This 12-year-old Elizabeth City boy is preaching the gospel and bringing lost souls to repentance in an evangelistic campaign now being conducted in this city. Picture form a snapshot photo by W.O. Saunders.
12-Year-Old Boy Talks With God. . . Anyhow, He Says He Does—And How Are You to Prove He Doesn’t?
Elizabeth City has a juvenile prodigy in William Monroe Twiddy Jr., 12 years old this month, who has been called to preach by God,--or called by God to preach—and who expects to go on the road as an evangelist tis summer as soon as school’s up.
William is the so of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Monroe Twiddy, 622 Parsonage St., this city. His father is a stock clerk in the Elizabeth City Hosiery Mills. Young William is a pupil in the fifth grade of the Elizabeth City Primary School.
Willie, as his playmates call him, got the call to preach in a Holiness meeting held in his neighborhood about two years ago, but he leaped into local fame as a preacher and soul saver only a few weeks ago when he got into the McAdams’ tent meetings on Parsonage St. and began to take an active part in the McAdams’ campaign for lost souls. He has led prayer meetings in various parts of the city in the interest of the McAdams’ meetings and is credited with 24 conversions at one meeting alone.
Young Twiddy is a pale little whisp of a boy but has a healthy sparkle in his eyes and is full of fun and energy. He seems to be just a lively, normal sort of boy except for his religious aspiration. He is not only sure that God has called him but insists that the Lord picks out the texts that he is to preach from and puts the words into his mouth. At a prayer meeting conducted by him in a home on Burgess St. he was asked what text he had selected for the occasion. He told them that he would preach from whatever text his bible opened at; that he left the selection of the text to God He appears to enjoy the work and it is obvious that he is getting a lot of fun out of it. There is nothing long-faced about his religion. He is the envy of all his playmates in the First Ward who are watching his career with interest and wondering how he gets away with it.
W.M. Twiddy Sr., father of the boys, says he is not persuaded that the youngster should leave school for the pulpit and intends giving him an education first but he will let him go on the road with the McAdams party this summer during the summer vacation period.
From The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, March 17, 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment