USA > Ohio > A history of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio > Part 17
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In Indiana he was one of the organizers of the Bethany Assembly Association. This is now one of the leading Chautauquas of the country. In 1906 he made a trip through the Orient, Pales- tine and Egypt. He spent two weeks in Jerusa- lem. He visited Jericho, the Red Sea, the river Jordan, the city of Nain, Nazareth, Cana of Gali- lee, and the Sea of Galilee. He saw many of the
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sacred mountains-Mount Carmel, mountains of Lebanon, Mount Tabor, Mount Hermon, Mount Moriah and the Mount of Olives. He went to Bethlehem, where Christ was born; to Jerusalem, where he was crucified, buried and rose from the dead.' He visited the Jordan, where Christ was baptized; the Sea of Galilee, where He walked the waters and where He calmed the winds and the waves, and the Mount of Olives, where He ascended.
Ohio loaned this great, good mnan to Indiana for awhile, but he belonged to the whole world and to the world to come. It will be a long time before we see his like again.
J. V. UPDIKE
J. V. Updike was born in C'elina, O. He passed from earthly life at Bloomington, Ills.
His mother was Maria Lincoln and a relative of Abraham Lincoln. He was a marvelous man of God and a most successful Scriptural evangel- ist. After his great meeting in Des Moines, when 563 were obedient to Christ, H. O. Breeden and others pronounced him the greatest living evan- gelist, and said: "He is of medium stature, has good health and fine spirits. His face, smooth shaven, usually wears a smile. The eye twinkles with good humor. He is buoyant, cheerful, hope- ful and sympathetic. He at once gets on good terms with his hearers by frequent recognition of all the good there is in them, especially those who differ from him and may be prejudiced against his doctrine. His elocution is assisted by a clear, ringing voice. Its tones produce a pleasant sensation. The graces of oratory are immolated on the altar of truth.
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"His sermons are gospel sermons. His sole aim in preaching is to exalt Christ, make plain the way of salvation, to expose and dissipate the errors of sectarianism and turn the people from their sins.
"He has oddities, eccentricities, is full of quirks and witticisms and anecdotes and quaint sayings, and knows how to use invectives; but those are used and made tributary to the main issue, that of turning men and women to Christ.
"He is a man earnest, fearless, methodical and confident, rallying an army of well-trained workers. He inspires them with hope, sets them tasks which turn to pleasure, and gives them an example of success from the first. He knows men, watches for opportunities, uses them, defies prejudice, talks to the common people, sets the brain cells aquiver with a wild jest, and then directs them into new and original thinking. The listener himself becomes a bold thinker. One night, a resolute actor, and obedient subject the next. Not always absolutely correct in exegesis, rhetoric or grammar; yet his theology is sound as a dollar.
"He has no time for the subtleties of the higher criticism. The ground of his earnestness and zeal is a sublime faith. It is clouded with no doubts. There is no 'if' or 'perhaps' in his state- ments of truth. He believes the Bible from 'back to back.' Sin, redemption, judgment, heaven and hell are not simple possibilities, but profound realities.
"In his method of preaching he takes his text and keeps it in the exegetical currents of the context. He makes haste leisurely in the devel- opment of his subject. Advancing apace, he
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steps one side and puts up a sidelight from some fact of psychological or practical principle in the context. Then by and by another. In this way he strikes off some palpable hit with humor, ridicule or pathos. Reaching the appeal, these sidelights are all aglow with rays falling upon the main path of the sermon. Everybody says : 'How simple ! how plain !'
"Or, to change the figure, these frequent side thrusts at the follies, prejudices or sins of the people, mingled with commendations of the good that is in them, form a series of electric explo- sions, each preparing the way and expectancy for another. Where will he strike next? Thus he keeps up an unflagging interest during an hour-long sermon on a hackneyed subject. The appeal comes, and so do sinners to confess Christ."
The record of some of his Ohio meetings is here given: Findlay, 35 additions; Elmore, 19; Edgerton, 71; Payne, 66; Hedges, 71; Paulding, 196; Lick Creek, 60; Fayette, 47; Lyons, 106; Chesterfield, 51; Wauseon, 33; Beaverdam, 3; Lima, 97; Cleveland (Glenville), 18; Cleveland (Miles Avenue), 135; Cleveland (Franklin Cir- cle), 125; Cleveland (Madison Avenue), 98; Ed- gerton, 13; Hillsboro, 128; Bryan, 8; Delta, 128; Edon, 28; Mansfield, 126; Springfield, 226; Day- ton, 97; Hamilton, 122; Harrison, 25; Marion, 34; Delta, 15; Bryan, 27; East Liverpool, 143; Cin- cinnati (Central Church), 51; Cincinnati (Fer- gus Street), 62; Bluffton, 15; Cincinnati (Madi- sonville), 10; Bucyrus, 71; Akron, 72; Toledo, 121; Mungen, 10; Toledo (a second meeting), 183; Ashtabula, 43; Massillon, 255; Mentor, 128; Leipsic, 32 additions. Many other meetings he
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held in Ohio. In all fields he won over thirty thousand to the Lord. Many invitations came to him to visit England, Australia and various other lands.
Following is a brief synopsis of one of his sermons upon the theme, "Remember Lot's Wife":
Lot's wife is a warning to all persons not to hesitate to do God's will. You remember the circumstances surrounding Lot and his wife. When Lot chose to settle in Sodom, his wife did not say: "What about the society? Is it a fit place to take our daughters?" A wife may make or unmake a man. Your surroundings have just as much to do with you as they did with Lot and his family. When you begin to play cards, pro- gressive euchre or high five, you are pitching your first tent towards Sodom. Parlor dancing and ballroom frequenting is the second move to- wards Sodom. Lot settled in Sodom; his daugh- ters grew up and were married. That is another trick of the devil, to pay off the church by marry- ing rakes and ungodly men to your daughters. Lot plead with his sons-in-law, but they mocked him. Too late; he should have begun with his children earlier. Where are you leading your children? You must get right with God yourself and lead your family that way. Lot's wife began to speculate and wonder if it really would rain fire and brimstone. People are being lost, specu- lating, asking; "Can I not get to heaven if I don't do this or that?" Stop seeing how little you can do and just squeeze into heaven, but see how much you can do for the Lord. Escape with thy life! Obey God's commands in full !
Updike's book of sermons has had a large sale.
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J. O. Shelburne
F. D. Butchart
W. H. Boden
Charles E. Garst
George Darsie, Jr.
Otho H. Williams
Traverce Harrison
L. R. Gault SOME OHIO MINISTERS
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A STARTLING DISCOVERY
Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott and Bar- ton W. Stone discovered that the Bible was silent on the subject of infant baptism. They had adopted the slogan, "Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent." They were then baptized. Many of the pioneers in Ohio made the same discovery and adopted the same slogan, and, with the eminent restorers of original New Testament teaching, studied the sin of Adam once more. This resulted in some startling discoveries. These discoveries are put into form by one who wields a facile pen, about as follows:
(1) Final and eternal perdition is never the fruit or outcome or penalty of the Adamic sin! (2) It never comes to any except those who sin against the Holy Spirit. (3) Other personal sin- ning brings dire punishment, but never eternal perdition. (4) It follows, therefore, that infants, and all who are morally irresponsible, are not, and never have been, in danger of final and eternal perdition. (5) Jesus could, therefore, take an unbaptized little child-one who had never committed any personal sin-and say, "Except ye repent and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). The purest thing on earth is a child before it sins personally. It should touch your heart deeply and profoundly to know that no infant in all the ages has ever died and gone to perdition. No mother-Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Mohammedan, pagan or heathen-will ever find her dead baby in per- dition. The reason is plain: no baby can sin
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against the Holy Spirit, and no other sin brings final perdition.
We may approach the question another way. What is the penalty of the Adam sin and how does God save from it? The penalty is stated fully in Gen. 3:14-19: (1) Penalty for the ser- pent (vs. 14, 15) ; (2) penalty for the woman (v. 16); (3) penalty for mankind in addition (vs. 17-19). The severest part of the penalty for human beings is the death of our bodies-dust to dust. If Adam had not sinned, there would have been no graveyards in this world-our bodies would never die. Adam paid the penalty for his sin; so must all men. In all the ages no one ever escaped that penalty except Enoch and Elijah. The only escape from this penalty is through miracle. In other words, there is no salvation from the Adam sin. Every child must pay the penalty, either in infancy or later in life. Neither baptism nor anything except a miracle can save from this sin.
While we are not saved from the Adam sin, we are saved after that sin has done its worst! How are we saved? By a miracle-by the gift of new bodies-by the resurrection from the dead. Both infants and adults are saved in the same way. Both good and bad receive this new body (1 Cor. 15:22). What we want is the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 6). For a new body with a lost soul in it is eternal perdition. Since both the baptized and the unbaptized receive new bodies, baptism has no place here. For another reason it has no place. Baptism is for the remis- sion, or forgiveness, of sin. In this case we all suffer the penalty, and there is no remission of the penalty-no pardon.
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The sin against the Holy Spirit is radically different from the Adam sin. After the Adam sin has seized one and made him pay the penalty, Christ comes in and, by a miracle, saves. When the sin against the Holy Spirit has seized one, there is no hope, no pardon, no redeemer, nó sal- vation for the baptized or the unbaptized.
He who is saved from his other personal sins and from the polluting fountain within, from which they issued, is not in danger from the sin against the Holy Spirit. How does God save such as these ?
(1) Not by pardon alone. If I should live ten thousand years and get pardon every day, the fountain of sin would not yet be dried up within me. I would not yet be perfect and in the moral likeness of Christ. According to the New Testa- ment, God must sometimes, somewhere, bring us into such perfection that we will no longer need pardon; no longer need all of the prayer Jesus taught us all to use; no longer need the reproofs of conscience. Pardon alone will not bring us into this blessed state.
(2) Christianity has a power which neither Judaism nor any other religion ever had. This power will dry up the fountain within from which all our personal sins come forth. Given time and co-operation on our part, and this power will crowd out and build in till we no longer need pardon. This power is sometimes called in the New Testament the gift of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes "the life," or life eternal. It is a power which no priest or pope has ever given or been able to take away. To finally reject it is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
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The new birth has back of it two processes: (1) A preparation of the heart, like that of a field ready for the sowing of the seed, and (2) the depositing of that new life-power in the heart -the sowing of living seed that it may grow into all that God has given it to become. Pardon of sins, or forgiveness, is a part of the prepara- tion of the heart which brings us to baptism for the remission, or pardon, of sins-not pardon of the sin against the Holy Spirit, for that has no pardon and no help or hope; not pardon of the sin of Adam, for there is no pardon from it-all pay the penalty and after that are saved by a miracle. Baptism is for the remission of our other sins-sins such as infants never commit; from which they are as pure as the driven snow. In this case, baptism is not worth anything with- out preceding heart preparation; without (1) confession of Christ Jesus with the mouth (Rom. 10:9, 10; Acts 8:37; Luke 12:8; Matt. 10:32). Can an infant do this? (2) It is worthless when not preceded by repentance (Luke 13:3; Acts 2: 38). No infant can repent.
(3) It is worthless without faith in Christ, as the good confession will show, and without faith in God (Heb. 11:6; Acts 16: 30, 31, 33). In fact, it is called baptism because it shows faith-shows repentance-shows burial in water-shows all these in the name of Christ, who is confessed. What gives baptism its worth? The repentance and the faith which it contains and shows. Where do this repentance and this faith come from? From the hearts of men. So this one word, "water baptism," stands for the whole process of heart preparation made by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit- made through the Bible, the home and the
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church. Not until they become responsible can this heart preparation begin with infants. If we do not undergo this heart preparation, do not become as little children, we can not enter the kingdom of heaven. Without it the new birth is impossible.
DR. S. M. COOK
It may be that the disciples of Christ some day will find a place for a cabinet of elder states- men, after the fashion of the renowned body of that name in Japan. In such a case, Ohio would surely rise as one man and name for charter membership in the body Stephen Marcellus Cook, M.D.
This wise and discreet "Elder Statesman" first met his Baptist parents in Morrow County, O., Oct. 1, 1845. He was the sixth of their ten chil- dren. These parents were two of the "twelve" who formed themselves into the church of Christ at North Branch, now Waterford, in Knox County. Three generations of Baptist ministers were in the family, but the doctor solemnly avers that "the strain of ministerial blood over- balanced this strain of total hereditary de- pravity." He was baptized into the life worth living in his fourteenth year.
Saying nothing of his early desire to preach, he took college work in the district school near the Cook home, and later pursued literature in Ohio Wesleyan University and at Hiram College. Then, turning his attention to the healing art, he so studiously pursued medicine in the University of Michigan and in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, that he graduated as first-honor man in the latter institution at the age of twenty-
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five. Meanwhile, he had turned his attention to domestic art also, and persuaded Margaret Hard- grove to join him in the practice of this art. In the fall of 1870 they established the home which has been a benediction and a blessing, not only to the children of the family, but to all others who have ever enjoyed its fellowship.
Returning from medical college, the young doctor quickly gained a large practice in his home community. He became superintendent of the Sunday school and was called upon with increas- ing frequency for supply work in the pulpit, for funeral discourses, and much other work directly within the church. Speaking of this busy period, the doctor said, reminiscently: "I always aimed to attend church at least once on Sunday, for I felt the need of religious worship and work to help me retain my interest and faith in the Chris- tian life. In the busiest days of my professional life I found time to meet with my brethren and be refreshed by their fellowship and companion- ship. I believe that thus I was made stronger, and able, both physically and mentally as well as morally, to do more and better work for my patients."
Toward the close of the seven years, it became necessary to choose between the practice of medi- cine, which paid a good income, and the practice of the gospel ministry, which, at that time, paid scant reward in money for devoted service. Friends of the young practitioner urged almost unanimously that he remain in the practice for which, by nature, education and experience, he seemed so eminently fitted. One human voice alone was left to fortify the voice that called from within-the wife, on whom the heaviest burden
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of sacrifice and change must fall, added her urgent counsel that the medical profession be abandoned and that his life be devoted to the gospel ministry. It was only after much search- ing of heart that at length the medical practice, with what was left of the good will of the patients, was sold.
This was the work of faith, and thus was it undertaken. Six children, small and very much alive, were in the home; the wife and mother, not robust physically; a small home, with an incumbrance upon it; the first year of preaching rewarded with about $20 a month for the year; labor abundant; inexperience and a lack of skill in meeting the vicissitudes of a pioneer preach- er's life; the depressions which human circum- stances pressed and crowded upon the faithful hearts who constituted the home. Only an in- domitable and an abiding faith in an unconquer- able Christ kept Dr. Cook unfalteringly in the line of his decision.
The old Bell Church, near North Branch, was the scene of the first two weeks' meeting. There were thirty-two baptisms and many friendships gained there. For eight years this evangelistic ministry in Knox, Morrow and adjacent counties continued. The Lord added more than a hun- dred annually. Calls multiplied. Then came the settled pastorate for two years at North Eaton, O.
Most of this ministry was in the transition period from the stern legalism advocated by the old American Christian Review into the larger liberty and service of Christ and the develop- ment of missionary spirit. So far as his influ- ence could reach, Dr. Cook was a worthy factor
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in the better adjustment of this transition. One reason for this, perhaps, lay in the fact that Dr. and Mrs. Cook yearned ceaselessly in heart to go as foreign missionaries to any alien land. But God seemed to will it otherwise. Finally, with as prayerful purpose as ever prompted any mis- sionary to go to foreign fields, the Cooks went to Wood County and located on a farm near Mun- gen. Here for some years evangelistic work throughout the district, at Martinsburg and at Fayette, filled the time full until Dr. Cook was called to the pastorate of the churches at Mungen and Rudolph. Meanwhile, a most important result of his years of ministry was becoming apparent, for, from the first, Dr. Cook had sought out young men and encouraged them to enter the ministry. S. M. Cooper, S. W. Traum, D. R. Bebout, Frank L. Simpson, John Ray Ewers, Minor Lee Bates, J. H. Miller, D. P. Shaffer, Nicholas Zulch, and others, are among those whom Dr. Cook enthusiastically declares to be "new editions, revised and greatly enlarged."
With the three older children of the household ready for college, the possible income from preaching was so clearly inadequate that the doctor now resumes the practice of the medical profession, the study of which he has never ceased. In a very literal way Dr. Cook became the medical and spiritual pastor of a large part of Wood County. Much of his practice was "on the Jericho road." It was a rare treat to a stranger to accompany the doctor on any one of his daily trips-from the time he loaded up his carriage in the morning with dental instruments, surgical instruments, obstetrical instruments, Bible, hymn-book-everything in readiness for
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any sort of a call which a pioneer settlement might unexpectedly produce until evening-time, when the family were once more gathered for family worship before they separated for study and for sleep. On the one side lay the shifting, serio-comic tragedy punctuated by droll humor and whimsical comment, a genial soul who always saw both the pathetic and the ludicrous in normal proportions. On the other side were the calm serenity and unbroken gladness toward God which are the triumph of Christian faith.
The stranger would not be so fortunate if he were invited to accompany, day after day, the doctor in his widely extended trips, Carriage succeeded buggy, and phaeton succeeded carriage in rapid succession as the little sorrels wore out one after another on the Wood County roads, which were, in themselves, a triumph of the road- maker's art. During a full half of the year there was splendid bottom to the roads, when the hoofs of the horses or the tires of the wheels could reach down to it-at times hubs and axles pre- vented the wheels from reaching anywhere deep enough. During the remaining half of the year the roadways seemed to try, by a sort of dumb
(worse than that) retribution, to get even with those who had the temerity to use them. The incessant heavy hauling of oil-field equipment and products kept the roads in a really frightful
condition. But day in and day out, for seven years, like an angel of God, Dr. Cook spread his influence throughout this whole territory, even though the physical exaction and nervous ex- haustion left him utterly broken in health.
The windows of heaven were being opened up throughout the soil, and crude oil was pour-
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ing wealth into the pocketbooks of both the just and unjust. To teach by precept and example the Christian stewardship of wealth was the con- scious obligation and opportunity which the Cooks faced. The Mungen Bible school was one of the very first to break down the blasphemous barriers of penny contributions and to give gen- erously and joyously more than $500 as a mis- sionary offering to the Lord.
The lifelong habit of studying humanity with the same care he has studied divinity; of keeping in touch, through wide reading, with the world of the past and of the present; of keeping in close touch with progressive and conservative, insur- gent and standpatter, critic, mystic and orthodox, choice fiction, poetry and selected nonsense; of theorizing prayerfully and practicing faithfully the human application of God's gospel of salva- tion-this composite fact makes Dr. S. M. Cook a counselor of rare discretion; an adviser whose insight and foresight are fortified by a deep and wide experience; a Christian gentleman whose friendship is a thing to be prized, and whose counsel is invaluable.
Once and again has the angel of death entered the home. Affliction has laid her cold hand close upon the heart. Adversity has camped within the doorway, but, through all and above all, quietude of faith in the living Christ has been conspicuous in the life of the Cook household, and no earth-born cloud can rob it of its light and power. In words which might be his own: "The realities of joy and great sorrow have done for me, by the help of the Master, what nothing else could do in giving me a charity and sym- pathy for others. The world of suffering and
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sorrow can be entered only through the doorway of affliction, temptation and pain. Even the Son of man could not be made perfect, except through suffering."
Asked to enumerate some of his chief mis- takes, the "Elder Statesman" says they are: " (1) The lack of thorough preparation. The best and most work can be done only after having a thorough educational equipment for the tasks. (2) The failure to complete thoroughly whatever was begun. Too much work has always been left half done. This is a source of grief. (3) Failure of proper control of temper and tongue. (A voice in the household rises up to say, 'That sounds like a joke to me.') To eliminate from my life every impatient, cross and impure word would be one of the greatest of triumphs, were it possible. (4) Lack of a systematic and orderly student habit at all times and everywhere. The constant study of nature, events, books, human- ity, and the adjustment of life's labors to others and in their behalf, is.the ideal life. The student habit makes the old man young and the young man wise. It gives tolerance toward all." Many men have been guilty of making these mistakes.
At a time when men are old, and many preachers are forlorn, Dr. S. M. Cook is younger in mind, in heart, in sympathetic human touch, and in preaching power, than many men of half his years. Visitors of high ideals, pure hearts, and Godward tastes and tendencies, find a welcome as eager as is the hospitality which greets the humblest and most forlorn of God's creatures who come to the door. In a very Christian way, as one of God's true saints alive, Dr. S. M. Cook embodies the sentiment of Foss's words :
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