The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-07-02

take your paper, my reason
being, nay transient relation
to situations and things. I venture
a line or so however, to state a few
facts, as they strike me.
1. | wonder often what is to be-
come of our country with a gang of
religious towards in our Baptist pull
pits especially. l speak of them, be-
cause am a Baptist preacher my
self, with an active service Of twenty
i've years behind me. | have chal-
lenged them in the open many q
time, because of the positions they
occupy, but they will not accept, be-
ing keenly conscious of their in
ability to stand their ground. ]
mean those known as our Board
Baptists. All in the world they ap-
pear to care for, is the money they
can pick from the pockets of our
Baptist people, to meet demands with
no gospel claims In them. Baptists
used to suffer persecution for right
eousness sake, but that has passed,
because there is no contention by
them for it. [ assert that no Bap-
list preacher in any city could be
induced to speak out against Ro-
manism, as the gospel of Christ re-
quires. I mean again our Board
Baptists. You, through your paper
are doing more good in the proper
sense Of the term, to the extent you
reach the people, than the whole
bunch.
2. Our secretaries are the bosses,
and when they fiddle, the preachers
who do not dance, are thrust out,
because Of the grip they have on the
churches, through the system they
have wrought in the past. The Sec
retaries have strings tied to the
preachers, and from them to the
churches, and by pulling the strings
they make the money rattle from the
pockets of our Baptist people like a
hog shaking plums from a tree. If
it was used for the proper purpose
there could not, nor would there be
any objections to it. I was once
FOOL enough to try to vindicate the
system before I learned better. You
helped me to do SO.
3. A few years ago I criticised
the idea of taking money from the
pockets of our Baptist people in the
name of missions to educate foreign
ers thousands of miles from home,
and theirs go lacking. w. B.
Crumpton, Secretary of our State
Mission Board, and as big religious
boss as our Baptist people will let
him be, (and many appear not to
care cent? took advantage of my
absence from Alabama to misrepre-
sent me about it before the Tuske-
gee Association. I challenged him
as per the following, with the result
therein stated. Published in the
Opelika Daily News.
w. Il. CRUMPTON AND MYSELF.
w B. Crumpton, Secretary Of the
State Mission Board made public,
personal reference to my attitude re-
garding certain work Of Baptist af-
fairs, before the Tuskegee Associa-
ton held with Salem church, 1910
session. When the fact was COM
municated to me at Greenwood, S.
c., wrote him a personal letter tell
ing him he would not dared have
done so had I been present, and
challenged him before Salem church
with notice to the other churches
of the Association on his statement.
He positively refused to accept On
the 4th of February, 1912, / wrote
him another challenge to the same
effect which he refused to accept.
Now, I extend him another "of the
same faith and order" for notice to
me at Salem, Lee county, Ala, if he