Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 12
November 24, 1960
NUMBER 29, PAGE 2

T. R. Burnett's Center Shots

Jerry C. Ray, Irving, Texas

In 1912 the Firm Foundation put out a paper-back book entitled Center Shots, with an introduction by brother G. H. P. Showalter. The book is a compilation of selected writings of the pioneer preacher, editor and debater, brother T. R. Burnett. It is one of the most entertaining books that I have read in a long time. The book brings to mind two other very readable books: J. D. Tant, Texas Preacher by Yater Tant and The New Testament Church by F. D. Srygley. These three books sparkle with the keen intellect and wry humor of the preachers of yesteryear who answered every quibble made by an opponent to the humiliation of their adversary and to the enjoyment of their listeners.

Center Shots contains so much amusing matter that we thought others might enjoy a sample:

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Can a man with a family be a good Christian on a salary of $5 a week? — Exchange.

He would have to be an exceedingly good Christian to live on that salary and not fall from grace.

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Here is a preacher that wants a job:

"Amity, Ark. If any congregation in Arkansas will pay traveling expenses, I will preach one week. I am a singer; also a political speaker. I am a middle-of-the-road preacher; also a populist."

That will certainly bring a call. If he were a horse doctor and a baseball artist, it would be better still. Also, if he could manufacture chill tonic. Nothing like being "thoroughly furnished unto all good works"

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At the close of the Revolutionary War there were only 50,000 Baptists in the United States, the population being five millions. While the population has increased twelve times, Baptists have increased sixty times. — W. A. Ingle, in Arkansas Baptist.

***

We do not know whether there are sixty times as many Baptists in the United States now as at the close of the Revolutionary War, but we know there are sixty thousand times as many as we can find in the New Testament.

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Rev. J. E. McClurkin, of Honey Grove, preached a sermon on Freemasonry at the Baptist church last Sunday. He said that God made Moses a Mason on Mount Sinai, and Moses made Aaron and Joshua Masons, which was news to most of his hearers. — Exchange.

Rev. McClurkin is too modest. He doesn't go far enough.

He ought to say that Adam and Eve were Masons when they put on the fig leaf badges, and that Cain killed Abel because he wore too fine a white apron, and Daniel escaped from the lions because he gave them the pass-word. McClurkin is away behind on Freemasonry.

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Ten cents will buy Infant Baptism by Dr. A. T. Bledsoe. — St. Louis Christian Advocate.

We know several Methodist preachers that would give one hundred dollars for Infant Baptism by Peter or Paul, if it could be furnished. Don't keep it in stock, do you?

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Three things are said to be born in water, viz., mosquitoes, frogs, and Campbellites. — Pigue's Paper.


The Savior said, ''Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." Pigue is about to prove that mosquitoes, frogs, and Campbellites are in the kingdom of God, while Methodists are left out! We are sorry, Pigue, that you have not even as good a chance as a tadpole for the kingdom of heaven!

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What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? — Gospel Trumpet, Adventist.

He will make a big profit, if the soul is nothing but wind.


Baptists are the only people who can back up and bitch on to Pentecost — Arkansas Baptist.

If you will produce one line of history written during the first 1500 years after Pentecost that contains the name Baptist church, we will give you a chromo as big as your two ears. Now back up and hitch on to history.

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We preached at Mount Zion Advent church, and this was the first real Future Probation sermon ever heard by the Gibson county people. — Gospel Trumpet.

If you had preached that sermon in Judea in the day of the apostles, it would have been the first "Future Probation sermon" ever heard by the people of that country. And if you had said anything about the "Advent Church" they would have asked you whether Beelzebub or Nebuchadnezzar set it up!