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WARREN’S WONDERFUL BEGINNING
Former Pastor Secures From Big-Hearted Ocala the Startling Sum of Twenty-Seven Thousand Dollars , in Launching
Campaign For the Endowment of Columbia College at Lake City—Texas <( Out-Texased ff by Plucky Florida Town.
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of eight thousand people, just wake up
some fine morning and give Twenty
seven Thousand Dollars to start the en
dowment of a college, located many miles
away? But, after all, we shall not be able to
divorce the thought of “Texas oil” and “Lone
Star magic” from, that Ocala transaction —for
the cultured and chivalric L. B. Warren went
from Ocala to Beaumont, and the stalwart C.
C. Carroll came from Texas to Ocala.
But who can prove that Warren did not learn
at Ocala the consecrated “Know-How” which
manifested itself in the winsome witchery of
his remarkable pastorate at Beaumont? And
who would dare assert that the marvelous
measure of Texas greatness did not receive in
Carroll, at Ocala, some expansive touches and
stretches of vision of which even the “Texas
Ranger” had never dreamed?
But say, ye “Crackers” and “Long Horns,”
who can leave Georgia wholly out of that
Ocala miracle? Did not Dr. J. D. Chapman, the
new and beloved pastor of Ocala, hold up War
ren’s hands and “sick him on?” And were
not “Jimmie” Chapman and Louie War
ren Georgia-born, and Mercer-bred? And was
it not , in part, at least, the application of what
we used to call the “Mercer spirit,” that made
Ocala “see visions and dream dreams,” and
then rise up and “do exploits,” when Louie
Warren pictured the deathless dividends that
a large investment in Christian education, at
Columbia College, would bring?
God’s Difficulties With His People
By ROLFE HUNT.
Oil account of human degeneracy and limi
tations, it has always been difficult for God to
realize Ilis gracious ideals with man.
The Savior said even to His closest disciples:
“Many things have I to say unto you, but. ye
can not bear them now.” Again and again
He lamented their unbelief and the dullness of
their understanding.
Men have been so slow to understand their
real mission in the world. Even after they
have been impressed with their mission, it has
been difficult to make them unselfish and cour
ageous enough to achieve what they are here
for. It has been, in many instances, impossi
ble to get men to exercise faith enough to be
lieve it is possible to accomplish God’s purpose
in them.
Because of these difficulties of God, in deal
ing with His own people, God had to keep
Israel in Egypt under discipline, chastening
and training four hundred years before giving
them national existence and freedom. Because
of these difficulties, God had to keep these
free people wandering and suffering in the wil
derness forty years before they were permitted
to set foot on the promised land. Because of
these difficulties, the natives of Canaan were
never fully subjugated and the land was never
so fully possessed and enjoyed as it might have
been and as God desired it should be. Because
of these difficulties, the nation proved, in large
measure, an unfruitful failure, and miseries un
expressed had to be endured. Because of
these difficulties —difficulties of God in dealing
with His own people—God had to overthrow
the nation and send them into captivity, after
L.L the big things in this world are
not in Texas. We love the great
Lone Star Empire, and would not
pluck one laurel from her queen
ly brow which has been won by
her reputation for doing big
things in the line of Christian giv
ing—but, when did a Church in
a Texas town, or any other town
The Golden Age for February 15, 1912.
Well, Well! Who Can Tell?
Be that as it may, the unparalleled deed
stands there in all its Alpine grandeur, calling
DR. L. B. WARREN.
lie whole of Florida, and especially the Bap
ists who own Columbia College, to “awake and
■edeem the time,” and climb toward Ocala’s
ihining height.
passing them through scourges of famine, pes
tilence and warfare. Because of these difficul
ties, the remnant, whose lives were spared and
whose hearts were most fully turned toward Di
vine things, had to be kept in Babylonian Cap
tivity seventy years before one of them was
permitted to return to his native land and be
gin the blessed work of restoration.
No wonder a Psalmist cried out a long time
ago under Divine inspiration: “Oh that my
people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had
walked in my ways. I should soon have subdued
their enemies, and turned my hand against
their adversaries. The haters of the Lord
should have submitted themselves unto him:
but their time should have endured forever.
He should have fed them also with the finest
of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock
should I have satisfied thee.”
Shall we lament for those over whom the
Savior has already wept and forget ourselves?
Atlanta, Ga.
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A GREAT LEADER HAS FALLEN
(Continued from Page 1.)
took the heart of the intrepid Bruce, enclosed
in a silver casket, and when the battles with
the Saracens waxed hardest and fiercest, that
casket was thrown far into the lines of the ad
vancing enemy. “The heart of Bruce! The
heart of Bruce!” became the shout, of battle,
and the heroic Crusaders dashed through the
swarming legions of Saladian to “the heart of
Bruce’V-and victory, Even so, our gifted,
The truth is, Ocala’s leading Christian busi
ness men are great on general principles, and
Warren simply helped them to see, in the favor
ite and famous words of J. W. Ham, Dr.
Broughton’s live-wire assistant at the Taber
nacle, that it was the “psychological moment.”
They Saw! They Came!! They Conquered!!!
and the blighting Giant Commercialism, lies,
slain, at their feet.
Beautiful Deed of His Richmond Church.
It was enough to put fire in the eye, iron in
the blood and grace in the heart to be treated
like Dr. Warren’s Church treated him.
It was the historic “Old Second” in Rich
mond —that is enough to tell.
When, after a highly successful pastorate of
a year, Dr. Warren’s eyes failed him—a return
of his old-time trouble that has several times
threatened liis ministry, his noble Church of
fered him a year’s vacation, on full salary, if
he would agree to come back to them. But he
could not know his eyes would recover, and,
feeling that the waiting would not be good for
the Church, lie decided to accept the field work
for Columbia College, where his eyes could
rest, and where lie could, at the same time, do
an imperative work for the endowment of the
splendid new institution which the Baptists of
Florida are building on the magnificent proper
ty of the former State University, which was
given to them by the people of Lake City.
The goal is $200,000 —and the wonderful be
ginning made by the brilliant and knightly
young field secretary has electrified the state
with the golden prophecy of victory.
Some men are “writ large;” L. B. Warren
is cast in large and chivalric mold. But with
all his native gifts and scholarly culture, lie
bows at the foot of the Cross with the clinging
faith of a child. Evangelical to the core, his
statewide campaign for Christian education
will be a spiritual stimulus wherever he goes.
conquering Brother, L. B. Warren, when the
campaign tor endowment and equipment calls
for prayer and patience and passion and power
—will take the heart of Tribble and throw it
into the midst of the listening multitude, call
ing them to unselfish sacrifice and deathless in
vestment in the glorious cause for which the
knightly Tribble worked and prayed, and of
whose ultimate triumph, with the vision of a
prophet and a seer, his radiant spirit dreamed.
His “Vocal Grave” Will Speak.
It is fitting, indeed, that the princely form
of Columbia’s departed President should sleep
here on the beautiful campus of the school in
whose service he fought and fell —for his “vo
cal grave” will speak to the generations of
students that come and go,—calling them to
high and holy resolve while the white shaft that
lifts its shining face above the valiant work
er’s grave, will tell students and visitors, from
day to day, the marble whitness, the spotless
purity which Henry Wise Tribble lived and
loved.
But, most of all, we who mourn, rejoice
today that the note of Christian triumph is
sounded in every speech and prayer and song.
Verily, in our sorrow “Hope sees a star in the
night, and listening love hears the rustle of
unseen wings.”
We can best be true to Tribble’s memory by
applying ourselves to the work of his heart
and hands, and by living in the daily victory
of his optimistic Christian faith. Through our
tears we see the rainbow promise of God—
“Lo, beyond the Orient meadows
Floats the golden fringe of Day—
Heart to heart, we’ll bide the shadows
Till the mists have cleared away,”
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