J. M. Frost - 1916
J. M. Frost. Watchman-Examiner, New York, Aug. 12, 1915.
THE Baptists of the South are profoundly interested in the bold and commanding ”Five-YearProgram,” lately set out by the Baptists of the North. It appeals to me because of its simplicity, its comprehensiveness, its far-reaching practical worth, and its daring to count on the future. It is a worthy conception with the sweep and impulse of a mighty purpose. Its five objectives - 1,000,000 baptisms, 5,000 new missionaries, $2,000,000 increase in the funds of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board, $6,000,000 for education, an annual budget of $6,000,000 - all of them appeal to me as being distinct, yet coordinated and unified in one commanding purpose - a great task for a great people.
This word is prompted by the excellent editorial in The Watchman-Examiner of July 15. I, of course, make no issue with the able editor, as he speaks for himself and quotes from Dr. James M. Gray against the ”insidious evil” of ”counting numbers” and getting ”padded membership in our churches.” Indeed, I rather agree with them, if possible with added emphasis, for the whole business of counting is pernicious. It is a delusion and a snare - as it has been carried on. It deserves severe and every possible rebuke from all sources.
But may I venture the question, Is there not another side, a large and loftier view of the 1,000,000 baptisms contemplated in the FiveYear-Program? It would be a grievous thing to let so great and grave a matter run to waste in empty discussion-literally ”to play out” in peanuts and peanut vines. Why may not the great program bring in a new day and even set a new standard for counting? It would be a commendable reform, and is much needed. Surely it must be right to set figures in the plan and purpose, for comparison in results when the results come.
Can we avoid the bane and almost curse which comes from a wrong use of counting, and yet hold the good and inspiration of the commanding figures of a million new-born souls, expressing their new hope and resurrection experience by following the Lord in baptism-a baptized million following a baptized Saviour as their Lord and King? We need not ”count chickens before they are hatched,” but surely we may busy ourselves in securing eggs worth while, seeing that they have a good setting, and then wait for the hatching. And, furthermore, in the New Testament period were not the early triumphs of the gospel expressed in terms of baptism? Three thousand baptisms at Pentecost and five thousand baptisms at a later date certainly meant glorious triumphs for the cross! No other one word can say the thing quite so well as the word baptism, if only we use the word intelligently and hold the great ordinance in its broader, loftier and richer meaning.
There is no danger of over-emphasizing the great and beautiful ordinance if only we adhere in thought and speech to the New Testament plan and pattern. Indeed, the ordinance of baptism cannot be over-emphasized so long as we count it the obedience of a saved person. For obedience, the keeping of God’s laws and the living out his will among men, is the supreme service, as Saul the son of Kish learned to his undoing - better than sacrifice and burnt offering now as then, in baptism as in other things bearing the seal of high heaven.
This wonderful ordinance holds a commanding place in New Testament history. It won for John the name Baptizer. Christ followed him in baptizing more than John, though he baptized not, but his disciples. It was set midway of the great commission as glorified in the glory of the Godhead and for all the evangelistic campaigns in the centuries to follow. In all the great evangelistic campaigns of the New Testament this ordinance was brought to the fore and delivered its charming message of resurrection power, as shown first in the resurrection of Jesus from the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and ever afterward in the spiritual resurrection of everyone who believes in Jesus, and tells by symbolic import as no words can tell both of the believer’s union with Christ and also of the brotherhood of believers in him.
We have largely lost all that, for the baptismal note has been sadly missing from the evangelistic campaigns of the last quarter of a century. Even if it had been only the loss of a picture, it is a fpicture of marvelous didactic power, more powerful in many respects than even the spoken word. ’Whenever the great ordinances have been honored, rightly estimated, interpreted and used, there has been a corresponding power and blessing.
This 1,000,000 baptisms in the Five-YearProgram of the Baptists at the North - may we think of it as their effort to turn the tide that has been running so strong with them and us, and an effort on their part to give the great ordinance its rightful place, with its opportunity to say the things that it can say with such emphasis and that need to be said at this time and everywhere? For baptism and the Lord’s Supper are powerful, not only in evangelistic appeal and efficiency, but powerful also in maintaining evangelical truth. If one thinks rightly according to their word he cannot go far astray concerning any of the matters counted worth while among evangelical Christians. They stand in their didactic emphasis for the very teaching that has given our people rank and distinction among other evangelical denominations.
In Christian Union Relative to Baptist Churches, a book lately published, I have ventured the following word concerning this very matter:
”Baptism was not at the first either the cause or occasion of division, but Christendom will not be reunited until this great ordinance, so full of wonderful and didactic meaning, has its rightful adjustment and is accorded New Testament position in modern Christianity. There is need for fresh study of the ordinances in their relation to Christian history, doctrine, experience and life as set forth in the New Testament. And this more than we dream, perhaps, may bring a return to primitive Christianity and so prove the highway to Christian union. It is a wonderful story these ordinances tell-Baptism and the Memorial Supper - if only they be allowed to speak their words untrammeled and unembarrassed. There is scarcely a fundamental doctrine in the whole Christian system that does not get didactic emphasis with illumination and power in one or both of these ordinances.”
From my point of view, perhaps from the point of view of our people generally, there is a high and commanding sense in which the 1,000,000 baptisms may serve as the undergirding and guarantee of the other four items in the program tremendous as they are. One thing is certain, all the energies of heart and mind, all the wise planning and directing methods essential to securing the 1,000,000 baptisms, will be essential also for bringing in the other four or any one of them. It may not have the first place in importance, though I would not say that, yet it does hold the first place as its logical place. There we must start and there we shall make our highway to success. Those who made the program were thinking logically, and those who make a success of the program will find their logical starting place in evangelizing, which must, of course, go before baptizing, whether of one or one million.
The 1,000,000 baptisms, then, as it stands in the program, will demand of us as a people that we be evangelical in doctrine and evangelistic in spirit, purpose, method and effort-taking heed unto ourselves and unto our doctrine, that we may save both ourselves and them that hear us. This is the demand of the hour, and the program committee has set it forward with tremendous weight and energy as underlying all else with this plea for 1,000,000 baptisms. It means that pastors must be evangelistic in preaching, that churches must be evangelistic in planning and effort, that individual Christians must be evangelistic in life and personal effort, that the saved of the Lord must themselves save others. It means that our schools and colleges must be evangelistic, evangelistic centers where men and women are born unto God, that teachers in our schools, that presidents of colleges and universities must be men of God, evangelical and evangelistic in winning men to Christ and to his likeness in character and service.
This will be a new day in Zion; rather a return to the old days with the fresh power of new times. I can remember when it was said as a matter of common report that when the class at Brown University reached the senior year and came under the teaching of the great Wayland a revival was almost inevitable. Our own James P. Boyce, of South Carolina, found the Lord, as I have understood, in the leadership of this master among college men, was led to Christ in the classroom by a university president, and afterward through successive years wrought wonders among Southern Baptists.
This is a noble example worthy of all imitation, justifies and gives emphasis to the committee’s work whether in making or carrying out their program. Brown University as an evangelistic center would be a commanding and thrilling spectacle, a powerful example to all our schools and colleges throughout the country, both North and South. This would make easy the $6,000,000 for education, and other millions would follow.
One million baptisms surely enough, and in the full meaning of the word, will go far toward a successful and triumphant consummation of the program in fullness. I have ventured to write these things out of my heart as a salutation to my brethren at the North. Their work will mean a better church life and membership, will mean a larger, holier and more practical use of the ordinances than we have hitherto given them. It gets back on the base lines of New Testament life, sets first things first, and the rest is sure to follow.