The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-02-16
AT THE BAPTIST CHURCH


church, vas greeted by a very large
audience yesterday morning, and TO
those who listened ID him il was a
service Of pleasure AMI profit
> In the first place the speaker is en-
dowed with q magnificent voice.
voice that without an effort on the
part OF the speaker could be heard
distinctly in the remotest corners of
any church ediice in the country,
while the spirituality, the logic,
earnestness and at times a vein OF
humor that pervaded the whole dis
course, claimed the closest attention
of everyone present.
The speaker stepped outside the
line Of ordinary serm0niZing and in
stead of taking a few words of scrip
ture for a text he read the whole OF
the covenant OF the Baptist church
and selecting several paragraphs
from the same he proceeded to cat
echise the members Of the church
and to show where they were in err
ror as TO their manner of receiving
that covenant and then not living up
to their professions.
The covenant itself is something
that everyone who joins the Baptist
church has to subscribe to and every
member Of that body is supposed to
live up TO. but it seems from his own
experience there are great many
Baptists who know but little about
that document, and practically ignore
l. in their daily life. A large part
of the covenant can be traced to the
18th chapter OF Romans, in which
the Apostle Paul admonishes, among
other things. that they BE kindly
affectioned one to another with
,brotherIy love" "Of the same mind
one toward another Distributing
to the necessity of the saints and,
''If it be possible live peaceably with
all men" II We lived up to the
spirit of that covenant We would see
home and in every phase of our
daily life He told. of a church of
which he had been pastor in which
three brothers held membership,
two of them being deacons of the
church. These men seemed TO carry
out their covenant obligations, but
unfortunately their wives were al
ways at cross purposes, and by their
own selfish chickering's kept the en-
tire church in a turmoil and thereby
,.Dh1 oI - r,,y,
One of the provisions OF the cove
nant was that members pledged
themselves to attend all the services
of the church, and yet a visit to the
church on any prayer meeting night
disclosed how few valued that part
of the covenant. for any excuse for
their absence seemed TO be perfectly
4 reasonable, while an engagement to
attend a social function was held to
be too sacred to he broken. A pas
tor took one OF his flock to task for
not attending the Sunday night SER
vices, but the member said that one
of his tthe pastor's) sermons was all
he could digest in one day. but the
4 pastor suggested that the trouble
was not with his digestion but with
+ his appetite, and that if he would
4 cultivate a taste for the services of
/ his church he would. find his diges-
ton would come out all right.
He spoke OF the church discipline
as being almost lost art and illus
trated that part Of his discourse by
l telling Of being in the lodge of some
l secret society of which he was a
member. One of the members
brother OF being frequently seen on
the street in a state OF intoxication
but another brother came to his de-
Tense and said that while drunken.
ness was against the discipline of the
order and a member found guilty
was punished by expulsion yet a:
this brother was a member OF one o.
the principal churches in the city
and that the pastor AMI two Of hi!
l deacons were then present ana hat
never brought the delinquent broth
= er before the bar o. church discip
line, he didn't see that the lodge
. should interfere, at least until the
/ church had taken some action. fol
If he was good enough for The
church. he was good enough for tn,
I lodge. 1t was severe jolt for tina
1 pastor and the deacons so they rub
bed UP their church discipline anc
read the riot act 10 the brother. alsC
l instructed him IN the provisions o
/ his covenant with the church AM
/ made a new man OF him.
In speaking on the point of dis
/ tributing 10 the necessities OF the
l saints" he said the church seemec
- TO delegate that JOB TO the secre