Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 14
August 2, 1962
NUMBER 13, PAGE 6,11a

Miscellaneous Matters From "Burnett's Budgett" - (VI.)

Bill Cavender

(Note. The following items are taken from the Jan. 15, 1911, issue of "Burnett's Budget," a paper that was published in Dallas, Texas, in the early years of this century by bro. T. R. Burnett.)

1. William J. Miller in the Firm Foundation, says he has never heard an oral debate on the right of a Christian to vote, and he does not think the voting Christians will defend their practice. William lives in the backwoods. If he will come out into the settlements, he can certainly find an opponent. Or, if he will persuade some of the non-voting editors to open their columns, he can have plenty of written discussion. William (like Geo. Douglas) believes the devil owns all the civil governments, while Paul says, "The powers that be are ordained of God."

2. "I got a letter from a man who had come in on his Baptist baptism, and on Lord's day the brethren refused him the loaf. I wrote him to be baptized for remission of sins. But did the Lord empower us to deny a man the right to examine himself." — A Wild Scribe in Firm Foundation.

Yes, in the very same chapter where the Lord empowered you to sit on the man's baptism with your coroner's inquest he empowered the brethren to sit on his qualifications for communion. You cannot take the Baptist inquest and leave the Baptist closed communion. They go together. See?

3. A reader wishes to know if there is any scriptural authority for an old preacher to ordain a young preacher by laying on hands. No. The elders of a church ordain an evangelist, and an evangelist ordains elders and deacons. Preachers do not ordain preachers, nor elders ordain elders, in the Scriptures. Ordination is always performed by laying on hands. There is no other way mentioned in the New Testament. If you think there is, find it, and you can get a chromo by sending it to this office.

4. An old preacher (old enough to know better) fires this scrap of nonsense through the Eye-Opener: "When the alien is made a Christian he is translated from some place or kingdom into some other place or kingdom. Whence? Where? Can our political Christians tell? Is it not out of the world?"

Not out of this mundane sphere, beloved. Any "political Christian" (whatever that is) can tell you that an alien is translated out of the devil's kingdom into God's kingdom, or out of the world of sin into the church of Christ, but he is not translated out of the United States of America, or out of the state of Texas. He still has his civil and political and social duties to perform. When a man thinks (because he has become a Christian) he has been translated out of America, he ought to quit eating beef-steak and raising cotton and raising children, and be translated to the upper sphere. Possibly he ought to be bored for the simples, and turned over to the Holiness folks!

5. At the late national Episcopal conference the question was sprung: "Can J. Pierpont Morgan get to heaven?" The text was quoted: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." The bishops spoke in glittering generalities, and despite the Bible teaching decided that Morgan may be saved. Carnegie has concluded that it is better to give away his wealth than to try to pass the needle's eye.

6. The Presbyterians are coming on. A committee in the Pittsburg Presbytery, the other day, in its report, favored the substitution of immersion for effusion, as now practiced by the church, but after a heated discussion it was voted down. Dr. Schaff, of the Western Theological Seminary, urged that baptize is derived from a Greek word that means to dip or immerse.

7. Sixty-Nine Years Old. The editor of the Budget is sixty-nine years old today The early part of that period (when he was not in school) he spent upon a farm, where he learned to plow, chop, run a reaper, ride, shoot, and do all things done by boys on the frontier of a new state. He spent about eight years in school, four years in the Confederate Army, two years as a school teacher, eight years as editor of a political paper, and thirty-six years as a Christian editor. It has been a busy life. He is yet able to do good work, and hardly ever gets tired. He never has a headache, or tooth-ache, or stomach-ache, or any other kind of ache, and can read small print without glasses. He thinks it a disgrace for a man to break down before he is three-score and ten years old.

8. Gov. Campbell, in his farewell message to the legislature, says that three-fourths of the territory of Texas is dry, and more than three-fourths of the population live on this dry territory, yet the remaining one-fourth furnishes two-thirds of the criminals that are sent to the state penitentiary. That is a strong argument for prohibition.

9. "Bro. Sewell: I see in the little Bible lesson pictures, after Judas had gone out, Jesus took bread and wine, and blessed it and gave to the disciples. I find in Luke 22:21 that Jesus said. But the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.' Now if Judas ever went out before the hymn was sung, please give me something on it." — H. H. Hancock.

"If you will read John 13, you will see that Judas went out during the Passover supper, after Jesus had dipped the soli and handed it to Judas." -E. G. Sewell in Gospel Advocate.

John 13 does not mention the Passover supper or the Lord's supper, but gives an account of the supper in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany, two days before the Passover, where Jesus washed the disciples' feet. At that supper it is stated: "The devil having NOW put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him." Judas went out from that supper to contract with the priests, and sought opportunity to betray him. He did not go out from the Passover supper. Bro. Sewell has got two suppers mixed in his head.

10. A movement has been started in Germany for the cultivation of ambidexterity. The idea is, that the use of both hands equally well cultivates the intellect, especially the memory and speech. Physicians say there are two word centers, and the left center is cultivated and improved by the use of the right hand, and the right center by the use of the left hand. You folks who have realized a defect in speech and memory, but did not know what was the matter with you, can now go to work for a cure.

11. We have some wonderful query editors on the gospel journals of Texas. One editor, in answer to queries, says hands should not he imposed on elders and deacons in ordination, unless the preacher imposing the hands can impart gifts — as if hands were laid on for only one purpose. Also, that only the twelve apostles were baptized with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, when the Scriptures say the Spirit was poured out upon the handmaidens on that day. Also, the woman of Rev. 12 is not the church, because the church is called a virgin in the Scriptures. Verily, what some wild scribes do not know about Bible teaching would make a large volume.

12. A prominent pastor says the majority of young women prefer matrimony to missionary work. But many young women who marry have need to do missionary work at home....The people called Christians outnumber any other religious body in the state of Oklahoma. Their per cent of increase in Texas for the past twenty-five years has been greater than that of any other people.... When a mother sings her baby to sleep, she don't sing a la Wagner. It would scare the baby....Do not slander the women. Not all of them wear hobble dresses. Their tight shoes make some of them pigstep when they walk. ...Just as the aviators began to fly through the heavens, the new style of hat came in fashion, which comes down to the chin, and prevents a woman from looking above her lap....You turned a leaf on New Year's Day, And made a promise then, But sadly fell from grace away, By January ten....A movement is on foot to ensmall our greenback bills. The complaint is that they are too bulky. We have not heard of any preachers or editors who have broken their backs carrying their wads of greenback bills....A Texas debater says his opponent with his crooked doctrine "got into many straights." That is remarkable indeed — how crooked doctrine could get into STRAIGHTS. There must be a crooked speller in the land....A religious journal at Dallas calls Christ "the great ante-type of the Passover lamb." That puts it backwards. Ante means before, and the lamb is before Christ. Christ Is the anti-type of the Passover lamb....The college at Thorp's Spring, Texas, has enrolled 220 students the present session. This is the best record (for numbers) made by any of the new Christian schools....The newspapers say that the banks of Texas now have on deposit more money than at any time in the history of the state. Most of this money belongs to the farmers, and not to the preachers....A Chicago woman asks for a divorce because her husband "tries too hard to make himself beautiful." She thinks he should behave handsomely to her, but not try to show off beautifully to other women. She ought to have married an ugly man....A very common question among preachers is: "How to fill a church?" An old preacher once answered that question for a young preacher: "Fill the pulpit."....The boy stood on the burning deck, And viewed the landscape o'er; He saw a girl go wobbling by, The hobble dress she wore' Now that the new year has begun, Let's all of us some vices shun; Resolve, 0 man, you will not cuss, And woman, that you will not fuss.

— Box 5794, Longview, Texas