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NEWS FROM THE WORKERS
COMER WOODWARD “DOING
THINGS” IN TEXAS.
Not only in Georgia, but in Tennes
see, Alabama and Texas, where he
has been so genuinely loved, and his
labors have been so signally blessed,
his countless friends will rejoice in
the present success of Rev. Comer M.
Woodward, at Abilene, the metrop
olis of the Texas plains.
For eleven years, “off and on,”
Comer Woodward practiced the good
old doctrine of “final perseverance,”
going to Emory part of the time, and
dropping out part of the time to work,
making the money that educated his
sisters and finally carried him to the
long dreamed-of goal of graduation.
The Editor of The Golden Age saw
this Christian hero and rejoiced with
him in the hour of his triumph, drank
in the priceless fellow’ship of his
friendship when he was president of
Nannie Lou Warthen Institute, at
Wrightsville, and Sparks Collegiate
Institute, at Sparks, and finally
mourned with all his Georgia friends
when his health demanded his going
to the Texas plains.
That he and his queenly little
helper-wife w T ould come off “more
than conquerors” in Texas, everybody
knew. And now this story from the
Abilene Daily Journal, an October is
sue, brings added confirmation:
“A visit to the St. Paul’s Methodist
Church will delight the eye of any one
who loves the beautiful. For the past
two months a large force of workmen
have been engaged in finishing the
building and the work has progressed
until it is easy to see that at no very
distant date the members of the
plucky congregation will have one of
the handsomest auditoriums for
preaching and Sunday School serv
ices that there is in this part of
Texas.
“The basement of the great build
ing can not be surpassed in any city.
It contains five rooms, including in
the number a magnificent dining room
and large kitchen, a class room which
will seat at least two hundred .and
fifty people, ladies’ parlor and cloak
room. Besides, ample provision has
been made for the heating plant.
The auditorium and Sunday School
department of the first floor, which
can be thrown together by means of
roller partitions, are modern in every
way. The seating capacity without
the Sunday School department will be
about six hundred; with the Sunday
School department a congregation of
eleven hundred can easily be accom
modated and all have comfortable
pews near the minister. On this floor
are fourteen separate class rooms, be
sides the two auditoriums, which will
give ample means for this part of the
Church work to be conducted along
up-to-date methods. The pastor's
study, choir room and organ are also
on the first floor and are neat and at
tractive. To sum up the whole thing,
it is as pretty as a picture, and a
workshop that any congregation may
well feel proud of.
The pastor, Rev. Comer M. Wood
ward, and his noble wife, have put
their very life into carrying forward
the work in order that the Church
may have the benefit of its invest
ment in the way of modern appliances.
The Church has only about three
hundred members, and the work of
erecting this magnificent building
stamp them as being made of the stuff
that real folks come from. The strug
gle to have the building completed
and furnished by November 6th, when
Annual Conference meets at this
place, must succeed. It would simply
be a tragedy to fail, but a crowd that
has gone this far, and has sacrificed
as this congregation has done, will
not stop; the Church will be finished
and it will be one of the finest pieces
of noble work that any people ever
accomplished. As the years come and
go there will ever be those to rise up
and call the men and women blessed
who gave so unselfishly of their time
and their means to the building of this
beautiful edifice.”
4* 4.
JOY AND GLADNESS AND A GOOD
DAY FOR THE BAPTISTS
OF FITZGERALD.
“The loveliest day that ever smiled
on” Fitzgerald seemed yesterday, the
Sabbath, when the November sun
shone on the crowd of worshippers
gathering in the newly-completed Bap
tist temple of worship.
Within, decoration of fern and lily
and rose, made glad the house of God,
in accord with the happy-faced, bright
eyed children flocking to their Sunday
School class-rooms, and the deeper joy
of the older members and their belov
ed pastor, Rev. T. M. Callaway, at the
crowning of their labors.
For some while the movement has
been forwarded, and today a modern
structure of white brick in Grecian
architecture, is a thing of beauty, to
be rejoiced over.
The main auditorium, and Sunday
School room in modern equipment of
separate class-rooms and gallery in
balcony fashion, are furnished in cir
cular pews converying to center cor
ner where pulpit and platform join.
The space in left wall for organ and
choir, is beneath a handsome arch. A
work of art by a Georgia artist, now
one of the Church triumphant—paint
ings in oil on a large folding screen,
adorns the choir platform.
The soft white-gray finish of the
walls blending with the delicate col
oring and shading of the Cathedral
glass windows, makes the interior
symphonetic in its beauty. The arched
ceiling intersected by rectangular
beams at large intervals, ornamented
with delicate wood-work in white, and
the glass-work in centre beneath the
dome, complete the artistic whole.
A special program in which every
class participated, was given by Sun
day School. In a talk by one of the
deacons on Gratitude, after his offer
ing of praise by heart and voice to
the Giver of all good, he made special
mention of the gratitude due by all
to their pastor, who had labored so
assiduously in every line for the pres
ent building and to whom much of its
success was due. Larger service for
larger opportunities, was the key
note of the service.
“The love of God’s house” was the
theme of Rev. T. M. Callaway’s dis
course, at the hour for service, from
text: “Lord, I have loved the habita
tion of Thy house and the place where
Thine honor dwelleth.”
It was listened to by an appreciative
audience that filled the house. “Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us. but unto
Thy name give glory, for Thine honor
and for Thy truths sake.”
Evangelistic services beginning Ist
Sunday in December to be conducted
by Rev. Caleb Ridley, of Atlanta, were
announced by the pastor.
Representatives from various
Churches in the city assisted at even
ing hour of service which with inspir
ing program of song and scripture
completed this first day in the new
Church home of the Baptists of Fitz
gerald. ELA C. BACON.
The Golden Age, for November 21, 1912.
My Heroes of the Tea Room Party
By WILL D. UPSHAW, Editor
(Note: The following story was
written by the Editor of The Golden
Age and published in the Macon
News last week to help awaken in
terest in the whirlwind campaign in
behalf of that noble charity, the
Georgia Industrial Home:)
It is a positive tonic in manhood
and a tocsin toward all that is high
and splendid in living to touch el
bows and hearts with the men who
have been meeting at the Tea Room
in Macon for luncheon and counsel
every day this week. They are the
leaders of the Georgia Industrial cam
paign for SIO,OOO.
They are men who, for the * most
part, are in the current of large per
sonal business demands- —demands
which grind some men and hold them
like “white slaves” indeed —but not
so with my everyday heroes of the
Tea Room party.
To a student of men and things, it
is as fascinating as it is inspiring to
sit and watch these men as they
quaff the wine of each other’s royal
fellowship—watch them as they take
a “plunge bath” every day into the
jolly good cheer that comes from un
selfish living—the good cheer that
“doeth the heart good like a medi
cine.”
The Witching Mastery of Self.
Many otherwise good men who are
called “captains of finance,” are so
driven by their business that they go
“like a quarry slave,” scourged to
their “dungeon” of self-centered dis
content, but my practical Tea Room
heroes have learned that witching
mastery of self which eventuates in
that beautiful truth —
“Learn in blessing other lives
To find thy own life’s blessing.”
There sits “Ned” Willingham
president of the board of trustees,
who has given and given and given
of his time and money to the Georgia
Industrial Home, until he is learning
more and more the meaning of that
Bible declaration —“where your treas
ure is, there shall your heart be also,”
until, like the great-hearted founder,
he could take the Mumford Home in
his lap and trot it on his knee as if
it were his own child; and then, there
is L. H. Burghard, chairman of this
campaign committee, who, though
“business to the core,” sprinkles the
radiance of optimism through all the
“councils of war,” tells “the boys”
that they have done “bully for such
a day,” and that it will “grow better
further on.”
And then the captains of the squads
and the uncrowned privates in the
ranks buckle on their armor and go
forth to battle again.
To battle for what? Not for self
at all —not to further personal finan
cial ends; they have done those very
things, bless you, in order to have
time and money now to “help their
fallen brothers rise” —and these brave,
manly, triumphant citizens, in two
kingdoms, go out to tramp the streets,
climb stairs, jostle in elevators and
brighten and lighten counting houses,
all for the privilege of saving unfor
tunate boys and girls unto a better
and happier society —and, yea, too, for
the privilege of helping to wake
nany a sleeping business man, ab
sorbed in getting and holding, and
shake him loose from the thrall of
that pitiful sonambulism which al
lows the unthinking commercialist to
walk amid the cumulative needs of
humanity asleep—yes, “asleep at the
switch,” while the victims of sin and
sorrow dash on toward the shores of
ruin.
Only a Breakfast Spell for Macon.
Os course the task of raising $lO,-
000 is barely enough to interest Ma
con —it is only a breakfast spell—but
it wields a wholesome influence to put
men and women to thinking along
unselfish lines. The golden hearted
philanthropist and statesman, George
Foster Peabody, one time said to me
about one of my money-raising cam
paigns:
“It is not so much the money you
raise for your specific cause, Mr. Up
shaw, that does the most good, it is
the fact that you get people to give at
all to a worthy cause —tha is the great
est blessing to humanity.”
Called as Mumford’s Successor.
Largely given, as my life has been,
to different forms of altruistic work,
it is only natural that any movement
for the enlarged usefulness of the
Georgia Industrial Home should ap
peal to me with peculiar power —for
I treasure it as one of the greatest
honors of my life that I was called to
be the successor of the noble father
founder of this splendid institution.
Debarred from accepting by limita
tions which I could not control, the
Mumford Home has ever since then
been closer to my heart than it other
wise could have been.
I hear again what I pray God all
Macon —all Georgia and this section
of the South shall hear —I hear W. E.
Mumford speaking from the platform
with cyclonic eloquence —I hear him
as he tramps up and down the streets
of Macon talking to eager groups of
men here and there —sometimes
laughing, sometimes in tears that
flashed answer in the eyes of those
about him: “Save these children that
are worse than orphans —save these
children that no other orphan’s home
can take —save the state from a crim
inal, and make the criminal in em
bryo to be a good and useful member
of society. For God’s sake help me
build this home!” And the people
helped—and the unselfish Mumford re
joiced—fought upward—a few brief
days, and then suddenly fell in the
midst of his glorious, but unfinished
work.
No wonder the boys’ band who tried
to play a requiem around his new
made grave dropped their instru
ments, broke down and cried.
God bless J. A. Harris, the live wire
manager, and J. O. Harris, the faith
ful field man, and all others who are
unselfishly holding up their hands in
equipping the Georgia Industrial
Home to do a greater work for God
and humanity.
4. 4.
MRS. GILREATH’S MAIDEN TRIP.
My lungs are still filled with the
ozone, and my eyes are yet seeing the
glorious scenery of the wonderful Blue
Ridge mountains. If the giant hand
of the law could only reach into those
caves, where the worm of the still
dieth not, and stop forever that hor
rible illicit business, it would be the
fairest spot our Southern sun shines
upon.
When I stood in the little Church
and faced the crowds of sturdy men
and women assembled there to hear
“a woman talk on temperance.” I could
trace the effect of it in almost every
face before me. The men showing
dissipation, the women showing brofc
en hearts.
(Continued on Page 16,)
