The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 07, July, 1885Various
History
The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 07, July, 1885
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
As early as eight o'clock a band of young men assembled on the banks
of Talladega Creek, that three of their number might be immersed. It
was a lovely spring morning, and the green banks, the running waters,
the sweet air, the bright sunshine, the hymns, the prayers, the
remarks of the pastor, and the Sacrament itself (administered by Rev.
Spencer Snell, the pastor having had a congestive chill the preceding
week, and being forbidden to go into the water) were full of
solemnity and sweet instruction.
Two hours later we met again in the college chapel. One of the most
pressing needs of this church is a house of worship. There has not
been, rain or shine, since I came here, a Sabbath congregation that
was not too large for our chapel. Growth is impossible. How it will
be during the college vacation, I cannot say; but during this college
year it has always been uncomfortably crowded, and every Sabbath has
overflowed up on to the platform. This morning all seats were filled
and extra benches occupied. The Lord's table was spread for His
people, and after a sermon from the text, "How can this man give us
his flesh to eat?" forty were received into the fellowship of the
church and welcomed to the table. Of these, thirty were baptized by
sprinkling. To those acquainted with the ways and prejudices of these
people, the fact that we sprinkled thirty, while we immersed only
three (these three were mature men), will be full of significance.
None others asked to be immersed, or suggested it.
This addition to our church embraced about one-third of the number
professing conversion during our recent series of meetings, conducted
by Brother Field. Others will come to us, but many who are students
here will join the churches at their homes. The success of those
meetings, reaching as they did every student in the college
buildings, with a single exception, was so notable that a word as to
the manner in which they were conducted may be of interest.
The beginning of the extra meetings was providentially postponed more
than once. They did not begin with the coming of the new pastor in
the fall, nor with the week of prayer, nor with the day of prayer for
colleges. These occasions were all used, but our extra meetings did
not begin until the desire for them and the feeling of our great need
of the Divine blessing had grown strong in the church, nor until they
had been talked and prayed over, prepared and planned for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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