USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > Greensboro > The history of the first North Carolina reunion at Greensboro, N. C., October eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, nineteen hundred and three > Part 2
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Ladies' Reception Committee
Mrs. R. F. Dalton, Chairman; Mrs. W. E. Allen, Mrs. Lee H. Battle, Mrs. James E. Boyd. Mrs. W. P. Bynum, Jr., Mrs. Mamie Crawford, Mrs. David Dreyfus, Mrs. J. W. Fry. Mrs. J. S. Hunter, Mrs. Robert R. King, Mrs. W. D. MeAdoo, Mrs. Charles D. MeIver, Mrs. Joseph M. Morehead. Mrs. J. A. Odell, Mrs. Dred Peacock, Mrs. Lucy H. Robertson, Mrs. C. M. Sted- man, Mrs. J. P. Turner, Mrs. R. G. Vaughn, Mrs. John N. Wilson, Miss Nora Balsley, Miss Lola Carraway, Miss Lizzie Leigh Dick, Miss Charlotte Gorrell, Miss Lizzie Lindsay, Miss Mabel Glenn, Miss Alice Nelson, Miss Lizzie Sergeant, Mrs. J. A. Barringer, Mrs. W. P. Beall, Mrs. Geo. S. Bradshaw, Mrs. Ceasar Cone, Mrs. Robert M. Douglas, Mrs. Neil Ellington, Mrs. J. D. Glenn, Mrs. C. H. Ireland, Mrs. W. A. Lash, Mrs. A. W. McAlister, Mrs. E. R. Michaux, Mrs. J. C. Murchison, Mrs. W. H. Osborn, Mrs. J. M. Reece, Mrs. A. M. Seales, Mrs. John N. Staples, Mrs. C. M. Vanstory, Mrs. C. G. Wright, Mrs. E. P. Wharton, Miss Kate Bradshaw, Miss Pattie Caldwell. Miss Elizabeth George, Miss Sue May Kirkland, Miss Bessie Merrimon, Miss Berta Mebane, Miss Rebecca Sehenek, Miss Jessie Scott, Miss Nettie Sloan.
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Local Committees
COMMITTEE ON DECORATIONS -- Clarence R. Brown, Chairman; J. W. Cone, F. P. Hobgood, Jr., Mrs. C. L. VanNoppen, Mrs. Carrie G. Yates, Mrs. E. W. Myers, Mrs. David Dreyfus, Mrs. Gaston W. Ward, Mrs. James D. Glenn.
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION-Zeb. V. Taylor, Chairman; A. B. Kimball, L. J. Brandt.
MUSIC for the occasion to be under the supervision of the Board of Managers, with Frank A. Williams as director.
COMMITTEE ON PROGRAM AND ARRANGEMENTS-G. S. Bradshaw, Chairman; P. D. Gold, Jr., A. M. Scales, T. Gilbert Pearson, V. C. McAdoo, J. E. Brooks, John N. Wilson.
COMMITTEE ON DECORATIONS AND LUNCHEON AT BATTLE GROUND-Dr. W. A. Lash, Chairman; J. H. Walsh, R. M. Rees, Mrs. C. L. Van- Noppen, Mrs. R. R. King, Mrs. J. W. Lindau, Miss Alice Nelson, Mrs. John N. Staples.
COMMITTEE ON BADGES, INFORMATION, AND REGISTRATION- D. C. Waddell, Chairman: C. M. Vanstory, W. R. Land.
COMMITTEE ON FIREWORKS -- C. H. Ireland, Chairman; E. D. Broad- hurst. J. S. Betts, W. T. Powe, C. C. McLean, F. N. Taylor, A. W. Cooke, J. M. Hendrix, H. W. Wharton, T. C. Hoyle, W. C. A. Hammel, H. C. B. Guthrie.
PRESS COMMITTEE-Andrew Joyner, Chairman; J. M. Reece, R. W. Haywood, W. M. Barber, H. M. Blair, J. F. McCulloch, Al Fairbrother.
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Mr. Andrew Joyner Chairman of the Press Committee
Official Program
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Program of the First North Carolina Reunion Greensboro, N. C.
October Eleventh to Thirteenth Nineteen Hundred and Three
Sunday, October Eleventh
First Presbyterian Church-11.00 a. m. Sermon by REV. W. W. MOORE, D. D., President Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va.
West Market Methodist Episcopal Church-11.00 a. m. Sermon by REV. C. W. BYRD, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
Grand Opera House-3.00 p. m. Reunion Sermon by REV. A. C. DIXON, D. D., Boston, Mass.
Monday, October Twelfth Grand Opera House-2.00 p. m. Invocation.
Introduction of HONORABLE MATTHEW WHITAKER RANSOM as Presiding Officer, by PRESIDENT CHARLES D. MCIVER, Chairman Board of Managers.
Address of Welcome on behalf of the State, by GOVERNOR CHARLES B. AYCOCK.
Address of Welcome on behalf of the City of Greensboro, by COL. JAMES T. MOREHEAD.
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Response from the North Carolina Society of New York, HONORABLE FRANK E. SHOBER.
Response from the North Carolina Society of Philadelphia, W. F. FUTRELL. EsQ.
Response from the North Carolina Society of Baltimore, MR. JOHN WILBUR JENKINS.
Response from the North Carolina Society of Richmond, REV. W. W. MOORE, D. D.
Response from the North Carolina Society of Atlanta, SHEPARD BRYAN, ESQ.
Response from the State of Nevada, JUDGE A. L. FITZGERALD.
Response from the State of South Carolina, PRESIDENT R. P. PELL.
Response from the State of Tennessee, HONORABLE L. D. TYSON.
Response from the District of Columbia, JUDGE J. C. PRITCHARD.
Response from the State of Indiana, MR. R. M. BARTLEY.
Entertainments -- 8.00 p. m. The North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College. The Greensboro Female College. Smoker at Pythian Hall to visiting Pythians.
Receptions-9.30 p. m. to 11.30 p. m .- At various headquarters.
Tuesday, October Thirteenth Guilford Battle Ground-10.30 a. m. Address by HONORABLE HOKE SMITH. of Georgia.
Address by HONORABLE JOSEPH M. DIXON, of Montana.
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Honorable Walter Clark Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina
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Address by DR. PAUL BARRINGER, of Virginia. Address by MR. WALTER H. PAGE, of New York.
Address by PRESIDENT E. A. ALDERMAN, of Louisana.
Address by HONORABLE MURAT HALSTEAD. of Ohio.
1.00 p. m .- Basket dinner.
3.00 p. m .- Central Carolina Fair.
8.00 p. m .- Cone Athletic Park. Fireworks. 9.30 p. m .- Smith Memorial Building: General Reception. 11.00 p. m .- State Song.
Headquarters
General Reunion Headquarters The Benbow
University of North Carolina 108 North Elm Street
Trinity College The Benbow, Rooms 324-322
Wake Forest. 1011% East Market Street
Guilford College The Benbow, Rooms 316-318
Davidson College The Benbow, Room 320
Whitsett Institute
The Benbow, Room 326
Oak Ridge. Hotel Guilford
Randolph County
Greensboro National Bank Building
Cumberland County
City National Bank Building
Knights of Pythias Pythian Building, South Elm Street Masons Masonic Hall, Greensboro National Bank Building Visiting Editors 212 South Elm Street, and The Benbow Chatham and other Counties. McAdoo House
Battle Ground Schedule
Trains leave City : 9.00 a. m., 9.40 a. m., 10.20 a. m., 11.00 a. m. Returning: 2.00 p. m., 2.40 p. m., 3.20 p. m. F. N. C. R .- III
The Proceedings
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Rev. C. W. Byrd, D. D. Atlanta, Ga.
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Sunday, October Eleventh
The Gate City awoke to find within her gates more friends and strangers than her beautiful and imposing churches could accommodate on the opening day of the Reunion. On all the incoming trains. from every direction, since early Saturday morning, resident and non-resi- dent in throngs had passed through her gates. It was an auspicious- a glorious Sunday. Filled with the softly-bracing air and delicious sunshine of "Sad-eyed October", brightened by the hand-clasp of home-coming loved ones, sweetened by the spirit of Reunion that had touched and warmed every heart in every home, and made gladsome and joyous by the revival of tender memories, its sweet influences drew everybody nearer to home, nearer to church, and nearer to God. It was a fit day to worship God, and touched by its hallowed environ- ments the coldest backslider wanted to follow the multitude to the sacred temples. All the churches were overflowing. Spacious and commodious West Market was wholly inadequate to seat the people who wished to hear Rev. Dr. Byrd. The same was true of the Old First Presbyterian, where Rev. Dr. Moore officiated.
Following is the full text of the sermon by Rev. Charles W. Byrd. D. D., of Atlanta, Ga., delivered in West Market Methodist Episcopal Church at 11.00 a. m .:
The Mission of the Master-The Impartation of Life
I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly .- John 10 : 10.
This is one of the briefest and at the same time most comprehensive state- ments of the mission of Jesus that we have recorded, either in his own utter- ances or in those of his apostles. I would be slow to found a doctrine on any one statement, even of Jesus himself, but the view that this brief passage states the mission of the Master is abundantly sustained in numerous other passages. In the first sermon that he ever preached in the home of his youth, he read and expounded Isaiah 61, and declared that in him was fulfilled the promise of life therein contained. to the Jewish nation, and through them to the Gentile world. He declared that he came to seek and to save the lost; but his method of saving the lost was by the impartation of life. Then he declared
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that he came to do his Father's will; but his Father's will was that the race might be filled with abundant life. The closing prayer of his life was that the world might have life through his mercy aud merit. So we have as the proposi- tion for our disenssion on this occasion "The Mission of the Master-The Impartation of Life". There is no subject, perhaps, upon which there has been more false thinking than on the purposes of Jesus' ministry. Many have thought that he came to found a new religion, and they have told us that his religion should- be compared with others, and that we should take the best there is in all the systems, perhaps giving to the teachings of Christ the pre- eminence. I have no objection to the comparative study of religions, and am perfectly willing that Christ's system should be brought into comparison with the utterances of Sidartha, Confucius, and Buddha; but what I maintain is, that Christ never came to found a religion, but to impart life to man's spiritual nature.
There are three things that are absolutely essential to the founding of a religious system: the promulgation of a creed, the establishment of a system of worship, and the formation of an organization. But Christ did none of these. Roman Catholics have gone to the writings of Christ and formulated a system of theology, and declared that this is Christ's teachings; Lutherans have done the same, and so have Wesleyan Armenians. But nowhere in the ntterances of Jesus is there a systematic statement of doctrine. His great purpose was not to teach men what to think, but to teach them to think; not to promulgate a creed, but to quicken the heart and intellect; not to inform the mind simply, but to lift it into communion with God.
The purpose of the early teachers of philosophy in our schools was to pro- mulgate a system of philosophy, and train their pupils to hold and proclaim their teachings. But the teacher of philosophy today in our best schools would feel that he had failed in his mission if he had simply taught his pupils to think his thoughts, to utter his words, and to embody the principles of his system in their own thought. The great purpose in the course of philosophy is not to teach men to think the thoughts of others, but to think their own thoughts. This is but a return to the Master's method. No one who studies the gospels can fail to be struck with how he prodded the minds of his disciples with question, epigram, and paradox. His whole purpose seemed to be to lead them to think on the great questions of their relation to God, their relation to men, and their eternal destiny.
One of the saddest features of the religion of today is, that there are so many people who are willing to let their minister do their religious thinking for them. They spend the week in thinking of stocks and bonds, real estate, dirt and dollars, social functions, and the common dissipations of life, and come to church on Sunday morning to accept the sermon of their pastor as the necessary weekly dose of religion. My deepest desire and highest purpose is to awaken in you thought upon the deep problems of life and destiny, and not to do your thinking for you. Such, I conceive, was the Master's purpose, too.
Christ did not formulate a ritual or form of worship; his purpose was not to teach men how to give expression to feelings of love and gratitude and faith, but to awaken these feelings in human hearts, and leave them to find expression in the way best adapted to the individual. Therefore, Christ had no ritual. Roman Catholics and Protestants have formulated rituals, and proclaimed them as Christ's ritual; but in this they have been mistaken, for, as the birds have their own peculiar methods of praising God-the lark with his early morning song, the quail in the early hours of the afternoon, and the whip-poor-will, with
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melancholy toue, in the evening shadows-even so the human hearts, in varied ways and diverse places, give expression to the feeling of devotion that has awakened in them. And wherever there is a heart that loves God and loves to tell him so, that longs for his help and appeals for it, with feeling of gratitude for his goodness and declares it, that is penitent for sin and seeks pardon, there is worship; whether it be amid the scenes of the great cathedral, with eyes fixed upon the pitiful form of the crucifix; in the dim light of the wasting candle, and amid the stately music of well-trained choirs; or in the Quaker meeting-honse, wholly unadorned and plain, where the heart rises in voiceless prayer and praise to God-this is worship.
Christ formed to organization; his nearest approach to organization was when he sent out the seventy on oue occasion and the twelve on another, two by two, to preach the Word in the cities of Perea and Judea. So the third essential of the new religion is utterly wanting in our Savior's work. He imparted life, and left it to find its own form of organization; and any form of organization is acceptable to him that gives expression to life, whether it be the wonderful organization of the great Catholic Church or the loosest Congregationalism.
Christ performed his office of "Imparter of Life" through the use of means, however. To some of these I desire to direct your thought on this occasion: First, he uses the Church for the impartation of life. And this raises the whole question of what the Church really is. I would have you realize that it is not a school of ethics, merely teaching men their duty to each other; nor is it a school of theology, merely teaching men what they ought to think about God, and the unseen as related to God. It teaches ethics, and it teaches theology: but they are only incidents of its mission. Wherever there are souls that are united by love to God, and loyalty to God, and desire to bring his kingdom-first in their own hearts, then in the hearts of their own household, then in the world at large-there is the Church of the living God. The church is not primarily a fountain of truth or of morals, but of life. It may be likened to a river that takes its rise among mountains, and leaps and laughs and sings its way down the gorges, and at length reservoirs its strength on the great millpond that turns the busy wheels of the factory or grinds the grist for a thousand hungry mouths: then gathers into pools where boys come when their work is over. and bathe, and go away refreshed and cleansed: then sends its streams out into the broad meadows, and feeds the roots of myriad grasses and flowers and trees and vines, that are all unconscious of its life- giving power. So, the church is sometimes noisy in its praises to God; then it gathers itself into a great reservoir that turns the wheels of philanthropie endeavor and Christian enterprise; then it gathers itself into pools where on the Sabbath day multitudes come week after week, and go away refreshed and cleansed; then it sweeps out amid the busy multitudes that never think of God and eternal life, and imparts life even to these indifferent ones and scoffers.
None can estimate the marvelous power of the church as a reservoir of life and salvation. To it we owe all our benevolent institutions, hospitals, asylums, and homes of refuge for the fallen and needy; and God himself has no nse for the so-called church that bas ceased to be the imparter of life, and has degen- erated into a school of theology that worships a creed rather than a Savior.
Second, he uses the Bible for the impartation of life; but as men have thought falsely abont what the church is, so have they cherished misconceptions of what the Bible is. Not a few preachers have wasted their lives over the doctrine of "verbal inspiration ", and inerrancy of the sacred Scriptures; and
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not a few have grown gray with anxiety about the work of the higher critics, because they have thought that the Bible was a boek about religion rather than a book of religion. It was never intended to be a record of scientific facts; but it is a product of men who had the life of God in their souls, and who have written it out in these sacred records. This being true, E am unconcerned about the absolute accuracy of its historie statements; knowing as I do, that it is now, as it has ever been, a great fountain of spiritual life for all who feed upon its words. The Bible is a sacred library. a collection of the best friends that have ever connseled or communed with mortals. A book is a friend; a good book is a good friend-and sometimes I prefer my friend bound in muslin or leather, rather than in flesh; for then I can make him hush while I think. I love to think of my library as a collection of friends with whom I can con- mune at will, listening to their words of wisdom, loking at the pictures they paint with their vivid imaginations, feeling the thrill of their stories of tender- ness, adventure, and love.
A few evenings ago, when I had finished my preparations for my morning sermon, I sat alone in my study. Glancing up at my book-shelves, I asked what friend should talk with me that evening. Putting my hand on a small volume, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's .' Sonnets from the Portuguese", I let her tell me in her own beautiful words the story of her unselfish love for the one man whose burden she had consented to help to bear, and whose joys she knew how, as no other conld, to participate in. Then, taking a volume of Sophoeles, I let the old master talk to me in that queen of all the tragedies, Antigone, until my mind was ablaze with the thought and feeling that pervades that marvelous work of human genius. And then I turned to, perhaps the sweetest singer of all the Latin poets, and let old Horace talk to me in the musical lines of his Sapphic measure, of the heathen gods, Roman patriotism, and human love. But when the hour for the close of the evening's study had come, and my thoughts turned to higher things and better things than Sophocles and Horace knew, I opened the Book of books to listen to the words of rapt Isaiah, and Israel's poet king, and the sweet and tender words of Him "Who spake as never man spake ".
As I closed the book, I knew and felt a difference that made me exclaim: "This; this, is the Book of Life!"
Take its history. Is it a record of the great deeds of great men? Not always; but often the petty deeds of mean men; but in its history and biographies we feel the breath of God, and are taught that He is in the onward march of the human race. Take its poetry. It may not compare in beanty and rhythm with the sonorous lines of Greece's blind bard, but in its beauty, whether it describes the beauties of nature, or the feelings of the human heart, it teaches you that God is back of and under all. And so it is the Book of Life, Christ's chief means of the promulgation of life in human spirits.
Last of all, Christ imparts life by giving himself. Here is a mystery that human lips can not explain, and human minds can not understand. His entrance into the heart must be known by experience and spiritual intuition. I stand here today to plead with you to assume the receptive attitude, letting him have right-of-way. That you may be strengthened by the might of his spirit in the inner man. That he may dwell in your heart by faith, and fill you with his fulness. That you may have this experience, you must live in his presence, and let him: live in your heart and in your home. He alone can impart life.
I stood on a ditch bank one day, and looking down at the seragly thorn- bush, I bent down the ear of my imagination to hear what it had to say. I
Rev. W. W. Moore, D. D., LL. D. President of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va.
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heard it complain in murmuring tones: "Only a briar, filled with thorns, the sign of the curse! If I were but like the violets that grow upon the bank up there, I would regale the senses of this stranger who bends over me; or if I were like the great oak over there in the field, that lifts its branches iu the sunshine, I would offer shade and protection to tired man and weary beast; but I am only a briar. If I were like the wheat that is yellowing on the hills and plains, I would feed a multitude of hungry men; but I am only a briar!" Just then I saw the gardener come, and, carefully taking the thorn-bush from its place, he transplanted it in a cosy corner of his well-cultivated garden, and pruned it, and left it alone. And then I bent down the ear of my imagination to listen once more to the voice of the thorn-bush, and I heard it say: "Ah, I am still only a briar! What can the gardener have intended in placing me in this cultivated spot? Ir was bad enough to be a briar down there in the ditch; but oh, how much worse here among the roses; he will never be able to get anything out of me." Then I heard the gardener laugh and say, "I will first put something in you"'; and with keen knife he splits the bark of the old thorn-bush and places within it a tiny bud, and binds it up, and goes his way. The weeks go by, and multitudes gather around the old thorn-bush, and look with wonder and admiration; for lo, upon it is a rose of rarest beauty and sweetest fragance.
You, my brother, are the thorn-bush, full of thorns; but your father is the husbandman. He knows the worthlessness of the old root-stock; but he knows, too, how to put into you life that will come out some day in beautiful and fragrant flowers of Christian character. Let him have right-of-way. Let him put into you what he can; and he will get out of you what he wishes.
The immense auditorium of the First Presbyterian Church was crowded with worshipers at 11 o'clock, and hundreds were turned away for lack of room. Rev. Walter W. Moore, D. D., LL. D., of the Union Theological Seminary, of Richmond, Va., a native of Mecklenburg, and highly distinguished in the theological world, preached a magnificent sermon. It was this beloved divine who delivered the sermon when the splendid building in which he stood this morning was dedicated, ten years ago, then, as now, one of the most splendid church edifices in the South.
Dr. Moore's subjeet was The Making of Transitional Men-What ยท Makes Them, and What They Make. His text was from I Samuel 3: 20: "And all Israel. from Dan even to Beersheba. knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord."
Following is an abstract of his masterly discourse :
The Making of Transitional Men
I Samuel 3 : 20
The loftiest ideal ever set before a nation was that which God placed before the Israelites when he entered into covenant with them at Mount Sinai. It was expressed in these words: "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests
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and an holy uation". This was no ideal of military glory or material wealth, such as most nations have striven to attain. It was an ideal of personal and national righteousness, of spiritual privilege, and of helpful service to mankind. "Ye shall be unto me an holy nation"-there was God's requirement of righte- ousness. "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests", that is, as the construc- tion really means, a dynasty of persons invested with royal rank and priestly functions-there was God's appointment of Israel to religious privilege and religious responsibility. For priesthood implies not only privilege but duty. A priest is a mediator and teacher of God's will. Israel as a priestly nation had a ministry to the world. Her mission was to teach religion. Her call to it was clearer even than the call of Rome to teach the world organization and law, or the call of Greece to teach the world letters and art. The ideal set before Israel then was religion-intensive and extensive, if we may use these terms for lack of better, meaning by intensive religion truth and righteousness realized in their own hearts and lives, and by extensive religion the teaching of truth and righteousness to the world.
You are familiar with the melancholy history of Israel's failure to realize this splendid ideal in the generations immediately succeeding the covenant at Sinai. In order to the regular administration of the ordinances of public worship, an official priesthood was organized at Sinai, in connection with the elaborate system of object-lessons in the tabernacle and its ritual, and a whole tribe was set apart to the offices of religion. This tribe, alone, had no territory allotted to it among the rest; but instead of a portion of their own the Levites were scattered among all the other tribes, occupying specified towns in different parts of the country. To this sacerdotal order, and to these Levites, thus dispersed among the people, was originally entrusted the principal part of the work of spiritual instruction and government. But, during the period of the Judges, which has been well called the Hebrew Dark Ages-a period of civil and religious disorder, the priesthood itself degenerated, as seen in the sean- dalous history of Hophni and Phineas, and the Levites, so far from fulfilling the purpose for which they had been scattered over the land, and holding the people to their spiritual ideal, became themselves leaders in idolatry, as in the case of Jonathan, the grandson of Moses. With the loss of character on the part of the priests and Levites, the ceremonialism of which they were the exponents necessarily lost its power, and religion lost its hold upon the people.
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