|
EBENEZER’S
THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV.,24,1938.
By G.W.S.Ware,
Mayo,Florida,
Nov.,19,1938.
- - - - - - - -
Ebenezer Baptist Church, Catoosa County, Georgia, have as much, or more to be thankful
for than any church within my knowledge. God, brought its constituent members for
organization into that neighborhood, about the time the Indians were removed, in 1839. By
a divine Providence, Mr. Robert Ware and family, came from North Carolina, and bought the
farm on which its church house stands. He, and others were prompted to build a log-school
house, in the hollow West of where the church-house is now. God, impressed a Baptist
preacher, whose surname was Slover, of Tennessee, to be pastor of Salem Baptist Church,
and make "Ware’s School house," a mission point. According to old minutes
of Dogwood Baptist Church, its pastor preached there; and so the Gospel of Christ was
preached with power and demonstration of the Spirit, till 1849, when Ebenezer was brought
into existence, and for these 89 years God has keep it alive as a Church of Jesus Christ,
is something the present members of Ebenezer Church should be profoundly thankful to
Almighty God, for their church life on this their thanksgiving day.
This their church-life should stand out before them as a signal honor and favor from
God, who alone can keep a church alive, by the divine life of the Holy Spirit, in lives of
enough of its members, to prevent the death of Ebenezer, as a Church of Jesus Christ. This
fact should cause gratitude, for, as I remember, five churches of other denominations,
have gone down, within the radius of the influence of Ebenezer Church. This fact does not
call for elation on the part of Ebenezer Church, but watchfulness unto prayer in good
works, lest that too should be its doom. As Jesus Christ had no easy time on earth, to
make Ebenezer Church possible, let no member now, who has the honor to be one of its
members, seek an easy place for it, for ease in a church of Jesus Christ on earth, is a
brooder of spiritual death. |
|
