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Home (Editor's comments: The Evangel was a Periodical published in California by "Landmark" Baptists. The "Closing Remarks" were made during his final day with the Metropolitan Temple in San Francisco, California, after a weeks meeting with them and other churches from the Oakland area. This is an important message because of the impact the churches and ministers of the Sacramento Valley, in which we are presently located, had on bringing Graves out to the West Coast.)
(Editor's comment: Graves comments about what he had heard about this church and its pastor is particularly interesting considering what he found out when he actually talked with the man. Oh how we should do the same today rather than listen to the ramblings of men who love gossip.)
(The following was offered by Pastor Kalloch, made a motion by O. C. Wheeler, seconded by Winfield Scott, and passed unanimously as an expression of the Temple Church and other Baptist churches in attendance: *“The visit of Dr. Graves to this City will be long remembered as one of the most important and influential religious events that has ever transpired in our denominational history. Large, intelligent and very attentive audiences have heard him in eight consecutive, able and exhaustive discourses upon subjects of vital interest to the welfare of our churches. We desire now to place upon record our emphatic appreciation of the rich religious treat we have enjoyed. We have sat together in heavenly places, and our hearts have burned within us while he has opened the Scriptures and unfolded before us the history, doctrines, duties, polity and prospects of our beloved denomination. Many of us have been pleased to find ourselves in full accord with him in every position he has taken, and those who, up to the time of his coming, were not in full sympathy with his views, acknowledge with cheerfulness that his positions are unassailable and his propositions unanswerable. As a Church and as members of other Baptist churches, we unhesitatingly declare our conviction that the path of denominational safety, unity and progress on this Coast, is the one that has been so clearly pointed out by Dr. Graves in this series of discourses - a path distinctly marked by the landmarks which our fathers have set, and which we are commanded not to remove. Thus by conscientious, unswerving and uncompromising fidelity to its scriptural and historic principles, we shall be instrumental in advancing, in this new, most interesting and magnificently promising field of Christian effort, the interests of a denomination rich in its past history and glorious deeds, its martyr toils and martyr graves, the monument of its struggles and triumphs from the days of its establishment by Christ and His Apostles.”) *taken from The Evangel, 1879 |
Our Pulpit Dr. Graves’ Closing Remarks Brethren: Late as it is, you must allow me a few words, although my emotions obstruct my utterance. This, your too kind appreciation of my services, oppresses me. I feel you have done me honour overmuch. If my labors for the past four months among the churches have in any degree contributed to their doctrinal and practical unity, I am profoundly grateful to the Master. To aid in accomplishment of this, I was urged by ministers and members of Sacramento Valley to visit this coast, and an earnest desire to aid in “a consummation devoutly to be wished,” influenced me to make the sacrifice. My reception everywhere has been an ovation - I allude to it with heartfelt gratitude - and every church visited has unanimously and heartily endorsed the views of doctrine and polity I have developed in these lectures as the true ground of denominational union and the proper line of their future action. Ministers and brethren have everywhere expressed the desire for the time to come when political prejudices and sectional alienation’s shall be swept away, and a general and cordial co-operation in every department of denominational effort shall characterize California Baptists. I feel tonight that the last obstacle in the way of this union has been removed, the great stone rolled away from the sepulchre of long buried hopes, and their resurrection is at hand. Brethren, I confess for the good of my soul, when I turned my face toward this city and this Temple church, it was with fear and much trembling for the result, and with what little freedom have I spoken throughout, oppressed as I have been by my misgivings. Oh, how little did I dream that I would witness the scene that has taken place here tonight! I had fully participated in the impressions which obtain with your brethren in the State, and even beyond it, that the Baptists of this city were peculiarly selfish, formal and cold religiously; sectional in your feelings as you were loose in your views of Baptist doctrine and polity; and, with respect to this Church, its pastor and members, that you could not “endure sound doctrine,” and that the Temple was more a place of entertainment (and, to say the most for it possible, of religious amusement) than for the worship of God; or, when a sinner was pointed to the cross for salvation, that your pastor cared more to have his Temple filled with an applauding crowd of the sand-lot order than with weeping penitents; and that he cared more to dominate churches in this city and Baptist interests and ministers generally - governed by the “rule or ruin” principle - than the unity and real interests of the denomination. How industriously have these impressions been made, both in and out of this city, by those bearing the Baptist name! I expected to antagonize with your pastor at almost every point. But how strangely had I been misimpressed! Brother Kalloch greeted me with a hand warmed by a large heart, and adopted me into full membership in his family; and made me taste the sweets of his cheerful home. It was only for us to fully develop our views of doctrine and polity and conviction of what should be Baptist policy, to draw nearer and nearer together, until, like kindred drops, they mingled together into one. And I can now say this night without reservation that I know no minister in this or any State who is more fully in accord with me than is Brother Kalloch, and no man has a warmer place in my heart or interest in my prayers; and, I will add, no one more appreciates the magnitude of his work or his accomplishments for the cause in this city. Nor have I anywhere found more pious, warmer-hearted Baptists, or those who love the characteristic principles of our denomination than you of this Temple. God bless each and every one of you, and those old standard brethren, Wheeler and Buckbee and Scott, who have so warmly encouraged me. Brethren, Baptists of San Francisco, you little realize the mighty responsibilities the Master has devolved upon you by providentially calling you to occupy this post of honor and amazing influence in this magnificent city that rests like a gem upon the finger of the sea, at whose feet, wafted through the Golden Gate, the tribute of all oceans is laid down, and into whose lap the fatness of the land is poured in ceaseless tide, and whose is the wealth of the hills also. In little over half a generation your population has reached one-third a million, and there are young men sitting before me who will see a million or more gathered into this, the greatest metropolis of the Pacific. It is a city of the vastest possibilities. Think of its unlimited ocean commerce, its unstinted capital with which to command and transact business, its rich and inexhaustible mines, its climate of Palestine and skies more serene than those of Italy. What an immense Home and Foreign Mission field the Lord of the Harvest has placed under the feet of the Baptists of this city! And upon you of this Temple has He conferred the post of honor, the fore-front position, to bear the color before the Baptist host of the bay and of this coast. He has at last given you a leader as worthy of your confidence as of your admiration, and one who I feel, under God, will lead you to grand emprises and victories for the Master. Rally, brethren, to his banner, so long as it is red with the blood of Calvary and radiant with the Star of Bethlehem. Envy and jealousy and malignant opposition are the tax which pre-eminent ability and success are ever compelled to pay. Your pastor has been heavily assessed, is now, and will be so long as he succeeds in attracting crowds to this Temple. You should understand this, and rally the stronger to his support, and stand like a wall of fire around him. I must say a word or two about this Temple, I cannot say which I more admire, the genius that conceived, or the unparalleled liberality of that noble brother who erected this building for God’s worship! There is only one other like it in the hands of Baptists on this hemisphere. It is at the other extremity of the continent, in the commercial capital of New England. The influence of that Temple is felt, not only on every street and in every family of Boston and New England, but to the uttermost bounds of the everlasting hills. This Temple, though built but yesterday, is already a felt power in this city, and the influences that go out from this hall will be felt over the entire Occident and to other shores. God grant they may be only healthful. Brethren and sisters and pastor, let me entreat you, see well to it that the influences that go forth from this Temple shall be like the waters John saw flowing out from the Temple of God, clear as crystal on this side, and on that, trees of life bearing twelve fruits, yielding for each month its own fruit, and that earth's populations may find healing in their leaves. A few more words and I am done. God grant it may not be the last time my voice may be heard in this Temple. In passing these resolutions, I feel that you have not only been very kind to me, but you have been true to your own convictions of God's truth, true to your Church and true to Christ. You have placed your Church squarely upon the rock of eternal truth, that cannot be shaken. These mountains that surround you, like the mountains around Jerusalem, may be shaken and “carried into the midst of the sea,” yet will not God’s faithfulness depart from you so long as you adhere to these principles. You have witnessed right here in this city the evils and ruin to our cause a surrender of them will bring upon a Baptist church. You will ever find that promise true, “Him that honoreth me will my Father honor, and he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed.” Hold them, then dearer than life, and hold them forth in this city, and the hearts of all Baptists throughout this State will cleave unto you, and every true lover of them coming to this city will rally to your standard and assist you in upholding it. You have done this night what I believe will result in the doctrinal and practical unity and co-operation of the denomination in this State and upon the whole Pacific slope. You have taken the ground upon which all churches can and will soon stand with you. It is now your best policy, if you will accept my advice, to urge your brethren outside this city to take upon themselves the responsibilities of the paper, and to make it the organ of the Baptists of this entire coast. You will thus relieve your pastor of a burden too great for anyone man to bear, and convince the disaffected that you have no desire to “monopolize the paper to advertise your local interests,” which I am satisfied is not your wish. The Baptists, once united upon a paper, will soon unite in a vigorous educational movement which will secure a college that will be worthy of the denomination. Again accept my thanks for your kindness, and assurances that I shall ever feel a deep interest in your welfare and that of our cause on this coast, where I have been received with such consideration.” The Evangel-January 24, 1879 |
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