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came, and we lived in a time and in a place where
extras were not served very often. They were
served only when somebody came and made them
necessary.
Oh, how we used to long for the parson to come!
Sometimes, however, we would get mad because
they would sit at the table too long, and we had
to wait.
Sometimes, too, they would eat too much! I re
member one instance very plainly. The preacher
at that time was a godly man and a good preacher,
but there was one other thing for which he was
noted besides his preaching, and that was his
eating. He was the biggest eater that 1 ever
saw.
A DESPERATE PLAN.
One night he was at our house. I was waiting
in the kitchen, and the biscuits looked mighty good
to me, but the old negro woman kept coming b ■
after more biscuits. Finally, she got down to the
last six, and I was afraid she might come bn<k
for them, and I thought the best thing for me to
do was to help myself right then and there.
I reached over in the old three-legged spider
and got a biscuit out, dragged an old honey
jar up, split open a biscuit and filled it with honey,
and down it went. That tasted so good that I tried
another, and another and another, until the whole
six were gone. I knew I would get in trouble if
it was found out on me, so I took some honey
in my hand and went to the big old hound dog
that was lying in the room, and smeared it all
round his mouth. He liked that, and began to
lick it off. I got out from there as quickly as I
could, and when T got out, I crawled up under the
steps and hid.
Pretty soon I heard the old negro woman going
back after the rest of the biscuits. She saw that
they were gone, and I heard her say, “Lawd
a’ massy!” and hurry back into the dining-room.
I knew that she had gone to fell my mother what
had happened. Then I heard my mother go into
the kitchen, and there lay old Loud licking his
chops. She grabbed a poker and lit into the dog,
and he lit out. When he came by I reached out
and dragged him in and tried to comfort him the
best I could. My mother never found that out on
me until I was grown.
PRESENT BLESSINGS.
That the woman of Shunem was a wise philan
thropist is true, but that is not all. She was a
philanthropist blessed in her philanthropy, and the
blessing came in this present life. I thank God that
we do not have to wait until we get to heaven to
get our reward. Right here we get a part of it,
and sometimes I think that if heaven is to be any
more than some of the things that I have rejoiced
over in this world, I do not see how I shall stand
it.
In the first place, this woman was blessed in
the fact that she had in her home a prophet of
God. In the next place, this prophet of God being
in her home was there to render reward to her for
service rendered to him.
The first blessing brought through him was in
the nature of the gift of a child. Some doubtless
would not have regarded this as a blessing, for
nothing can happen'to some people in the nature
of a curse more distinctly than the coming into
the home of a child. Shame be upon us that it is
so!
In the next place, she was blessed in that when
the child died the prophet of God was there to
bring him back to life.
SERVING GOD BY PROXY.
See the process: it has in it a fine lesson. In
the first place, Gehazi is given the prophet’s staff
and told to go and restore the child. He endeavors
to do it. He takes the staff and lays it upon the
child, but there is not the faintest quiver of life.
Elisha had to go himself. He realized that his
own personality had to be brought into personal
touch with that dead child before life would come
back.
Watch him. He goes to the bed whereon the
child lies. He stretches himself upon the dead
form. His fingers touch the fingers of the child;
his mouth the child’s mouth; his warm beating
The Golden Age for June 13, 1907.
heart pulsates against the dead, still heart of the
child, and there for a moment in personal contact
he lies, and in that moment of contact heaven is
stirred and power comes down, and the child’s
heart begins to beat and his pulse to quiver until
life is flowing through every vein, and the child
is fully restored and given back to his mother.
The lesson in this to me is that the day of proxy
service for God ought to come to an end. Elisha
tried it, and it failed. Even the presence of his
staff in the hand of the proxy would not do it.
Our curse today is that we are serving God by
proxy. Men are serving God through the minister,
or the church officer, or the Sunday school teacher,
or the institution that they support.
All these are necessary, for God calls in two
ways: First, He calls for the individual man, and
then he calls for his substance, which man gener
ally tries to make his proxy. No man has a right
to withhold from God that for which He makes
first call —his personality, while he gives his sub
stance —his proxy. What this world wants is the
personal touch of the person interested; there is
power in that that cannot be resisted.
SYMPATHY AS A DYNAMO.
What the world wants today is what God wanted
for the resurrection of that dead child. The world
wants to see the world with its hands outstretched
to touch the hands of needy, suffering humanity.
It makes no difference if they are dead and putrid.
Woe be unto the man or the church who refuses
to give the personal touch to a needy world because
of its filth and its dirt.
What the world wants of the church is to see
it stretch out full length with all of its powers.
'What the world wants of the church is to have it
put eye to eye, mouth to mouth, hand to hand,
heart, to heart. What the world wants of the
church is to have it breathe into it and for it; to
see and feel its throb of need, and to minister to it.
Whenever the church comes to realize that every
man and every woman is outstretched full length
in their endeavor to touch and minister to the
needs of the world, then we are going to see power
generated; to see dead souls quickened.
This Elisha is passing our doors right now. He
may not need bread, or he may. He may need
simply a sympathetic hand; he may need just a
word of encouragement; he may need just a few
dollars advanced until he can get on his feet; he
may need a shelter where he can get in out of the
storm; he may be sick and in need of a place of
treatment. What are you going to do with him?
It may be a girl who has, in the hour of unex
pected trial, been tripped and has fallen. She
needs something. What is the answer of the
church to that passing Elisha? What is your indi
vidual answer?
Wonderful Meeting in Starkbille.
One of the most remarkable and successful evan
gelists in America today is Walter Holcomb. Not
from his being either the co-laborer or the son-in
law of the late beloved and famous Sam Jones
does his prominence come. Rather, he became the
co-laborer, biographer, and, later, the son-in-law
of the great evangelist because of the gifts and per
sonality with which God endowed him.
Mr. Holcomb’s first great meeting since aiding
Mrs. Jones with “The Life and Sayings of Sam
P. Jones,” has just closed at Starkville, Miss,,
where four hundred professions of conversion have
occurred.
By wire and letters friends in Starkville have
kept the writer in delightful touch with the meet
ings, and but for engagements in other states he
would have been tempted to lay down everything
and hurry back to Starkville —for there, and at the
famous A. and M. College, a winter month of
priceless memories was spent during which nearly
two hundred glad, brave hearts took definite stand
for Christ. This “sowing and reaping” was fol
lowed by a season of gracious meetings at the
Presbyterian church. By this time Starkville was
gloriously ready for a mighty harvest, and Walt
Holcomb proved to be the man whom God used
to lead and crown the most wonderful religious
awakening ever known in Starkville and surround-
ing country. The Methodist church would not
hold the crowds that flocked from far and near.
A great warehouse was packed with crowds of
eager saints and trembling sinners. “Hard
cases,” untouched for half a century, were regener
ated in heart and transformed in life.
Mr. Holcomb and his bride, who spent a happier
honeymoon than they could ever have known over
rolling seas, or towering Alps, or ’neath Italia’s
sunny skies, returned to Cartersville last week,
followed by the benedictions of a grateful people,
and hearing in their hearts the echoes of the new
songs of hundreds who have been redeemed.
H at
Weekly Editors Unanimous.
The Editors of the Georgia Weekly Press Asso
ciation are not w-e-a-k-l-y! These brave 11 watch
men on the tower” who have marched for four
teen years under the able leadership of President
Walter S. Coleman, and who, because he refused to
serve longer, will go forward “conquering and to
conquer” under the presidency of H. M. Stanley—
that stalwart editor of The Dublin Courier-Dis
patch—this charming aggregation of men and wom
en who, after all, are “the keepers of the people’s
liberty,” did great things in the generous city of
Sandersville last week. But it is not of Hon. T.
W. Hardwick’s brilliant address of welcome, nor of
the royal entertainment given by Sandersville and
Tennille ’(we knew how delightful that would be),
nor yet of splendid speeches on technical themes
holding special interest for Editors, that we now
speak, but rather of the beautiful spirit of fellow
ship and unanimity with which the editors spoke
on questions that make for the country’s good.
After the address of Hon. W. B. Merritt, State
School Commissioner, we felt almost like we had
“been to meeting”; tears were in many eyes and
a spirit of educational evangelism swept the au
dience and when the liquor question was touched
upon the following news note in The Atlanta Geor
gian tells the story:
Sandersville, Ga., June 8. —Prohibition sentiment
ran high at the meeting of the Georgia Weekly
Press Association, which adjourned here yesterday
afternoon. The friends of temperance are elated
over the fact that the editors of the weekly press,
who wield such powerful influence in the state,
passed with enthusiasm and without a dissenting
vote the following resolution, which was intro
duced by William D. Upshaw, Editor of The Golden
Age ; and vice president of the Anti-Saloon League
of Georgia:
“Resolved, That it is the sense of the Georgia
Weekly Press Association that the next session
of the Georgia legislature should answer ‘Yes’ to
the petition of one million names which the Ant : -
Saloon League of the state will present at the com
ing session, asking either for a general election or
giving state prohibition by legislative enactment.”
When the weekly editors thus speak with one
voice, John Barleycorn might as well prepare to
move or die!
< B. Y. P. U. Contention at Waycross.
The Baptist Young People of Georgia will meet
in convention at Waycross on June 18, continuing
three days. Hon. Claude Norman, a prominent
Christian lawyer of Washington, Ga., is the popular
and enterprising President. A magnificent list of
prominent speakers appears on the program which
will be an inspiration to all who attend. Waycross,
a beautiful little city of ten thousand people, is the
“Chicago” of Southeast Georgia, a railroad cen
ter that has prospered gloriously for a dozen years
since saloons were driven out. And Waycross
know 7 s how to make a convention of visitors have a
great time.
I?
“Your son won a prize for oratory while he was
in college, I believe. What is he doing now 7 ?”
“He’s got a job in the Union Depot announcing
the departure of the trains.”
* ».
W. T. WINN, General Insurance, representing
several of the best companies in all lines,
Phones 496. 219 Empire Building.
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