Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 26, 1903 Page: 1 of 16
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L. Blaylock, Publisher.
G. C. Rankin, D. D., Editor.
No, 14
Dallas, Texas, Thursday, November 26, 1903/
Vol, L,
Editorial.
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Now unto him who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us,
unto him be glory in the Church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end. Amen.”
THE NORTH TEXAS CONFERENCE.
This fine body of men is now in session
at First Methodist Church in this city with
Bishop Duncan in the chair. They present
an impressive appearance. The bulk of them
are men in the prime of life, but there are
venerable faces and hoary heads enough to
give the conference the cast of majestic dig-
nity and maturity of deliberation. We wel-
come them not only to the city, but to our
homes. We esteem it a privilege to enter-
tain them as our distinguished guests. The
local pastors have left nothing undone to
make the stay of these brethren pleasant and
delightful. We honor them for their own
and for their Master’s sake. They represent
the greatest cause on earth—the salvation
of the children of men. We expect great
benefit from their presence at our firesides
and in our pulpits. We want them to pray
in our homes for our wives and children and
to leave with us the perfume of godly asso-
ciation and communion. When they arc
gone we want to feel that angels in the flesh
were ministered to under our roofs. Breth-
ren, our city and our homes are open to you.
We hope for you a delightful occasion. All
ive have in the way of hospitality and com-
fort is at your disposal. If at any point
we have failed to provide for you the very
best we have, do not hesitate to make it
known to us, and we will bend every energy
to secure it. We are your servants while you
abide with us. May the blessings of the
great Head of the Church rest upon all your
deliberations and sanctify every daily ses-
sion of the conference to the good of our
community and the cause your represent!
.28
der truthfulness. Let us have a series of
articles that may be helpful to our strug-
gling pastors and people. So here I am,
through the kindness of the Kansas City
Southern Railway, which takes a bee-line
from Kansas City to Port Arthur, through
forest and field, bayou and highland, midst
interesting and ever-changing scenery. W hen
you come to towns whose houses have gal-
leries and streets and depot-grounds have
razor-back hogs, and folks say ‘you all’ and
T’ve done been thar,’ then you know you are
in the South.” Well, Mr. Grose came and
saw and wrote. His correspondence had
nothing of the “wild and woolly” in it, but
he gave a very interesting account of Port
Arthur, Laporte and Galveston. He actual-
ly found people who do not say “you all and
I’ve done been thar.” From what he says,
he found a citizenship that will compare in
intelligence with Kansas, on the border of
which the Central Advocate is edited and
published. It is strange that an intelligent
editor in our sister Methodism has not some
better and more reliable token to convince
him of his presence in the South than .to
see “razor-back hogs” and hear the people
say “I’ve done been thar.” If the Iorthern
Church is down here hunting up that sort
of people they might find them closer home
and spend a good deal less money in their
search. Texas does not need that sort of
Northern missionary searching for “razor-
back pigs” and for ignorant “whites” whose
vernacular is, “I’ve done been thar.” He
had better stay up in “God’s country,” where
they speak through their noses in a sort of
whang and say, “You hadn’t orter done it.”
Our confrere has a very low estimate of the
intelligence of our Texas people. If he will
come this way, and get out of the little
circle representing his branch of the work
in this section, he will find people of good
average intelligence and wealth and whose
sense will compare very favorably with the
people up in Kansas.
Every true life has its crises and these
test its real merit and worth. You never
know what there is in human character
until it has been severely tried and not found
wanting. For this reason Christ was lead
up of the Spirit into the wilderness and was
tempted of the devil. These temptations he
resisted, and after he came down from the
mountain he could say, “It is my meat to
do the will of my Father and to finish his
work.” He had been tried and was true,
even in the face of great ordeals. Job was
tried and God was willing thereafter to trust
him with riches and children and power.
Trial develops and makes manifest the ex-
cellency of human life. The man who has
never made a mistake is sure never to have
ventured upon an enterprise. Life is an ex-
periment and before we are through with it
we will commit some blunder if we have
tried to accomplish anything. But mistakes
are not unpardonable sins. They are errors
of judgment, and after we have fallen into
them we know better the next time. We
have to learn through main strength and
awkwardness before we attain unto a correct
standard of living.
THE EMPTINESS OF INFIDELITY.
Infidelity is a system of negation. It
simply denies without affirming the exist-
ence of anything to take the place of that
it seeks to destroy. It leaves the mind and
heart vacant of anything akin to God and
immortality. It promotes nothing worthy
of humanity. It builds no sanctuary, it es-
tablishes no institution of learning, it en-
dows no asylum, it inaugurates no project
for the relief of the suffering,- it has no
sympathy with the brotherhood of man, it
looks to nothing for help outside of its cold
heartless self, and it points to hope beyond
the confines of time. According to its merci-
less teachings no present wrong will ever be
righted in the future, no tear that is shed
here will find its recompense hereafter, no
reward will come to the soul in the life be-
yond as the result of virtue and integrity.
There will be no life beyond the grave if
infidelity has any foundation in truth.
Death will end all and the grave will con-
tain all. We will live and suffer and die and
cease to be. What we get out of life as we
pass through it will be the sum total of our
expectation. Hence the utter emptiness of
infidelity. It positively has nothing to offer
to the human family, but to eat and drink
and make the most of this animal existence.
Infidelity has no heart, no sunshine, no
bouyant hope, no undying love, no light. It
is a barren desert, a waste-howling wilder-
ness, a sterile hillside, a blighted mountain,
a desolate world. It has no God, no Christ,
no faith, heaven, nor eternity. It is a dead
sea in which nothing vital can survive its
withering death-damp. How men of sense
can accept the tenents of that sort of sys-
tem can only be accounted for on the ground
that they are living lives whose very exist-
ence is wrapped up in the hopelessness of
despair. They are estranged from God, from
all good, and they are striving to drown con-
science in this sea of doubt and death. The
idea of coming before God with their sin and
shame is appalling. They want to believe
that there is nothing in the future but ob-
livion. Now mark you, we do not mean to
include in this class hundreds of ordinarily
good men who are struggling with unsolved
doubt and striving to find the light, but still
in darkness. There is hope for that sort of
man. But we mean those who have settled
•down into the conclusions of that class of
infidels who scoff at God, who ridicule reli-
gion, who turn from the truths of the Bible
and who hold nothing in common with lofty
morals and evangelical religion. They are
dead to the claims of faith and hope. They
live with reference to the life that now is,
and ridicule everything in connection with
the life that is to come. They are the moral
and religious Ishmealites of the world.
4
)y o
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
CHURCH IN TEXAS.
The Texas Advocate has nothing but feel-
ings of kindness for our Methodist Episco-
pal Church brethren who are pretending to
do religious work in Texas. We even go
further and say that we not only feel kindly
toward them, but we are also sorry for them.
In their so-called white work in this State,
where Southern Methodism has every coun-
ty pre-empted and her preachers are every-
where preaching the gospel to the people,
and where we have a membership of more
than two hundred thousand, our brethren
of the other branch of Methodism are not
creating impression enough to tell of their
existence in our midst. They have been
fumbling around in some parts of the State
for a quarter of a century, and we do not
hesitate to say that every dollar which they
have induced their Mission and Church Ex-
tension Boards to spend among the “Poor
Whites” in Texas has been absolutely wasted.
This editorial is called forth by the advice
and instruction given to his correspondent,
W. E. Grose, whom the editor was sending
into these parts to make observations for
the Central Christian Advocate. Let the
correspondent tell what the editor said to
him as he launched him on his Southward
voyage. “Said the editor: ‘Go South, Bro.
Grose, with your eyes and ears and heart
open. Tell our people about it. See if you
think we are really needed or wanted down
there. Write, not in bitterness, but in ten-
Official Organ of all the Texas Annual Conferenc the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
LET US ALL GIVE THANKS.
Another annual Thanksgiving Day has
come round and we are called upon by the
President of the United States and also by
the Governor of this State to meet at our
various places of worship and render thanks-
giving to the good Father above who has
blessed us with so many benedictions as the
year,has gone by. It is meet and proper
that we should thus show our gratitude as
individuals and as a nation for the benefits
we have received. We have peace at home
and we are at peace with the nations of the
earth. No sound of war is heard within our
borders and we have no complications with
the peoples and governments about us. We
have been blessed in our storehouses and
- fields. Our harvests have been plentiful and
,, famine is unknown to any section of our
Acountry. No widespread epidemic has dev-
hoegt land and no foe has invaded
Bvur people are prosperous and
Lastofwe are permitted to sit under our
K Iafe—
K "y 1 g tree and enjoy the fruits of our
2 Mery. We have access to our schools
ly and to our places of worship, and there is
none to molest or make us afraid. We wor-
ship God according to the dictates of our
own consciences, and we do not need the
intervention of a priesthood to show us the
way to a throne of mercy. Civil and reli-
gious liberty is a boon whose benedictions
rest upon us all, and no man is permitted
to lord his pretensions over us, King or Em-
peror. We are all a sovereign people, and
every man is the ruler over his own. Sure-
ly no people are so richly blessed as we
are to-day. We owe it to the God of all
grace, whose law is our guide and whose
providence is our defense. He is worthy of
our praise and thanksgiving, and he is equal-
ly worthy of our undivided service in all the
relations of life. This day we set apart
for his praise and worship. We worship him
as the God of our fathers, as the defender
of the weak, the helper of the helpless and as
the promoter of all our good. Let every
heart render him public praise, let every
tongue sing his hosannas, and let every life
be fragrant with his homage. Our land is
full of his goodness and our lives are run-
ning over with his mercies. No voice can
afford to be silent on this auspicious day
and no mind can cease to think upon his
goodness. “For this cause we bow our knees
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named: that he would grant us, accord-
ing to the riches of his glory, to be strength-
ened with might by his Spirit in the inner
man: that Christ may dwell in our hearts
by faith: that we, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all
saint what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height: and to know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we
might be filled with all the fullness of God.
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Rankin, George C. Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 26, 1903, newspaper, November 26, 1903; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1594196/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.