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NEW TEMPLE IN CHINA
HE pulse thrills and the heart beats
faster when we come in touch with a
Christian hero —though he wage his bat
tle on the storm-swept heights, in full
view of applauding thousands, or down
in the forgotten valley, “unhonored
and unsung.’’ Such a hero is S. Em
mett Stephens, an old Georgia boy now
laboring as a missionary in China. I
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have known him since he was an ambitions boy in
the mountains of North Georgia. One day I re
ceived a letter from a young school teacher at Fort
Buffington, saying that lie had read my book and
that it had deepened hiss conviction of sin,, but
somehow lie could not find the light. He asked me
to write and tell him how to become a Christian. 1
poured my heart and as much of the Truth of God
as I knew how into an earnest letter telling that
then unknown boy that the Lord wanted the whole
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“Jackson Chapel.’’
heart or none. After a few weeks 1 received a let
ter that read like this:
“My dear brother: Rejoice with me! 1 have been
converted. I just got out of the way last Monday
morning and let the Lord Jesus save me.’’ Dr. A.
B. Vaughan, the great Bible teacher, then living at
Canton, the same man of God who baptized me, also
baptized Emmett Stephens.
That young teacher urged me to come and speak
to boys and girls at the closing of his school. I
saw at once from his grip upon those students that
Emmett Stephens was no ordinary personality. He
seemed to put fire into the heart and iron into the
blood of every one of them. I saw the hand of
God was upon him for a great life work. He went
to Mercer University a year before I did. And
when I reached there we roomed together for a
time, slept together, wrought together, prayed to
gether—and often when the day's work was done,
we walked arm-in-arm to the twilight prayer
meeting, Emmett serving as my crutch as we went to
those blessed seasons of fellowship and service.
Imagine my unspeakable joy. when in my lonely
apartment in a New York boarding house where I
had gone to do something for a loan fund for strug
gling Mercer boys, I picked up a Christian Index
one day and read in the A . AL C. A. notes for Mer
cer that Emmett Stephens, my boy from the moun
tains, had given himself to the foreign field. Here
is a private letter which is too good to keep to my
self. His story of the building of Jackson Chapel
(the money furnished by the generous church at
Jackson, Ga.) is indeed inspiring:
“Hwangbien, via ( hefoo, China, I* eb. 19, .1 DOS.
“My dear Brother Will: Your good letter writ
ten en route to Texas came in due time, and 1
have been anxious to give a long letter in reply, but
building our big new church, the ‘Jackson Chapel,’
of which 1 am sending yon a cut, and the Carter
Girls’ School, which is not yet altogether finished,
kept me at such tense exertion the whole of last
year that I came very near ‘caving in’ at the
last, and so have been rather quiet for some weeks;
thus the delay in replying to your letter. It cer
tainly was a joy to hear from you. I have watched
your career with intense interest since you began
publishing The Golden Age, and have rejoiced ex
ceedingly with yon in every triupiph against saloons
Emmet Stephens, an Old Georgia Boy, Builds the "Jackson Chapel”
on Ruins of a Ragan Temple
The Golden Age for April 23, 1908.
and other evils. May God give you many years of
such glorious service.
“Now, a word about the cut I am sending to you.
The money was given by the Baptist church of
Jackson, Georgia, to build this church, which is
known as the ‘Jackson Chapel.’ It is 44x64 feet
inside and will seat 650 people. The dedication ser
mon was preached November 3 by Dr. R. J. Willing
ham, and the house was filled with well behaved
Chinese, many of whom had never before heard the
gospel.
“There are no words’with which to tell you how
burdensome it is to build such a house here. Your
unworthy friend was both architect and builder.
This means that every splinter of wood going into
the house had to be bought in logs at the sea fif
teen miles away, hauled here, then cut into proper
dimensions by native sawyers. Then the care of
looking after a yard full of lumber is enough to turn
one gray every night. The first night watchman 1
had was caught by the police the second night, car
rying off lumber to sell. Other thieves were caught
and brought to the place day after day for some
time, wearing heavy wooden stocks on which was
written their crime. The same stories could be
told about brick, tiles, lime, etc. I tell you, heath
enism is awful beyond compare 1 . Oh. how these
people need the Savior! Pray for us!
“Then there was the vexatious problem of native
labor. Almost to a man (and 1 was working on
both compounds more than one hundred) these fel
lows would kill fully half their time to make the
job hold out and save their strength to put in at
home before coming to the compounds each morning.
The ways and wiles of the devil are appalling, and
they are infinitely multiplied in a heathen land. I
could write pages on this subject, but I forbear.
“The three men on the front steps are Dr. Hart
well. who has been in China fifty years. Dr. Pruitt,
who has been here twenty-five years, and Pastor
Tsang, who began his duties in this office last year.
The heap of stones you notice just north of the
steps is the remains of a number of idols dug out
while laying the foundation of the church. The
very site on which the church stands was once the
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Mr. Stephens and Wife on Left of Group.
place of a large heathen temple, whose priests be
came so corrupt that the people buried them to their
necks in the ground, then harrowed their heads off
and destroyed the temple. So goes the story.
“Airs. Stephens joins me in love and all best
wishes to you.
“May the Lord ever bless you, strengthen you,
and keep you.
“Affectionately yours in Christ Jesus,
“S. Emmett Stephens.’’
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Among the Workers.
The Baptist Commonwealth says:
“The sensational star before the religious world
today is the converted baseball player, ‘Billy’ Sun
day. Not since the days of Whitefield have such
number been gathered together to hear and such
numbers brought to a confession of Christ. At
Bloomington. 111., over two thousand persons made
such confession; over eight thousand dollars were
given him for his services. Tn Decatur, 111., this
great record was outclassed. It is said that there
were 5,843 converts; ‘683 in a day.’ They gave to
Air. Sunday $10,431. This is marvelous. Even dis
counting it by half what a record it is! Cities have
offered to build him special tabernacles if he would
come to them, and he has engagements now without
a break until the middle of next winter. For terse
ness and coarseness such men as the late Sam Jones
are not in it. ‘Hot Cakes from the Griddle of Hell’
is one of his euphonious topics; it is said he serves
them ‘hot.’ His last sermon in Decatur w’as on
‘Booze,’ and the following account, most interesting
as an illustration of his methods as well of pulpit
gymnastics is taken from one of the local papers
of that town:
“ ‘He began like a pile driver, working as rapid
ly as a pneumatic riveting hammer, and kept that
up the whole time, except for about two brief inter
vals when he seemed on the point of running down.
Then he would slow up and his voice would seem to
be dying down. It reached the farthest end of the
tabernacle, all the time, however, said the men plas>-
tefed against the back wall.’ ”
What does this mean? Is it true that for a man
to acquire the kind of demonstrativeness that will
call the crowds and hold them, he must have gone
through experiences of low and vulgar* wickedness?
One thing is noticeable. It is not every sensational
pretender that is a preacher in fact. There is no
just criticism against sensationalism. The Bible,
both the Old Testament and the New, is full of it.
Some things that are denounced as sensational are in
very bad taste and are reprehensible for that, but
there is no harm in the sensationalism. But what
we were about to say is this: When men like
Jerry AlcAuley, Hadley and Sam Jones come into
the service of the Lord from the low places of earth,
they bring their education with them. Tn the early
days of their ministry, they make much use of
that training in their sermons. But it wears off,
as they get older, and the association that they gain
with cultured Christians comes to polish them up
also. That will always come to the real preacher.
Those who are not genuine will fall by the way.
Prof. E. B. Pollard. D.D., in the Common wealth,
has a good article on the effect of religion on social
conditions. He quotes Emerson’s Divinity Ad
dress at Harvard in 1879: “Every moment of re
ligious opinion is of profound importance to politics
and social life.’’ In other words the opinions of
those who think truly on religious subjects come
after awhile to mold the opinion of their children
and their neighbors and to form the controlling
element in politics and social life. Os course this
is true. The Lord said at the beginning: “Ye
are the light of the world.’’ And Dr. Pollard very
aptly applies the principle to the explaining of the
prohibition upheaval in the South when he refers
“very much of it’’ to the preaching of the last sev
enty-five years all over this country.
An all-night prayer meeting is a rarity these days.
But such a meeting was conducted recently at Clin
ton, Aliss., by Evangelist W. W. Hamilton, of our
Home Board. There was an attendance of two hun
dred and sixty at midnight and one hundred and
ninety-two were present at 4 o’clock in the morn
ing. Following a sermon on “Consecration’’ be
tween two and three a. m., four young men decided
for the ministry, and two young women for the
mission field, while twenty-six other young people
expressed themselves as considering the question.
We wonder not that “it was a scene and an hour
never to be forgotten.’’—The Biblical Recorder.
The number <»f people in Atlanta who have attend
ed the revival meetings is probably greater than
it ever has been by three or four hundred per cent.
May I not venture to ask each pastor in the city
to send to me the number that has joined
his church from the world and also those
who have joined by letter or transfer? -The
Golden Age would like to publish the whole thing.
Probably no other paper will. Do this, please,
brethren: Send matter to J, L. D. ITillyer. care
of The Golden Age,
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