Special Collections received an early Christmas present yesterday. Just before the morning service started Tom Milholland handed me this photo of a very young preacher in knee-breeches. Can you guess his identity? Check back tomorrow at noon for the answer! Here is one hint: taken when he just began preaching (at about age 15 or 16) this young man would be one of the most recognizable preachers among Churches of Christ in the 20th century.
Summit 2014 is in the books. I taught three classes on the earliest hymnody of the Stone-Campbell movement. The first session focused on the Abner Jones-Elias Smith movement in New England; then a day on James O’Kelly and the ‘Christian Church in the South’; and then a class on Barton W. Stone.
I pointed out that we could easily spend three days just on Alexander Campbell. And that would only get us to the Civil War! So for three days and three classes I chose to stay in the earliest traditions.
I have PowerPoint presentations and handouts for each class; the audio should be available on iTunes shortly. Before I upload the PP and handouts, I have some editing/polishing to complete. And I want to compile a short list of resources for further study. I will upload the PP, the handouts and the resources (with links to electronic sources) to this blog shortly. Plus, we have an exhibit of hymnals in ACU LIbrary (if you are in Abilene, come on down to the first level of the library and take a look in person). We are putting the finishing touches on an online version of that exhibit so if you are not in Abilene, you can still enjoy the exhibit. Stay tuned for the announcement and URL for the exhibit.
Dallas minister Morrison Meade Davis wrote to his wife and daughter in Sedalia, Missouri on 28 August 1891. In it he writes of the weather, of making pastoral visits, of his loneliness and of the family’s plans for further travel. He mentions attending a prayer meeting at the Pearl and Bryan Church of Christ, which he describes as “for the head, not for the heart.”
The letter is one of several (along with many cabinet-card photographs belonging to Davis of Christian Church ministers) acquired by Joe Johnson in the 1990s. The Davis photo and letter collection is one sub-set of Joe’s remarkable assemblage of Stone-Campbell books, periodicals, ephemera now housed in ACU’s Center for Restoration Studies. Right-click the images to open in a new tab or window; click here for an annotated transcription of this letter.
