The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-01-18

In an editorial in the current mum
her OF tho Religious Herald, Rev. DIR.
Il, IL. Pitt makes this interesting
comment on the long service which
that publication has rendered to the
Eaptists OF America and to the cause
of all Christian enterprises:
The first issue of the Religious
Herald was dated January il. 1873.
Speaking strictly. therefore. this issue
marks its entrance upon its ninety
second volume Tor convenience
yshTs ago The volume was made TO
correspond with the calendar year.
Ninety-one years! What period 1t
covers! How Drumming with human
interest and destiny
Perhaps a few somewhat unrelated
facts Fay help us to realize In part
how far away from Us in the birth
day of The Odd paper. Napoleon twho
died May :. 1879 had been In his
grave not quite seven years. Thomas
Jefferson had been dead just eighteen
months John quincy Adams was
Presideut of the United States, John
C. Calhoun was vice-preside
George ~ was King of Great Britain.
Charles Dickens was lad OF fourteen.
Sir " aiter Scott was an old man in
the midst of his heroic struggle with
financial misfortune. Lincoln was
nineteen years old; Jefferson Davis
twenty; Robert +. Lee twenty two;
Victor Hugo twenty-six, and Macauiay
twenty eight. Faraday was at the
itrtEht OF his great career. Robert
/ Fulton having launched on The Hud-
son in 1901, twenty-onc years before
the Herald was born. the tirst steam
boat '.Ciercmont" had been dead thir-
teen years.
/ II we could go back 10 that day we
should fnd a world quite as unfamiliar
in many respects IA I hey who lived
then would ind the modern world
could they revisit it There was not
. railroad in the world and, of course,
/ not "A telegraph wire or "A telephone
wire. Lucifcr matches were not yet
+ discovered and while a birthstone
match about six inches long. with
pointed cuds, dipped in melted sui
phur. was iu use, IL had IN be utilized
by spark obtained by striking fire
INTO finder from a flint and steel. We
hear good deal now about good
roads. and surely the need for them
not only in the remote country dis
tricts, but. according to our expert
ence. in the region around even so
great a cl.y as itichnlond, is very
pressing, Yet good roads were almost
unknown in that carly period Then
mere were no steam heated houses
and Frequently the churches had no
arrangements OF any sort for heating
Time would fail to tell of customs
that have vanished, of fashions in
dresS Doth for men and women that
have long ago disappeared. That
world into which the Herald was born
would indeed be strange to our eyes.
General Association was a little over
tive years old 1t had, indeed. been
preceded by other and various at
temPts at organization of our people
but the body which we know as the
General Association was organized IN
. June 1928 in the Second Baptist
church of Richmond, then located on
Z Eleventh street, between Main and
Cary, at a point still identified for us
by the name Church Court. Incident
/ ally The conservatism of The Religion
Herald may be illustrated by the fact
that at no time in its history have IT.
offices been more than four and hall
squares from this birthplace of the
General Association. or course ouI
readers do not need to be told thai
the General Association of that day
/ was a very different body from the
| General Association OF the present
day. For years after the General AS
sociation organized Foreign Mission
! interests, educational interests, indeed
practically all the interests that were
then common to our people, except
| State Missions. had their separate or
Plantations and met, at the time anc
place of the General Association, un-
der their own presiding officers foi
the transaction Of their own bust
ness In the Herald's birth year, 1928
the General Association met with the
! First church OF Richmond Johr
Kerr, then pastor Of that church, was
Jhe president aud William Todd secre
tary Robert Baylor Sempie. the his
torisn of Virginia Baptist, was the
preacher of the annual sermon. W.
may remark in passing that this dis
tinction fell to him for four out Of th'
first six meetings of the General AS
ISOLATION. Good preachers were no
scarce among our people even ther
and so there must have been par
tieular charm about Semple to &C
count for his repeated selection.
Baptist did not have at that periot
n single college or school OF any kin,
Il in the State OF Virginia. In their min
istry there were a few cultivated ant
accom- plished men who had however
10 get their educational training either
at other IMAM Bdptlst ScnooiS III tH'
state, or else beyond the State. There
was. of course. no Southern Baptis
Convention. tThIs was organized II
1850 Virginia BaptiSts co-operatet
in Foreign Missions with the Triennia
Convention which had been organized
| at the First church in Philadelphia II
1914.
it has thus fallen to the lot of the
I Religious Herald 20 DE present a. IN,
/ birth Of practically all the denomina-
tionai institutions anu organiAa tion'
which Virginia Baptists own and
! operate or steadily support
I We could not indulge in even the
! hastiest and most cursory glance al
I this long stretch OF years without he.
/ ing moved to deep gratitude to the
Giver Of every good aLo perfect GIFT
| for His favor upon our great broth
erhood. Virginia Baptists were then
! when the Herald was born. few In
numbers, with their churches scat
tered over a wide territory, many OF
them wsak and struggling, with a