The Washington herald., 1918-01-09


So when we got in close quarters,
they turned, looked in the opposite
direction. as though the world or one
another smelled bad. and I said, "Its
evident that you two fellows don't
! speak as you pass by"
He said. mo. sirl haven't spoken
to him for eight years"
said. "Have you been preaching in
the Interim
He said, "Yes, SIR"
I said. Have you been administering
the ordinance OF communion and Of
baptism?"
He said, Eyes, SIR"
/ said. "If you'd died you'd be in
hell now. II you're a Presbyterian
you believe in predestination, fore
ordination, the final preservation by
the saints. What sort Of Bible have
you got? My Bible says, Woe unto
you IL you forgive not men their
trespasses for neither will your Father
in heaven forgive your trespasses,
and I'd like to see the theological gym
nastics that you display to sidestep
that"
Not One Converted.
We stayed there a week, nobody
was converted. We packed our trunks
and left. The spirit OF God fled from
the scene of strife and of discord. and
you might as well expect a mummy to
speak and bear children, as to expect
the people TO be converted In a cold
world of fault finding. growing
preachers.
] A friend OF mine was preaching in
I a town In Iowa and he was taken
sick. and had to 60 to the hospital and
have an operation; and the Ministerial
Association asked me to come and
take the meeting in his absence. I
was scheduled to begin another meet
ing in another town on the Sabbath,
but said:
IF you can fix it upwith the
preachers in that other town I'll be
glad to do it."
And they did 1t and wired me and
l went and preached there a week.
The ministers had preached two weeks
in that little town and they sent a
man up there to preach in the interim
and he had preached a week; then I
went up and I preached a week and
there wasn't a man. woman or child
converted-not a one!
I preached, but they seemed to sit
spell-bound, and one day a Methodist
preacher came up to see me, looking
sad. and he said to me;
bill, one Of my leading members
was Doc Stewart. He asked me for a
letter Of dismissal"
Had Site to Sell.
said, II wouldn't give It to him"
He said. "Well, we've done every
thing we can and we can't convince
him that he's wrong. He's one of
these bull-headed Scotchmen, you
couldn't move him."
1 said, Whats the trouble?'
He said, Here's the trouble. Doc
Stewart was a steward of the Meth
odist church. The mayor of the town
was a steward in the same church.
and the school board was looking
around for a site upon which to erect
a new school building, and Doc had a
site to sell. and a man who owed the
mayor $500 had a site to sell. And
the schoolboard voted to buy the site
from this fellow who owed the mayor,
and Doc charged the mayor with pull
ing strings so he could get his dough.
"You couldn't convince him that
he was wrong. You couldn't turn
DOCs anu "hCu lhCy NIT VII lilc SlIctt
they passed the lie. put up their dukes
and went at it. The mayor gave an
upper cut that sent Doc to the mat
He painted his eye"
One night. turned to the Presby-
terian preacher, a fellow named Jor-
dan, and I said. "whon I ask to
pray?"
He said. "Ask Doc Stewart to pray"
And SO I asked Doc Stewart to pray
and he was game. He got up and
cleared his throat and he went at 1t.
Did you ever hear a threshing ma
chine start up in the fall after she
has stood out all winter and all sum-
mer without any grease? Well. you
| can know that old Doc was going
some when he sweat out a celluloid
collar.
He staggered through II and I said.
Now you go get those two fellows
together and see II you can't fix it
up"
They Shake Hands.
So they went and they got them to-
gether and got a number of the lead
ing men together and finally they got
up and shook hands and buried the
hatchet.
4 NoWp tucy Sdlu, eNeTyDO0y IN
town knows about it,
The, town was built this way, the
courthouse in the middle and the town
built around 1t. I said:
Lock arms, walk around town
around the courthouse square and let
everybody know it."
So they locked arms and walked
around the courthouse square and
then they catacornered through 1t.
Everybody in town rubbered. That
night you couldn't get within a hum
dred feet of the building. ] preached.
nobody was converted. People sat
crying-I saw a woman get up and
start down the aisle; she was so big
she had to move in sections. She went
through a cross aisle like that one. she
stopped by another woman and threw
her arms around her and let out, a
yell like q Comanache Indian ana
thEsw her arms up in the; cir Ike 9