- Dec 31, 2010
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My story is like George Clark Rankin's 100 years before me and I have given my testimony here...
George Clark Rankin - Rockytopva Testimony
The first photo is of the farmer I worked with in the hayfield and he kept the innocence of spirit and joy of spirit all of his good days. That summer after spending many months in a revived atmosphere I felt, "The sun shone brighter, the birds sang sweeter and the autumn-time looked richer than ever before. My heart was light and my spirit buoyant. I had anchored my soul in the haven of rest, and there was not a ripple upon the current of my joy. During these forty-five long years, with their alternations of sunshine and shadow, daylight and darkness, success and failure, rejoicing and weeping, fears within and fightings without, I have never ceased to thank God for that autumnal day in the long ago when my name was registered in the Lamb's Book of Life." - George Clark Rankin
The second photo is of George Clark Rankin is one not so happy. George Clark Rankin would enjoy quality revival in his teenage years. When he begun the university he would run into characters who would destroy his innocence and I could not find happy countenance on the man from there on. He goes on to say....
Up to this time, as I have already indicated, my faith was simple, confiding and unquestioning. It was the faith of my childhood. Then it was that Colonel Burkett assumed to speak. He was a man of strong intellect, well trained and widely read. He was not a religious man. The following is the substance of his deliverance:
"Wallace has not only made a mistake, but he has acted against common sense and reason. There is nothing in religion except tradition on the outside and emotion on the inside. The Bible is not a book to be believed. It is full of discrepancies and contradictions. The Old Testament is horrible. There are things in it that shock decency, to say nothing of a man's sense. The New Testament comes to us by a sort of accident. When King James appointed his commission to collate the manuscripts they threw out some of them and one or two of the present gospels came very nearly being discarded. They were retained by a very narrow majority. A number of the epistles, ascribed to Paul's authorship, were never written by him and they are not entitled to belief. They are a jumble of incongruous writings brought down from an ignorant age, and they are not in keeping with the intelligence of the race. The age has outlived them; they belong to a period filled with ignorance and superstition. Christ, if he ever lived, was a good man, but misguided and died as the result of his fanaticism. Wallace has only written himself down a fool by giving up a good law practice to enter the ministry."
But imagine the effect of all this on my innocent mind. It knocked me into smithereens. I had never dreamed of anything like that I had heard. It aroused all sorts of feelings and all sorts of questionings. It flung me headforemost out into a stormy sea without rudder or compass. The waves grew tumultuous about me. I was almost engulfed.
I arose and went to bed, but I did not go to sleep. I tossed from side to side filled with fear and misgivings. I thought of my mother and her faith; then it occurred to me that mother was just like myself. She had never seen anything of the world, had never read many books and was not an educated woman. She, maybe, was liable to mistakes. The man whom I had heard talk was an educated man; he had informed himself in history; he had traveled; he was a much smarter man than his father, and maybe he knew things that the rest of us did not know. He saw nothing in the Bible to call forth his faith and a number of the others seemed to agree with him. He did not even accept Christ as his Savior. And yet I was starting out to prepare myself to preach this gospel and to hold up Christ to men and women. Is it possible that after all there is nothing in it? Can it be that the whole thing is a fable, as my learned friend had argued? It was one of the most miserable nights I ever spent in my life. - George Clark Rankin
My faith, like George Clark Rankins, was also originally good. That was until I had a man of my generation give himself back to Christ. Like listening to professor Colonel Burkett in the OP, this guy would say things to "knock my faith into smithereens." Including were all the stories of the wild life of our generation including homosexuality. After fellowshipping with that man for many months we eventually went our own ways and I hate I allowed my ears to hear the things that they did.
There are folks out there who it is better to avoid altogether. If they knock the faith and innocency out of you the joy will go with it.
George Clark Rankin - Rockytopva Testimony
The first photo is of the farmer I worked with in the hayfield and he kept the innocence of spirit and joy of spirit all of his good days. That summer after spending many months in a revived atmosphere I felt, "The sun shone brighter, the birds sang sweeter and the autumn-time looked richer than ever before. My heart was light and my spirit buoyant. I had anchored my soul in the haven of rest, and there was not a ripple upon the current of my joy. During these forty-five long years, with their alternations of sunshine and shadow, daylight and darkness, success and failure, rejoicing and weeping, fears within and fightings without, I have never ceased to thank God for that autumnal day in the long ago when my name was registered in the Lamb's Book of Life." - George Clark Rankin
The second photo is of George Clark Rankin is one not so happy. George Clark Rankin would enjoy quality revival in his teenage years. When he begun the university he would run into characters who would destroy his innocence and I could not find happy countenance on the man from there on. He goes on to say....
Up to this time, as I have already indicated, my faith was simple, confiding and unquestioning. It was the faith of my childhood. Then it was that Colonel Burkett assumed to speak. He was a man of strong intellect, well trained and widely read. He was not a religious man. The following is the substance of his deliverance:
"Wallace has not only made a mistake, but he has acted against common sense and reason. There is nothing in religion except tradition on the outside and emotion on the inside. The Bible is not a book to be believed. It is full of discrepancies and contradictions. The Old Testament is horrible. There are things in it that shock decency, to say nothing of a man's sense. The New Testament comes to us by a sort of accident. When King James appointed his commission to collate the manuscripts they threw out some of them and one or two of the present gospels came very nearly being discarded. They were retained by a very narrow majority. A number of the epistles, ascribed to Paul's authorship, were never written by him and they are not entitled to belief. They are a jumble of incongruous writings brought down from an ignorant age, and they are not in keeping with the intelligence of the race. The age has outlived them; they belong to a period filled with ignorance and superstition. Christ, if he ever lived, was a good man, but misguided and died as the result of his fanaticism. Wallace has only written himself down a fool by giving up a good law practice to enter the ministry."
But imagine the effect of all this on my innocent mind. It knocked me into smithereens. I had never dreamed of anything like that I had heard. It aroused all sorts of feelings and all sorts of questionings. It flung me headforemost out into a stormy sea without rudder or compass. The waves grew tumultuous about me. I was almost engulfed.
I arose and went to bed, but I did not go to sleep. I tossed from side to side filled with fear and misgivings. I thought of my mother and her faith; then it occurred to me that mother was just like myself. She had never seen anything of the world, had never read many books and was not an educated woman. She, maybe, was liable to mistakes. The man whom I had heard talk was an educated man; he had informed himself in history; he had traveled; he was a much smarter man than his father, and maybe he knew things that the rest of us did not know. He saw nothing in the Bible to call forth his faith and a number of the others seemed to agree with him. He did not even accept Christ as his Savior. And yet I was starting out to prepare myself to preach this gospel and to hold up Christ to men and women. Is it possible that after all there is nothing in it? Can it be that the whole thing is a fable, as my learned friend had argued? It was one of the most miserable nights I ever spent in my life. - George Clark Rankin
My faith, like George Clark Rankins, was also originally good. That was until I had a man of my generation give himself back to Christ. Like listening to professor Colonel Burkett in the OP, this guy would say things to "knock my faith into smithereens." Including were all the stories of the wild life of our generation including homosexuality. After fellowshipping with that man for many months we eventually went our own ways and I hate I allowed my ears to hear the things that they did.
There are folks out there who it is better to avoid altogether. If they knock the faith and innocency out of you the joy will go with it.
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