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WA TKINS WINNING IN VALDOSTA
From “Down on the Suwanee River” Comes the Newest Pastor in the “Metropolis of the Pines” —Live-Wire Leadership
in a Church That Stands Uncringingly Against All Forms of Worldliness.
■■ HERE is no way to tell it without
-qgk an alliteration—“ Watkins Win
ning”—for that is just what the
new pastor of the “Valdosta Dis-
Mr trict” is doing.
W Although the youngest pastor in
Valdosta, in point of service, if not
y in actual age, F. H. Watkins has
gripped the Church and commun
ity in a notable way.
Coming from a superb record at fair and
beautiful Live Oak, Fla., where Caleb Ridley
one time reigned in love, and John A. Wray
poured out the wealth of his heart and elo
quence, Watkins followed at “The Taber
nacle,” Valdosta, the strenuous and enterpris
ing pastorate of John A. Barnard, who, being
an evangelist “cut to fit,” has gone back into
liis favorite field. And Watkins knows well
how to build upon the foundation work of “The
Tabernacle,” first pastor, Luther Rice Christie,
now the brilliant and beloved pastor of the
First Baptist Church, Columbus, Ga., and who,
first at the First Church, then at “The Taber
nacle,” saw the forces of his own denomination
more than double during his masterful minis
try, with the cause of civic righteousness then
gloriously triumphant.
Watkins Has The “Know How.”
The old darkey said he didn’t charge $1.50
for killing the calf and dressing it —he charged
fifty cents for the work and a dollar for the
BUT.
This adversative conjunction one day was haled
to court,
And there was made to answer for much mali
cious sport.
There, at the Bar of Conscience, it seems well
understood,
This word stands charged with voicing the
malice of the good.
When hedomns Spite and Envy entrap the un
wary wise 2
This little word affords them their handiest dis
guise
“For ’tis a thoughtful word to use, —dislrimi-
nating quite,
And surely careful thinking can not be aught
but right.”
And thus the best among us, —our men of ear
nest thought,—
Are bribed to subtle evil which this little word
has wrought.
We often hear it said,, “The sermon was a good
one, Yes!
But, oh, how long drawn out —we could get on
with less!”
“He’s brillint but—erratic;” “Good, but, —
my, how dull! ’ ’
“He’s risen fast, I know, but—then, he had a
pull.”
“He’s scholarly, but,—cold ” and “bright, but,
commonplace;”
“He’s safe and sane and strong, but—totally
without grace!”
“A good administrator, but—‘can’t preach
nary lick.’ ”
“He’s kept his place, but, —say, how did he
turn the trick?”
Adversative conjunctions! How well you bear
your name,
Thy single syllable perverting praise to blame;
Adverse, indeed, thou art, when Spite would
slyly damn,
And, in a seeming compliment, a double curse
would cram!
The Golden Age for February 20, 1913.
I jjy ' * H
Jot.
fl
REV. F. H. WATKINS.
Thoughts On the Transfiguration
By E. V. COLE.
r HAT, we may ask, was the purpose
1 Transfiguration? One pur-
P ose was attest the divinity of
Christ, and in so doing reassure
the disciples. Jesus, not many
days before this, had put the great
question to His disciples, “Who do
z men say that I am?” And when
—« J He was told, “Some say thou art
John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets,” He put the still greater
question, “But who say ye that I am?” To
which Peter gave his great confession. “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Jesus confirms this, but immediately begins to
tell them of the things that are to happen to
Him at Jerusalem —His trial and His crucifix
ion. This was a hard blow to the disciples, in
somuch that Peter dared to rebuke Him, “Be it
far from thee, Lord; this shall not happen unto
thee.”
He had just said He was the Christ, and that
filled them with hope and joy. But now He
prophesies His death, and that fills them with
dismay. It was perfectly natural then that
this Transfiguration scene should come at this
time to reassure the leaders of the apostolic
band and to affirm Christ’s divinity.
Another purpose of the Transfiguration, I
think we can safely say, was to strengthen
Jesus on the human side for the task which lay
out before Him, —the slow but sure journey to
the cross and the cross itself. God always
sends strength for every duty He assigns.
Heaven in His Face.
The record of this great event says that as
Jesus prayed the fashion of His countenance
was altered. The indwelling divinity that was
in Him shined out with all the effulgence of the
glory of God. My friends, if you and I would
put more prayer into our lives, it might be that
the fashion of our countenances would be
altered. Certainly the fashion of our
lives would be. There would be more
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
There would be less self-seeking and more
“know how,” Watkins, at Valdosta, “knows
how,” to build without blarney and bluster,
and he knows how to build and lead without
threat and “thunder.” He doesn’t have to
‘‘ do handsprings ’ ’ in the pulpit to get a crowd,
and when his crowds come every Sunday, he
knows how, with persuasive power, to win the
hearts and lives of men and women to Christ
and the spiritual activities of His Kingdom.
Such a leader deserves the welcome which
Valdosta has given him.
No “Locker Club” Members, Thank You!
It is a noteworthy distinction for this Church
that no Eagles, Owls or Elks, or any other mem
bers of any other clubs that keep and dispense
liquor are welcomed to the membership of “The
Tabernacle” —neither are those who love card
playing and dancing better than the paramount
demands of a deeply spiritual Church member
ship.
Watkins and his loyal people are not cranky
or ‘“long haired” about it—they just mean
business in teaching and living the beauties
and glories of a really triumphant Christian
life.
After all, why shouldn’t there be a line of
cleavage between the Church and the world?
If it were so everywhere the Church of God
would be indeed a militant band of
believers and workers “fair as the moon, clear
as the sun and terrible as an army with ban
ners.”
Christ-seeking. Put more prayer into your life,
and there will be more joy in it; put more pray
er into your life and there will be more service
in it; put more prayer into your life and there
will be more glory in it. David would never
have been able to write his magnificent Psalms
if he had not been a man of much prayer.
Why Moses and Elias?
There is a peculiar significance in the fact
that the two men who talked with Jesus on
the Mount of Transfiguration, were Moses and
Elijah, apart from the fact that they were the
representatives of Law and Prophecy. Here
we have two men who went out of the world in
a peculiar manner one of them taken up in a
chariot of fire, the other buried by the hand of
the Almighty. And they have come to talk to
the One who by His death is to work out man’s
redemption. It adds interest also to this Trans
figuration scene that these men had earthly
names and were the spirits of just men made
perfect, men who had walked earth’s pathway,
and not angels or archangel’s who could have
no fellow feeling for mortal men. They were
interested in the Atonement. They were fore
runners and harbingers of it.
And here on this mount we have the three
elements of God’s revelation to man represented
in the persons of their chief advocates. Moses
represented the Law, Elijah the Prophets, and
Jesus was the incarnation of the Gospel. Law
was the schoolmaster, who trained the race for
His coming; prophecy foretold His coming ■ and
now that He has come, the three meet together
to plan the culminating scene in man’s redemp
tion.
+ + +
THE PRICE.
Millard Alfred Jenkins.
Press on!
With Circumstance make no concession,
A Crown awaits thee yonder on the Heights,
Be Master of thyself, the Conqueror of thy
passion—
“He wins the Crown who fights, and fights,
and fights.”