*Pte Baptist Messenger.
Published monthly in the interest of the
churches of the Union Baptist Association,
and The Wingate School, at Wingate, N. C.
by M. B. Dry.
M, B. DRY, Editor.
W. C. BIVENS, Business Manager.
Subscription Price 25 cents a year.
Making Home Attractive.
To make home an attractive
place for children, there is noth
ing that surpasses music. If ev
ery home could be supplied with
a piano or organ and the children
taught to play and sing, many a
home problem might easily be
solved. Many homes are cheer
less abodes for children, not be
cause the parents are too poor to
buy attractive things for the
home, but through false ideas of
economy. If the expenditure of
a few dollars for an organ or
piano and other things necessary
to make the home attractive,
could keep the boys at home and
out of bad company, it would
prove a good investment. Many
parents know less about the char
acter and conduct of their chil
dren than their neighbors do.
Parents would often be astonish
ed if they knew where and how
their children were spending
their time when Jaway from the
parental roof. As the future of
your country depends more upon
the home life of the people than
anything else, whatever tends to
make the home better, elevates
us as a nation.
The friends of temperance have
reason to rejoice over the prog
ress that has been made not only
in our own State, but in our
neighboring States of South Caro
lina and Tennessee. In the for
mer, county after’^county has
voted out the dispensary for pro
hibition; in the latter, the politi
cians vie with each’other in cham
pioning the temperance cause.
There are few men in North
Carolina to-day with aspirations
for political honors, who are will
ing to champion the cause of the
liquor forces. They know too
well that it means their death
politically. We have in mind, as
we write this, the names of some
bright and promising young men
in our State who made this fatal
blunder.
It is to be hoped that there will
be less drinking during the holi
days of 1905 than ever before.
Our admirable temperance laws
and the wonderful growth of the
temperance sentiment in our coun
ty in the last few years, have
largely changed the manner of
.celebrating Christmas. Let us
hope for still greater improve
ments.
The Christmas holidays! How
would the Great Teacher have us
spend them? To be sure, not as
they are often spent in feasting
and carousing, but injdoing deeds
®f kindness and brightening the
lives of those less fortunate than
ourselves.
A young man to-day who in
dulges in strong drink to excess
is practically disgraced in the
eyes of both the old and the
young. He is not only shunned
by society, but almost every busi
ness enterprise is closing its doors
against him. Even the liquor
manufacturers and dealers them
selves do not want him.
Personal and Otherwise.
There are hundreds of poor clergy
men, struggling nobly and unselfish
ly to elevate small communities or
city slums to higher standards of
living and thinking, who actually
lack the ordinary necessities and
comforts of life; yet they would not
exchange their humble places for
fashionable pulpits with large sala
ries, because they can do more good
where they are.
Is a clergyman to be looked upon
as a comparative failure simply be
cause he has tried to live the Christ-
life, to bear the burdens of others, to
lighten others’ tasks, to ameliorate
the condition of the poor, to encour
age the despondent, to cheer the
sick, to comfort the dying, and to
lift the broken-hearted? Shall he be
looked upon as weak-minded be
cause he has given his life for a piti
ful salary when he might have be
come rich?
Is a teacher to be looked upon as
poor or unsuccessful because she has
preferred to spend her life in build
ing character, developing opportuni
ties and unfolding possibilities for
others, and enriching civilization by
starting other lives in the right di
rection rather than in piling up dol
lars for herself?—Success.
Rev. J. L. Bennett Resigns.
Rev. J. L. Bennett, the first and
only pastor King Street Baptist
church in Waxhaw has ever had,
and who has preached for us one
Sunday in every month for more
than three years, has offered his res
ignation. During his pastorate there
has not been a note of discord among
us, the church property has been
much improved and the church has
been greatly built up in membership.
There being at this time a demand
for a resident pastor and for preach
ing oftener than once a month, Bro
Bennett could not see his way to take
up his residence among us, and has
therefore seen proper to offer his res
ignation to leave the way clear for
someone else who can meet present
demands as above stated. In doing
so he desires to offer his sincere
thanks to the members of other de
nominations for their great kind
ness to him.
We cheerfully commend Bro. Ben
nett as a most earnest and successful
pastor in the promotion of unity and
prosperity in his churches. May the
blessings of God attend his efforts
wherever he may labor.
J. T. Black,
W. S. King,
W. R. Godfrey,
Deacons.
If we may even in a small degree
interpret the signs of the times, the
signs written large, as by the finger
of God across the heavens—if in any
measure we may read the lessons of
history, we are bound to believe that
America is to lead the world in
Christian civilization. Our vast wealth
and ever growing commerce, our in
creasing power throughout the world
to be augmented beyond all calcula
tion by the inter-oceanic canal now
under way, presage such importance
as will justify the sculptor’s concep
tion of “America enlightening the
world.”—J. B. Gambrell ^in Home
Field.
Mrs. Frances Williams, wife of
Mr. J. Thomas Williams, died at
her home in Monroe Tuesday, No
vember 21st. She was about fifty-
three years old and was a mem
ber of the Baptist church.
President Poteat said, in his in
augural address at Wake Forest,
that his father, long since passed
into the skies, had cherished the
hope that his son would some day
be president of Wake Forest Col
lege.
Mrs. Gillie T. Austin, of Mon
roe, died December 5th, at the
home of her daughter and only
child, Mrs. W. A. Lane. She was
66 years old and was a member of
the Baptist church. She was well
educated and had lived a useful
life.
In the letter of Mr. M. C. Aus
tin, which occurred in lastmonth’s
Messenger relative to the location
of old Gourdvine church, the
name of Jacob Williams should
have been Jacob Helms. There
were also two John Culpeppers,
junior and senior. The elder Cul
pepper was once a member of
Congress, which goes to show,
says Mr. Austin, that the Bap
tists were influential people even
then.
In a personal letter from Rev.
C. L. Fowler, who was once a
teacher in the Wingate School
and pastor of several churches in
our association, he says among
other things: “I have just had a
letter from Joel Snyder telling
me that he had accepted a call to
the First Baptist church at Ches
ter, S. C. His letter started me
to thinking of North Carolina, of
Union county, and of Wingate.
I had been promising myself for
some time to write you.
“As you s^, I am here in New
England, this place where the
hack drivers and street car con
ductors smack of Latin and Greek
and are familiar with the arts and
sciences. I am trying to make a j
study of their school system in
comparison with our Southern
schools. New England is in ad
vance of the South educationally
and I am trying to find out why.
“You may be surprised to learn
that I am here. It is strange to
me. After I left Wingate, I took
some special work at Furman in
stead of going to Louisville.
When I had finished there, I came
this way to study at Harvard and
at Newton Seminary. During my
first year I was called to the pas
torate of the church here (George
town, Mass.). I accepted it be
cause it was near to both institu
tions, and I could pursue my
studies. I am doing graduate
work at Harvard and shall con
tinue till I take the Master’s de
gree. It will take me a’ little
more than a year yet, because of
my work here and at the Semi
nary that is in Boston.
“I am in the most prosperous
section of the State, and that
means much. My church is not
overly large, but is made up of
the best people anywhere. I
love them and they are loyal to
me. They remind me of North
Carolinians.
“Please remember me to the
many good folks there. I shall
never forget their kindness and
fellowship while I was among
them. My heart yearns often to
be again in my native State and
to labor for my native people.
But I know I should not yield to
The Debate.
The inter-society contest, which
took place at the Academy Fri
day night, December 22nd, proved
to be one of the very best debates
that Wingate has had. The weath
er was ideal and a good-sized au
dience gathered in the audito
rium of the school building to
witness the clash of mind with
mind.
Should the Fifteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution of the
United States be repealed? was
the question discussed. The sym
pathies of the audience were
about equally divided between
the affirmative, which was repre
sented by Ray Funderburk and
H. B. Jones, of the Gladstone So
ciety, and the negative by R. L.
McWhirter and W. D. Reynolds,
of the Philosophian. The discus
sion was spirited from beginning
to end and every inch of ground
was earnestly contested by the
speakers of each side.
As the Fifteenth Amendment
declares that the right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on
account of race, color or previous
condition of servitude, the discus
sion was confined almost exclu
sively to negro suffrage.
The first speaker, Mr. Funder
burk, argued that the right to
vote is not an absolute natural
and divine right that exists for
the benefit of: the individual, but
a great civil and political privi
lege. In the light of the South’s
experience with a certain class of
voters, they ought forever to be
disfranchised. The object in pass
ing the fifteenth amendment was
to enable the negro to dominate
the whites. Negro suffrage has
been a failure in the South. The
tendency of the political equality
of the negro is toward social
equality. The negro is unfit mor
ally and mentally to vote. The
North and West as well as the
South are becoming dissatisfied
with the fifteenth amendment.
An educational qualification for
voting will not eliminate the ne
gro vote. The repeal of the
fifteenth amendment will not in
terfere with the negro’s civic
rights, for they are secured by
the fourteenth amendment.
The first speaker on the nega
tive, Mr. R. L. McWhirter, argu
ed that the 15th amendment fol
lows the 14th as a political neces
sity. The negro pays tax and
works the roads; his disfranchise
ment would be unjust. Besides
it would close the door of hope to
ten millions of people. Under the
present laws the negro has ceased
to be a disturbing element in pol
itics. True self government
ceases to be so as soon as its pow
ers are conferred as an exclusive
privilege in one case and with
held from another. The repeal
of this amendment would cut
down our representation in con
gress.
The third and last speaker on
the affirmative, Mr. H. B. Jones,
argued as follows: The South’s
political welfare depends upon
the elimination of the negro vote.
The negro is wholly unfit for the
ballot. The negro has a right to
life, to liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, but he has no right to
participate in the government
until he has shown himself wor
thy of such a responsibility. This
amendment was passed by a Con
gress which the President de
ignorance and of centuries of
slavery. Nothing that the white
man can do will make him a true
man. The negro does not appre
ciate his vote and will sell it for
a trifie.
The last speaker on the nega
tive, Mr. W. D. Reynolds, pro
duced the following arguments:
Ours is a government of the peo
ple, by the people and for the
people. It guarantees certain in
alienable rights and derives its
powers from the consent of the
governed. In a democracy a cit
izen must have a voice in its af
fairs; otherwise it ceases to be a
democracy and becomes an aris
tocracy. The negro has a life
and should have a voice in mak
ing the laws under which he must
live.
The committee reported that
they were of the opinion that the
affirmative, or Gladstone speak
ers, had won.
The exercises were interspersed
with instrumental and vocal
music.
Among the Churches.
such feelings, for God has led me dared was not a true Congress,
here and given me a work to do. The negro should be disfranchised
and has greatly blessed it so far.” because he bears the stamp of abroad.—Ex.
The members of the church at
Mountain Springs are improving
their house of worship. This lit
tle church is growing rapidly.
Until recently it was a stronghold
for the Primitive Baptists, but
like that denomination every
where else, they are giving way
before the march of progress and
enlightenment.
Bro. Bennett has resigned the
care of the church at Waxhaw.
This church is located in a pros
perous and growing town and
will doubtless be one of our
strongest churches in a few years.
Bro. A. C. Baker left the early
part of December for Aiken coun
ty, S. C., where he will have the
care of several country churches:
It is with reluctance that we give
him up.
Bro. B. S. Funderburk has ac
cepted the call to the church at
Meadow Branch for one Sunday
in the month for next year, in
stead of two, as was the wish of
the church. It was hoped that
he could be induced to move to
Wingate and give the church half
his time, but he stated to the
church that he felt that he owed
it to Chesterfield to remain there.
Meadow Branch is proud of her
pastor.
The churches must not let up
on Foreign Missions, but on the
contrary, there should be a for
ward movement. In a very few
years we ought to have two mis
sionaries on the foreign field in
stead of one. If we are to keep
step with our sister associations,
we must quicken our pace, for
the recent convention at Raleigh
showed a great advance along all
lines.
As the wounded hero at Chan-
cellorsville was being borne from
his last and greatest battlefield,
he was accosted by Gen. Pender,
who said that he would have to'
retire his troops in order to re
form them; they were so broken
by the Federal fire. “You must
hold your ground, Gen. Pender;
you must hold your ground,”
firmly replied the wounded man;
and the words were Stonewall
Jackson’s last order.—Ex.
State Missions have the first and
highest claims on our sympathies,
prayers and gifts, appealing most
strongly to our patriotism and our
religion. The work lies at the foun
dation of all of our missionary and
benevolent enterprises at home and