The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-09

O0CJ3CCesOCSCCC CCCCt0cCCc3CCCSC
 After a very successful session of two days, the auxiliary towns convention, held in connection with the Men and Re ligion Forward Movement campaign, was closed yesterday afternoon at o'clock During the convention there were about 500 men from all parts of the state of Ala bama in attendance. a great many of them being ministers. who are heartily in ac- cord with the movement. These out of town men were given a chance to hear all of the seven specialists now in the city, each one of them addressing the convention at some stage of the two days session.
 The last day of the convention was opened yesterday morning at 9:30 o'clock with a service of prayer and praise. At 945 the Rev w. E. Bederwolf was in troduced as the first speaker of the morn ing. The Rev. Biederwolf announced that he had taken Individual Evangelism as his subject. During his speech pr. Biederwolf said
 Don't Belong to the Devil
 "A fellow kept me out of my bed some time ago until about midnight trying to make me believe that this world belonged to the devil. But it don't. He must oe blind and unreasoning pessimst, indeed who can read the glorious history of the past, with its mighty struggles for tl,c triumph of truth or untruth, and read ont of 1t nothing but the acknowledgements of ba This is not the devils world. It is Gods world. It is Gods world because He made it aud because He redeemed it, and because He is running it, and I think of the words of Jesus to his F disciples when he said, Have faith in God and l do not under stand how any one can survey the marvel ous movements of the Almighty in times gone. and read the stately steppings of the Lord Christ in these days and do any thing else. God Is not fighting losing battle It is time to let the frogs do all the croaking and for you and me to yanlS the moans and groans out of our prayers and put shout of victory there.
 Have faith in God. We ought to have faith in His purpose, which is to carry on to a glorious consummation the redemp- ton of this world wrought out by Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross; we ought to have faith in His power to do it and we ought to have faith in His plan for doing it. And it is Gods plan to have this world through human instrumentality.
 Not on the Job
 'The winning of men to Jesus Christ IS the greatest work in the world. If it were given heaven to do I think angels would hasten to undertake 1t, and the reason why tie world has not been won to Christ long igo is because the church has not really been on the job
 eve had a book written up in Indiana som. years ago entitled, The Hooser schoomaster,' and that book tells of church which was most remarkable on, It was not very large ehurch-ln fatt, it aonly had three or four members, bit it was called the Church of the Best IIcks' because each one of the members took VOW upon themselves to put in dleir best licks for God, and If all Of Dur churches were churches like that it would not be long until the hill tops would fSfllne N1tn the DrlRnt llBnl Ol Hiliieiiiioi glory.
 'T allow no oneto go any farther than in ascribing to the church and to the ministry their rightful and conspicuous place of leadership in all plans which look toward the redemption of this world. Great as the debt is which We owe to the consecrated laymen of the church, and as much as we thank God for them for what they are doing, especially in these days. we are led to look with very little confidence upon any movement in the religious life of the day in which the minister himself is not blazing the way and leading the forces on in the con quest. The minister's place is at the head of the Lords work and the priest ought to lead or leave. Yet, no matter how much emphasis is placed upon the leader ship of the ministry. and no matter how conspicuous the minister's work in the community where he labors, the world is not going to be won to Jesus Christ in a wholesale fashion. Men are not born in a wholesale way, and they do not die in wholesale way, and they are not con verted to Jesus Christ in wholesale