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THE RIGHTEOUS FALL OF THE INAUGURAL BALL-Page Four RUNNING TWENTY-ONE STORES FOR GOD -Page Five
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VOLUME EIGHT
NUMBER FORTY-NINE
(< A CITIZEN OF TWO KINGDOMS”
Caleb A. Ridley, Who Led a Strenuous But Winning Fight For Civic Righteousness, While Pastor in Beaumont, is Called
Back as the Guest of the “Oil City of Texas, 9f to Address a Great Opera House Rally on “Christian Citizenship."
T
the “old guard,” as he calls them, who stood
by him in the famous “cleaning up” fight,
which characterized almost the whole of his
stormy, but victorious’ pastorate there, but is
supported in this return engagement by many
magnificent men, whose business he “fought to
a finish,” and who have been big enough and
fair enough to 11 fess up ’ ’ that they were mistak
en and that Ridley was both right and brave in
his truceless battle against municipal guardian
ship of licensed wrong.
Two Fighters Slept Together.
A striking illustration of how Ridley man
aged to win the men whose business he fought,
is found in the fact that before he left Beau
mont, he went hunting and actually slept with
a lawyer who had one time threatened his life.
“Say, Judge,” said Ridley, with a twinkle
and a smile that made the hunter’s tent lumin
ous with good feeling, “do you remember that
time you threatened my life if I mentioned your
name again in public?”
“Ah, hush! Ridley, let’s forget it all. We
are friends now.”
And the two former fighters snuggled up to
gether, liketwo little chicks, nestling under the
brooding wings of love.
“A Citizen of Two Kingdoms.”
It is impossible for us to give here, anything
like a report of Ridley’s Beaumont address. In
fact, Ridley can not be reported—he must be
heard; but we give a few paragraphs here and
there, that our readers, who do not know his
manner of speech, may come to an appreciation
of the man whose present work with the Cen
tral Baptist Church is at once the wonder and
admiration of Atlanta. In six months he has
built up one of the largest congregations in the
city and has had 300 additions at the regular
services of the Church, the new “Whitehall
Temple” being necessary to hold the overflow
ing crowds.
From the subject, “A Citizen of Two King
doms” we give the following lightning flashes:
“When Adam fell he lost Eden, both to him
self and his fellows, for the whole race went
down with him. From then until now the ef
forts of high heaven have been towards man’s
redemption—body and soul. We have been
HERE is something to make the
blood tingle in the kind of invita
tion which calls Caleb A. Ridley
back from his Atlanta pulpit to his
old “baliwick” in Beaumont, Tex.,
this week to address a city-wide
rally on Christian citizenship. He
speaks at the Grand Opera House,
and is the special guest, not only of
ATLANTA, GA., JANUARY 30, 1913
dull disciples in reading His will for our good.
He first sent His patriarchs and prophets, but
we would not listen to them. He then gave us
His written word, but we refused to read it.
He then gave us Jesus, the Word incarnate,
and we put Him to death on a cross, while the
earth tottered, the heavens opened and the
sun was shamed into shadow. But now He
says, to Christian men everyhere: “Ye are my
epistles, known and read of all men. God’s men
can not be neutral.”
Doing Right Because It Is Right.
‘ ‘ I often think of the young man Moses, fac
ing the simple issue of right and wrong. The
modern politics could see no harm in
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CALEB A. RIDLEY.
allowing his name to be associated with great
business enterprises, no matter if they were not
very religious; but this young man had a con
science as well as a liver, and when conscience
declared the institution evil, Moses said, ‘Here
is where I break with it,’ and he did. He turn
ed his back upon position, power and promi
nence, and lost a kingdom by it; but the issue
was clear. There was nothing else to do. He
must do right simply because it was right.”
Every Social Question Is Spiritual.
“Every social and moral question is at heart
spiritual, and God’s man acknowledges no such
distinctions in his work as ‘sacred’ and ‘secu
lar.’ To him the whole life is to be lived as
unto God. It is as religious to paint a picture
as to prepare a sermon; to plow a furrow as
to preach; to vote right as to pray. Sacred
ness exists, not in things, but in spirit. God
did not reject Cain’s offering because it was
fruit, nor accept Abel’s because it was meat,
but He rejected Cain’s sacrifice because he had
no respect for Cain. A sermon may be sacri
ligious and a social may be spiritual.
“God’s man lives under the pressure of great
responsibility. He must face every moral
question as a citizen of two worlds, for morals
extend on into eternity. He must oppose graft
because his Father’s Book says: ‘Thou shaft
not steal.’ Lying is to be rebuked, because
God’s curse rests upon it. The city fathers
who make crime easy and wickedness popular,
are to be condemned, and if necessary denounc
ed and dethroned, because they are riding
rough shod over the principles of law and or
der, which uphold the fabric of our natural life.
The liquor traffic is to be fought from pulpit
and from pew, by-path and platform, furnace
and fireside, college and counter, field and fo
rum alike, because it fattens upon the red blood
of our men and the destroyed virtue of our
women.”
Waging a Holy Warfare.
“Like Samuel of old we are waging a holy
warfare, and should feel that when we contend
we are fighting the battles of the Lord. No
matter how uneven the conflict nor how well en
trenched the enemy seems to be, the struggle
is no losing one. Stand firm, strike hard, wait
a moment and strike again till, like Olea of Cas
tile, the shattered sword falls from your dying
grasp. Your Captain has won on a thousand
fields. In olden times monarchs often fought
when kingdoms were the stakes, but we fight
for righteousness for righteousness’ sake.
“Under the influence of Christ’s religion, man
is beginning to stand erect in the great empire
of thought. He is tearing away from supersti
tion and ignorance, and ceasing to bow to the
mandates of tradition. Instead of looking
back through geneological vistas to see what
apes we used to be, we are spurred on by the
inspiration—glory of our Lord to look down
the sweep of the broadening centuries to see
what gods we shall be. God’s man is always
a man of vision.”
The “Old Guard” in Beaumont.
“And it should stir you militant men here
in Beaumont to remember that the vision
you shared a few years ago with the man
whom you have called back to this hour, was
not merely the impractical dream of dreaming
men. We can but remember with a quicker
throb in the blood that leaps our veins that
while our local battle in Beaumont against mu
nicipal devilment was at its highest and hard
est, Frank Norris, who was then the fearless,
fighting Editor of The Texas Baptist Standard,
(Continued on Page 4.)
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