The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-03-23
ATTnf BIG TABERNACLE

The Interest in the Meetings Is H.
creasino Daily. Big Building Is
Crowded at Every Service.
The big tabernacle meetings are
moving grandly along and increas-
ing in momentum every day. The
crowds at the tabernacle are increas-
| ing and the interest is intensifylng.
From eight to ten cottage prayer
meetings are being held in different
parts of the city every morning at lO
O'Clock. A twelve minute meeting
| for business men was held in each or
the three banks on three successive
days last week.
Four services were held Sunday.
At II o'clock there was the regular
morning service at the tabernacle,
with all other church services sus-
pended except Sunday school. In
the afternoon there was a mems
meeting at the tabernacle and meet
ing for women at the Brethren
church. At the tabernacle in the ev-
ening the people began to gather ear
ly and by the time the services began
the big tabernacle was packed and
people standing and many were turn
ed away.
The mems meeting in the afternoon
was said to be the largest mems meet
ing ever held in Leon. There We're
( fully eight hundred men present. Men
and delegations were here from all
parts of the county and the neighbor-
/ ing towns and cities. Corydon, La
moni, Grand River, Garden Grove,
Osceola and others were represented.
The Leon band furnished the music
for the services. One surprise after
another seems to have featured this
movement, but the Biggest surprise
yet, other than the sudden successful
launching of the campaign, happened
at this service when Rev. Moser, pas
tor of the Methodist church, an
nounced that the offering would then
be taken, it was then that Decatur's
big hearted citizen, Mr.. 2. w. Town
send arose and suggested that loose
! collections was a slow and made
quate way to finance a big movement
such as this one, and that he would
| be one of ten men to contribute one
hundred dollars. His offer was i'm
| mediately caught up by Mr.. A. K.
Harper, the leader and big layman-
preacher of the campaign. Then 9TH
| ers followed and the tens began to
come thick and fast, then tives, twos
and ones, amounting in all to three
hundred and fifty-four dollars. In
the meantime the collection plates
were passed and the amount increas-
ed twenty-eight dollars The collec-
tions for the three services Sunday
amounted to four hundred and eighty
dollars. This voluntary Offering
greatly encouraged the finance COM
mittee and indicated the Willingness
of men to support the movement. The
stimulus that a nonresident OF leon.
gave to the cause seems to have in
spired our Leon people and the COM
mittee is very grateful to Mr.. Town
send. Mr. Townsend also made a
five dollar proposition. There were
twenty-one tens and twenty-one fives
pledged.
The offering and the music SEEM
, ed to prepare the way for great
sermon by Mr.. Harper He spoke on
the attitude of great men of the
country to church and christianity
He commented upon the contribution
that Theodore Roosevelt and VIM. J.
Bryan had made to church work. He
told of a visit to Washington where
he found Woodrow Wilson and chief
I Justice Harland teaching Bible
class. He spoke of John Wannamak-
er of Philadelphia. the merchant
prince of the world, beginning life
as a clerk in New York store, and
Wannamaker then observing the sue
cess of big men pledged himself to
. honesty and integrity. He told of
Colgate's work. Colgate used to
give a tenth and tnen two-tenths of
his income and now he lives on what
he has saved and gives all he makes
to the work of the Lord. He told of
the owner of the Ivory Soap factory,
a multimillionaire who gives millions
to church work. Also Mccormick of
Chicago of the Mccormick Harvester
company and his widow who have
given millions to churches, missions
and universities. He said that the
Swift brothers of the Swift Packing
company, were great philanthropists,
one having established Lake Forest
University and the other making
large contributions to other schools
and colleges. He called attention to
; great men like Garfield, Mckinley
and Lincoln as noble Christian men.
The aim of his sermon was to impress
men with the thought that it is not
belittling for man to be christian.
He showed that it pays better, even
in a money sense, to be christian
than not to be. He says you can be
a horse trader and still be chris
ton. He told pretty good story of
horse that could see fish as well as
birds He then related how mule
smashed his own nose all over his
face, and how he was rushed to Chi
/ cago hospital, but the doctors were
unable to build up a good nose out
of the fragments. But he said that
he was better off that the fellow who
had his nose bitten off in scrap,
and wnen he pasted it back, he got
it upside down. He got along very
we'll except when it rained he nearly
! drowned and when he sneeZed he