ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
St. Louis, Saturday, January 10, 1931  —  Page 1A
THE REV. WILLIAM C. BITTING,    NOTED BAPTIST PASTOR, DIES
THE REV. DR. WILLIAM COLE-               MAN BITTING.
	Succumbs at Home of Son   to Hardening of Arteries   --- 73 Years Old --- Fu-   neral Services Will Be   Held Monday.
	The Rev. Dr. William Coleman Bitting, pastor of Second Baptist Church for 19 years until his re- tirement five years ago and one of the most  widely  known clergymen in the United States, died early to- day  at  the  home  of   his son, Wil- liam C. Bitting, Jr., 5240 Westmin- ster place, of hardening of the ar- teries.   Dr. Bitting was 73 years old and had been in ill health for about two years. Plans for funeral services Monday will be made this after- noon.   Born at Lynchburg, Va, Feb. 5, 1857, Dr. Bitting studied at Rich- mond College and was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1880. His first pastorate was in Virginia, but in 1884 he became pastor of Mount Morris Church, New York City, and served there more than 21 years be- fore coming to St. Louis.   When he assumed the Second Baptist  pastorate  in  1905, the church was still occupying the old building at Locust and Beaumont streets, since demolished. The present church, at the southeast corner of Kingshighway and Wash- ington  boulevard,  was dedicated two  years  later   in  1907.   Dr. Bitting was known as an ex- ponent of liberal religous teaching and of modern interpretation of Scripture.   Once in a public addressed he ex- pressed the understanding of re- ligion  in  these  words.   "Creeds are merely intellectual guesses at the Infinite. I am bound by  no  creed.  Personally, I am a Metho-Formed,  Presby - Gational, Bapto-Palian.   "I am not trying to get men into heaven, I am trying to get heaven into men. Nor am I trying to keep men out of hell, but to keep hell out of men.   "Religion  is not life  insurance, to be  bought with a nickle in the plate on Sunday,  nor  is  it fire  insur- ance, by which, in exchange for a certain emotion, men are to escape eternal roasting.   "Christianity is simply a right re- lation with  God,  here and now, in the world, which brings each man embracing  it  into  a  right  relation with  his  fellowman."   When Dr. Bitting  retired in 1924 he had completed 44 years of ac- tive pastoral work and one of the longest pastorates among the West End Protestant churches. In addi- tion to his various duties, he found time to write extensively for re- ligious  papers.  Following retirement he lived quietly with his wife, Mrs. Anna Biedler Bitting, and  moved to his son's home after her death in October, 1928. Surviving him are two sons, Kenneth H. Bitting, 5056 Westmin- ster  place, and  William  C. Bitting.
notes: 1) Article misspelled Mrs. Anna Bary [Biedler] Bitting's middle name, corrected to Biedler in the above. 2) The headline appeared at the top of the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, next to the article on the left side of the page. 3) The photo used above, circa 1916, was not the one used by the newspaper, which may have been circa 1925. 4) This is a typed copy, not a machine copy. While similar in appearance, among the differences may be fonts, font sizes, and where lines wrap.

First posted: Aug 8, 2011; last updated, Aug 8, 2011.
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