Many years have gone to history's page since the little craft known as the Firm Foundation raised its sails and launched upon the great sea of strife to do battle for the Lord.

      Many great and troublesome questions were at that time thrust upon the church and about these I hope to benefit some one in writing these articles.

      As the Firm Foundation came out in the hottest of the battle and demanded recognition as a soldier in the battle for the right we shall give particular attention to its career and the influence it has exercised over the brotherhood at large. Its strongest advocates and bitterest enemies were watching the church of Christ with interest to see if she would stand firm in the religious world, or drift with sectarianism, or break to pieces upon the great rocks of trouble that then lay in her pathway. Few living at that time were able to look down the vista of time twenty years and predict how far a great part of the church could drift from original grounds in so short a time.

      With the waters thus troubled, the Firm Foundation came into existence, and now, after almost twenty years of hard fought battles in the great strife, I hope that time, age and experience will enable me to look back over the battle ground and name with earnestness where our mistakes were made, where much of our work was lost, and where many of our failures could have been successes had we fought along different lines. In our history we, like all nations who fight for a principle, had forgotten many times to keep that principle before the world, and if it had not been true the church was bound so firmly together by fighting the religious world on the Bible doctrine of baptism for remission of sins, we might have thought more of principles and less of division and have saved many members and much property to the church of Christ. But twenty years ago three great questions were thrust upon the churches in Texas at once, and as the greater number of us had studied and fought along different lines we were unprepared to fight the new issues, and many lost out before the great points of difference were known.

      These subjects were:

1. Shall we tolerate sect baptism?
2. Shall we use the organ in worship?
3. Shall we spread the gospel through missionary societies?

      Besides these three great subjects many subjects of minor importance were agitated, all of which had a tendency to kill out the interest in the church of Christ, confuse the mind, alienate brethren, and lessen our forces against the enemy in the great fight for truth.

      Among the minor points I mention:

1. The formal confession.
2. Soul sleeping.
3. Future kingdom.
4. Sunday schools.
5. One-class system.
6. Sunday school literature.
7. Voting.
8. Joining secret lodges.

      These items came in for a consideration, and almost every man who decided to advocate any one of them was of that make up that he could only see one great subject at a time, and as a result, without exception, almost every one of the above subjects was pushed to the alienation of members, destroying the zeal of churches and wrecking the happiness of many.

      But as each advocate to his own little theory seemed to think the doors of heaven would open only to all who held like views with himself, and the Firm Foundation became too small for each to speak his little piece on this own peculiar hobby, it then became necessary for each to start a paper as far as he was able, through which to advocate his own peculiar views.

      One thing I have noticed in all the papers that have started during the past fifteen years-that each paper was the only sound paper in the church, and the best paper in the land; and as each paper would gain subscribers with the understanding that they only were running a sound paper and the best paper on earth, it only took from six months to a few years for all these papers to run their course and die; and as almost all of their readers believed the only sound and the best paper in the church was dead, they would then decide they did not want a sorry and unsound paper, so many of them dropped out, lost their interest in the paper, quit reading after the preachers, and finally were caught by the digressives, or drifted into other parts of Satan's kingdom, and lost all interest in the church of God. From a close study of the life work of Christ while on earth we can plainly see that most of his lessons were directed from different standpoints, looking down different channels, using different parables and illustrations for the purpose of arousing interest in the minds of all. It made no difference what class he addressed, whether farmer, merchant, carpenter, soldier or fisherman, he would tell them the kingdom was like the vocation in which they were engaged. When all saw there was beauty in the religion of the Son of God from every standpoint, and that the ray of light from the great fountain head of truth shone out in all directions and the main object of the entire system was to lead all into the great storehouse of blessings and there all become a great brotherhood of united workers in laboring together, trying to unify all differences and make on grand army fighting together for the truth of the gospel, they should be brethren and try to build up his own individual part, until the whole was complete.

      Not only should each build up his own part, but be careful in not pulling down the part his neighbor was building up, to give extra trouble.

      The same principle was involved in rebuilding Jerusalem under Nehemiah. The city was laid off, and each had to build before his door, and after the wall was completed before his door then they could begin to build up the breaches between the completed parts. Twenty years ago had I and many of my brethren been there and started a paper we would have declared the wall before our door was the only part that needed building, we were the only true builders, that all others were only half way building and they only who helped us to build were loyal, and none of the rest were true and loyal and we must accuse them of dishonesty and of all mean things possible, to kill out their influence and hinder the work and if possible arouse a hatred in the minds of all the uninformed against them because they were not building on our part of the wall. This spirit has been too great in many of us in Texas. One instance of this I mention: I often find true friends of D. Lipscomb and strong supporters of the Advocate who are highly prejudiced against the Firm Foundation preachers, believing almost all of them are heretics and dividers of churches. On the other hand I find many Firm Foundation supporters who believe Lipscomb is dishonest, his teaching false, and the Advocate supporters enemies to all truth.

      The question to settle is: Why is it this way? Who is to blame, and is the feeling just? I am sure this feeling has been engendered by the preachers on both sides.

      Eighteen years ago there was a great fight in Texas over sect baptism, and a man's soundness in those days was measured by whether or not he received Baptists and Methodists into the church on their baptism.

      At the same time there was another question in Texas greater in magnitude and far more reaching in its results, because it did not effect a small per cent of the churches but the entire brotherhood.

      That question was: Shall the work of God be done through the church of God, or through human societies? At that time the Advocate subscribers were as many in Texas as the Firm Foundation and almost all Advocate subscribers were as bitterly fighting human societies as the Firm Foundation was fighting sect baptism. But instead of recognizing them as our brethren and that they were making a fight as important as ours, and as soon as the wall was built up before their door they could help us build up the space between, we there and then decided baptism was the only question and forgot almost everything else, hinged the fight on that one item, and denounced all as unsound and dishonest who were not fighting sect baptism; tried to kill their influence for good, tried to make all believe their leaders had lied, were dishonest, and going to hell. As a result we brought about a bad state feelings between the two paper families that should never have existed in Texas, and a little more patience, a little more love, a little more sense, and a more extended zeal to build up along all lines would, no doubt, have made both papers friends instead of enemies, and today they might have been working hand in hand as brethren in advancing the Master's cause. But these facts only give a general outline of our trouble.

      In my next I shall examine along special lines.