Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 12:2 (Summer 1969)
Article: The Ministry Of Dr. Bartlett Eugene Allen
Author: Peter D. Mustric

CenQ 12:2 (Summer 1969) p. 2

The Ministry Of Dr. Bartlett Eugene Allen

Peter D. Mustric

Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rockford, Illinois

Presented at Central Seminary Bible Workshop, February 4, 1969

It certainly is a great privilege to present a challenge from the ministry of one who was so faithful to the Word of God and who honored it so well in his life. When he “retired” in 1952 at 74, he did not retire because of old age, but because he felt that for the good of the church it was time to step down. He continued to preach frequently for many years after that, even filling the auditorium with his voice when he was almost 90, I made the mistake, the first birthday that he had after I came, of trying to bring a microphone over to him and he said, “I don’t need that, young man!” And he didn’t.

In presenting this workshop and Dr. Bartlett Eugene Allen’s fulfillment of the Great Commission in the local church, it is necessary first to characterize this wonderful man in the faith.

Commendable Christian Character

Dr. Allen helped prepare a booklet in 1952 when he retired. He gave notes to another to write. From this information we can get an idea of his background and of some of the things that made him the man that he was in the faith.

His Family. There was little money, and nothing at all of luxury, in the little home on that third day of November. 1878. But there was love and loyalty and willingness to work to make the future brighter. And today there had arrived a new baby son. The Eugene Aliens decided to name their second child Bartlett Eugene.

Looking back to that event, in Arlington, now Bell Creek. Nebraska, it seems that God already had chosen just that child, from just such a background, for a life of vigorous service in His Name. Eugene Allen was an upright, honest man, whose word was as good as his bond, and his wife was a sweet and cultured Christian woman. Like most of the young couples of their day and circumstances, they expected to make their own way, earning a livelihood and caring for

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their family by their own hard work. Never would it have occurred to ask others to shoulder even a small part of their responsibility, and they would have been dismayed and humiliated had anyone suggested it. This was the humble beginning from which Dr. Allen came. You can see that this background was a priceless heritage for him.

When little “Bart” was six months old, the family moved to the Kansas Territory, to homestead, and his earliest memory of home is of the sod house in which they lived until he was six ...