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PINEY WOOD SKETCHES
OLD DARKY TAKES WRONG MEDI
CINE-DRINKS LIQUID FIRE—
DISMISSES THE DOCTOR.
Old Gillam, one of the few surviv
ing types of the Ante Bellum Negro,
fell ill with an acute attack of rheu
matism. One of his white friends
missed the old man and went down to
his little cabin to see about him. The
old negro was really suffering a great
deal and complained mournfully of the
misery in his head and his “pore old
achin' jints,” so a doctor was sum
moned and after a few hours he
called, made an examination and told
the old man he would send him two
kinds of medicine which he thought
would bring him around all right in
a few days. “Now, Gillam,” said the
doctor, “be sure you follow the direc
tions carefully, and I am sure it will
get you up from that bed pretty
quick.” “One bottle,” he continued,
The beginning of George Truett.
(Continued from Page 1.)
knees wrestling with the great problem so unexpect
edly thrust upon him. The outcome of it was that
the beardless youth of Hiawase—the mountain
boy who had so electrified the Georgia Baptist Con
vention—agreed to take hold of the work. And the
spirit in which he stepped under that burden may
be understood by these words which he spoke to
me one night in the sacredness of his little home in
Waco. He said:
Praying With Every Revolution of the Oar Wheels.
. “Brother Will, I prayed with almost every revo
lution of the car wheels as I came to Waco: ‘Lord,
if I am not the man whom thou hast chosen for this
work, please never let me reach Waco and Baylor. ’ ’ ’
Thus this wonderful young man began. He struck
fire into the hearts of the discouraged Texas Bap
tists. The alchemy of hope painted the eastern sky.
The sun rose in all the splendor of coming victory.
Dr. Carroll and other leaders came grandly to his
side, and in a battle of something like twenty months
George Truett led the most, remarkable campaign
for Christian education which America has ever
seen. More than eighty thousand dollars in spot
cash was laid upon the altar in joy and tears and
triumph. And Baylor University was free!
The Hero of the Hour.
And then what did the hero of the hour do? He
was not a preacher when the campaign began, but
he became a marvelous preacher, in the providence
of God, conducting wonderful revivals in connection
with his call for consecrated giving. And when it
was all over, George Truett stood there amid the ac
claim of enthuiastic thousands, with any pulpit in
Texas which he might want, ready to welcome him
to its throne of power. But did all of this turn his
head? Nay, nay! None felt more than himself the
need of equipment which he might fuse into the
mold of his own conscious power.
# And so this modest hero among men, a greater
knight than ever fought at Camelot or Sterling,
came and stood at the feet of the institution which,
under God, he had liberated, and said:
“Now, my mother-to-be, teach me.” And for
five years he toiled on through “mist and films and
clod,” graduating at twenty-nine on the platform
of the great institution whose very life he had at one
time held, it seemed, in his powerful hands and his
consecrated heart.
Young men, I went a thousand miles to hear that
graduating speech, not for what was going to be
in it, great as that might be, but for what was back
of it in a life of truth and triumph. I remember
well that the subject of that speech was “The In
spiration of Ideals,” and I feel at this very hour
the magic thrill of George Truett’s magic words.
Thus I have traced for you the barest outlines of
one of the truly great young men of America, in
deed, of the world. But that you may the better
glimpse the unselfish spirit that makes men truly
great, let me tell you this: While George Truett
was yet a student in Baylor University, fie was
“will have medicine for you to take
internally. Take one teaspoonful in
a little water three times a day. The
other bottle, I want you to use ex
ternally; it’s liniment, Gillam,
mighty hot stuff too, I can tell you,
and 1 want you to put a tablespoonful
of it in a basin of water and have
somebody bathe your feet good, two
or three times a day, until they quit
aching.” “All right, doctor,” replied
Gillam dismally, “de ole nigger sholy
will be mighty proud es you kin git
him outeu dis bed once agin’.”
As soon as the medicine came, the
old negro called a young negro girl
who was in the house and explained to
her very carefully and minutely how
the two kinds of medicines were to
be given. “Now, gal, fix me de feet
water fust,” he commanded, “kase
den I kin be soakin’ dese pore old
jints while you fix the other dose.”
The girl took the two bottles with her
to the kitchen, and after heating a
pot full of water, carefully measured
offered the pastorate of the First Church at Nash
ville, Tenn. They wanted a young man of com
manding power in that city of schools and colleges.
They urged him to come and preach a trial sermon,
but he would not. And then one man arose in the
church conference and said: “If that young college
boy can not be tempted by the pastorate of a great
church like this and the large salary we offer, even
before he graduates, then I am in favor of calling
him without ever seeing him.” This attitude of the
church was communicated to Truett, but after a
month of prayer and self-examination on the part
of George Truett and the fair young wile, a Baylor
girl, who had joined 'him on his upward march, he
sent to Nashville this answer: “I see no signs in
the sky telling me that my work in Texas is at an
end. This closes the matter.” And thus duty con
quered. One thousand dollars at his church in East
Waco over against three or four thousand at one of
the first churches in the south—this was nothing to
George Truett. He believed that God wanted him
there to help subdue the great Empire of Texas for
the truth he loved.
Dallas Calls Him.
By and by the First Church at Dallas began to
reach her 'hands to him, but his heart was in Waco
among the people of his adoption, and the stu
dents of his alma mater, and he would not go to
Dallas for a trial sermon. And then they wrote
and asked if he would accept a unanimous call with
out their seeing him. But he answered again: “I
cannot consider it. My heart is in Waco. I hope
this will end the matter.” But in the face of all
this, with a dozen other candidates before them,
fruetb was called without a dissenting vote and
wired to that effect. The-young Waco pastor was
stunned, startled and humbled. He fell on his knees
and asked God for guidance. He began to get let
ters from all over Texas, telling him that he ought
to go to Dallas, the great northern gateway to
Texas and her stupendous growth. Believing that
it was his duty at least to investigate the field,
he went to Dallas, and after he had gone over ev
ery detail of the situation there, telling the board
of deacons what he would expect of them in de
nominational loyalty and Christian aggressiveness,
to which they agreed in the pathos of devotion and
confidence, he told them he had become convinced
that it was his duty to accept —and then he broke
down and cried like a child. And all those strong
men cried with him.
Blind to Gold and Deaf to Fame.
Since he came to Dallas large churches all over
America have opened their pulpits to him, and the
owners of millions have held out to him fabulous
salaries if he would only come and lead them. But
svit?b the settled conviction in his heart that God
The Golden Age for May 6, 1909.
in a tablespoonful of the medicine
that was to be taken internally, and
the old man was soon propped up on
the side o fthe bed with his feet im
mersed in the soothing bath. “My,
my, my, honey; dis sholy does hep’
de ole nigger’s feelings; I spec’ if
hit keeps on doin’ me dis much good
ebery time, maybe hit will cyore me
after while.” After the bath was fin
ished, Gillam settled himself in bed,
signing contentedly, and asked for the
glass of medicine that had been pre
pared for him to take. Instead of
the narcotic, however, the girl had
measured into the glass which she
banded him a teaspoonful of the pow
erful chloroform liniment. The old
man raised himself slowly on his el
bow, stirred the mixture around in the
glass, contemplating it with a great
deal of satisfaction, then throwing
back his head, swallowed the entire
contents at one gulp. The glass fell
crashing to the floor, and Gillam wild
eyed and frantic with agony from the
fiery draught,'sailed out of bed, dashed
across the room, seized the water
bucket, plunged his head in and began
gurgling mouthful after mouthful of
the cool water in his mouth and throat,
while nis feet executed a war dance
all around the table.
The girl thought he had suddenly
gone crazy and fled in terror from the
room. After the noise had subsided,
however, she crept back and softly
enter the room, to find Gillam
wrapped up in bed again moan
ing and swearing by turns. “Look
here, gal,” he said, “you take that
medicine back to dat doctor as fas’
as you kin, and jes’ tell him Gillam
say to keep his stufFnis’sef, and work
his meracles on folks what want dat
kind ob thing, but ain’t nobody axed
him to cyore me in five minutes, and
needn’t bother ’bout cornin’ here no
more kase I ain’t use to no such
doin’s and I don’t aim to hab no young
sprout lak him er tryin’ to larn me
iruther.”
wants him to live and die in the boundless work
of Texas, he has stood steadfast and immovable be
fore the calls of other fields, but leading and mold
ing and lifting the forces of God in Texas with a
power that could only be born on the knees of a
marvelous man.
Let unbelief and all the minions of evil look at
a life like this and be forever dumb. When the
poor, carping, unthinking world says with a sneer
and a smile that “God always calls where the big
gest salary is,” let them remember him who refused
three times the salary he is getting for the sake
Qf conscious duty to his present field. Let them re
member Carter Helm Jones’ salary in Knoxville,
almost twice as large as the one which Louisville
offered. Let them remember Charles 11. Spurgeon,
who refused the offer of a thousand dollars a night
if he would come to America and lecture —just be
cause he believed that God wanted him in England.
Let them remember Len G. Broughton, preaching
now to nearly four thousand people in. Atlanta ev
ery Sunday, when he was recently offered three
times his present salary to go to Boston or New
York.
Young men, it is worth walking to Dallas, Texas,
to hear such a man as George W. Truett preach—a
man of surpassing, magnetic eloquence, unselfish,
wholly consecrated to God his Creator and Christ
his Aedeemer.
* n
Witness of the Spirit.
(Continued 'from Page 2.)
the Lord took one cup and drank from it and all the
disciples used the same cup and we ought to do the
same thing, then you are wrong for using six as we
are for using a thousand.”
“Well, I know it,” he said, “It is just prejudice.”
It is hard but dedication, to be complete, means
the giving of our prejudices as well as other things.
Then take the next —co-operation. After you have
renounced that which you think to be displeasing to
God and dedicate yourselves wholly to Him, to be
used for His glory in any way He sees fit, then He
will reveal himself to us; He will tell us His will
for us step by step; and when He reveals His way
to you, co-operate with Him.
The witness of the Spirit is the perpetual relation
ship, God speaking by the way as Jesus talked with
the disciples on the road to Emmaus, witnessing to
us at the crucial times of our lives, when we need
to pray, when something urgent is ahead as a warn
ing, God’s spirit witnesses with us just the normal
thing He wants to do. He is with us and we have
got to conform with His law that we may have the
use of Him any of the time. Let us try to conform
to that law and live so that He will be everlastingly
ready to talk to us by the way.
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