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c>—-M | Hi ’ ¥ it O ! E' ■j iS lIL EL. VOLUME SIX NUMBER TEN THE BEGINNING OF “CENTRAL TEMPLE” Philathea Class of Central Baptist Church, Memphis, Gives First SI,OOO to Furnish the “Central Temple Girls 9 Home 99 Dr. J. L. White, Former Tar Heel-Georgian, Planning Great “ People 9 s Church" in Tennessee Metropolis. WO GOLDEN weeks with J. L. White in Memphis! That is enough to make his countless friends in Georgia and the “Tar Heel Empire” turn “verdant,” with envy. For the “round doz en” years spent by him as the conquering leader of the “grand old First church.” at Macon. T bound those royal people to him by “hoops o£ steel;” while, as President of the Board pf Trustees of Bessie Tift College at For syth, he won and held students, faculty and constituency so completely that he has been called back more than once to the field / S||K IB /• 1 i *JM • i L- mm \ ' I■/1 ■/ DR. J. P. WHITE, Pastor Central Baptist Church. leadership of that great institution, and now has dangling before him a salary big enough to tempt any man from present duty except one who has always wrought with a martyr spirit and now works and dreams in the Memphian metropolis with the positive vis ion of a seer. A Telegram Changed Plans. My lecture dates were all arranged for many weeks ahead but a wiregram of gener ous insistence came from my old Georgia friend that made me patronize the telegraph company with those convenient “night let ters,” until an “honorable release” allowed me to go to Memphis—for I knew J. L. PINEY WOODS SKETCHES—Page Eight ATLANTA, GA., APRIL 27, 1911 White meant business and that the field must be “unto harvest white.” It was— and is! Outside of New Or leans and foreign San Antonio, there is noth ing else in all the South that presents such a “down town church” problem as Mem phis, with all its marvelous wealth, its com manding commercial prowess, its law-defi ance, its wanton worldliness and the siren songs of its debauching Sunday Theatres. The Beginning of “Central Temple.” Right in the heart of this grinding, stag gering problem is located the Central Bap tist church—a massive pile of bricks and mortar erected away back in 1868 when Memphis was in its swaddling clothes. Here the brilliant young Rowan preached his promising life out and went to the skies at the age of twenty-seven. Here Sylvanus Landrum, the great father of the great and only W. W. Landrum, was pastor until God called him Home—and out yonder in beau tiful Elmwood sleeps his sacred dust. Here G. A. Nunnally, Georgia’s stalwart “old man eloquent” reasoned of “righteousness and temperance and judgment to come” until he was called to the presidency of the Southern Female College, at LaGrange. The Footprints of Potts. And here for fourteen years prior to the coming of J. L. White, walked and worked the Godly Thomas S. Potts, abundant in la bors, stainless in life, plenteous in patience and strong in the hearts of his people. No man could be a successful pastor for 14 years in such a trying field as Memphis without being all of these. Indeed, I heard on every side that the most effective, far reaching revival meeting that ever bless ed the church was held by Dr. Potts himself, after he had been pastor for nine or ten years. And when the work of Financial Sec retary of the great Tri-State, or Baptist Me morial Hospital in Memphis was rolled upon his heart and shoulders and he resigned his pastorate to assume successful charge of that mighty enterprise, it was natural that the Central church should look for a leader who had been, under God, master of the situation in other fields. The time had come for a great forward movement on the part of this great church— a movement that would fight back and for ever hold in check the rising, merciless tide of commercialism and worldliness so natural in a city of such metropolitan strides as the capital of the middle Mississippi valley. By WILLIAM D. UPSHAW It was time for an epoch-making move ment, and to those who know his powers of leadership it is little wonder that the com mittee—“e’en wiser than they knew,” turned to such a man and preacher as J L. White. The Beginning of “Central Temple” Fasci nated by Difficulties. Surveying the field, fascinated by its man ifold difficulties and impressed that God was in the call, Dr. White turned from packed houses and clinging hearts at Greensboro, N. C., and came to Memphis last June to lay his superb powers of eloquence and leadership on the altar of A GREATER MEMPHIS THROUGH THE KINGDOM OF GOD! * i • : ? ? f 1 I ■ ? 4 -'OMx ? i wl • • Mil ? ? ? • ’ • MWEO- ? ?t 1 i i i i I SWiwsWMI ? I 1 • i ; CENTRAL BAPTIST ? ? CHURCH, I i Memphis, Tenn. ? • • ? • * • f i And “the Kingdom is coming” through his fearless and forceful ministry. Preaching to large and growing congregations, conversions are occurring from Sunday to Sunday, the baptismal waters are often troubled, and “trunk” Baptists (almost as bad as “drunk” Baptists) are being led to dig up their church letters, resurrect their altars and run up their flags and show where they stand in a great and wicked city. His Heart is Stirred Within Him. If J. L. White thought he had civic prob lems to deal with during those twelve glori ous years in Macon where he was the recog nized leader in every battle for moral reform, (Continued on Page 5.) ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS A YEAR :: FIVE CENTS A COPY