The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-18
TWENTY MEMBERS ADDED ID CHURCH
 ROLL AT SOUTHSIDE
Dr. billiard Breaches ElO- quent Sermon on "The Superlative Grandeur of
 Mission Enterprise"

Twenty people joined the southside Baptist church yesterday morning, six oi whom were candidates for baptism, while fourteen united by letter, following an eloquent sermon by the pastor, Dr. James E. billiard, from the subject, The Su- perIative Grandeur of the Mission Enter prise."
 The church was well filled, and Dr. DIlard's utterances were in the nature of an appeal for the mission work of the churches. He made it emphatic that missionary work was the basis of all Christianity, and that had it not been for the missionary work that was done in the early days of Christianity, in the days of Christ and the apostles, that there never would have been line of New Testament written He drew some striking figures of speech in driving home his message and held his audiences rapt attention throughout his discourse.
 EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISE
 "The educational enterprise is grand one" said Dr. billiard. "It has for it's purpose making every boy and girl to be a set supporting, intelligent citizen who l.. az home in the world. The military enterprise in which our nation has been 1 engaged is one of the noblest that ever commanded the attention of patriotic men It had for it's object the defeat of autocracy and oppression everywhere; the | securing of justice for all nations; and l the making of man man, the world around. But the missionary enterprise is the grandest enterprise that God Him.
 self ever conceived of. It is no less ] than the giving of the whole gospel to l the whole world, so that every man
 shall be brought to a saving knowledge
 as his brother.
 l Let us distinguish between the devo- tonal and the missionary message of the gospel The devotional message is the lSon of God loved me and gave Himself I for me- The missionary message is: N'Ife tasted death for every man I can illus. trate .sit this way: Imagine this little Slower to be endowed with reason Ii perhaps would talk like this: The great sun exists for me- It takes all of its heat and all of it's light and all of it's power to bring me to life and beauty and fragrance. If the sun were further away
 o, if it were colder or if it were hotter II could not live. The sun is for me The flower would be reasoning right, fol it owes the sun its life, it's beauty and its fragrance. But the same sun that car make one flower to bloom is sufficient for every flower. So with the gospel it took all of the cross of Christ to in spire and save one single soul. But the same cross that can save one soul car save every soul. This is the missionary message.
 THE MISSIONARY MESSAGE
 The missionary message is the sun and substance of the Bible story. Goo
 calls a man, family, a nation, not fol
 their own sakes, but that through then all the world may be blessed The mis sionary enterprise did not arise out O the New Testament, but the New Testa
 ment came out of missions. Every on
 of the books was written because of som
 missionary necessity and in all human probability had there been no missionar. activity among the early churches, ther, Would have been no New Testament
 Missions had their origin in and il
 the expression of the heart of God. Ma ture is the expression of His power ant l wisdom. But missions is the satisfying
 of the heart hunger of God Man wa 1 created in His image. God desires Hi companionship and worship He gave Hi i well-beloved Son that every obstacl | might be removed and that all men migh
 be brought into vital harmony with Him God will never be satisfied until Hi T message of grace is made known to al
 the world
 "Missions is the very heart of the gos pel-for this purpose Christ came an, ,.I for this purpose He died, that He migh open the way of salvation for all men At His birth the angel said: Behold, , bring you good tidings of great Joy . which shall be unto all people, for unt
 you is born this day in the city of Davi l d Saviour, which is Christ the Lord His life and His teaching was that Go loved the world and gave His Son 10 , 1 it. The Son came to seek and to say the lost He gave His life as a ransor for many.
 HISTORY OF MISSIONS ,, "The history of the Christian church and in reality the history of civiliza 1 tion is the history of missions. Chris
 tan missions reached first to the Jews ] then to the Romans and Greeks, then
 the barbarian nations At times sporadic at times polemic, finally systematic an
 scientific, missions has made its wa
 through the ages, and now theswar ha forced the issue Shall we be big enoug for the task before us?
 : "The. mission enterprise is the hop of the world. We have tried commerce.
 education, law and diplomacy-to whor shall we go? We will never be able t effect the brotherhood of man until W realize the Fatherhood of God.
 "The mission enterprise is destined t succeed. John In his vision saw a grea : multitude which no man could numbe out of every nation, and all tribes an
 peoples and tongues, standing before tn throne and before the lamb. arrayed i s white robes and palms in their hands an l they cried with a great voice, saying Salvation unto our God who sitteth o , the throne and unto the lamb. Tn