing
his class that the fellows were not wanting some
thing done for them so much as they wanted to
do something for somebody else. Upon this basis,
the class was organized with eighteen members.
The first yearly motto was “To make happy every
fellow who comes within our circle.” The class
was organized with officers, teachers, etc., and chose
the following platform for the work, which has been
adopted by the National Union: “Young men at
work for young men, all standing by the Bible and
the Bible school.” The class prospeied from its
beginning. Over 1,000 young men have been num
bred among its members; more than 200 have
been converted while members of the class, and
it has sent out many to become ministers, mission
aries and Christian workers.
The plan upon which this first class was founded
and the results achieved by its work, were such
as to attract all who became familiar with them,
and the “new idea” spread. From all parts of
the country came inquiries to Mr. Hudson, and he
joyfully explained his methods to all who were in
terested, never dreaming that “Baraca” would be
accepted by promient religious workers all over
the nation, and that the growth from the seed
planted by him would attain to such proportions
as it has already reached.
But, in 1898* representatives from the various
classes then in existence, met and organized the
Baraca Union of America, and now there are, as
before stated, eighteen hundred classes for young
men, and five hundred for young women. Thou
sands and thousands of young people have been
brought to Christian living through the movement
begun in a small way seventeen years ago.
One of the features of the present convention
was the presence of Mr. Hudson, and an address
by him, touching upon the work of Baraca, its
spreading influence, and the inspiration of its
ideals throughout America. Its chief power, per-
The Origin of the Greatest Movement TVer Organized Tor the Conversion of Young JYen
The Mdea A«e fer April 18, 1997.
haps, may be said to arise from the fact that its
key-note is the teaching of the Bible and of conse
crated Christianity in such away as to convince
that the Christian life is not an unmanly life; and
that the only really manly life is that of consecra
tion to the ideals of religion and helpfulness to
one’s fellows.
It would not be appropriate to omit some men
tion of the work of Baraca in Atlanta. It would
be impossible to give in detail the progress of
Baraca in all the churches, so as a fair example
of them all, the work of the Tabernacle Baraca may
be briefly outlined.
Miss Irby and Her Baraca Boys.
About five years ago, Miss Lucy Irby, a faithful
member of Dr. Broughton’s church, started a class,
especially for the students of the Georgia School of
Technology. Like almost all great movements, the
beginning was small, there being only seven boys.
This class for “Tech” students continued about
six months, when it was organized into a Baraca
class, with Professor W. C. Lowe, now of the
Boys’ High School, as its first president. The
compactness of this organization, and the attrac
tiveness of the Baraca motto, plans and purposes
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M. A. HUDSON,
The Founder of Baraca.
threw this class forward with splendid enthusiasm
that soon began to draw within the circle of its
influence many of the strongest young men of the
city. The second president was Colonel Harry
Etheridge, the third, W. L. Hudson, the fourth,
J. L. Eddleman, the fifth, A. L. Richards, the
sixth, J. A. White, the seventh, J. M. Swicegood,
and the present president is Walter Cowart. The
leadership has been thus divided, not only passing
the honors around, but teaching the beauties and
inspirations of responsibility to as many young
men as possible.
A Forum of Debate.
A highly attractive and helpful feature of this
class has been the forensic contests. In these many
battles the city government has been saved or
ruined, the nation directed in the affairs of state
and the world called to eveiy form of upward-reach
ing for the salvation of humanity. These debates
have proved a most wholesome mental stimulus to
the young men. aside from affording that delightful
entertainment which has kept its members from
wishing to go to places less inspiring and helpful.
Occasionally there have been joint meetings with
the Philathea girls, thus affording the charming
social feature which young people have always
needed since the first Baraca and Philathea meet
ing amid Eden’s romantic bowers. Occasionally the
Baraca boys have chosen to quit calling the Phi
lathea girls their “sisters,” and have called in
Dr. Broughton, the beloved Tabernacle pastor, to
solemnize and celebrate the sacred fact that they
were made to help each other. But nobody will
fall out with Baraca and Philathea work on this
account. The truth is, since young men and young
women will get married, it is a beautiful thing and
“mighty practical” that there should be a wedding
of congenial hearts and Christian ideals.
In addition to debates and social features, the
Baraca boys have an athletic club, tennis court, a
baseball club, and a library of their own.
Bara “Secret Service.”
One of the most unique spiritual forces that we
have ever heard of is the Baraca secret service—a
band of thoroughly devout and thoroughly wise
personal workers who thread the city like detec
tives indeed, searching for young men who need
the highest and deepest Help of all. While like
a band of brothers, giving love and vigilance to
assisting each other in all necessary temporal
things, this Baraca class, as all classes should do,
never forgets that the supreme purpose of their
organization is to stand by the Bible and help
win other young men to Christ. Under the leader
ship of J. O. Powell, these “Secret Service” men
are thus doing a marvelous work. Sunday after
noon services are being held. Last Sunday after
noon the Baraca hall was packed, and twenty young
men were happily converted. It is impossible to
estimate the abounding and abiding good of this
saving work among the young men of Atlanta.
Cultivating Generosity.
Another great feature of the work of this class
is the training of young men to shoulder their in
dividual financial burdens in the great w’ork of the
Tabernacle Baptist church. On a recent Sunday
when Dr. Broughton’s congregation (made up
chiefly of working people) gave nearly a hundred
thousand dollars in one memorable Sabbath day,
several thousand dollars of this amount came from
the Baraca boys, quite a number giving as much
as five hundred dollars apiece, to be paid within
three years. They will thus be sacrificing the usual
surface pleasures which young men generally spend
their money for in a great city, and will be cul
tivating that generous and unselfish spirit which
will make them more and more a blessing to the
cause of God throughout their lives of inspiring
promise.
And what of the leader of these young men?
The story of achievement is enough to teach the
butterflies of the four hundred the “hollow mock
ery of human pride.” It is the pride of the
young men whom she leads in the paths of high
• endeavor, that she has been all these years a
“working girl,” and it is beautiful to contemplate
that between the lines of her stenographic work
in a large business office in Atlanta, she is dream
ing daily one fair sweet dream that gathers its
complexion from the alchemy of the skies —and
that supreme dream of her heart and life is wrap
ped in the daily prayer that she may plan best
and work best for the nearly two hundred youn°"
men to whose leading to higher things God has
calld her as surely as He called Miriam and Es
ther to songs of triumph and deeds of heroism for
the people of His love.
H *
Let none account the mourning for a lost infant
slight or soon forgotten. Sorrow for the departed
is not always graduated by the value that the com
munity may have affixed to their lives. The heart
has other gold than that which men weigh in a
balance. He who marks in the cemetery a mound
of a span’s length and carelessly passing on s.’VS,
“It was but a babe!” has never been a parent.—
Mrs. Sigourney.