Newspaper Page Text
8
As I stumbled in the pathway,
Feeling all was dark and drear,
To my soul there came a Presence,
Speaking words of hope and cheer.
“Be not anxious,” said the Master,
Fret not, neither be afraid;
Tread the path with faith and courage
Be ye strong and undismayed.
“Bear in mind I’m always with thee,
Tea, am with thee to the end;
x
ES, I attended a beautiful fun
eral last week —Monday, Mar.
Bth. Since death must come
and funerals must be, it gives
a golden tinge to the sombre sunset
when the Christian’s faith and hope
light up the hour of sorrow, shining
through falling tears like the rainbow
promise of God. I had known and
loved “Birt” Jones for a dozen years
—I knew the rare fellowship that
bound him and his next door neigh
bor, Dan Hammack, together, and it
gives genuine pleasure to have that
true-hearted comrade pay tribute here
to his neighbor, friend and Christian
brother. W. D. U.
Editor Golden Age:
In the passing away of Bro. A. J.
Jones, of College Park, Ga., and for
many years a citizen of Coleman, a
strong and useful Christian man is
gone. In the solemn compact which
be and I made years ago—that when
either of us died, the one surviving,
with our pastor, Bro. W. W. Arnold,
should attend the funeral and make
some little testimony of his life, I did
not think at the time that such duty
and responsibility would ever fall on
me. But the unexpected occurred,
and being inefficient orally to portray
even the faintest conception of the
personnel of “Birt” Jones in his real
worth to church, society and civiliza
tion, I shall ask you to let me carry
out this responsibility through your
paper.
Birt could do more to the square
inch that was worth being done in the
unpretentious life that he lived than
anybody I ever knew. For him to un
dertake a thing meant success. When
he was secretary and treasurer of our
church he always got all the funds
that were needed for every purpose
without trouble to anyone. As super
intendent of the Sunday School he had
the happy gift of filling the whole
school with his own enthusiasm. As
a peacemaker when friends and broth
ers had fallen out, he had no equal.
He was an adept in helping a totter
ing, stumbling brother to his feet
again, ever patient with his faults and
gradually leading him back to right
paths .
A Born General in Fighting Vice.
He was a real general in combating
vice and routing it out of the com
munity. On one occasion while mayor
of our town, he saw being unloaded
from the train a keg of beer which
had been ordered by some of the
young men, this being their first ven
ture in that directions; and he prompt
ly ordered it seized by the marshal and
locked up in the calaboose. He did
not consult much law, he just did
things that were right, and that he
knew ought to be done.
As a friend he was a real Gibral-
THE GREAT LEADER.
A Beautiful Funeral
Dan Hammack Pays Tender Tribute to “Bert” Jones.
NEWS FROM THE WORKERS
I have from a servant raised thee
To the honored place of friend.
“Be courageous, firm and steadfast,
If thou wouldst deserve the crown;
There is no disgrace in falling;
The disgrace is staying down.”
Then I rose, with freshened courage,
Ready once more for the fray;
And, with strength Divine supported
Faced the conflict of the day.
—H. S. J. Penison.
tar, always true in time of need and
fully to be relied upon.
Birt loved good people with all his
soul. To be Christlike was the “idol
of his affection.” I don’t mean that
he never sinned; he did many things
that, perhaps, were wrong, but the
evidence of his conversion was as
strong as we find in the Bible, for he
truly loved the brethren. Os course
he made some enemies—all men of
bis aggressive spirit do that. I had
some friction with him myself, but
thank the Lord He led us both to un
derstand that our sins were not fitting
luggage to carry along in Christian
warfare and we laid it all aside and
loved each other in Christ’s name and
for His sake. And as we worked to
gether under His yoke we loved each
other more. That was the only rea
son he wanted me to be present at
the closing service of his life. He
knew that any effort on my part at
eulogy on his life could be nothing
but a blundering failure. While it
was sad and sorrowful for me to look
on his pale but peaceful face with the
realization of its being the last time,
yet I would not have missed that
privilege for anything. It was one of
the saddest pleasures of my life.
Well, Birt, your ticket of brotherly
love and manifest interest in the sav
ing of souls, was too well established
to leave any doubts of your safe voy
age over the shadowy deep. The lit
tle group, Brethren Knowles, Arnold,
Ray, Brown, Rogers, Hall and others
so often mentioned in your letters to
me those whom you so joyously la
bored with while in Coleman, will fol
low on, one by one, and perchance
the same oak trees that shaded us in
sweet communion and fellowship
around Coleman will be typified when
we all have crossed over and joined
you on the other shore. Our garments
are all measured and cut by the same
pattern as yours and the Perfect Laun
dry that whitened yours as the drifted
snow will also cleanse ours. Only a
little while, and we’ll all be there.
Your loved ones left behind shall
have our earnest prayers and deepest
concern.
Fare thee well, my comrade-brother,
until we meet again!
DAN W. HAMMACK.
Coleman, Ga.
MAKE PLANS NOW TO ATTEND
THIRD NATIONAL DRAINAGE
CONGRESS,
Which will be held at the Planters
Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., April 10, 11, 12,
under the auspices of the Conventions
Bureau, for the purpose of securing
the creation by the United States of
a National Drainage Convention, with
ample power and funds to evolve and
The Golden Age for April 3, 1913
Georgia’s Sunday School Convention
The Program Committee for the An
nual State Convention of the Georgia
Sunday School Association, which is
to be held at Elberton, April 22-23-24,
has planned a program on which more
than twenty-five of the leading Sun
day School workers from various parts
of the State are to take part.
Among the speakers are: Mr. Join
J. Eagan, of Atlanta; Rev. J. L. White,
D.D., of Macon; Mr. John D. Walker,
of Sparta; State Supt. of Education,
Mr. M. L. Brittain, of Atlanta; Mr.
Frank L. Mallary, of Macon; Rev. H.
M. Dußose, D.D., of Atlanta; Mr. C.
A. Rowland, of Athens; Mr. W. D.
Upshaw, of Atlanta. In all there are
more than twenty-five speakers.
The program provides for the open
ing session to begin at 7:30 p. m.,
April 22d, and runs through the 23d
and 24th, closing at 9:30 on the night
of the 24th. The speeches are to ba
on various methods of Modern Sun
day School work.
Preparations in Elberton.
Mr. W. M. Wilcox, of Elberton, is
Chairman of the Committee on the
Arrangements for the Convention, and
the church people of Elberton are
making elaborate preparations sorer.-
put into effect a comprehensive na
tional plan for:
1. The protection of the public wel
fare by the drainage and reclamation
of the 75,000,000 acres of swamp and
overflowed lands in the United States,
and their utilization for agricultural
purposes;
2. The protection, by drainage and
reclamation, of the public health,
which is constantly menaced by the
existence of these swamps;
3. The protection, by levee construc
tion and other means, of the people
and their lives, their homes and their
lands, from floods, storms and tides;
4. The protection of the financial
interests of the United States, the va
rious States, and the individual land
owners, by co-operation and an equable
sharing of the expense of carrying out
this plan, in proportion to the bene
fits received.
GREAT BIRMINGHAM REVIVAL.
Evangelist A. A. Walker has just
completed a singularly successful re
vival service in Calvary Baptist
church, at Birmingham, Ala. During
a period of three weeks he succeeded
in adding sixty-one members to the
enrollment of he church —forty-nine
of these accessions being by baptism
and the balance by letter. Calvary
church, prior to this meeting, had a
membership of only about two hun
dred and fifty persons and when this
fact is considered the results of the
meeting will readily be seen to be out
of the ordinary.
One remarkable feature of the meet
ing is that practically ninety percent
of the eligible membership of the Sab
bath school not previously belonging
to the church, were enrolled on its
books during this revival. It rarely
ever happens that such complete re
turns are brought about and of course
this circumstance speaks exdeedingly
well for the efforts of Mr. Walker.
Mr. Walker, who is at present work
ing under the State Board of Alabama,
has been a member of Calvary Bap
tist church for some time and has
done quite a little preaching for that
church at different times and conse-
tertaining of all who attend. They
have furnished the office of the State
Sunday School Association, at Atlan
ta, with letter heads printed in two
colors, on which are the pictures of
eleven of the prominent speakers for
the convention. They are also fur
nishing a poster on which are the
pictures of fifteen of the speakers.
The poster is in two colors, and is tc
be mailed to the Sunday School Super
intendents throughout the State.
Delegates and Entertainment.
All white Sunday Schools are re
quested to elect at least three dele
gates besides the pastor and superin
tendent, who are delegates by virtue
of their office. All who attend the
Convention at Elberton will become
delegates by paying a registration fee
of fifty cents. All who register will
be furnished homes by the Elberton
Committee.
Low Railroad Fares.
The various railroads have granted
low round trip rates. The state of
fice reports that the indications from
different parts of the state are that
the attendance at this Convention will
be unusually large, all sections of the
state being well represented.
quently the great results which he
obtained in this revival cannot be at
tributed to the novelty of a new speak
er, but rather to the highly efficient
preaching of Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker
takes a very strong and uncompro
mising attitude toward sin and while
he is exceedingly forceful in his con
demnation of sin he does not use the
method pursued by many evangelists
of dealing in a vitriolic way with the
great variety of sins peculiar to this
day and age. He takes the stand
that unbelief in the Savior is the
great mother sin of all sins and that
all other sins, whether petty or very
grievous, spring from this mother sin.
His manner of preaching is very
direct and personal and none who lis
ten to him can escape the impres
sion that they have been given a
personal exortation to right living and
as a consequence of this fact the in
terest in his services is always very
great, and furthermore this interest
is of the kind that springs into be
ing not at the command of some en
tertaining theatrical display, but rath
er at the call of the conscience of
the listening autience.
Evangelist Walker has been in the
ministry about seven years. Prev
ious to his taking up this work he
was a business man, looking after
considerable lumber interests in Mis
sissippi. When he became converted
he at once gave up his business pur
suits and attended the Moody Bible
Institute at Chicago, where he imbib
ed much of the spirit of the founder
of that institution. In the direct
forceful manner with which he deals
with the sin of the people and with
the plan of God for their salvation,
Y; Walkers methods resemble those
ot Paul,” the stalwart apostle, and
by some people Mr. Walker has been
called a “Modern Day Paul.”
VISITOR.
PASS THE NEWS ON.
new/»? fiT ere as quick to P ass along good
there womdVJV^ 7 - to sprea(i scandal,
uitie would not be a single civilized town
in the world without its quota of remark
able cures made by Tetteriue, the great
Tfph ed A for Eczem a, Ringworm
.A cne ’ Pimples, Itching Piles, etc
And there would be less suffering. Get a
box—try it, then tell it. 50 cents at drug
fr °“ Sh " l,trln<i