The San Francisco call., 1897-10-06
Seventeenth Annual Meet
ing of the Central
Association.
Rev. L. w. Elliott Elected
Moderator for the En-
suing Year.
Interesting Addresses by Prominent
Preachers From Berkeley and
Stockton.

The seventeenth annual session of the
Central Baptist Association of California
ope ned In Emmanuel Baptist Church al
O. clock yesterday afternoon with good
representation from the various church es
around the bay. The exercises opened
with the singing of "All Hail the Power
of JESUS Name" after winch The Rev S.
c. Keetch of Golden Gate made an open
ing prayer Chairman S. z. Morse then
appointed the following committees:
Arrangements-Rcv. ]. George G. bson,
Rev a. NJ. Russell, Rev. H. B. Vogle.
Enrollment-Rev. S. c. Keetch, J. Z.
Moody, Rev. ii. Brace.
Nominations-Rev. II. l. Deitz, Rev.
George Duncan, David Lantelle.
At 2:30 Rev !. d. Pierce, ID, OF
Berkeley read an interesting paper on
How 10 Arouse Greater Spiritual Int-rest
in the Churches of the Association" of
which the following is a brief extract:
Power Is something all seek after, 1t is
part OF the original gift of God that man
should rule all creatures He has made.
Man spent 60U0 years in crushing his
fellow-creatures and only in the present
century has he caught The inspiration of
controlling the forces OF nature. 1t is
mans great desire to have power to con-
tro his fellow men, and to this end he is
bending all his energies. We who are
WORKING for spiritual power must have
absolute faith in God and his holy word
the Bible. We have no time to decide the
authenticity of the Pentateuch or the
authorship of Isaiah, but we 90 know
that the Bible is the companion of the
highest civilization, tn highest standard
of morals ana confessedy the most classic
literature. We must also have faith in
our mission as messengers OF God, and
use practical personal effort"
The annual election OF officers of the
association. which was then held. resulted
as follows: Moderator, L. W. Elliott OF
Stockton; clerk, b. c. Wright of San
Francisco; treasurer, 6. w. Frazer of
Golden Gate.
At $50 OF lunch was served the dele
gates by the ladies of the church and the
evening session was opened at o'clock
with praise service, In which Mrs. Gala
horn rendered solo in very pleasing
manner.
The annual sermon was preached by the
Rev. G. w. Swift OF Stockton, who
preached on What Constitutes a Son of
God" DR.. Swift's sermon was il part as
follows:
''God is a spirit, and his offspring are
necessarily spiritual. Not all men are
sons OF God, as no man is the son of G cd
or brother In Christ until he IS born of the
Spirit We know we are his sons by con-
sciousness and by the assurance of his
word, bpt we do not know that state of
glorious excellence to which as his chill
dren we shall be raised. The central
thought OF this passage is that the charac-
ter and mission OF his children is not 1ully
manifest in this life. God does not de-
Iight in us as we are but as we shall be,
when our characters are completed.
ave affirm that in the creation of the
race God created an order of beings unlike
all other orders of created intelligences
and their destiny was TO be an exaltauon
above all other created powers. This is
pledged and secured to our race by the
exaltation of our humanity to the throne
of universal authority and our humanity
helps 10 compose the present G dhead,
and can there be higher exaItation for
us?'
To-day's session will open at 9:30 A. NJ.
and reports from the various officers of
work done throughout the year will be