The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-04
 CENTENARY
 OF BAPTISTS pr. Montague Spoke on
 Church History. THE GR )WTH IN ALABAMA A Splendid Tribute to The
 Pioneers. The President of Howard College Speaks of Churchs Wonderful Growth and It's Work for the
 Cause of Education.

| President A. P. Montague of How
 ard College. East Lake. Birmingham, occupied the pulpit of the Adams
 Avenue Baptist Church. at the services at II o'clock. Dr. Montague took as
 his subject. "A Century of Baptist His | tory" There was a large congregation present to hear this famous educator, and his address was followed with close attention to the end.
 Dr. Montague said, in part: Seven hundred years passed from the founding of Rome before the gov ernment whose capital was on the Fiber l rose to be a vast world-power. Centu- | ries saw the slow development of Eng | land to the day, when, as heart of the British Empire. she controls lands that
 lie on every ocean.
 ITO our country alone of all nations | has it been granted in a century and quarter to rise from smaliness and
 weakness to the commanding position
 of equality with the proudest people on
 earth, to the place of arbiter of the. l Western Hemisphe ere.
 "As wonderful as our national growth
 has been the expansion of the Baptist | cause within the bounds of Alabama. "On the second of october, 1908, in | the home of James Deatson, in Madison ] County. Rev. John Nicholson organized
 the first Baptist Church in the bounds
 of the State of Alabama, and the mem 1 bership consisted of twelve men and women. 1t was hardly sunrise in our nations day. Some twenty-five years had marked the brief span of American l Independence. It was the home of the | pioneer, with his axe in one hand, to | cut his way through virgin forests and to build his humble home of logs, and with his musket in the other hand | to guard life and loved one from hos | l the possessions of our sires, poor and | meagre their way of daily life. But the God who had brought forth
 the captivity from Egypt. who had
 nurtured the early church in Roman dominions until the Roman Empire fell | before the might of Christian faith; | Who had guided the ships of the Pn- grims over the waters of the Atlantic to find a resting place beside the land | of the sunset, was their God, and He | would give to them as to the early l Christian, the heathan to be their in- heritanee the uttermost parts of the earth to be their possessions.
 "It is hard for us to conceive the rude l beginnings of those early days. Rough | logs formed the sides of houses whose | covering was bark or skins of wild beasts, No roads led from house to | house, only Indian trails, with one chief trail from Nashville. then the southern outpost of civilization, to Pensacola. Horseback or afoot, the preacher travelled scores of miles from church to church as the churches, rude and small, took visible shape.
 There was then established a small church in Huntsville now the First Baptist Church of that city. and then a church in Clarke County was built be- ing known as the Basset's Creek Church. Twenty members constituted la rfokt In members of an organized Baptist Church in Alabama, while today there are 1650o0 white Bapists,
 "The first meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention was held with Salem. Church, fin Green County, during the month of October. 1923, and twenty messengers from the churches were present. Tn that meeting seven mis- sionary societies were represented. all established by Baptist women.'' Ten years later at meeting of the convention only four delegates were present, but that little meeting was l under God. the power that projected two enterprises whose establishment has been of vast importance to our ! State, to all our Southern land. Those
 four men, Ryan. Thomas. McCran and Holcombe. inaugurated a plan of edu-
 cation wh ose result was the establish
 ment of Judson and Howard Colleges This plan was a declaration to the
 world that the Baptists of Alabama be- lieved in more than houses and lands:
 1t was a declaration that they belived
 in mind. as dominating and directing the physical. in mind expanded to grasp opportunity to make opportunity real
 ization, and in the spiritual as purify
 ing body and mind and lifting them
 nearer to God.
 Thus in those early years the two causes which have made our growth. missions and education. were on the hearts of wise men and godly women. There is no man on earth who can es-
 innate what these two colleges have
 done for the advancement of Gods cause in the State.
 Tn thousands of homes the influence of cultured women from Judson is felt, and throu ghout the State the lives of Howard men have made for higher things. Here in your city the Chief Justice bears the Howard diploma; a leader of your bar, Ray RuShton, Is a Howard graduate. In the home of American culture, New England. Ly- ons a Howard alumnus. leads in scien- tifc studies; in the great Baptist con- vention of Southern States the rising of James B. Hawthorne stirs every heart, and he Is a Howard alumnus;
 beyond the Pacific, in far-of Japan, McCollum, a Howard alumnus. leads the army of protestant missionaries"
 The speaker concluded with an ap- peal for the support of education and missionaries, saying in part
 If we would have our people grow in knowledge n appreciation of con- ditions here and the world over. in ability to defend our faith, to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. if we would have our children strong and clean. if we would have them cherish the same old doctrines. precious to our hearts, If we would have them fear less, thorough Baptists. We must give our prayers, our money and our ehll- dren to Baptist schools.
 If we believe that to us have been committed the oracles of God. to us the dearest vision of duty, then we must believe that to us has been com mttted the stupendous task of evanEe- Iizinr the world There Is magical sweetness in the thought. there Is in- splration in the purpose. In the work Itself there is toll beyond words. there Is untold sacrifice
 "But there is also the soul-cheering thought that we, followers of Christ, ara carrying 10 the earth's remotest hounds the banner of our Supreme Commander. bearing on it's folds the words that He uttered when about to exchange the toll and tragedy of earth far the throne of Heaven; Go ye there fore and teach all nations. And thus wa live in prayer and in act the