1.01 - HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE MEETING
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE MEETING For a number of years there had been a desire upon the part of many Christians in Nashville to conduct a great central meeting through the cooperative efforts of the different churches of the city. For various reasons no decisive step in that direction was taken till the early autumn of 1921. At the invitation of the Grandview Heights congregation, the first meeting to consider the matter was held in their house of worship on September 6, 1921. No constructive work was done at this meeting other than that those present agreed to place the matter before their respective congregations for action. The brethren were all agreed that if the work should be undertaken it should be done by the local congregations cooperating with each other. While they worked together, each congregation was all independent unit and was in no way bound or obligated by any action taken by others. A number of business meetings were held at different houses of worship in the city before all of the plans of the meeting were completed. In none of these meetings was the individuality of the local congregations lost sight of, and all action taken and every decision reached was subject to their approval later.
Quite naturally, there were a number of things concerning which there was room for difference of opinion, such as the time and place for the meeting, the proper ones to do the preaching and lead the singing, the kind of song books to use, and various other details. The brethren who attended the business meetings discussed these matters freely and fully, each urging the adoption of his views; but where no scriptural principle was involved, when it was ascertained what the will of the majority was, the minority gracefully yielded. Thus every decision was unanimous, and the believers were of one soul and one mind; and the spirit of unity, concord, and Christian fellowship continued throughout the meetings. At the first meeting to consider the proposition, J. E. Acuff, of the Charlotte Avenue congregation, was requested by common agreement to suggest certain brethren from the various congregations of the city to devise ways and means in a more detailed manner, each to act, however, in all advisory capacity and to serve only under the directions of the eldership of the congregation represented. Those named at the time were: George B. Farrar, of the Belmont congregation; G. S. Davis, Twelfth Avenue; R. W. Comer, Chapel Avenue; Frank Jones, Waverly-Belmont; Dr. W. Boyd, Donelson; P. W. Miller, Foster Street; L. B. Corley, Grandview Heights.
Other groups of brethren or committees who were later selected in like manner to perform the necessary preparatory work, and who were likewise to serve for the various congregations and not under any constituted authority of their own, were as follows:
Finance Hall Cullom, Norman N. Davidson, Charles G. Akin, J. C. Lawson, R. W. Comer, S. F. Morrow, A. M. Burton, J. W. Owen, and Alex Perry.
Publicity—Paul W. Miller, Wayne Burton, A. N. Trice, John E. Cotton, James A. Allen, Lytton Alley, and W. S. Moody.
Usher Arrangements—John B. Shacklett, J. H. Sutton, E. L. Starkey, J. E. Simpkins, Robert King, W. C. DeFord, and J. N. Owen.
Song Preparations George S. Davis, Brantley Boyd, Joe Ridley, J. T. Allen, J. W. Dickson, Roy Williams, and Edgar Stevens.
Scores of others later participated just as actively in various features of the preparatory work. Early in the year all office was established in Room 234 of the Maxwell House as a matter of convenience in dispatching the arrangements. From this office much advertising matter was distributed, both by mail and otherwise. Uniform advertising campaigns were conducted, hundreds of laborers working from the headquarters and the respective congregations in the distribution of circulars, blotters, and invitations to every home in the city. The advertising campaign set a new precedent among the churches of Christ. It was done in a wonderfully thorough manner. For weeks before the meeting began, various notices, references, and articles appeared in the daily papers of the city. About 100,000 blotters announcing it were distributed; 65,000 personal invitation cards were sent out; large illuminated signs were erected along the car lines; a half-page ad. appeared in both the daily papers on the day before the meeting opened; and also a page or two of the city telephone directory was assigned to different ladies of the various churches, who called everybody in Nashville that had a telephone and gave them a personal invitation to attend the meeting. The result of this thorough advertising was that when the meeting opened on Tuesday night, March 28, the great Ryman Auditorium, seating 6,000 or 8,000 people, was packed, and it was estimated that 2,000 people were turned away.
After much consultation and deliberation, N. B. Hardeman, acting president of Freed-Hardeman College, Henderson, Tenn., was selected to do the preaching, and C. M. Pullias, minister of the church of Christ at Murfreesboro, Tenn., to direct the song service. That they met all expectations and justified the wisdom of their selection was attested by the fact that thousands were "singing their praises" when the meeting came to a close. The Ryman Auditorium is said to be the largest in the State of Tennessee. It will seat from 6,000 to 8,000 people. At many of the services during this meeting it was "packed and jammed," and sometimes it was estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 persons were turned away. There is something in the presence of a great assembly of human beings that is highly emotional in its influence. It is said that when old Xerxes looked out at one time upon his great army of a million men, he was so overcome with emotion that he burst into tears. To look out upon the great multitudes that gathered during the Hardeman-Pullias meeting, and especially to hear their voices blending together in singing the praises of God, was a scene and all occasion never to be forgotten.
While Brother Hardeman was speaking to the audiences that gathered at the Auditorium from time to time, the typesetters in the newspaper offices were only a few minutes behind him in setting up the same speech; and within a few hours thereafter the printed sermon in full was in the hands of many times the number who had heard the speech at the Auditorium, scattered for hundreds of miles in every direction. The Tennessean, with a sworn statement of circulation of forty-odd thousand, carried both the noon and night sermons; and the Nashville Banner, with a sworn circulation likewise of over forty thousand, carried the noon sermon in full; while both papers gave extensive news notices and sermon surveys. It is doubtful whether any preacher of the Restoration movement previously was ever so extensively quoted or had his sermons printed in full for so long a series by the secular papers.
Everything seemed to be right for such a meeting. The time was ripe. It was ripe from the standpoint of a strong force of loyal adherents to the cause to back the movement—a harvest of three-quarters of a century of labor of stalwart and loyal laborers in the Master’s vineyard in planting the cause in Nashville. It was ripe, too, from the standpoint of a general awakening of religious interests dominating the city at the very time and season of the year at which the meetings were held. The denominations, also well represented in Nashville, had been actively engaged in revivals of great magnitude, awakening the public mind to religious interest and fervor. Not only was the time right, but the place for such a history-making revival was strategic. In Nashville and vicinity there are forty-odd congregations, with a representation of from six thousand to ten thousand members, each of which is endeavoring to pattern after the New Testament church both in organization and manner of worship. Each is all independent unit in its respective community, selfgoverning, and, therefore, unhampered by overhead board or denominational control. Each is organized with its elders, or bishops, and deacons, after the pattern of the New Testament congregations, but with no other officers; and each seeks to rule in accordance with New Testament directions to these officials. The congregations recognize no other board or agency as having authority in the direction of their affairs. Each congregation is governed by the Bible as its only creed and guide, and each endeavors to worship after the order of the New Testament churches, without addition or subtraction as to the items of worship therein prescribed and recorded. The membership of these congregations, while they claim no exclusive right to the name "Christian" or any other New Testament privilege, have adopted no other name for distinction from others. They prefer union with them. The above-prescribed policy is adhered to in Nashville and community by a larger representation, perhaps, than that of any other city or community in America, thus making Nashville the American Jerusalem in the matter of restored primitive simplicity in Christianity. Thus was not only the time opportune, but the place was strategic; and the preparations for the revival began—not a few months ago, nor yet by David Lipscomb, E. G. Sewell, James A. Harding, James E. Scobey, T. B. Larimore, and a host of others of their colaborers now gray in the service; but the preparations were under way in the pioneer days of Tolbert Fanning and Philip S. Fall, who labored in Tennessee, while Samuel Rogers, J. T. Johnson, and Moses E. Lard evangelized in Kentucky, while Thomas M. Allen and the Creaths pushed the cause westward in Missouri, while William Hayden, associated much of the time with Thomas Campbell, preached to Ohioans, and while the Ohio pioneer, John Henry, was making his sixty-thousand-mile campaign on horseback and baptizing his twelve hundred converts. The results of this meeting cannot be measured by any of us during this life. It is believed that the remote results will be far greater than the immediate. While there were about two hundred baptisms at the Auditorium and the local church houses and some twenty-five restorations, nevertheless it is thought that the influences of this combined effort of forty or more churches of Christ cooperating in a great missionary undertaking will be felt among the churches all over the land and for many years to come. So far as is known, no meeting of such proportions has been conducted by the disciples of Christ since the days of inspiration. An old colored preacher, on the last night of the meeting, who couldn’t suppress his feelings any longer, was heard to exclaim that "de only diffunce ’twixt dis an’ Pentecost is dat we is jes’ in Nashville ’stid o’ Jerusalem."
It is believed that the big scale on which the meeting was planned, advertised, and carried out will help us to see the great interests of the kingdom in a bigger way than ever before and encourage and inspire us to put forth greater efforts to extend its borders than have ever been done in the past.
Some unusual order that prevailed. Scarcely was there a whisper in the vast audiences; no one left the building, but hundreds stood many times throughout the entire service. Another was that the speaker quoted from memory his Scripture lessons and references, which were numerous, not having a Bible in the building more than once or twice during the meeting. Still another very unique feature was the song service. Thousands of voices were lifted up in singing the praises of God, and the great building was made to ring with melody; and yet no instrument of any kind, not even a tuning fork, was used. It was rather remarkable that out of perhaps three hundred songs started and led by Brother Pullias, he seemed never to have missed the pitch of one a hair’s breadth. And, finally, a thing that astonished the public as much as any other was the fact that not a thing was said about money and no collection was taken from beginning to end. At the last service it was announced that all expenses had been met.
Thus came and went, perhaps, taking it all in all, the greatest meeting conducted by the churches of Christ since New Testament times.
NOTE.—The above account was compiled from notes and manuscripts prepared by Brethren J. E. Acuff and Wayne Burton, of Nashville.