Christian Messenger (Bonham, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 25, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 27, 1877 Page: 4 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Fannin County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Bonham Public Library.
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4
Christian Messenger.
THE MESSENGER.
T. R. BURNETT,
- - Editor.
ASSOCIATE
EDITORS:
Chas. Caslton,
C. Kendrick,
E. Eloan,
R.C. Horn,
J. M. Biabd,
T. M. Sweeney.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 1877.
Christian College, Bonham,
Texas, is ten years old.
The little town of YVhites-
boro, Tex., has eleven preachers.
- m ■ -
' Paris, Texas, has preaching
in the open air.
--m ■ m-
Beecher says he expects to
meet the Pope in heaven.
- ■■ ■ m m-*
There are four Jews in the
Turkish parliament.
Henry Ward Beecher says he
believes the Pope prays for him.
-» ■ m-
Bro. John A. Sidener, former-
ly of Tennessee, is evangelizing
in Missouri.
-^ ^-
Deacon. Penn made fifty con-
verts at Marshall, Texas, and
is now at Shreveport, La.
Bro. Kirk Baxter is engaged
in a protracted meeting at Me
Kinney, Texas.
Moody has closed his labors
in Boston, and gone to North-
field to spend the summer.
- --■» m -
Rev. Mr. Shears is pastor of
the church at Sheepcote. it is
presumed the flock will be fleec-
ed in that locality. •
- ■ ■ ■ • m-
Bro. W. R. D. Barnett culti-
vates a crop of cotton and corn,
in Cooke county, Texas, and
preaches ten times a month.
- • ■ ■ m • m- ’
When a man dies, out in the
Black Hills, the miners get up
a mock funeral, with a clergy-
man and mourners.
Some one estimates that all
the prayers recorded in the Bi-
ble could be repeated in thirty-
five minutes.
How wonld Christ appear at
the head of a brigade of troops
on the Danube, fighting for the
oppressed Christians of Servia
and Montenegro?
-^-
Dr. N. L. Rice, the celebrated
Presbyterian divine who debat-
ed with Alex. Campbell in the
early days of the reformation,
died at Danville, Ky., recently.
An Episcopal priest named
Harrison, of Florida, refuses to
read that portion of his prayer
book which saith: “For thy
servant, the president of the
United States.”
. ---- • <m-—
The Ministers A Deacons’
meeting of Waxahachie ^Jap
tist Association has been dis-
cussing the clerical titles, ‘Rev.
and ‘D. D.’ Our Baptist friends
Are advancing towards Bible
ground.
——■ ■■ ■ ^---
- . It is stated that at the last
public dinner given by Pres-
ident Grant in the White House
there were six kinds of wine
placed beside each guest’s
plate. President Hayes’ guests
drink coffee and tea.
The General Assembly of the
Presbyterian church has abol-
ished infant damnation from
its creed. It should go the
whole score, and expunge in-
fant baptism. The two go tef-
g**ther, and one is the result of
the other.
Trip to Bed Rlrer Coun-
ty.
On Wednesday night last,
after midnight, we took the
train at Bonham for a short
trip to Red River county, and
reached Blossom Prairie at day-
light. In consequence of
change of the schedule, Bro.
Murphy was not expecting the
train for several hours, and did
not meet ns at the depot, and
we were left to foot it out to his
house. After trudging on a mile
or two, satchel in hand, and
finding no one who could give
any directions about the road,
we turned our course toward
Sylvan, and reached that place
after a hearty walk of four
miles. A good breakfast with
our clever Methodist friend,
Dr. Moody, and an hour’s sleep
afterwards, to make up for the
time lost during the night, set
us all right again. At night a
good congregation came out,
and we spoke to them to the
best of our ability upon mat-
ters pertaining to life and sal-
vation, and went home with
Bro. Murphy, preparatory to
our trip to Red River county
next day. Bro. M. is a granger-
preacher, and, like all other
granger-preachers, has to spend
much of his valuable time fight-
ing the crab-grass that grows
in his cotton patch. He works
his farm during the day, stud-
ies at night, and preaches for
the people on Sunday. In this
way he is getting to be quite a
preacher, and premises to be
very useful to the,cause. The
places where he mas labored
have been blessed, and many
have been added to the Lord,
yet he has never received $100
of support from the brethren
for his work. Oh, the hard-
ships of ye tent-making preach-
er of the gospel of Christ! If
le were inspired like Paul, and
did not have to study to pre-
pare himself for the pulpit, he
could make tents or chop cotton
all the week and teach the peo-
ple on Lord’s day.
On Friday morning, Bro.
Murphy hitched his mules to
his wagon, stretched an um-
brella to keep off the sun, and
we were away in a sweeping
trot for Halesboro. Towards
noon we drew up in front of the
residence of Bro. Lambeth, and
topped awhile to rest and eat
dinner. Bro. L. is an old man,
but a young disciple, .having
come out of the Methodist fold
under the preaching of Bro.
Murphy only a few years ago.
He thought it better to pull off
his coat and turn it around,
when he found he had it on
wrong-side-out, and be called a
turn-coat, than to persist
in wearing it that way the bal-
ance of his life, after he discov-
ered how badly it fit. Bro.
Murphy used to be a Method-
ist, and knows how to aid those
who are afflicted in like man
ner. He had the disease worse
than the writer of this, or Bro.
Reedy, for he was a full-fledged
preacher, ‘call’ and all. It took
a good deal of medicine to cure
him. Just nine days after liis
baptism he preached Lis first
gospel sermon, and he didn’t
preach a very big sermon ei-
ther. Bro. J. M. Biard arose to
conclude, and said: “ Friends,
the young gentleman who has
addressed you is young in the
cause ; he is my son imthe gos-
pel, and is just nine days old! ”
But Bro. Murphy is older than
that now.
About 3 o’clock in the eve-
ning we reached Halesboro,
and stopped with Bro. Nicks.
The brethren thought it expe-
dient to have preaching at
night, and sent out runners to
scatter the word over the neigh-
borhood. A very good audience
came together. Next morning
we journeyed on, and reached
Wayland in time to circulate
word for preaching at night. A
respecteble audience came out.
A Baptist minister named Wor-
ley had an appointment to
preach" on Sunday, but kindly
consented that we should fill
his place. A fine congregation
assembled on Sunday, and paid
marked attention to what was
said. We learned that this
community is free from that
who lives just below, and Bro.
Linder, a new-comer. Monday
we drove back to Sylvan, in
Lamar county, and at night
Bro. Murphy preached an in-
teresting discourse on the prop
er division of the Scriptures.
Tuesday morning at daylight
we were at the depot ready for
the up train to Bonham.
The brethren of Red River
and Lamar counties were very
kind to us, and did all in their
power to aid our business. The
Messenger now has a club of
readers at quite every post-
office in the two counties. We
found it very popular every-
where, and considered a neces-.
sity by the friends of the cause
in which it is engaged.
At Sylvan we met and talked
with a colored brother, Jon-
athan Guest, who has been
preaching very successfully for
a number of years. He has
bitt^* prejudice that pervades just returned from the Bible
many Texas communities. The
people turn out and fill the
house on all occasions, and
give the speaker a patient hear-
ing. They not long ago held
an election and covered them-
selves all over with glory, by
voting liquor out of their pre-
cinct. There is a good school
taught in the village, by Prof.
Cleveland, who is an active
worker in the affairs of the
community and an energetic
College for colored men in Ken-
tqcky, where he went to im-
prove his education, and will
spend his time preaching to the
colored people of Texas. He
should be aided in his good
work by the white brethren of
the state.
Errors of Sectarianism.
1. Praying God to send down
converting power.
2. Telling sinners to get re-
laborer for the up-building of ligion.
the moral and educational in-
terests of his people. Our home
while here was principally with
3. Calling sinners to the
mourner’s bench.
Valentine Cook, a Methodist
Dr. Gibson, an old 1 citizen of preacher, first introduced the
the place. The Baptist preach-
er of whom we spoke, Eld.
Worley, is far in advance of
most of the Baptist preachers
of Texas. He utterly repu-
diates total depravity, and
many other of the inconsistent
dogmas of the Baptist’creed;
in fact he stands nearly abreast
of those who are laboring to
establish Bible Christianity.
His denomination has rather
repudiated him, that is, the
Association will not fellowship
the churches for which he la-
bors. These three or four
churches will probably form
an Association of their own, or
come up and join Sister Grove!
We told Eld. Worley that he
stood ju^t where Alex. Camp-
bell did in the Baptist church
of Virginia—out of fellowship
with the Association but in
good fellowship with the
church! A Baptist Association
has no right to exclude any
man from the church.
Sunday afternoon onr mules
were harnessed, and we drove
back to Halesboro, eight or
nine miles, in time for preach-
ing at night. A large congre-
gation assembled. The church
building here is a ufiion house,
and the audience was a mixed
multitude. We have a good
band of brethren at Halesboro,
and they perhaps wield a great-
er influence than any religious
body in the community. This
section of Red River county,
like that at Wayland, is free
from the liquor traffic. We ad-
ded a considerable number of
names to the Christian Mes-
senger’s subscription list at
both Wayland and Halesboro.
At the latter place we made
the acquaintance of two or three
preaching brethren—Bro. Wm.
Burnett, who resides in the
community, and Bro. Kennedy.
mourner’s bench in 1796.
4. Teaching that alien, un-
converted sinners can pray off
their sins.
5. That the sinner cannot be-
lieve until first inclined by ab-
stract power of the Spirit.
6. Sprinkling and pouring for
baptism.
7. Infant baptism.
8. Professing to be immedi-
ately called and sent of God—
to preach.
9. Wearing human names, as
Methodist and Baptist.
10. Making and using creeds
and disciplines.
11. Making feeling the evi-
dence of pardon.
12. That baptism is a. non-
essential.
13. “Once in grace, essenti-
ally, always in grace.”
14. Voting in receiving mem-
bers into the church, and in
withdrawing from them.
15. Creating officers to rule
more than one congregation at
one and the same time.
16. Teaching that those who
are called “the pious unbap-
tized” will be saved.
Is a man pious who has the
opportunity to obey God, and
will not do it ?
17. Refusing to break the loaf
on each first day of the week.
18. Justification by faith
alone.
19. Introducing into the i$or-
ship of God musical iii^tru-
ments, as the organ.
Dear Messenger, when I
contemplate these, and other
unscriptural practices, convic-
tion deepens that the great re-
formatory movement of the
19thth century is an absolute
necessity. Ours is a mighty
plea. Scripture teaching for
all we believe, practice and
preach, back to the ancient
land marks.
This is our battle cry. Let
it be heard all along the line.
“The eternal years of God be-
long to truth.” Let us bring
to bear upon error the tremen-
dous power of the word of
truth. As preachers, duty
binds us to kindly point out
these errors to the people.
Away with these wishy
washy preachers! Those who
are afraid of becoming unpop-
ular by showing the people
what is false and damning.
Those preachers who are
ashamed to preach faith, re-
pentance, confession and bap-
tism for remission of sins. I
have frequently gone to places
to conduct meetings, and the-
brethren would say: “Bro.
Jones, don’t say much about
baptism; the sects say we are
always preaching about bap-
tism, and always go to pente-
cost.” I would like to know
whether such brethren believe
Christ is our Savior, without a
law of pardon ? Are there any
conditions? If so, is*baptism
one of them ? No living man
can do his duty, as a preacher,
without preaching the bleed-
ing Jesus, the Savior, by the
bhptism of penitent believers.
I have always succeeded best
when I have preached Jesus,
held up to the gaze of my audi-
ence the commands of God in
one hand, and the doctrines
and commandments of men in
the other. Some of the secta-
rian members will fly off like
a tanget; get angry, extremely
angry. But if the truth has
been presented kindly, and in
love of it, error never recovers
from the shock. It reels, goes
lame to some extent ever after,
m that neighborhood. Loo’k
at the effect of the Campbell
and Rice debate in Kentucky.
Will not sectarianism always
limp by reason of the blow
dealt at Sherman by Brother
Sweeney? Let us preach just
what the apostles taught and
preached. If people reject it,
they are not of God, for the
apostle says: “He that is not
of God, heareth not us.” 1st
John, 4:6. This is an end of
the whole matter. Let them
go; they are joined to their
idols. Look what a mighty
work has been done in the last
sixty-eight years ; the reforma-
tion born in 1809, now stretches
its mighty arms across conti-
nents, and the islands are made
to rejoice. Far off Australia
is to-day mingling the voice of
everlasting truth with the
ceaseless roar of .ocean. Let
me say to my preaching breth-
ren, stand to your colors; push
forward the heavy columns,
and the long line will come
gleaming on to victory and to
conquest. The truth is em-
balmed in the hearts of hun-
dreds of thousands. Our
brethren are in the field. The
Atlantic sea-board, the Pacific
slopes, the great lakes of the
notfli, and the Mexican gulf
states, are receiving “t%. an-
eient gospel.” “Praise^lod
from whom all blessings flow.”
W. J. Jones.
Manor, Texas. June 24, 1877.
The New York Independent
is authority for the statement
that the chief of police of New
York city has oeelared that
three-fourths of the abandoned
young women of that city were
first approached, bv the villains
who ruined them, m the waltz.
&
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Burnett, Thomas R. Christian Messenger (Bonham, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 25, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 27, 1877, newspaper, June 27, 1877; Bonham, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth974302/m1/4/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bonham Public Library.