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Iy \ ' I *| Im [!f Hi STAT&W VOLUME SIX NUMBER FOURTEEN FLECKS of FOAM CAUGHT HERE and THERE On the High Rolling Tides of the Great Southern Baptist\Convention —Session in Jacksonville Reaches High Water Mark. By MARGARET BEVERLY UPSHAW. HEN the gavel fell from the con secrated hand of President Josh ua Levering, and the Southern Baptist Convention of 1910 ad journed, in beautiful Baltimore, the delegates began their home ward journey on the tip-toe of exuberant anticipation. And why? Because Jacksonville, ■ *' 111 1 throbbing, hustling, smiling Jacksonville had been selected as the next meeting-place. For weeks in advance of the Convention date, the publicity bureau had been issuing V *• •* , * *'' '' ' K ' > £ ■EX ;' K * I - t- ■ ■gEM - . . JHe7 - I R , ; M«V JK i REV. GEO. W. TRUETT. thrilling stories about the Floridian City and its generous hospitality, but the publicity bu reau might have saved itself its labors. The breath was simply knocked out of the Jack sonville citizens when the special trains from all quarters of the Southland crept into the city, panting with the heaviness of their re spective burdens. Pullman after Pullman disgorged its human freight and “The Greeks were in possession of Troy.” The Meeting Place. Glistening Morocco Temple, the splendid home of the Knight Templars, had been ATLANTA, GA., MAY 25, 1911 chosen as the assembly hall for the sessions of the Convention. The Temple is a brand* new, magnificently equipped building, and was in every way adapted to the uses of the Convention save in the important factor of space. The opening session of the Convention was held at three o’clock Wednesday afternoon, May 17th, and fully four hundred people turned away from the doors, unable to get even within sound of the voices of the speak ers. By the next morning, however, the women had begun their business sessions in the com modious First Baptist Church, and by moan ing and groaning and heroically stretching its sides, the Temple auditorium made stand ing room for most of the delegates. But we have no criticism to make. Jacksonville just didn’t know how big a thing the Southern Baptist Convention really is. Foreign Mission Night. The most notable feature of this Conven tion, and perhaps of any Convention that has ever gone before it, was the “high-pres sure” collection as some were pleased to call it, that was taken in the interest of Foreign Missions on Friday night. The Board was staggering under a great debt. Dr. R. J. Willingham, the faithful, de voted Secretary was weighted down with dis appointment and dismay. The issues of Bap tist progress or Baptist retrogression were in the balances. The question on everyone’s lips was: “Shall we have a Convention col lection, or shall we send the pastors back to their churches with the problem and trust to them to help work out the debt?” The conservatives said: “No collection!” The Insurrectos (if you please) said: “Take a collection!” A mighty Paul would leap to his feet one moment and set the assembly on fire with an eloquent appeal, and the next mo ment an equally zealous Apollos would fly upon the scene with his water-pots and drown out the conflagration. The Man From Texas “Showed Them.” But Rev. Jos. Gross oiled the altar and lit the sacrificial pile. The needs of the For eign Mission situation leaped from his lips in vivid word-pictures, his heart was aflame with pious anxiety for the Kingdom and its progress. Concluding his speech in a whirl wind of eloquence, he rushed to Dr. Dargan, the President of the Convention, his voice full of tears and his face drawn with anguish, shouting aloud: “I have given all I thought I could give. I have sacrificed until I thought I had bared my heart to the quick. But, brethren, I haven’t done my best. God help us. None of us have. Here is my pledge for six hundred dollars additional. That will keep a missionary on the field twelve months. Praise God for the privilege. Who’ll be the next?” The scene that followed beggars descrip tion. The man from Texas had “shown them,” and the conservatives, although they tried nobly to quell “the riot,” were unable to master the spirit of giving that had been turned loose in that vast throng. Secretaries / <■ ' \ / ■ I '• * \ / wk of* • Wi- - ' ' ’ ; ‘ W ' JEU m DR. B. D. GRAY. pro tern, were pressed into service on every side to record the subscriptions. Men raced from pew to pew and from aisle to aisle gath ering up the white slips that were raised in a hundred hands. Agony was writ large on white faces; strong men wept and prayed and wept again. A struggle, such as the world can not know and could never under stand was being waged that night. Sacrifices, over which the angels wept and the devils in Hell blushed and trembled for having wit nessed, were being made. (Continued on page 8.) ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS A YEAR :: FIVE CENTS A COPY