Let me quickly tell you about a man named Jimmie Beller. From the first day that I stepped into the building of the congregation here in McLoud, Jimmie was one of my best friends and biggest supporters. He always had a smile on his lips, was always happy to see you, and was a great encouragement.
He was also fighting against cancer.
The cancer Jimmie had was incurable, and I can’t tell you how many experimental treatments they tried on him to keep it at bay. But earlier this year, Jimmie went on to his eternal reward. I (along with everyone who knew him) still misses him greatly.
But Jimmie’s legacy still lives on.
He discovered that I run the Gravel Hill church of Christ website, and absolutely loved the sheer amount of free material that is available there. In fact, he loved it so much that he allowed me to scan several books from his own library to put online. One of those books was very brittle, and I told him that I couldn’t scan it because it would destroy the book. His response was classic Jimmie Beller: “So, destroy one book so thousands of people can read it. I don’t see the problem.”
After his passing, his entire library was donated to me with the hope that Jimmie’s desire of spreading useful books to as many people as possible would continue. Special thanks to Robbie, Jamie, and Jeremie Beller for their immense kindness in making those books available to me.
It is today that we announce the creation of the Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary.
The books contained in this free eLibrary have all been scanned, completely reformatted, proofread, and “prettied up” so that you can have a better and easier reading experience.
If you’ve been following our posts the past few weeks, you’ve already seen the first two books:
Both Sides of the Music Question (A Debate)
The Eldership (M.M. Davis)
The Newest Addition to the Library
In 1947, Howard Hilliard (H.H.) Gray, a black brother from Dallas, TX, wrote a book titled “The Music of the New Testament Church.” I only mention that he was a black brother because that helps explain some of the things he says in the book. He dedicates it to the “White churches of Christ in Dallas” who helped support his preaching work and who made it possible to get the book published. He also mentions things which were common in the “colored churches.”
H.H. Gray was led to the Lord by his wife just over six months after they were married. Within a year, he preached his first sermon in Haskell, Oklahoma. In 1939, they moved to Dallas to work with the Lawrence and Marder congregation, and rapidly brought people to the Lord.
It is a book that is worth your time to download and read. It deals with the issue of instrumental music, but it is much more than a book on that topic. You will find it interesting and even challenging in some areas.
From the Jimmie Beller Library, we now present the latest addition. Simply click on the link below to read it, or right-click the link and select “save target as.”
Music of the New Testament Church by H.H. Gray
How You can Help
If you would like to help this eLibrary grow quickly, we would welcome your participation.
First, please share this post with your friends, family, and brethren through email, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other means you would like. Jimmie’s desire was for as many people as possible to be blessed by these books.
Second, we are in need of proofreaders. We can quickly scan these books, but we want the final product to look nice (and not like a cheap photocopy of an old book). The real time-consuming part of getting these books ready is reading through them to catch the punctuation and typographical errors. If you would be willing to aid us by proofreading, please contact us.
