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THE KEY WORD FOR CITIZEN-BUILDERS
What would Christ like for the key-note of
the coming Christian Citizenship Congress to
be? If He had returned to earth, with all the
glorious magnetic power that comes from 2,000
years contact with the Greater Life, what
theme would the great Mahamata choose?
What radiant visions has He seen since the
s’opes of Olivet faded from His sight, since
those wondering Disciples turned their faces
upward to the clouds, since Pilate gave His
mortal body over to His Hebrew countrymen
to ts crucified?
Can you imagine what He has seen? Have
you the faintest conception of what the v’sions
of the universe would be like? Can you
glimpse the histories of other worlds, their
problems, their religions, when their phpsical
forms are but faint points of light piercing the
black velvet dome of the sky—to us?
Through the power of the current of mys
tery visions of the earth may pass across the
films- but who can show the continuation of
the drama begun on Calvary, and again begun
on Olivet ? Who can point out the first mighty
vision of the Christ, when the universe rolled
its mililon splendours before His vision?
What word or sentence flashed through space
fNI
m
O wonder folks like to hear
John B, Culpepper talk—
for he is as original with his
as he is with his pen. The
Editor of The Golden Age spent two
Insp'ring, refreshing days this sum
mer at famous Indian Springs Camp
Meeting, and, frankly was surprised
and delighted with the sanity with
which Smith in the School of the
Prophets and Brasher in his remark
able sermons presented that special
“brand of rePgion” for which Indian
Springs Camp Meeting stands. Ask
ed for a story for The Golden Age,
Evangelist John B. CulpeoDer writes
the following unique allegory and
“then some” which is worth reading
and studvmg inside and out. —Editor
HIS LITTLE MULE AND WAGON
Editor Golden Age:
You told me to write you an ocea.
slonal line for your paper. I wrote a
half year ago, and now send this,
with the understanding that if it is
ahead of time, just let it lie by, till
its time comes.
I was glad to see you at the Indian
Snrfnec camp meeting. I drove across
the country with my I‘ttle mule and
cart, as I told them, hitched out near
the convict came, and went in to get
some one to shoe mv little mule —nice
little mou°e colored thing, and one
I bad become fond of. I also needed
to have a plank put on my waeon
bod'% all round, so that I could haul
more: a linch pin put in and some
plomb’ng dare, so that it would
tr*'*k better than it had been doing.
When I saw you there, I had stood
round 'U’d listened until I had become
dissatisfied with my whole outfit, po
I went out and gave my Pttle mule
to a cabbage vendor, rolled the cart
o* down fnto a junk pile they
there fdid you ever see that Indian
£Sor ? np<a junk pile? It Is verv capac
ious. but that *s not its distinguish
ing feature. There are not many
things, to sinful or vain
woman. wM rt h yon can’t find left
ttiere. ond «re rarely ever claim
ed ogMn.l Well. I went baek and
looked up a price book which they
JOHN B. CULPEPPER GOES TO CAMP MEETING
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF SEPT. 11
to comfort Him for the hours of agony on Cal
vary, the sealed tomb, the sorrow of the part
ing on Olivet? This fair September morning
1 have tried to imagine what that word or
sentence or message was.
Here is the giand and noble vision of the
Son of God returning to His Father. The very
mystery of all life is within His custody. He
has gone through the phases of the earth-life;
He has heard the voices of Hebrew and Greek
and Egyptian seers. The affections of an
earth family have been' His, the spectacle of
a woman’s love drawn from the fevers of pas
sion to the calmness of worship. Before His
healing hands the ’ame, the blind, the dead
have passed, asd God’s psychic power has
been sufficient for every task. He has left
health in the place of disease, life in the place
of death. And now the Prince rises above
the clouds, He enters the forum of the universe-
He receives a message—and what is that mes
sage? 1
Far out the herald of those grand worlds
stands, far out from the Gates of Pearl. We
cannot imagine God allowing His only Son to
return alone. Surely one of the fairest, the
bravest, the noblest of all those who have en
keep for the accomodation of the peo
ple who patronize them, and after ex
amining tlie prices and terms, I or
dered a steam sulky cultivator, and
an automobile.
LASTING—WHAT IS LASTING?
There is a difference between
LASTING and EVERLASTING.
Some folks say that they teach that
they can give one an everlasting cure
for all the ills of sin, or for the bite
of sin, itself. Properly understood,
they are not so different from other
real good folks.
If the doctor gives you an injection
of sitrychnine it will last about three
hours. If the Episcopalians inject you,
I believe they guarantee it only for
forty days. The Catholics regulate it
according to what you pay for the
medicine. The ordinary Methodists
claim that they can -warrant, up to the
first, or rather the next voluntary ex
posure to malaria. The Baptists and
the Presbyterians say you never will
get entirely over the effects of it. hut
they have never been asked, I th ? nk,
to prove it. Speaking from expe
rience, and after the manner of the
above comparisons, a good old Indian
Spring injection will tone you up so
that you can do fine for about a year,
at which time I hope to go back.
Shall I see you?
I thank you for that high complL
ment you paid me. sir, when you took
me to one side, the n'ght you left. I
felt like call’ng you doctor, hut you
told me never do that. But when I
think of the fine medicine you dish
out, weekly, almost free, and how it
cures one of the most fatal ailments
of our day (I mean the blues and the
book nods) I wonder why you are not
a doctor. If they ever give me one,
you may have it just on the ground
of high esteem and genuine merit.
JUST ONE
Indian Springs reminds me of a
dog I once owi»ed and my wife. My
dog was named Nero. He was great.
We were somewhat bo v s together.
His eves were an endless study to
me. He used to say wPh those eves,
when we started out ’opossum hunt-
By LAMAR STRICKLAND-PAYNE.
ing hunting at night with the neigh
borhood boys and dogs: “Don’t forget
that I am here, if anything happens,
and that I will quit the hottest of
trails to die for you, if necessary.
I have had men come up to my lit
tle wagon and begin to sample my
melons taken to the market, and if
they began to try to beat me, or show
signs of not paying my price, Nero, a
better judge of human nature than I
was, would ease himself in between
me and the most suspicious looking
one of them, and wag his tail in a
way so friendly that the men would
mistake it for fun, but I would look
at his eyes, and that look would he
.there —saying: Mas. John, just wink
if you want me to take a hand, for
it wont be a bit hard to die for you.”
And many times, when I have sat
down to rest, my gun on the straw, a
dozen fat squirrels on my string,
Nero has walked up and laid his head
on my knee, and when I said: “Old
sport, I thank you for finding these
for me.” there came that same look
into his eyes, wlrch said, “Don’t
mertion it” —I would quit treeing
squirrels, or whipping the whole ca
nine outfit, just to die for you, and if
you will just always remember that,
I will be a good dog, and happy, too.”
I married the sweetest, prettiest
girl, in the state. All real candid
folks, whom I heard mention it, said
so. Well, T never had taken a plumb
straight look at her until some
months after we were married. I
wanted to, hut it was partly shame
facedness and then she kinder dazzled
me. But me day I went to have a
serious talk about our future —our
work wh ? ch took us off from our neo
ple, on both fudes. She, of course,
loved her people. In the conversation
in taking one of my usual sly, side
glances at her, I was shocked. I don’t
know if you would call her eves blue,
of that same “Don’t forget that I will
dog look, when I kf*sed her too. At
the b’rth of each child, I saw a return
brownish, gray, or hazel, but it was
not the usual co’or whi"h shocked
me, but their usual hue had changed,
tered that g’orious kingdom. Perhaps, it was
the sturdy Joshua. Perhaps it w T as one whose
name the earth has never heard, in the mystic
meditation of any seer, in the writings of any
prophet. But we can imagine this man greet
ing the Christ. And what does he say to Him?
What word does he give Him as the key-note
to the future work? What worlds does he
point out as the scenes of that work ?
We do not know.
But we imagine that the word was—the sen
tence^—-the message, from this herald celestial
Was not one unknown to us. We imagine that
it was taught in the mountains of Galilee, the
plains of Judea, the porch of the temple at
Jerusalem,
We will not name it* for you know it by
the glow at your heart, by the shine of sympa
thy in your eye. You find it at the marriage
altar, you see it in the mother bending over
her child’s cradle, you hear it echoing from the
pulpits of King of Kings—one day it will flash
across the tombs and open them by the magic
of its light.
It was given to us in Eden and we lost it—
and now through the example of the Christ
we have it again.
and there had come out that look
which I had seen in my dog. I said
to myself—she has that dog look, os
sure as I am here. I had aimed to
live with her, and enjoy her, and
make her happy, but it startled me,
when her eyes said plainer thaw
words: “You do what God calls you to
and remember that I will quit doing
anything, at any time, to die for you.”
WHEN OUR FIRST BABY CAME
My wife has a fine woman eye, or
dinarily. But when we kissed our
first baby, there came back that same
stop playing with these little darlings
to die for you and do it gladly.”
When an unwise and much mis
taken policy forced me to locate, or
let the devil take my conscience, 1
returned from conference and wife
said, “Well, how did it turn out?” I
told her that I had to locate. “Well,
what are we going to do first?” T
told her that I did not know until l
got my first dispatch, under this gall,
ing fire, from Him, whom we were
trying to obey. I turned to look at
her and saw. that dog look again. It
is there, sir, deep, but it rises to the
occasion on tick.
Nov/ that dog look, in my wife,
which other women have not a semb
lance of, so far as I can see, is what
made me say I had out-married my
self and the rest of mankind.
But hack to the main line There
is some thing which you will get at
Indian Springs, not found elsewhere.
Whv, sir, T have gone down to their
e°rly morning prayer service, and
when three hundred of them got to
crving to God for help for the day, I
have said to myself: “Everybody is
praying, and if there is an except’on,
I doubt if the devil will risk himself
in here to find out.” It Is better seen
♦hen heard of. but bmt try it once.
You went, criticize while you are down
there, nor for hours after.
There is so l’ttle arguing, so little
q”k'zing. that if you don’t watch, you
will feel so much of what they are
saving and doing, that vou may not
get in hv the right door.
(Ccnt’n”ed on page 16.)
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