Matters From "Burnett's Budget" --- (V)
(Note: The first two items in this article are from the September 15, 1907, issue of bro. T. R. Burnett's "Budget," which was published in Dallas, Texas. The remainder of the items are from the January 15. 1911, issue.)
1. THE STARK-WARLICK DEBATE. We have failed to notice the Stark-Warlick Debate on Instrumental Music. After a careful reading, we pronounce this as good a work on that question as has ever been published. Bro. W.'s part is exceedingly strong, and it may be safely stated that nothing more need be said on that side of the issue. Bro. S.'s part is as strong as you could expect from a man on the wrong side of a question. This paper does not compliment Bro. W. when he does not deserve it, but he has done a splendid job in this debate. Barring the personalities, there is only one point in the book that we would criticize. Bro. W. makes the mistake made by Dr. Clark, David Lipscomb, Bro. Kidwell and others in saying that God permitted but did not approve instrumental music under the old covenant. In the 29th of Chronicles the statement is emphatic that the instruments were put in the house of the Lord by God's order through his prophets. The translation is right, too, for we have before us five English translations and the Latin Vulgate, and they are all in harmony with the King James version. But what does it matter what God said to the fathers by the prophets? Paul said: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these days spoken unto us by his Son." And the Son hath said nothing about instruments of music. The book is in paper and cloth; price 50 and $1.00 per copy.
2. AFTER A BAPTIST. "Celeste, Texas, Aug. 25, 1907. Dear Bro. Burnett: In the Baptist Flag of two weeks ago I saw a piece from one B. E. Masters. In attempting to write up the Christian meeting held at this place by Bro. Charley Nichol, he starts off by saying the Campbellites had just closed a two-weeks meeting, and that Charley Nichol did the talking.
Now, if Eld. Masters had been as anxious to hear the truth as he was to criticize the ones that were trying to follow the teachings of the blessed Master, he would be better off in the world to come, if not in this one. He speaks very lightly of the query box, and the way Bro. Nichol answered the questions. Eld. Masters handed in some questions, as he always does, but did not have the courage to come out and hear the answers. In fact, Bro. Nichols did not attempt to answer the questions, because of the absence of the man who had handed them in. Here are his questions: "Are the Lord's supper and baptism church ordinances?" Eld. Masters affirms they are. Of course the Lord's supper is a church ordinance. If baptism is a church ordinance, I ask why they do not practice it? They will not receive any one, into the church until after he has been baptized, and they never baptize one after he becomes a member. Eld. Masters affirms, that baptism is the dividing line between the church and the world, and that baptism puts a man into the church. Now if a man is saved before he is baptized, where is he between his salvation and his baptism? Is he in the kingdom of Christ or the kingdom of the devil, or is there a neutral place? If he is in Christ's kingdom, then Christ's kingdom and Christ's church are not the same thing. If he is in the devil's kingdom, then you have a saved man in the devil's kingdom! Say, Eld. Masters: Can a man go to heaven from the devil's kingdom? Where do you place a Methodist? Is he in the devil's kingdom? Can he go to heaven from that place? If he is in Christ's kingdom, is he not in Christ's church, and can he not eat at the table? If he is not in the kingdom or church, how can you say he is saved, seeing he has not escaped from Satan's territory? And how are you going to get this man out of the devil's territory? His faith did not take his out, and his repentance did not take him out, and his gift of the Holy Ghost did not take him out! Are you going to baptize him out? Well, now? Eld. Masters says the Baptist church was built upon a Rock, and the Campbellite church was built upon water. One would suppose the Baptist church was built upon water, since they name it after water, and prefer that name to the name of the Rock! But you are learning. If you will listen to Uncle Tom Burnett, or to Charley Nichol, you will know more than you know today. — T. J. Neely."
3. A wild scribe in the Firm Foundation (whose initials are J. E. Thomas) is trying (in dialogue form) to show some one whom he calls "Uncle Tom" that the Baptists do not have gospel faith. He may not know what is gospel faith, for very few re-baptism hobbyists are informed on that point, but if he does know, he slanders the Baptists. It is a sin to slander even as bad people as the Baptists. They believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. A man who does not know that this faith qualifies for baptism does not know enough to write for the public press. If this faith does not qualify, then Alex. Campbell and the Baptists of his day had no valid baptism, and the devil's goats set up the church we belong to. Wonder if the F. F. and its wild scribe could be induced to tell where the church was when Campbell was born? There is a man in Dallas who will pay that paper as much per line for information of that subject as it gets for advertising Royal Baking Powders or Duke's Mixture. But we suspect it would take a big dose of Duke's Mixture to purge out the cobwebs of ignorance, and a peck of Royal Baking Powders to make those editors rise up level with one good logical argument on church perpetuity! Where is W. T. Kidwell? At last accounts he was dashing for the mountains of Tennessee! But he did not leave any information behind, as to where the Holy Spirit went when he left the body of Christ!
4. Half the people of Dallas want an automobile, and the other half want a flying machine....A Dallas fellow-citizen says he would as soon be the man in the hole, as the aviator in the sky Say, preacher: Don't say "sav-ver of life." There is no such word in the English language as "sav-ver." Call it by its right name--sa-vor....Six dollars for each school-boy and schoolgirl in Texas the present year! That is not bad. If any children are left uneducated, it will not be because provision has not been made...."The little fleas that do us tease, Have other fleas to bite 'em: And they in turn have other fleas, And so ad infinitum."....In this mercenary age the widow's mite is not equal to the widow's millions....A woman in Illinois lived to be ninety years old, and burned herself to death while smoking her pipe. Her life was cut off by the tobacco habit. Don't smoke.. Two brothers named Still, near Mount Enterprise, Texas, made 2,700 gallons of syrup from nine acres of cane, and sold it for $1,420. Stills that make 'lasses, instead of liquor, are the right sort. We will not vote them out next summer....A Missouri professor has figured it out that, according to the present ratio of decline of births, there will not be a baby in the United States in the year 2020. Where's Roosevelt? A learned physician claims that drunkenness can be cured by a surgical operation. Perhaps so, But you had better vote for prohibition. ...Texas has one hundred and sixty-five dry counties, and fifty-nine that are partly dry. Only twenty are totally wet, and they are mostly where the foreign population prevails. Corrupt doctrine and speech go together. Had there been no crooked teaching among us, we should not have such words as Corresponding Secretary, Endeavor Society, Sunday School, "sect baptism," etc. No man uses such lingo till he departs from the teaching of the New Testament....The progressive disciples have started a new body called the "Do Something Society." Christ started a do something body nearly two thousand years ago. As it is not dead yet, some of us think it bad policy to swap it off for a human concern of the twentieth century.... The Lord never intended his people to hold conventions and general assemblies, else he would have ordained such things. There, is a reason why he did not ordain them. An assembly of preachers will legislate. They will make new laws and change the old laws the Lord made. Man always wants to supersede the Lord's things with his own things.... Aunt Jane Morris, of Kentucky, is the most noted mother in the United States. She is 86 years old, and has 518 descendants. Moreover, not one of the descendants has ever been charged with crime. And that is remarkable, seeing she lives in the mountain district of Kentucky.
5. THE BIRD MEN IN DALLAS, No single attraction ever presented in Dallas has drawn such an assembly as the aviation meet which took place in this city last week. People came from all parts of the state, and from other states, to see men fly through the air like birds. It was a curious assembly. Very few of us had ever seen anything like it, and we were filled with wonder and amazement. In the company of the aviators were some noted men — Garros, Barrier, Simon, and Hamilton -- men celebrated all over the world for their achievements in the air. They are called aviators, bird men, fly men, and aerial navigators. Some of them ascended to an altitude of eight thousand feet, and flew out of sight across the country and returned. The principle of a flying machine seems to be somewhat like that of a boy swimming in water. The wings do not flap, but remain out-stretched, like those of a huge bird, while propulsion is given by a small engine beneath the wings. In fact, the machine sailing overhead has much the appearance of a large buzzard sailing through the air. As the machine is much heavier than the air, it can not remain afloat unless it is kept in motion. The flying machine is one of the wonders of the age. It is only in its incipiency at present. A gusty wind puts it out of business. But that will soon be overcome, as sailors have mastered the breezes of the ocean.
6. The Gospel Advocate says that David Lipscomb will not read a certain Texas paper because its editor will not print both sides of a question. Bro. Lipscomb is too old an editor to become disgruntled over a little thing like that. The editor of the Budget has been treated in the one-sided style a dozen times. There are three papers in Texas that will not print both sides of the Sunday school question, the Spirit question, and the re-baptism question especially if this scribe is one of the disputants. We know what is the matter with them, and do not even get vexed at the cowardly performance.
— Box 5794, Longview, Texas