Four seeds

Ye sons of earth prepare the plough,
Break up your fallow ground!
The Sower is gone forth to sow,
And scatter blessings round.

The seed that finds a stony soil
Shoots forth a hasty blade;
But ill repays the sower's toil,
Soon withered, scorched, and dead.

The thorny ground is sure to balk
All hopes of harvest there;
We find a tall and sickly stalk,
But not the fruitful ear.

The beaten path and highway side
Receive the trust in vain;
The watchful birds the spoil divide,
And pick up all the grain.

But where the Lord of grace and power
Has blessed the happy field,
How plenteous is the golden store
The deep wrought furrows yield!

Father of mercies, we have need
Of Thy preparing grace;
Let the same hand that gives me seed
Provide a fruitful place!

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Most common error in the English language

According to 10 Common Errors "Spell Check" Won’t Catch, "...confusing 'its' and 'it’s' is the most common error in the English language." Other errors discussed are:

Your versus You’re
Affect versus Effect
Through versus Threw
Their versus There versus They’re
Farther versus Further

New wine

Is anybody out there? Have I bored you all to death with the figures of speech series of posts? OK, here is a related post, but hopefully one that will awaken you.

Debating on the subject of wine/alcohol/abstinence/moderation, a brother used Isaiah 65:8 as a proof text that new wine is non-alcoholic. Is that so?

Isaiah 65:8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.

Seems to me this is a figure of speech. If we want to be literal, there are grapes in the cluster not a bunch of juice hanging there. What figure of speech is this? One of the twenty? Something else?

Figures of Speech 5

17. Pun -- A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
Like some other figures of speech, puns in an original language usually do not translate well into the receiver language. One that is noticable in Greek and English is found in Philippians 3:2-3: Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision [katatome, to cut up, mutilate]. For we are the circumcision [peritome], which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

According to David Peters the Hebrew of Judges 10:4 has one, which he illustrates thusly: His thirty sons rode around on thirty burros [´ayirim] and lived in thirty boroughs [´ayarim] in Gilead.

18. Simile -- A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
II Peter 3:8 ...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Song of Solomon 1:14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Song of Solomon 4:3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

19. Synecdoche -- A figure of speech is which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it.
Examples: John 3:16 -- world stands for people; Matthew 10:38 -- cross stands for self-sacrifice.

According to some the distinction between metonymy and synecdoche "is that in metonymy, the exchange is made between two related nouns; in synecdoche, the exchange is made between two related ideas."

20. Understatement -- A figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
Perhaps Ruth 2:3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. It reads as if this is merely a fortuitous circumstance, but it draws our focus to the providence of it.

The Top 20 Figures of Speech (17-20)

Figures of Speech 4

13. Onomatopoeia -- The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Alter and Kermode, in The Literary Guide to the Bible, find onomatopoeia in the Hebrew of Isaiah 5:24 and 24:19-20. I am not qualified to know whether this is correct, but pass it on to you who may.

14. Oxymoron -- A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.
Isaiah 58:10, "...thy darkness [shall] be as the noonday:"

15. Paradox -- A statement that appears to contradict itself.
Matthew 13:12, "...whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."
Matthew 20:16, "So the last shall be first, and the first last:"
I'm thinking that those with a high view of inspiration might tend to find more paradoxes, while those with a low view might just pass them off as actual contradictions.

16. Personification -- A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
1 Corinthians 12:15-16, "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?"

The Top 20 Figures of Speech (13-16)

Figures of Speech 3

9. Irony -- The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.
Job 12:2, "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." I really like Job's assessment of his friends' comments. Many of us might call this sarcasm rather than irony. Irony is is usually "more subtle" than sarcasm, and I'm not sure just where the line is. Job doesn't seem real subtle.

10. Litotes -- A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
Act 19:23 And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.
Saying there was "no small stir" means there was a big one. I really like the use of this kind of figure of speech.

11. Metaphor -- An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
Song of Solomon 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Song of Solomon 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

12. Metonymy -- A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.
Proverbs 10:20, "The tongue of the righteous is choice silver." Here, the tongue, closely associated with speaking, represents words or speech.

The Top 20 Figures of Speech (9-12)

Figures of Speech 2

5. Assonance -- Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
Usually in the original but not observable in English. In Hebrew, Exodus 15:12-13 natita, nahita, neihalta. I Timothy 3:16 does something similar in Greek, with the first word in each line having the same ending sound -- ephanerothe, edikaiothe, ophthe, ekeruchthe, episteuthe, anelephthe -- but that is probably more like rhyme.

About.grammar gives the old Hoover vacuum cleaner slogan -- "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans" -- as an English (non-biblical) example of assonance.

6. Chiasmus -- A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
Amos chapter 5, parts of verses 4 & 5 arranged to make it more visual:

Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
But seek not Bethel,
nor enter into Gilgal,
and pass not to Beersheba:
for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
and Bethel shall come to nought.
Seek the LORD, and ye shall live

7. Euphemism -- The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
The use of sleep for death in John 11:11 is usually considered a euphemism: These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Genesis 4:1 tells us "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived...", a point we well understand without a more explicit term.

8. Hyperbole -- An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
Here I am fearful of saying the Bible makes exaggerated statements. Liberalists with loose views on inspiration tend to find lots of hyperbole in the Bible. If you don't accept the Bible as the Word of God anyway, you are likely to find anything miraculous or unusual to be hyperbole. Literalists and those with a high view of inspiration probably won't find much hyperbole (maybe even miss it if it is really there?).

Perhaps Matthew 5:29 could qualify as an example of hyperbole: And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. Most people don't think Jesus want them literally tearing their eyes out.

The Top 20 Figures of Speech (5-8)

Figures of Speech 1

I mentioned yesterday that I think we can often miss or misinterpret the figures of speech in the Bible. Over several days, Lord willing, I am going to post The Top 20 Figures of Speech from about.grammar. Today is 1 through 4 (in alphabetical order) from their list. Please interact with these series of posts. Present uses of the different kinds of figures of speech in the Bible. Point out where missing the figure of speech sets one up for misinterpretation. Agree or disagree with my examples. Here goes.

1. Alliteration -- Repetition of an initial consonant sound.
Probably the best illustration of alliteration found in the Bible is Psalm 119. This alliteration cannot be seen in our English Bibles, though. This points up that this kind of figure of speech, at least, does not translate well. Psalm 119 is a song composed of 176 verses divided into 22 sections. Each of these 22 sections contains verses that correspond to the Hebrew alphabet. So the first section always starts with Aleph, the second Beth, and so forth through the Hebrew alphabet. Jeremiah uses a kindred structure in Lamentations chapter 3.

There is use of alliteration in the Greek of Hebrews 1:1. I transliterate it here:
polumeros kai polutropos palai ho theos lalesas tois patrasin en tois prophetais

(Lots of "p" sound.) Literal translations focus on maintaining the integrity of the meaning, so this type of figure is seldom seen outside the original autographs. The International Standard Version worked toward it a bit in Heb. 1:1, giving "God, having spoken in former times in fragmentary and varied fashion to our forefathers by the prophets,"

2. Anaphora -- Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Matthew 5:3-11 and Isaiah 14:13-14 are examples of this.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth...

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

(I think I have heard this style a good bit in preaching.)

3. Antithesis -- The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
I believe Romans 5:15 can be considered an example of this.
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Compare also Isaiah 59:9 as an example.

4. Apostrophe -- Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.
In Matthew 23, Jesus speaks to the crowd of scribes and Pharisees, then breaks off to address Jerusalem in verse 37.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

I believe these are some legitimate examples of these figures of speech. I am not sure that missing the figure in these cases are as integral to missing the meaning as some other figures of speech.

Systematic Theology again

Being a country boy, every once in awhile I like to run a stick up in a hole and see what comes crawling out. So with Systematic Theology. I usually can poke some of you out with this one, and y'all ain't been very active for awhile. So here goes.

It is clear to me that God wrote the Bible and that men write systematic theologies. The Bible is a harmonious whole provided to man by God. It is often not the harmonious whole in the preconceived way we think it is. Too many times we study half of what the Bible says about something, form our opinions, and then toss out the other half of what the Bible says about that subject. In effect, we form a systematic grid that we place over the word of God and dispose of whatever doesn't fit that grid. It is too often that we don't realize that it is the word of God that needs to be placed over the grid. If the grid isn't fitting the Word, toss IT.

"We must recognize that God and the Scriptures rule over our theology and not the other way around." -- John Stevenson

Those of you who know me know that I am quite the biblical literalist. When James says the elders were to anoint with oil, I believe the elders were literally anointing with literal oil. When Paul discusses a head covering in I Corithians 11, I believe he really meant what he said.

But it is a problem that we often misinterpret the Bible because we do not recognize that it uses figures of speech. When we try to literalize what is not literal, we run into nonsense.

From this post, I want to launch over the next few days a highlighting of the most common figures of speech in the English language and look at how or whether these are used in our Bible. Come back tomorrow. Similar time, same place.

Just when you thought...

...you knew everything the government is wasting money on:

Taxpayers are paying to the tune of nearly $1 million per year to cover the indiscretions of our officials!

A sad thought

One day this past week I thought about the comment we patriotic Americans sometimes make: "The United States is the greatest nation in the world."

With this in my mind, the thought struck me, "God help the world."

A $50 Lesson.....

Copied from an e-mail

"I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up.

"She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there smiling.

"So I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'

"She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the poor homeless people.'

"Her parents beamed with pride.

"'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep up my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store near where the homeless guys hang out, and you can give one the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'

"She thought that over for a few moments, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy just come over and do the work, and then you can just pay him the $50?'

"I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

"Her parents still aren't speaking to me."

Copied

[Note: I don't think she'd fit in the current Republican Party either.]

Read and heard

Read today:
Sacred Harp is a style of singing that is more often "caught" than "taught".

Heard the other day:
What we think is a coincidence is really a God-incidence.

The storm hushed

The storm hushed.

'Tis past--the dreadful stormy night
Is gone, with all its fears!
And now I see returning light,
The Lord, my Sun, appears.

The tempter, who but lately said,
I soon shall be his prey;
Has heard my Savior's voice and fled
With shame and grief away.

Ah, LORD, since thou didst hide thy face,
What has my soul endured?
But now 'tis past, I feel thy grace,
And all my wounds are cured!

O wondrous change! but just before
Despair beset me round;
I heard the lion's horrid roar,
And trembled at the sound.

Before corruption, guilt and fear,
My comfort blasted fell;
And unbelief discovered near
The dreadful depths of hell.

But JESUS pitied my distress,
He heard my feeble cry;
Revealed his blood and righteousness,
And brought salvation nigh.

Beneath the banner of his love,
I now secure remain;
The tempter frets, but dares not move
To break my peace again.

LORD, since thou thus hast broke my bands,
And set the captive free;
I would devote my tongue, my hands,
My heart, my all to thee.

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Expository preaching

Awhile back I quoted Mike McInnis writing, "The whole concept of 'preaching' as necessarily involving taking a particular text and then developing it for a half hour or more is more a learned activity than one which is directed by NT example." Several of you disagreed with Mike and me, though not strenuously.

Now here is a quote in the opposite direction from Noah Lee: "It is my conviction that all sermons should be expository sermons in order to be faithful to the Word of God. When a preacher chooses to preach on a topic or a theme, he runs the risk of injecting his personal opinions or agendas into the sermon and neglecting the main idea of the Biblical text. Every expository sermon follows the same format: the text is read, the text is explained, and the text is applied."

I generally agree with Brother McInnis. I specifically deny that "all sermons should be expository sermons in order to be faithful to the Word of God." What do you think, readers? Should all sermons be expository sermons? If so, based on what reasoning? If not, why not?

[Note: Bro. Lee explains expository preaching as "the method of studying a particular passage of Scripture, discovering the main point or big idea of that passage, explaining that point to the church and making points of application from that passage's big idea."]

Old Shiloh

Attended the Old Shiloh Cemetery picnic today. I think it is one of the few East Texas homecomings we still call a picnic.

The Old Shiloh Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Rusk County, and a very large country cemetery. The first recorded burial is 1853. The picnic is only a shadow of its former days. Once there were two churches at Shiloh and two singings -- one "little book" and one Sacred Harp. By the time I came along, the old church (org. circa 1843) and the Sacred Harp Singing had died out, and there was only the little-book singing in the Southern Baptist Church (org. 1902). It was a big deal in the days of my youth. It was probably the largest picnic gathering/singing in the area. In addition to singers and those who had family in the cemetery, it was big draw for politicians and singing groups. The church house was always full and overflowing. Today perhaps a third the building was filled. The singing crowd was bigger than the last time I attended. The overall crowd was much smaller.

Tradition has it that the picnic as we know began in 1867 when my great-grandfather's sister, Susan E. Vaughn Pierce (wife of Wylie Matthew Pierce), and others met for a picnic and cemetery cleaning day.

The cemetery is located just east of Hwy. 315, about 6 miles northeast of Mt. Enterprise, Texas.

Inalienable rights

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asks Elena Kagan whether she believes there are inalienable rights. She said, "I don't have a view of what are natural rights independent of the Constitution." Seems like a lot of intellectual dishonesty there.

Is this important? I believe it is. The United States is founded, at least partially, on the idea of our Constitution preserving pre-existing rights. Some people believe we only have the rights granted by the Constitution and they can be taken away at any time.

Listen HERE.

Rafters: something I miss

Last week while wandering around the internet, I ran up on the Rafter Angle Calculator at Construction Resource.com. It looks like a nice resource, and it brought back some memories. 

Once upon a time I was a rafter man on a framing crew. It seems far away now. It’s been probably 15 years or more since I did much construction work. On days when I’m not out in the 100 degree heat, I miss both framing in general in rafter cutting in particular. [Actually out in the heat I don’t miss it quite as much ;-) ] 

After finding the “Rafter Angle Calculator,” I did some further searching on rafter cutting. It appears to be a skill whose practitioners are dwindling. Or so they say. Pre-made trusses are one major factor in this. Curiously, while reading about the subject online I didn’t notice anyone mentioning that rafters could be laid out with a framing square. After learning to cut rafters from my Dad, I tried to learn more through reading and practice. One of the best was an old textbook cast off by some school. I’m going to have to hunt it up out of storage and find the title. [Added: It was Simplified Roof Framing by J. Douglas Wilson and S. O. Werner, 1927.] 

Eventually I might cut an entire roof ahead of or at the beginning of construction. In order to not have thousands of dollars of 2X6’s cut wrong, I used a three-part safety system. I laid out the rafter with a framing square, calculated the length of the rafter with a Construction Master Calculator by Calculated Industries* (given to me by my boss), and used a rafter table booklet title Full Length Roof Framer by A. F. J. Riechers.** If these were the same, I was confident there was no mistake and the 6-1/2" worm drive Skil Saw was ready to take its bite. If you find a house with rafters that I cut it will have a pattern rafter (or more according to roof type) with all the information about the rafter – cut, length, depth of seat cut, overhang, etc., as well as a signature of approval. 

Those were the days.

Other info on roof framing 

A Roof Cutter’s Secrets to Framing the Custom Home by Will L. Holladay

Roof Framing by Marshall Gross (Carlsbad, CA: Craftsman Book Co., 1998)

Book Review of Full Length Roof Framer by Mike Merisko

 

Roof Framer’s Bible: The Complete Pocket Reference to Roof Framing by Barry D. Musse 

Basic Roof Framing Instructions online 

*The Construction Master Calculator can calculate in feet/inches and figure pitch, rise, run, etc. 

** The Full Length Roof Framer has been in publication since 1917 and is still not outdated.

Desirable word

desideratum noun: Something considered necessary or desirable.

The man and the controversy

W. H. Whitsitt: The Man and the Controversy. James H. Slatton. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780881461336. $40.00. 348 pages. Hardback.

I had thought to write a review of the book above, but my mind has been in somewhat of a fog lately and I haven't been able to focus on it. Instead, I'll make some comments on W. H. Whitsitt and the book, but not properly a book review. For a recent review of the book by Andrew C. Smith, click HERE.

William Heth Whitsitt (1841-1911) was the third president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the center of a late 19th century controversy on Baptist history, Baptist succession and the ordinance of baptism.

James H. Slatton follows Whitsitt's life mostly through the accounting of Whitsitt's private diary and letters to his wife-to-be Florence Wallace. Slatton fortuitously discovered these records while on a pastoral visit, and persuaded the Whitsitt family to donate the materials to Virginia Baptist Historical Society and subsequently researched the records for this biography.

Slatton begins the story with Whitsitt's Civil War service under Nathan Bedford Forrest. It is this period which Whitsitt credits as widening his horizons to broader religious thinking.

"The experiences of war were a liberal education to many soldiers...One of the earliest and most distinct conclusions that I had reached was that I had been misled by the representations of the Tennessee Baptist. I returned to Tennessee a wiser and gentler man. I had got my learning in the hard school of experience, and I had a right firm hold upon it. Though it was not acquired from books and colleges it was none the worse on that account. I was now and then mortified by the memory of the rude and somewhat hysterical sentiments, and resolved to lay them aside forever." (p. 14)

What began with Southern exposure blossomed in European light. From the Civil War to the University of Virginia to Southern Seminary to the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin, Whitsitt continued to broaden his views. Whitsitt's personal diary and correspondence reveals he became (somewhat secretly) a quite unorthodox Baptist -- certainly for his time and location. He questioned the exclusivity of Christianity, possibly held falling from grace, did not require reimmersion even from the Campbellites (called it stupidity and sectarian arrogance) and apparently agreed with Crawford Toy's progressive views on inspiration. But it was his accounting of Baptist history that created a firestorm. His version of Baptist history denied the historical succession of Baptist churches from the time of the apostles and posited their use of immersion baptism as a recent innovation. He first broached the issue in unsigned articles in the New York Independent in 1880. Articles he wrote for the 1896 Johnson's Universal Encyclopedia began the controversy and his A Question in Baptist History fueled it.

Those only passing acquainted with Whitsitt will be intrigued by the ironies of his life. The archenemy of Landmark ecclesiology was an early friend to all members of its "Great Triumvirate". J. R. Graves preached the sermon at Whitsitt's ordination. Whitsitt preached J. M. Pendleton's funeral. Yet it was not the southern Landmarkers who brought to light Whitsitt's departure from Baptist orthodoxy. It was Herman Melville King, pastor of the Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. Whitsitt denied that the Providence Church then existing was the same church formed by Roger Williams in 1638. This brought forth King's rejoinder in the New York Examiner and then his book The Baptism of Roger Williams: a review of Rev. Dr. W. H. Whitsitt's inference (Henry Melville King, Providence, RI: Preston & Rounds Co., 1897). King's defense of his own church's history (which to this day claims the 1638 constitution) brought Whitsitt's articles to the notice of the Baptist public. Doubly curious, Whitsitt actually took the same position of J. R. Graves on the Providence church not being the oldest Baptist church in America.

It is often stated that the Landmarkers drove W. H. Whitsitt from the presidency of Southern Seminary. It is true that Landmark Baptists mounted an assault on Whitsitt's view of history, and their opposition eventually had effect. But Whitsitt's supporters were actually successful three successive years in beating back Landmark attacks. Rather, Whitsitt was sacrificed on the altar of the Southern Seminary. His supporters lost the will to fight, and evidently thought it best for Whitsitt to go rather than the seminary suffer because of him and his views. Though removed from the presidency of Southern Seminary for his views, Whitsitt's version of Baptist history would gradually become the prevailing orthodoxy. Only recently have historians other than Landmarkers questioned it.

Who was this man who was the center of one of the great Baptist controversies of the last two centuries? Slatton's book attempts to answer that question from previously unavailable sources. Whitsitt's letters and diary reveal a man who regularly criticized his colleagues, Baptist preachers, Baptist churches, Baptist associations and Baptists in general -- he called J. P. Boyce a "dunderhead" and spoke equally unfavorably of other Baptist leaders, sometimes even of his friend and mentor John Broadus. "[Whitsitt] was a complex man..." No doubt! "At one time he predicted Baptists eventually would drop their insistence on immersion - and should. In his most important published work, however, he identified immersion as their defining practice."

"He agonized over the narrowness of his fellow Southern Baptists and whether he could stay with them in good conscience. Later, when the issue was joined, he took his stand as a Baptist to the bitter end - and a Southern one at that!

"He argued that he had been assailed for the mere assertion of a mere historical fact, and that the issue was not doctrinal. Yet he consistently argued that at stake in the controversy was the essential Baptist doctrine of the universal spiritual church, and that it was the foundation on which the Baptist vision of the church stood! - surely a doctrinal issue." (p. 327)

Directly opposite of Morgan Edwards -- who lamented that the kind of reasoning used to deny anointing the sick with oil would lead Baptists to discontinue every positive rite -- Whitsitt believed the abandoning of things like feet washing and anointing the sick with oil should lead Baptists to abandon immersion and strict communion as well.

"The crowd this evening filled aisles and gallery, and the Baptists must receive a position in the respect of the citizens such as they have never held before. I am half disposed to look with better favor upon them, although I can perceive no good reason why they should retain either immersion or strict communion. Still they do retain them, and it would be destructive to say aught against either of them. The time is coming, far off perhaps, when both will be abolished.

"Both of them are according to the Apostolic model--at any rate immersion is beyond any question the Apostolic mode--but so are foot washing, the holy kiss, the anointing of the sick with oil and numbers of other items that have fallen into disuse in deference to changes in time & season. Why hold to those when these are rejected?" (pp. 10-11)

The complexity of the man and his controversy, as accounted by Slatton, will compel the student of Baptist history and theology to devour this highly readable volume. I highly recommend it.

[Note: The index in Slatton's book in horrendous and should be corrected before the next printing. It is usually off by several pages.]

Related at Google Books:
W. H. Whitsitt: the Man and the Controversy by James H. Slatton

A Question in Baptist History: Whether the Anabaptists in England Practiced Immersion Before the Year 1641? by William Heth Whitsitt

Did They Dip? by John Tyler Christian