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BAPTISTS TO HOLD BIG MEETINGS
The Great Tasks Of A Great People -State Mission Day In Sunday School Oct 3
Alex W. Bealer.
September and October are red-let
ter months in the Georgia Baptist
year. In these months the District
Associations meet and the Baptist t
clans gather for their annual conclave/
giving' ample opportunity for greet
ings and fraternal fellowship that can
be had in no other way.
-vx.-. ifak
DR. ARCH C. CREE,
The New Secretary.
An Army Of Three Hundred Thousand
There are three hundred thousand
•white Baptists in Georgia. A major
ity of them live in the country and
have their membership in one of the
twenty-five hundred Baptist, churches
scattered from the mountains of Dade
to the sands of Chatham. It is safe
to say that four out of every seven
churches in the country, and about
the same proportion of church mem
bers, are of the Baptist persuasion.
Since the social life of the country
is somewhat limited, the people wel
come such opportunities of meeting
their friends and brethren.
The Biggest Meeting Of All The Year
However, the great gathering of
the year is the meeting of the District
Association. The Baptist churches in
a given territory, generally in each
county, are banded together into an
association, and once a year these
associations meet for a session last
ing two or three days. Here an oppor
tunity is afforded of meeting friends
from a distance and of getting in
touch with the religious movements of
the great denomination and of the rest
of the Christian world. Visiting preach
ers, men of big reputation and great
eloquence, are in attendance to preach
or to speak on the many questions in
which the churches are interested.
Great crowds generally attend these
meetings, crowds larger than the
house can hold. The Association is a
social as well as a religious occasion.
Family reunions and other social and
fraternal events occur. No small
amount of courting goes on among
the young folks who have been “crowd
ed out” and who have been ‘ forced"
to find comfortable places in autos
or buggies beneath the big trees in the
grove around the meeting house.
Georgia Hospitality Without Stint
Then there is the dinner on the
grounds to which everybody is invit
ed. Such a dinner! A dinner for
which the women of the community
have been preparing for weeks, and
for which many an innocent young
life is sacrificed. Talk about groaning
tables! If tables ever did groan they
get down to business along this line
when the Baptist women get out their
boxes and baskets and trunks filled
with the good things which have been
carefully prepared for this occasion.
There is fried chicken, baked chick
en, chicken pie; ham, pork, beef, mut
ton, kid, barbecued and otherwise ;
potato salad, potato pudding, potato
■custard; pies without end. peach and
apple, open-faced pies, strap pies, “kiv
ered and un-kivered” pies, biscuits,
cakes, home-made bread, fresh coun
try butter, jellies, preserves, pickles,
buttermilk, lemonade and coffee; and
many other things too numerous to
mention—things that will make your
mouth water—things the women have
prepared for that dinner on the
grounds. When everybody is too full
for utterance, even though five thou
sand may have been fed, there are
always baskets full left, enough to feed
another hungry multitude. These Bap
tists are scriptural, if anything.
At the close of the day’s services
the delegates and visitors are par
celled out among the people who live
near the church to enjoy Georgia hos
pitality without stint. In wagons, bug
gies, carriages and machines, they go
from one to five miles to spend the
night in the homes of their hosts.
The Organization And Purpose
To the uninformed these associa
tions are strange bits of ecclesiastical
machinery. They have no authority to
legislate for, nor to direct, the church
es composing them. They are the
creatures, not the creators, of the
churches; the servants, not the rulers.
Eao'i Individual Baptist is a spiritual
<den:jcrat owing allegiance in spiritual
S-s only to his Lord. The church
ch he belongs is an independent
having but one law to govern it,
w of the New Testament; and
DUt one great purpose, to win men
to God. This is the faith and prac
tice of every well-regulated Baptist
and, of course, every well-regulated
Baptist church.
The churches appoint delegates, or
messengers, who come together as-an
association to devise ways and means
for doing this great work. The asso
ciations and churches together elect
representatives who form the State
Convention and the different State
Conventions make up the Southern
Baptist Convention. The business of
all these organizations is to hear re
ports on what has been done during
the past year and to plan for more
aggressive work in the year that is
to come. They are, “Simon pure,”
unterrified and unterrifiable Spiritual
Democrats.
Thomas Jefferson Studied Baptists
It is claimed by Baptist historians
that Thomas Jefferson studied the
practices and principles of the Bap
tists and that in consequence he mod
elled the government of the United
States after the constitution of a little
Baptist Church in the mountains of
Virginia.
It requires no stretch of the imag
ination to see the Baptist practice and
principle running like a scarlet thread
from one end of this democratic gov
ernment to the other. There is the
individual citizen over against the in
dividual church member, the commun
ity corresponding to the local church,
the county matching the district asso
ciation, the State government side by
side with the State Convention and
the Congress of the Nation paralleling
the general Convention of the denomi
nal ion.
A Story Of Progress To Be Told
Within the next two months about
one hundred of these associations will
meet in Georgia. There the people
will be told what they have accom
plished through their various mission
ary, educational and eleemosynary or
ganizations. It is a story of remark
able progress. In 1900 there were 190,-
000 white Baptists in the State of
Georgia and they had 2,000 churches.
That year they raised for missions
the sum of $42,244.00. The figures for
last year show that there are now in
Georgia 2,500 churches with a member
ship of 300,000. Last year they rais
ed for home purposes and for mis
sions $1,250,000.00 —a positively mar
velous advance in the space of one and
a half decades.
The Baptists of Georgia have made
great strides in education. They own
educational Institutions worth more
than $2,000,000.00. Belonging immedi
ately to the State Convention are Mer
cer University at Macon, and Bessie
Tift College for women at Forsyth, to
gether with eight secondary or high
schools. In addition to these there
are Shorter College at Rome, Cox Col
lege at College Park, and the La-
Grange Female College, all Baptists,
but not the immediate property of the
Convention.
Besides they own and operate the
Orphans’ Home at Hapeville and the
Baptist Hospital at Atlanta.
DR. J. J. BENNETT,
The Old Secretary.
A Beloved Leader Who Will Be Missed
The Mission Board of the Georgia
Baptist Convention, located at Atlanta,
is charged with the duty of encourag
ing and directing the raising and ex
penditure of money for missions and
for educational purposes. When the
associations meet the brethren will be
greatly encouraged by the reports that
will be made. These reports will show
remarkable progress in the face of
great drawbacks within and without.
For eighteen months Dr. J. J. Ben
nett, who was the leader of the mis
sion work, has been laid aside by ill
ness; but the feeling of individual
responsibility among the leading
.church members has helped to keep
up the interest in the work, and there
has not been so much of a let-down
as might have occurred. Few men of
his age have possessed the personal
magnetism of Joe Bennett, and few
men nave aroused ms people to make
such heroic efforts for advancing the
cause of Christ. He will be greatly
missed at the associational meetings
at which he was always a more than
welcome visitor.
Anew leader has been called to this
work as Sec. and Treas. of the Geor
gia Baptist Convention, in the person
of Dr. Arch C. Cree. He will be heard
with interest and enthusiasm at many
of the associational meetings in the
next few weeks urging his people to
go on to still greater achievements in
the future. The campaign for State
Missions is already on and Georgia
Baptists are rallying to do large
things for State Missions.
A Great Sunday Planned
On Sunday, October 3d, the Baptist
Sunday Schools of Georgia will ob
serve State Mission Day in the Sun
day School. A splendid program has
been prepared. The Georgia Baptist
Rally Song, “Redeem Georgia,” will
be sung in all the schools, and a great
offering will be made for Baptist mis
sion work in Georgia.
REVIVAL FIRES TO BLAZE IN GEORGIA
A Great Movement To Win The State
To Christ
Alex W. Bealer.
Georgia Baptists, under the leader
ship of Dr. Arch C. Cree, the new Sec
retary of Missions, are preparing to
light the revival fires in Georgia and
to keep them burning continuously for
four months by a great revival cam
paign that will begin in January and
last through April, sweeping across
the State from the sands of Florida
to the mountains of Tennessee.
Think of three hundred thousand
Baptists martialed for a warfare
against spiritual wickedness in high
places as well as low. Think of a
thousand preachers engaged in a thou
sand meetings to win ten thousand
souls and more into the Kingdom of
Christ, and you will get some idea of
the greatness of this undertaking.
The War To Open In South Georgia
It will open in a number of
churches along the Southern bor
der of the State. These meet
ings will start in South Georgia and
last for two weeks. A multitude of
Baptists all over Georgia will be pray
ing for them both in private and in
public. At the end of two weeks the
battle line will move northward to
other churches and thus until the
whole state has been covered.
In the pjist there Ijave been many
kinds of union meetings held in Geor
gia and meetings that covered sections
and cities, but this is the first move
ment that has ever been inaugurated
to cover the State with revivals.
A Campaign That Has Been Well
Planned
This campaign has been well plan
ned. It will be conducted under the
auspices of the Mission Board of the
Georgia Baptist Convention. The en
tire evangelistic force of the Mission
Board made up of preachers and sing
ers, will be called into action, but
there will also be many others, since
this force is not large enough to carry
on the war. The entire evangelistic
force of the Home Mission Board,
about forty preachers and singers, un
der the direction of their leader, Dr.
Weston Bruner, will be engaged*
In addition to these more than 100
pastors have signified their willing
ness to contribute generously of time
and service to this campaign. The
plan is to let some of the North Geor
gia pastors come to take part in the
South Georgia meetings, and when
the North Georgia meetings are in
progress some of the South Georgia
pastors will be pressed into service.
The New Secretary An Executive
This movement was born in the
heart of Dr. Arch C. Cree. He was
elected Secretary of the Board in the
early Spring to succeed Dr. J. J. Ben
nett He was the Enlistment Secre
tary of the Home Mission Board of
the Southern Baptist Convention, and
was engaged in some meetings down
in Louisiana at the time of his elec
tion. He took charge of the office
on the first of May and has already
demonstrated that he is the man for
the place. Asa young man he had
splendid business training which has
been used to good advantage since
then in his ministerial work.
He was well prepared for the minis
try when he entered it, having receiv
ed his education at Wake Forest Col
lege in North Carolina, where he took
the degree of Master of Arts, and from
there he took a course at the South
ern Baptist Theological Seminary,
Louisville, Ky., receiving his doctor’s
degree. Since then he has been pas
tor of a number of prominent church
es and the Enlistment Secretary of the
Home Mission Board. In all of these
places he demonstrated his ability to
handle big movements and to lead
men in doing great things for God.
A Great Task Is Now Confronting Him
Without doubt the greatest task that
has ever confronted Dr. Cree is the
one in which he is now engaged. The
Board of which he is the Secretary
is charged with raising the money
that is needed to carry on the mis
sionary and educational work of the
Baptist denomination in Georgia.
It is now under the pressure of great
needs and is overloaded with responsi
bilities and indebtedness which must
be met to clear the way for a greater
Efficient Service
The efficient man is he who sees the obvious,
who does the duty nearest him —and does it we an
keeps on.
The secret of efficiency is no secret. It is
simply the possession of imagination to know rig t
and the will to do it.
The efficient man is he who possesses the
power that accomplishes a designed work; who as
the quality that produces the beSt business results an
renders the most effective service. Efficiency
is a habit and a habit is consecutive, not spasmodic.
The efficient man is the ever growing man. The
same may be said of an institution.
When you find a self-dubbed 100 POINT MAN,
you will find a man who has ceased to grow. He is
satisfied with himself; and is the limit, all right.
Efficiency means evolution, growth, devel
opment. It means eternal vigilance, ceaseless endeav
or, stretching upwards, going forward, getting out of
the ruts.
The desire of every officer and director of this
bank is to be efficient, to give the customers of
this bank EFFICIENT service. We have a board of
directors that diredt, that insist upon efficiency.
In view of the reasons set out above, we feel, that
in order to give our depositing customers the most
EFFICIENT service and the consideration due them,
we are duty bound to operate our bank on the moSt
conservative basis possible, in order to preserve our
credit and good name, thereby enabling us to render
our customers better and more EFFICIENT service;
therefore we give out the following notice:
On and after September 15th
we will discontinue the
practice ef allowing over
drafts. Our reasons for
this will be stated in anoth
er issue.
Jackson Banking
Company
work in the future, me cianon can
of the Board under the new leader is
“REDEEM GEORGIA.” We can help
to Redeem Georgia by blotting out the
debt, and with this end in view Dr.
Cree has begun his work and pitched
his program for victory.
During May, June and July he held
conferences with the leading men in
thirty different associations and pro
jected campaigns to enlist all the
churches in a campaign for State Mis
sions. In August, September and Oc
tober, he has planned to visit thirty
other associations in their annual ses
sions to rally the Baptists to the task.
Sunday School Rally Day October 3rd
In addition to this a State Mission
Rally Day has been arranged for every
Baptist Sunday School in the State.
On this day, October the third, the
children will be enlisted in the work
of State Missions, and will receive an
educational and inspirational uplift
with a practical application to paying
off the Mission debt. This will be a
red-letter Sunday in the 1915 calendar
of Georgia Baptists. The Sunday
Schools aim to break their record for
Sunday School attendance and to raise
at least $10,000.00 on that day.
Many Churches Are Doubling Up
In this hour of stress and strain the
churches are being asked to double up
in their offerings for State Missions.
Many churches are responding to this
appeal by raising in cash an amount
in addition and equal to their regu
lar offering for State Missions. This
money will be devoted to liquidating
the debt on the Mission Board. Thus
the campaign to wipe out the debt on
the Mission Board is being vigorously
pressed and in spite of the war the
collections for June, July and August
were a good bit larger than for the
same months last year. There is an
expressed determination on the part ol
the denominational leaders to win a
great victory by October 3 let.
GOING AFTER BUSINESS
Attention is called to the ad
vertisement of Etheridge, Smith
& Company in this issue. The
firm in addition to a page of dis
play is using some locals to let
the trading public know the busy
season has arrived.
Dont forget that the coming
year will probably again be one of
high-priced stuffs. Lets prepare
now to meet the situation with
an immence crop of fall grain,
both for fall, winter and spring
pasturage and for feed next
year. And while we are about
it, it is well to remember that
in nearly all parts of the South
the sooner these crops are sown
after September first, the earlier
and better the grazing will be.
Don’t wait until winter to plant,
and then report that ‘ ‘small grains
don’t pay in the South.”— The
Progressive Farmer.
Friday night at the audi
torium, the Me chants
Carnival. Admission 15
and 25 cents.