The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, September 22, 1910, Image 4

The Golden age., September 22, 1910, Page 4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Text4 The Golden Age Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden. Age Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: AUSTELL BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. WILLIAM D. UPSHAW - - - - Editor MRS. WILLIAM D. UPSHAM - Associate Editor MRS G. B. LINDSEY - • Managing Editor LEN G. BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor Price : $2 a Year Ministers $1.50 per Year In cases of foreign address fifty cents should be added to cober additional postage Entered in the Post Office in Atlanta, Ga. as second-class matter Representative lloridians Who Lead the MoVement For Local Self Government. And one of the strangest things on earth is the fact that some people who really do not wish to keep saloons in Florida and other States where sim ilar battles are being fought, are caught by such appeals—such empty, political phraseology —and are led to the pitiful sight and plight of fighting the liquor men’s battles for them. We ask in all fairness and honesty—why didn’t The Times-Union put the saloon keepers’ pictures in the paper? They are the real heroes. They “Slighted” The Saloon Men. And yet the saloon keepers were kept “hid out.” They were “down in the licensed saloon” making money out of debauched manhood, wrecked youth and broken-hearted mothers and wives— money dripping with human blood, <sut of which to pay the expenses of the horrible campaign that is that part that is not paid by Anheuser-Busch- Whacker and Co., and the other brewers and liquor dealers of America beyond the borders of Florida. The Times-Union knew what these liquorized leaders knew—that if the pictures of several prom inent saloon keepers of Jacksonville, Tampa, St. Augustine and Key West had adorned those pages their battle would be lost in Florida. Let the saloon men start out in the open to fight for “their rights' in any State where a campaign for State-wide pro hibition is on and pronibition will win hands down. God save people everywhere who claim to be decent from the fatal folly of fighting the battles of that devilish business that can only prosper on the downfall of our citizenship, the destruction of our homes and the debauchery of our government. *BraVo "Sen Cox! Great news is that that the press dispatches bring from Little Rock. Ben Cox, the stalwart citizen preacher so well known to the read- Plucky Little Rock Reformer Hauled In A “Black Maria.” town has for several months “had it in” for the plucky fighter of “booze” and lawlessness and this was doubtless counted a good opportunity to “get Sven” with the brave man who has so fearlessly de nounced the wicked looseness of the city administra tion. But Ben Cox is not afraid of the Mayor of Little Rock, neither “poverty, the poor house, death nor the devil,” as Uncle Jimmie Dunlap used to say, and the wide-open Mayor will doubtless pay for this ride in “Black Maria” with his municipal crown. Dr. Tillman B. Johnson says the deposits in one Texarkana bank are over four hundred thousand dol lars more than on. July 30 of last year; and Texar kana has prohibition now. It does not seem like pro hibition has ruined business down there.—Baptist Ad vance. They are the only men whose busi ness is at stake! The only question to be voted on November Bth ’is Saloons or No Saloons in Florida. ers of The Golden Age, was arrest ed last Sunday night because he refus ed to disperse a crowd of several thou sand people to whom he was speak ing at a certain street corner. It seems that the Mayor of Little Rock, who believes in a “wide-open” Yh« Golden Age for September 22, 1916. DOUGLAS IN TEARS Frank Sweat dead! The heart aches. The honor ed, beloved Mayor of the royal town of Douglas, Georgia, hurled into eternity by the col- lision of an automobile with the Georgia and Florida train! Now, he is smiling and happy, talking with his friend, Mr. Pierce, planning a great timber deal, dashing along toward home and the hearts that loved him so well—and now, O God, we cannot understand! The rapid- Her Beloved Mayor Meets Tragic Death. ly moving train, hidden by a line of freight cars, crashes into the automobile, catches it up on the fender and carries it a hundred yards before the engineer can stop. Rushed to the Douglas Sanita rium, but consciousness never comes back, and in ‘BISHOP CANDLER ON THE COUNTRY CHURCH Never an uncertain sound comes from Bishop Warren a Candler, of the Southern Methodist Church, when he talks on the Great Methodist Leader Talks Sense and Religion About Rural Leadership able article in The Atlanta Journal, entitled: “The Glorious Mission of the Country Church.” In this article Bishop Candler, always vigorous and refreshing, pours the richness of his towering intellect, his great heart and his varied experience, setting forth the basic causes that have made the country churches so long the “plant bed” for the cities —the positive factory for furnishing the best type of leaders for the city’s religious and civic life. Among other good things which need to be stud ied by the constructive friends of our Christian civilization and woven into the fabric of the present and the future, Bishop Candler says: “The country church has always been a factor in the religious welfare of the nation beyond what many have been disposed to think. A very large number of the most godly and zealous men in the city churches have come from the country. Re vivals of religion which prevailed in rural churches a generation ago are blessing our largest churches in the cities today. Some time ago I was present at the laying of the cornerstone of a costly church in one of our Southern cities. The occasion was one of great interest, and there was much enthusiasm for the enterprise. Many expressions were uttered in praise of those who had made the rising struc ture possible. Credit was given to this person and to that for the part each had borne in the work. Finally a thoughtful man, who knew the history of the contributors, who had given most largely for the erection of the building, said: ‘The man who deserves most credit for the erection of this church is an old circuit-rider under whose ministry three of these men were brought to Christ forty years ago.” He was correct. In so far as we can judge of human probability, the great house would have been im possible without the wbrk of the dear old preacher two score years before its erection. The pious lives which his ministry had quickened, with the habits of industry, frugality and honesty to which such piety gives rise, were the basis of the fortunes which enabled the chief contributors to make their gener ous gifts. The religious devotion which began in the revival in the rural church inclined these men to make their contributions. Both the ability and the disposition to give, therefore, were the fruit of the country church. Such instances might be paralleled in the history of nearly all the city churches by which our urban communities are blessed. This fact the churches of the cities should never for get. For both their membership and their houses of worship they owe much to the country churches. It would be difficult to overstate all that our rural churches have done for the moral and Not Rich Men, But Country Preacher Built City Church. religious life of our cities. They have been seed-plats from which some of the noblest “eternal verities” of vital Chris tianity and “Old-Time Religion.” His latest notable utterance taat deserves wide circulation among thinkers and workers in both urban and rural life, comes in an Shirty minutes the great golden heart is forever still. And Douglas? The town is simply crushed. Strong men weep as little children. Frank L. Sweat was no ordinary man. A financial genius he had amassed a large fortune; and warm hearted and generous, he made people love him everywhere. Only last week the writer swept by him in chang ing cars at Douglas and received his unfailing, re freshing smile. If we had only known! If we had only known it was the last, there would have been a long hand clasp and a tender “God bless you.” What lessons for time and eternity! We mingle our tears with the stricken town of Douglas. specimens of Christian manhood and womanhood have been drawn. “And now with tne tide of population beginning to turn back to the farm, the country church will be more important than ever. It must be im proved as schools, roads, mails and agriculture improve. Better nouses must be provided for the congregations in the country, and religious ser vices must be more frequent than once a month. The average sermon heard in the country is, per haps, already better than that heard in the city; the preachers are not so easily led into sensation alism and light literature in the pulpit as are their brethren in the cities. They deal less in the cheap science which floods some city pulpits, and preach a weightier gospel. Their congregations, being less distracted, meditate more profoundly on spiritual truth, and demand more solid religious teaching than urban congregations commonly hunger for. Hence that old saying, ‘lf a preacher goes to the country to preach let him take his best sermon, but if he goes to the city let him take his best clothes.’ There is much truth in it. The farmer reads his religious paper. He has few books, but they are the standard authors, and he reads them over and over until his mind is saturated with their teaching. This is perhaps not true of all the mem bers of the country church, but it is true of the leaders who give it tone and type. On the other hand, the man in the city reads his daily paper, and not always the best parts of that. His life is hurried at every point, until his mind cannot take hold of one of the great theological treatises which his country cousin reads with relish. He has little time for quiet and protracted meditation. His mind, like an egg which has been hauled about too much and shaken up too often, becomes somewhat addled, so that the outcome of living thought from it is not large. What he gets must come largely through the senses —through seeing and hearing. What he sees must be in striking colors and what he hears must be exciting, or he will fail to get it. His religious diet must be highly seasoned, or he grows impatient with it and will not take it. He must be sung to by a trained choir, and his preacher must compete with the sensational press for his at tention. On both choir and pulpit he puts a pres sure to entertain him, and by consequence his relig ion is very prone to degenerate into a sort of relig ious diversion. What pleases him most and taxes him least is what he wants, and, hence, he desires short sermons and long musical programs. He be comes a kind of dragon of the pews which his poor preacher must feed with sermons agreeable to his palate. He is a guzzler of bland decoctions of re ligious instruction more sweetish than invigorating, ing. His children grow up in his own image and like ness, with the additional disadvantage of never hav ing lived in the country where more wholesome re ligious conditions prevail. They attend the theatre, and if they go to church on Sunday, they wish the services to be as nearly like the performances in the play-house to which they have been acustomed all the week, as decency will permit. They must be (Continued on Page 8.)