The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-10-25
DR.. Cromer at Buffalo.


tone cut of Dr. Geo. B. Croner, has
the following to say of the address
which he delivered before the con-
vention Of the Luther Leagu~ Of
America at its meeting in Buffalo
some time ago:
Mr.'George B. Cromer, IL. D., for
mer president of Newberry college,
delivered an address on "Some Car
dinal Points" Dr.. Cromer's humor
at the beginning of his address was
much enjoyed. To his subject he
spoke in part as follows:
In the church where you are hold
ing your sessions are banners re-
cording a marvellous history of "day
before yesterday" yesterday" and
today" What of tomorrow? A
pastor down in South Carolina-not
a Lutheran pastor--tells a story of
his 6aptizing some negroes. To make
sure that the sacrament should be
administered in an orderly manner
he had the candidates meet him on
the preceding Saturday for a re-
hearsal. Now" he said, pointing
to the first boy, 'when I ask you to-
morrow what your name is, you must
give me your first name. Suppose
you were to ask my name, 1 would
say John Henry because that is my
first name. And tomorrow you must
all give me your first names Just as
] have given you mine. So the next
day, when I asked the first boy his
name, he said My name is John
Henry I thought it rather strange
that he should have my name, but l
did not question it and went on to
the next, who also gave his name as
John Henry And when the third
boy gave the same name I began to
think something was wrong. Just
then Deacon Jones came tip-toeing
up to me and said, Pastor, that boys
name is not John Henry; his name is
Silas ever since he was born And l
said, 1T might have been Silas, but
it's John Henry now, and what's
more, he's got to live up to it, "
So / suggest to you Leaguers, don't
forget that your name is Lutheran"
and that you must live up to it.
The first cardinal point I will men,
t.on, without reference to their in.
portance in the order in which |
name them, is knowledge. First,
we must know why we are Lutherans,
what our Church holds, what it sets
apart, distinctiveiy',1 from other de-
nominations. You should know
what our church is doing. What
do you know about the United Synod
of the south? Your president said
this evening that we are spread over
a great deal of territory and are a
world power We are, and in places
we are spread very thin. thought
of the boy whose mother sent him out
to set an old hen and who protested
that he put 50 eggs under the one
hen. The boy explained, Il just
wanted to see the old thing spread
herself" knowledge Of one another
encourages fellowship and sympathy.
This brings us to our second cardinal
point, which is organization.
The church today is groping after
methods because it realizes that in
some way it has failed to reach the
people. We need organizations for
teaching others and for actual service
in the field. We need sympathetic
fellowship and cooperation in the
service of the Master.
Another cardinal point is loyalty
loyalty to an ideal. An ideal is an
idea incarnate. We must put relig-
ion into the people of our country
somehow. We complain of lawless-
ness. What are we Lutheran people
doing to remove it? We must be-
gin with the young people, teaching