The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-28

saying. About this time the Metho- distS began to make their presence felt in many parts of the State. If the country people then were mainly dependent on the Baptists and Metho- dists for preaching. and they were. it holds good to this day. But for | these two denominations. which began in Alabama. the same year, the coun- | try districts would be a waste. howl ing wilderness spiritually" Through the days when the conven- | ton dallied and weakened. when in 1888. but four Baptists of the entire State attended the session at Grants l Beach Church. to the time of- its retu- l venation in 1884. and beyond, when all | united for harmonious work. pr. 1 Crunapton's paper followed. In 1886. | he says there were 36s churches. 174 ordained and thirty-eight licensed min- isters. and a total membership or ] i6,667 for the church in Alabama. ! remarkable. record for the short time In fsS05-says the paper, the Bapttsts. meeting in Tuskegee, began the talk of war, declaring that Basil Manly. ST., a man of the widest Influence Tn 1 the State, presented a paper as dec i iaration of sentiment, which probably ! had more to do with the secession of | Alabama from the Union than anything ! else. And with the war, all work Of !
 1 ruins"
 I Alter the war, the work was taken I m anew, amid the horror and poverty | of reconstruction, the Baptist cause gradually growing. through the heroic 1 struggles of its workers, to the pros 1 porous status of today. Mrs. T. A. Hamilton of Birmingham, | First Vice-President of the Woman's Missionary Union. read a paper, de- tailing the inception and the growth of the great woman's auxiliary of the Alabama Baptists. She declared that l the work of the women was coincident | with that of the men even in the bee ! ginning as the first convention of the l Alabama Baptists was attended by rep- | resentatives of seven women's socie- l ties. In 1889. the Woman's Mission ary Work was organized in Alabama, at the State convention at Selma. and i from then began labor for the church which was even more efficient thar be- fore, when the women had worked as zealously, but in a disorgantzed man l ner.
 The paper includes detailed report of the growth of the organization. up to the present day. when the women and children who make up it's body. contributed $S0,937.47 to mission work | of the Baptists.
 | Rev. B. F. Riley of Houston, Tex. followed with a paper, Under the Biennial Convestion," which tells of kthe organization of a general Baptist kConvention for missionary purposes. | This was formed in 1874. and, says the | paper. has proved efficient in it's work 1 in the dissemination of the Gospel. l. Rev. J M. Frost of Nashville, Tenn, f spoke of the South ern Baptist Conven- l ton in Alabama" in which he told of the prominent and zealous part played
 
 tist Convention, an organization whose territory includes. as he said. four fifths of the Baptists of the world. He 1 smoke of the fact that four times the i Southern Convention has assembled in an Alabama town, in Montgomery in 1855 and 1876, in Birmingham In 1891. and in Mobile in 1873, and that each time the session was eVentful and fruit full He paid a tribute to the Alabam- 1 ians who have worked admirably for lthe Southern Convention, and especially 1 10 Jonathan Earalson of Montgomery.
 The Centennial program for todays i and tonights sessions follows:
 9s3O a. m--Hymn. My Hope Is l Built on Nothing Less"
 RAldIng 1 Corinthians 1S. and pray er-J. D. Gwaltney, Talladega. e.46 A. m.-Our pioneer preachers | North Alabama-Josephus Shackel- ford. Tuskegee.
 F 1O:2O a. m.-Our pioneer preachers, South AIabama-W. M. Blackwelder l Greenville.
 Hymn-"Jesus Thou Art the Sinners | Friend"
 l11O a. m.-our work among the
 Indians-H s. Halbert. Montgomery I1:45 a. m.-our work among the nerroes-Charles W. Hare. Tuskegee |. I2:30 D. m.--Our local and general .l benevolence, the story of the orphan | sge-J. w. Stewart. Evergreen.
 Hymn-"Take the Name of Jesus
 With You"
 Adjournment.
 | AKteEnOonf Session.
 3:OO D. m.-Hymn. Savior Thy Dy-
 ing Love"
 Reading of Isaiah 35 and prayer W. M Anderson. pothan.
 s:15 D. m.-Literary history of Ala | bama Baptists--G. W. Duncan, Auburn. I 3:45 D. m.--OuF Baptist htstorianB- , A C. MoseIy. Enterprise