T. T. Martin

T. T. MARTIN
1862 - 1939

Dr. T. T. Martin was born in Smith County, Mississippi, April 28, 1862. While in preparation for a career in law, God called him to preach the Gospel. After a period of intense and prayerful self-examination, he gave up his legal ambitions and devoted himself to preparing for the ministry. He graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1891. He was pastor, conference speaker, and revivalist. Many were convicted and converted under his ministry.
Martin entered full-time evangelistic work in 1900, and his ministry soon became noted for its effectiveness in bringing conviction and conversion. In the early 1900's, he began to use large tents for his meetings because most of the churches could not accommodate the crowds. Soon invitations began to come from all sections of the country. In order to fill the many requests, he gathered around him a group of evangelists and musicians whose presentation of the way of salvation was clear and sound. He personally scheduled these men in organized teams throughout the country.

While awaiting assignment for the foreign mission work, Martin was stricken with an almost fatal attack of food poisoning, and was advised by physicians that moving to Colorado was the only chance for recovery. From 1897 to 1900 Martin was pastor in Cripple Creek, preaching in nearby camps, often in the open air. Martin recovered his health and developed the unusual strength of voice that was to carry him through almost forty years of exceptionally strenuous preaching.

Evangelist T. T. Martin from Mississippi roamed the streets of Dayton during the Scopes trial, lecturing on street corners and selling copies of his popular book, Hell and the High Schools. H. L. Mencken wrote that Martin "is holding a continuous anti-evolution convention in town" and "addresses connoisseurs of scientific fallacy every night on the lot behind the Courthouse." Mencken wrote that Martin claimed radicals from Cincinnati were in town attempting to assassinate him and the Dayton police posted guards who kept a watch "upon all strangers of sinister appearance."

Hell and the High Schools attacked evolution in words that sometimes jumped off the page: "The Germans who poisoned the wells and springs of northern France and Belgium and fed little children poisoned candy were angels compared to the teachers, paid by our taxes, who feed our children's minds with the deadly, soul-destroying poison of Evolution....Evolution and the teaching of Evolution in tax-supported schools is the greatest curse that ever fell upon this earth."

Excerpt from Hell and the High Schools (pp. 156-165):

The Only Hope.

WHAT can be done? Where is our hope? The pussyfooting apologies for the Evolutionists will say "Don't do anything drastic. Educate the people, and the thing will right itself." Educate the people? How can we, when Evolutionists have us by the throat? When they have, while we were asleep, captured our tax-supported schools from primary to University, and many of our denominational colleges? "The Philistines be upon thee Samson !" But alas! We have been asleep upon the lap of this Delilah and. have been shorn of our strength-they have captured our schools. But "O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, strengthen me only this once, O God." "And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up." So could we. "And he bowed himself with all his might." So can we. And the strength of God who "created man in his own image" will come into us, and we will slay these Philistines, the greatest curse that has come upon man since God created him in His own image. What is a war, what is an epidemic that sweeps people away by the hundred thousand, compared to this scourge that under the guise of "science," when it is not science, at all, is sweeping our sons and daughters away from God, away from God's word, taking from them their Redeemer and Saviour, to spend eternity in hell?

The two pillars are:

First, the local Board of Trustees of every public school. They are absolutely sovereign. Even the Governor of the State, even the President of the United States, cannot force any teacher upon any public school. It is in the hands of the local Board of Trustees. Let the fathers and mothers see that only men and women shall be put on Boards of Trustees who will protect our children from this scourge, this "scholastic paganism." It can be done in two ways: first, employ no teacher who believes in Evolution; second, obligate every teacher to post himself and expose the claims of Evolution every time it comes up in the text books that are being used, for many of them are poisoned with it. This can be easily done. At the close of this book a list of books will be given that will enable the teachers to combat this deadly-damning curse.

Second, elect to the legislatures men who will cut off all support from all tax-supported schools where Evolution is taught, and require that in all tax-supported schools only teachers shall be employed who will post themselves and combat this terrible curse every time it comes up in the text books being used. Too drastic? Do you fight a scourge of small-pox with halfway measures. A scourge of small pox and yellow fever combined would be slight, as a. curse, compared to this scourge that is sweeping our young men and women, boys and girls, away from God. away from God's word, away from the Redeemer-Saviour and into hell for eternity.

Instead of being misled by these worshippers of this modern Diana of the Ephesians, who at the above suggestions will throw dust into the air. and, full of wrath, will cry out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians !", will the reader listen even to an infidel?

I quote from Prof. Alfred Fairhurst, M. A., D. Sc., in "Theistic Evolution," p 73: "Professor Virchow of Berlin, who was styled the 'foremost chemist of the globe' and who was the highest German authority in physiology, said, 'It is all nonsense. It cannot be proved by science that man descended from the ape or from any other animal (italics mine-T. T. M.) Since the announcement of the theory, all real scientific knowledge has proved in the opposite direction. The attempt to find the transition from animal to man has ended in total failure. (Italics mine.-T. T. M.) Virchow went so far as to denounce the theory AS DANGEROUS TO THE ST ATE, and demanded THAT IT BE EXCLUDED FROM THE SCHOOLS'." REMEMBER THAT DR. VIRCHOW WAS AN INFIDEL, THAT HE FIRST ACCEPTED THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION, AND WROTE VIGOROUSLY IN ITS FAVOR, AND THIS COMES FROM HIM AFTER HE HAD REPUD. IATED EVOLUTION AND KNEW OF ITS DANGERS. He demanded that it be excluded from the schools because of its effect on this life. How much more urgent that it be excluded when it dooms the soul for eternity!

Prof. Fairhurst, professor of Natural Science in Kentucky University: "Why the public money should be spent to propagate this kind of teaching is beyond my imagination. I believe that the public, when informed, will see that this teaching which is being protected by the word 'science', but which lacks entirely the character of true science, will be banished from our public schools." "The religious public looks on with indifference while their children are being taught this doctrine, not knowing that it is a theory that undermines the Bible and all revealed religion." "And so the dogma, evolution, is being widely propagated in our high schools, and, in some places, in the grades below, and in our normal schools, among the thousands of immature girls and boys who are to become the teachers of our common schools, who will teach it dogmatically as they have received it from their dogmatic teachers. These teachers are especially fond of dwelling on what they regard as the evolution of man from some animal ancestor, and of connecting him with the brute creation both in his physical and mental being."

Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Editorial: "The whole matter comes to this: that responsible leaders should look the question squarely in the face and definitely adopt one course or the other. A policy of drifting will ruin anything. And we venture to say that if one will embody the doctrines of Darwinian Evolution in a resolution to be presented to the various Christian bodies that it will be voted down by every synod, association, conference or other official body in the South. If this be true, then ought a company of self-important leaders be permitted to accomplish by direction what they could not do openly?"

"When the Christian people of this country understand the ravages of agnosticism caused by the substitution of the unsupported guesses for the word of God, they will compel the atheists and agnostics to build their own schools instead of using the public schools for the spread of unbelief."-Wm. Jennings Bryan.

The Responsibility of Fathers and Mothers for Evolution Being Taught to Their Children.

Fathers and Mothers!

DO YOU remember the first faint cry from a tiny little life, when the doctor told you that you were a parent? Can you ever forget the thrill, the inexpressible joy? No language can ever describe it. Did you realize then that there was a being whom you had brought into existence who would spend eternity in Heaven or in hell? Do you realize it now? Do you realize your responsibility for the eternal destiny of that child? Do not hide behind excuses; do not try to shirk responsibility; do not, as the ostrich, when about to be captured, who sticks his head in the sand, to avoid capture, try to escape by sticking your head in the sands of infidelity and saying you do not believe there is any hell. There is as much evidence for believing there is a hell as for believing there is a heaven. Many books will convince you that there is a heaven and a hell. If you will get and read honestly John Urquhart's "Wonders of Prophecy," or Walker's "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation," you will realize that there is a heaven and a hell, and that your child will spend eternity in one or the other.

Do you realize not only the duty but the privilege of keeping out of your child's life every influence that could possibly lead to its spending eternity in hell, and of putting into its life every possible influence that would lead to its spending eternity in heaven?

Do you not yearn, yearn, YEARN, YEARN, yearn with an inexpressible yearning, to do everything in your power to prevent your child spending eternity in hell?

Reader, if you are not a parent, do you not yearn intensely to turn my child, your neighbor's child, your enemy's child, from spending Eternity in hell? Were even your enemy's house on fire, would you stand by in indifference and let his child be burned alive? Yet that child's being burned alive is as nothing when compared to that child's spending eternity in hell. You would go to the limit in helping to rescue the child from the burning building. Isn't saving a soul from spending eternity in hell ten million times more important than saving a human body from a burning building?

If the one who does not accept Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Saviour does not spend eternity in hell, then God, who has given us over six hundred fulfilled prophecies to prove that the Bible is really God's word, has put in that Bible the lie that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God," Psalms 9:17.

If the one who does not accept Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Saviour does not spend eternity in hell. then the New Testament lies when it says "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." --John 3 :36.

But what have the High Schools of the land to do with the child spending eternity in hell? Many books being taught in the High Schools teach Evolution that all species or kinds of beings, from the smallest insects up. to man, have developed, evolved, from the lower species up to the higher; that the first living thing, not as large as the point of the finest needle, only one one-hundred-and-twentieth part of an inch in diameter, multiplied for ages, each generation differing very slightly, until a new species or kind was evolved, developed; and that this process continued till at last man was evolved; that the first man was "midway between the anthropoid ape and modern man;" that the first man did not speak a plain language, but chattered as animals in trees, having only exclamation of pain or pleasure. If this is true, then Jesus Christ was the bastard, illegitimate son of a fallen woman, not Deity, not really God's son, not really our Redeemer and Saviour at all; for three reasons: ten times in the first chapter of Genesis there is the positive statement that everything brought forth "AFTER HIS KIND." If Evolution is true, that each brought forth, not "after his kind," but differing slightly till there was evolved a new kind, a new species; then there are ten lies in the first chapter of Genesis. Then the first chapter of Genesis says that God made the first man in His own image; but Evolution says that that is another lie, that the first man was "midway between the anthropoid ape and modern man." Then, Genesis states positively that the first man spoke in a plain language, but Evolution states that that is another lie in Genesis, that the first man did not have a plain language but only chattered as animals, having only exclamations of pain or pleasure. Now the Sviour endorsed Genesis as the word of God. These twelve lies COULD NOT BE THE WORD OF GOD. If, when the Saviour endorsed Genesis as the word of God, He knew there were twelve lies in it, then He was not Deity, not really God's Son, but a vile liar and deceiver, and only the illegitimate, bastard son of a fallen woman; and not our Redeemer and Saviour. If these twelve statements are lies (and they are, if Evolution is true) and the Saviour did not know it when He endorsed Genesis as the word of God, then He was a goody-goody ignoramus and fool, who honestly thought that He was God's Son, when He was only the bastard, illegitimate son of a fallen woman, and not Deity, not God's Son, not our real Redeemer and Saviour at all-and we are left in our sins. There is no escaping these conclusions by any honest man or woman, boy or girl who accepts Evolution as the truth. Some boys and girls who are taught Evolution in the High Schools, and believe its teachings to be true, may not think clearly, and may continue to believe in the Bible and in the Saviour; but those who are taught it and believe it, and who think clearly, will be forced to give up the Bible and the Saviour as real Redeemer. From respect for the feelings of their Christian fathers and mothers, of their pastors, and of Christians generally, they may not come out frankly and declare their convictions; but they cannot accept as Deity a being who would endorse twelve lies as the word of God; then, if He was not Deity, He was no real Redeemer at all, and we have no Saviour and are left in our sins.

"If cosmic theistic evolution is accepted and pushed to its logical results, the Bible as the inspired book of authority in religion will be eliminated. Ths matter is fundamental in the moral and religious life of the world."-Alfred Fairhurst, A. M., D. Sci., Intro. to Theistic Evolution, p 8.

The boasted builders of the Titanic boasted that it could not sink, and great throngs crowded on it and defied God that Sunday night with their revelry and sin; but the horrible death struggles in those icy waters bore tragic testimony to their fearful deception. The boasted builders of your Titanic, Evolution, are causing thousands to crowd on board, but as certain as God is God the fearful iceberg is ahead, and many will sink beneath the gloomy waves of hell, and you fathers and mothers are to blame.

It is in your power to save your children from this deadly, soul-destroying teaching. The Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Disciple, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and other fathers and mothers can, in twelve months, drive Evolution out of every tax-supported school in America and out of every denominational school. Will they do it?

Is there a father whose heart was never touched with the wailing of David when told of his son Absolom: "O my son, Absolom, my son, my son Absolom' Would God I had died for thee, O Absolom, my son, my son!” But the death of a son is nothing compared to a son dying unredeemed, without a Saviour, to spend eternity in hell; yet the fathers and mothers of America, some to appear "broad and liberal," some to appear "up-to-date," some, because brow-beaten by these Evolutionist high-brows and their pussy-footing apologists and defenders, are standing silently by while our children are being eternally damned. As I said in the beginning of this book, the Germans who poisoned the wells and springs of northern France and Belgium that the little children might drink and die, were angels compared to the text-book writers and publishers who are poisoning the books used in our schools that our children who go there to drink in a little learning, may have their souls poisoned and sent down to eternal death; that the Germans who poisoned candy and poured it out from aeroplanes that the starving Belgian and French children might eat it and die, were angels compared to the teachers, paid by our taxes, who feed our children's minds with the deadly, soul-destroying poison of Evolution. But the Belgian and French mothers and fathers who could have prevented the wells and springs being poisoned and the poisoned candy from being scattered, who could have prevented their children from drinking and eating and dying, and would not have done it, would have been equally guilty with the Germans. And the father and mother, who will stand by, and not go to the limit to protect their children from the soul-destroying poison of Evolution, are equally guilty with the text-book writers and publishers and the Evolution professors in our schools.

Active until the last few months of his life, he died on May 23, 1939, and was buried at Gloster, Mississippi. On his gravestone are the dates of his birth and death and three Scripture texts which were the core of his ministry: John 3:16, Acts 16:31, and John 5:24.