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More Than Tour Thousand Messengers and Visitors Met Last Week in Tort Worth—Truett’s Triumph
$139,000 Raised in Thio Hours Tor Sanitarium,
It is absolutely impossible for a stranger to
Texas and her mightiness to keep from feeling
that any correspondent who tells the truth about
Texas is not telling “a great big one.”
My words are measured when I say that the
Convention which met in Fort Worth, Texas, last
week was the greatest religious convention in
any state in tile world. Easy to see, Texas is the
biggest state in the greatest “evangelical” nation
in the world.
Other denominations in Texas have their reli
gious working bodies divided. The Methodists,
for instance, have four or five conferences in
Texas, divided for the sake of working conveni
ence, while the Baptists all meet together in one
great convention with something like three thou
sand messengers, with hundreds of visitors be
sides.
The meeting place this year was the spacious
auditorium of the beautiful new First Methodist
church —the largest church house in Fort Worth —
a generous expression of Christian fellowship on
tile part of Pastor 11. D. Knickerbocker and the
royal membership of this great Methodist congre
gation.
Two days before the regular convention assem
bled the Pastors’ and Laymen’s conference met in
the First Baptist church, and the Woman’s Mis
sionary convention at the Presbyterian church.
Mrs. Davis, of Dallas, was re-elected president
of the working, enthusiastic convention of these
handmaidens of God.
Address by 0. A. Ridley.
The president of the Laymen’s conference was
Pastor Wilson of Marshall. Among the notable
addresses, was one by Pastor Caleb A. Ridley, of
Beaumont, a popular contributor to The Golden
Age, who spoke on “The Preacher a Many-Sided
Man.”
He gave the heart of his discourse by saying:
“Too long has the church stood aloof and
watched the devil manipulate politics, and if the
church does not curb the devil it will cripple the
church. The pastor should indulge in politics only
as politics interferes with morality and truth. He
should oppose graft because the Bible says, ‘Thou
shalt not steal.’ He should oppose the licensed
saloon, because it wrecks the lives of men and de
stroys the virtue of our women. Too many church
people have a commercial compromise with the
liquor interests, and it makes the matter very dif
ficult for the preacher. God’s man must create
moral sentiment, for if he doesn’t, who will? No
body. The reform wave now spreading over this
country had its origin in the pulpit years ago. The
election of Hughes as governor of New York against
the opposition of thousands of thugs and millions
of money, is the beginning of a movement that will
change the moral complexion of this whole coun
try. And while the preacher has his duty as a
citizen to oppose evil in every form, his special
work comes as a minister, and his stand in the pul
pit should be above reproach. Instead of telling
men that there is no hell, he should declare that
there is something to save men from —-sin; some
thing to save men to —a life of service, and some
thing to save men with —the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is not a losing business to invite a sinner to the
Lord.”
Dr. J. L. Cross.
Dr. J. L. Gross, pastor of the First Baptist church
of Houston, discussed the question of winning the
cities. He said in part:
“Evangelical churches have lost their hold upon
the cities of this country. Boston, Baltimore, New
York city, Chicago, 'St. Louis, New Orleans and
many other centers of population show this state
of affairs, and the only exceptions I know are At
lanta, Ga., and the cities of Texas. As goes the
city, so goes the country and the world. In these
A Mighty Gathering In a Mighty State
The Golden Age for November 19, 1908.
congested centers thousands of people are too busy
crying for bread and struggling for existence to
think of God, and to meet the other extreme of
wealth and station we must have heroic preachers
who cannot be bought by social favors. And they
must stand for Sunday observance with all their
might. ’ ’
Dr. Gross, who was formerly of Georgia, of
fered the following powerful resolutions, which were
passed with great unanimity and enthusiasm:
“While here and there a few individuals are fight
ing against the increasing encroachments on our
Christian Sabbath, yet thoughtful men are every
where saddened by the fact that observance of our
Lord’s day is less than it was a quarter of a century
ago. Many otherwise noble business men go to their
offices to read their mail on Sunday, and the hard
worked clerk or stenographer must be there or
lose their jobs. In many great stores the clerks
have to work a part or the whole of Sunday be
hind closed doors in order to be ready for a big
sale the next day. As long as great crowds of
hunters or fishermen leave our cities on Saturday
night or Sunday to spend the day in the field in
stead of at home with their families and in the
churches, as long as there are Sunday excursions,
wide open fairs and cheap shows and open saloons,
so long will our Christian Sabbath be looked upon
lightly and our children grow up with the idea that
its violation is a matter of small concern. This is
the rottenness at the very heart of our religion.
“Your committee wishes to condemn as unneces
sary the Sunday newspaper, Sunday excursions, the
running of (Sunday freight trains, (Sunday mail de
liveries, keeping open grocery stores, baker shops,
ice plants, drug stores except to fill prescriptions,
and many other forms of work of late years thought
to be necessary, and to condemn as unmitigated and
untolerable evils, Sunday fairs, Sunday base ball,
'Sunday shows, no matter whether they be great
theaters, where the rich pay from $1 to $5 a seat, or
the nickel picture shows, where the rich and poor
alike squander their money and their still more
valuable time.
“Your committee presses its conviction that the
action of the state fair authorities at Dallas, in
keeping its gates open on Sunday, is an insult to
the Christian sentiment of our great state and an
outrage upon that which is holiest in church and
state. We earnestly urge our people, more than
300,000 in actual membership, and perhaps more
than 1,000,000 in affiliation, not to attend, patronize
or receive courtesies from an institution that for
the sake of gain only is willing to trample upon
our most cherished ideals and to destroy one of
the fundamentals of our social and religious life.
This is not boycott, but simply righteousness and
Christian decency in contending against the fearful
evil which threatens to destroy our religion and our
country. AH honor to the Texas Baptist Standard
and every good man who raised his hand against
the monster iniquity.”
The report also recommended that two members
on the board of directors of the Sunday League of
America be appointed by the convention, and Presi
dent Buckner designated Dr. Gross of Houston and
J. F. Norris of Dallas.
Rev. Frank Norris.
In an address by Rev. J. Frank Norris, of Dallas,
editor of the Baptist Standard, incidental to his
presentation of the reasons why the church should
support the denominational paper, he said:
“If Chicago University continues to dominate
the northern Baptist anniversaries, you and I will
live to be shocked by hearing the denial of the in
fallibility of the Scriptures preached from our
Texas pulpits. Dr. Charles F. Aked, pastor of the
Fifth Avenue Baptist church of New York city, has
given the enemies of Christianity the greatest en
couragement they have had for a quarter of a cen-
tury by declaring that the Bible is no more in
spired than is a hymn book. And coming to Texas
the people will never find out the iniquities of the
Dallas Fair and the liquor traffic from the secular
press. It is too busy encouraging them, and these
papers will never champion the cause of prohibi
tion until the larger crowd is found on that side.
There are six prominent lawyers in Texas, some of
them state officers, who are in the salaried em
ploy of the brewing interests of the state. When
the people find it out they will know how to vote.”
Dr. A. J. Barton, pastor of the First Baptist
church of Waco, delivered an eloquent and forcible
address on the question of pastoral evangelism. Dr.
Barton said: “The right kind of evangelistic note
in the services will solve all the problems of the
church —the problem of the Sunday school, the B.
Y. P. U., the prayer meeting, church attendance
and general church activities. There is no church
in the world where men are being saved regularly
which will lack in the standpoint of attendance. But
our evangelists should be more harmoniously de
veloped, and should embody an all-round symmetri
cal embodiment of all the doctrines of the New
Testament. lie should belong to some definite
church, for the free-lance evangelist who is too big
for any one church is too big to accomplish much
good in the world. The truly successful evangelist
must keep a strong grip on the fundamentals, and
must go after his lost brother in a hand to hand,
and heart to heart manner.”
“Kindling Holy Fires” was the topic spoken on
by Rev. Lee. R. Scarborough, professor of evan
gelism in the Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary at Waco. He said in part:
“A real church is the biggest thing in the world.
And the church has a glorious head, and would that
the body were as good as the head! The real church
is loyal to God’s word, obedient to His will, spirit
ual in its methods and purposes; values souls more
than money, conquered by grace in head, heart, and
pocketbook, and mastered by the holy passion of
going after lost souls. Every institution of the
church is for the building on holy fires; there can
be no evangelistic church where there is no evan
gelistic pastor, for the fire must proceed from the
pulpit to the pew.
“How may we have this holy fire? By getting
a vision of Jesus, seeing the full responsibility of
man to lost sinners, and by having a strong spirit
ual center in all our churches.”
«
The Cry of the Dreamer.
"By John Boyle O’Reilly.
I am tired of planning and toiling
In the crowded hives of men;
Heart weary of building and spoiling
And spoiling and building again.
And I long for the dear old river
Where I dreamed my youth away;
For a dreamer lives forever,
And a toiler dies in a day.
I am sick of the showy seeming
Os a life that is half a lie;
Os the faces lined with scheming
In the throng that hurries by.
From the sleepless thoughts’ endeavor
I would go where the children play;
For a dreamer lives forever,
And a toiler dies in a day.
Away from the street’s rude bustle,
From trophies of mart and stage,
I would fly to the wood’s low rustle,
And the meadow’s kindly page.
Let me dream as of old by the river,
And be loved for the dream alway;
For a dreamer lives forever,
And a toiler dies in a day.
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