From The Tampa Tribune, August 5, 1930, page 1:

"Baptist Ministers Say God Withholds Rain To Save Souls"

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 4. - (A.P.) - The Louisville Baptist ministers' conference, stating 'we recognize the natural laws governing rain and are in accord with any true scientific explanation of the present drought.' met here today to discuss the drought but did not pray for rain.

Instead, the ministers prayed for divine guidance. However their statement continued: 'We also declare that God, who created the universe and established its laws, is greater than these laws, and that He has from the beginning been virtually and constantly in supreme command of them.'

'We recognize that a drought has a natural tendency to prolong itself,' the conference pronouncement continued, 'and that, parallel with this, history is replete with occasions when God has, without setting aside natural laws, withheld rain from the earth.'

Taking the position that God was withholding rain from the earth 'in gracious effort to bring his own people back to ways of righteousness and holiness,' the ministers said that they were confident God will answer every prayer for rain, but likewise asserted 'that every promise of God is given with condition.'

'We believe that God's people,' the statement concluded, 'should turn from their wicked ways to God for relief from drought, confess their sins and acknowledge their shortcomings.'