The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-06-25

&c. Cree, of Atlanta, the enlistment Sec
rotary of the home mission board of
of the Southern Baptist Convention,
} and bible lecture by DR.. McGlothlin,
on Moses divine CALL were the special
features of the Baptist Encampment
exercises held in Emmanuel Baptist
Church Tuesday night. These interest
ing addresses were listened to by an
: audience that filed the auditorium of
the church.
DR.. Cree in speaking of the work of
his department-the enlistment of the
unenlisted churches-said, while it was
created by the Home Mission Board,
it has to do with all departments and
phases of church work. when 1
speak of home mission work, l mean
work done at home, whether it relates
to the foreign field or the home field"
said he. Some one has said AS
America goes, so goes the world" but
he prefers to put it, If you would save
the world, first save the nation While
the world is made up of individuals
you can't think of the individual alone.
The man on the top of the highest
mountain by himself cannot be thought
of without at the same time thinking
of his father or mother or some one
interested In or connected with him.
A novelist once tried to picture the
individual all by himself, but failed
utterly, to make poor old Robinson
Cruso anything until he got his Man
Friday into the scene"
America has no choice as to whether
it will play a great part in world civil
lization and world evangelization. We
have great obligations that cannot be
neglected without national ruin"
In speaking of the work before the
church, DR.. Cree quoted Josh Billings
saying: "You can't have an honest
horse race until you have an honest
human race" The best human evil
dence. one can carry to man of the
genuineness of his Christian profess
sion is a Christ life. The light that
shines brightest shines farthest. It is
as important to save the man across
the street as the one across the sea,
were some of the expressions used by
DIR. Cree, The foreign missionary is
tied up to the individual idea-the
lone man or woman to shine in a world
of darkness. This is the only method
known to man, but every effort at
home has its influence on the work Of
the foreign missionary. One success
full and prominent missionary worker
in China was asked what is the
greatest handicap to mission work in
China?" His reply was "The Codes
ness of America" What the church
needs is a more definite Christian ex-
perience. This is more important than
to put preacher in large black area.
With 100000 people in America the
records show that only 100000, or
one-third of these are adherents of any
church whatsoever. Development at
home is essential to efficient work
abroad
"The Baptist Church, with two and
half million members has not over
one and half million doing anything.
Why pay for power unless it is for
use? We Baptist are great on some
things, preaching for instance, but we
are consummate failures when 1t comes
to making numbers count. Think of
|. it! 10000 Baptist churches in the
South pastorless. A church with
preaching only once a month is pastor.
less. ! want to pay my respects to the
few noble men and women who have
done so much with so little. They
deserve crowns Of glory and they will
get them. But what of the thousands
of the unenlisted who do nothing
1t is to this class this new department
of the Home Mission Work addresses
itself, hoping to develop new centers
of influence and power as has been
done by bringing up such churches to
the standard set by a number of
churches mentioned where improve
ment began at once with the install
lation of a pastor"
. DR.. McGlothlin's lecture was listen.
ed to with marked attention. He re-
lated, in most simple and pleasing
manner, the bible story of the Children
of Israel in Egypt from the time OF
Moses return from the land of indian
when he was eighty years old, to en-
trance of the Israelites upon their
forty-years' journey in the wilderness