V
VOL. XXVIII. NO. 7.
THE ORGA.N OF THE XOKTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
ESTABLISHED 1855
3
For the Advocate.
OCR VIRGINIA CORRESPONDENCE.
PY REV. JOHN E. EDWARDS, D. D.
A LIVE WRITER.
I really think that the Rev. Geo. G.
Smith of Georgia, is one of the brightest
men we have out. That is just as good a
way to close that first sentence as any I
can think of. There at is again. I am
putting rhetoric it defiance. "It would be
quite an improvement," say the Editors of
the Raleigh Christian Advocate, "if some
preachers would leave out of their public
prayers all the set phrases that they have been
using in them for the last ten years." Bro.
Smith does not use"set phrases" he strikes
from the shoulder, and makes a good lick
every- time. A great many men could pray
better and write better if they would begin
with the thing uppermost in their minds.
Yes ; it would be a good thing if a good
many of our preachers, in their public pray
ers, would dispense with theirold stereotyped
introductions, and pray right along, without
thinking of their "set phrases." To come
back to Bro. Smith : He is always fresh,
for the reason that he lets old issues and
dead questions remain in their graves he
writes about something that touches the
present "works right over against his own
door." He reads the papers and keeps up
with what is passing. My letter in the
Wesleyan Christian Advocate had scarcely
met the eye of the readers of that first
class paper, in which I said something
about our Nashville Catalogue of books
before he gives it an airing in the Raleigh
Christian Advocate. That is all right. I
like it. All I have to say on that subject,
here and now is, that I referred to our mis
cellaneous catalogue of popular reading
books, especially designed for cultivated
voung people. We have valuable works of
which I can speak in terms quite as com
mendatory as the terms of praise, employ
ed by Bro. Smith. But, Bro. Smith will
agree with me that we have a meagre cata
logue of books, with our own imprint, suit
ed to reading young 'people such as are
soup-ht after, and read with aviditv bv eel-
0 7 J
ucated and cultivated young men and wo
men. We must have new books books
up to the times ; and, if we do not get them
up at Nashville, other publishers will supply
the books, and reap the harvest. Bro.
Smith will see my views, a little more at
length, in the Wesleyan in the course of a
week or two.
something more about bro. smith.
He will be surprised to learn that I have
not vet read his "Life and Letters"
of the late Bishop James O. Andrew. I
have, however, kept up with the notices
and brief reviews of this new book as they
have appeared, from time to time ; and,
notab'y the short review, in the "Metho
dist Quarterly." Dr. Whedon speaks in
high terms of praise of this book,commend
ing the Editor for the manner in which he
has performed his task, with a qua'ification
concerning some two or three points. The
notice, altogether, is an out-spoken expres
sion of high satisfaction. This is p'easant
to us all. "Let us have peace." But,
am going to read the book myse'f, and
from the good things said in its favor I feel
that there is a treat in store for me ; and,
as Bro. Smith always speaks so kind'y of
my literary performances, I must pay him
back. I ktimv it is first-rate. I his is part
pavment in advance. When Dr. McFer-
rin gets fair'y to work on the improvemen
of his present "good cata'ogue," by the ad
dition of a class of new, fresh books, in the
popu'ar, miscellaneous line, suited for
Sunday-school library purposes, there is no
one who is more like'y to make a live
contribution to the catalogue than Rev
Geo. G. Smith. Get your pen ready
Brother George, and create a sensation
Mav be. I wi'l trv mv hand. Let us do
what we can to keep the catalogue abreas
with the times. And ;et me admonish you
not to pounce on me too sharply, for some
thing I have written in relation to the
class of books now in demand, which will
appear in diie time in the Wesleyan, of Ma
con, Ga. If you disagree with me, "draw
it mildly ;" for, I have nai'ed my pennon to
the mast-head. Wait a time in patience, and
I will de'iver myself.
book editor.
Dr. W. P. Harrison, our present Book
Editor, is a ive man. He is up to the
times. No one knows better then he that
there is a demand upon us for new books
books suited to the times. He knows that
RALEIGH, N.
nowever valuable "Smith's Elements of
Divinity," "Watson's Institutes," "Wes'ey's
Sermons," "Watson's Dictionary,""Brandt's
Life of Arminius," "Summer's Commentar
ries," and "Granbery's Dictionary" may be
to divinity students, or, as stock books in a
Library for reference,they are not the books
to meet the tastes, and supply a Hterary
a'iment for olir young peop'e. He knows
that our Publishing House must get up a
better class of books for Sunday-school li
braries, and for general reading, or be con
tent to publish Hymn Books, and Discip
lines, and Wesley's Sermons, and books in
that line, and never rise to the dignity of a
Publishing House, except in name. Our
men and women of education and talent
must write books origina', lively, taking
books and our Book Agent, on the ac
ceptance and recommendation of our Book
Editor, must pay for manuscript, and en
courage Southern writers. But, I am be
ginning to fall into what I have written for
another paper, and must restrain my pen.
If I have said too much or too litt'e my
dear good, and gifted brother, Geo. G.
Smith, whom I have always loved and ad
mired,has been the innocent ocsassion of it.
Perhaps after he prosecutes his present
Sunday-school work for a whi'e, he will be
gin to appreciate my view of the subject. It
is in me to say it,and I will say it,that there
never was a more perfectly value' ess, use
less, and ill-adapted set of books gotten up
for Sunday-school libraries I mean for
Sunday-school scho'ars to read, than some
years ago, lumbered our shelves in the
Publishing House. Our peop'e were be
labored for not buying them. The fact is,
there was about as much practical common
sense in it, as there was in Mr. Wes'ey's
rule requring the litt'e boys, at Kingswood
school, to devote an hour of each day, to
prayer and meditation. "First that which
is natural, afterwards that which is spiritu
al" is St. Pau?s ru'e. There is common
sense in this order of things. Our Sunday
school scholars, and the young peop'e in
our Church, must have books adapted to
their tastes, and grades of cultivation
sound in doctrine and moral teaching ; and,
f we do not furnish them from our own
Publishing House, other writers and Pub-
ishers will furnish them. This they are
aTready doing to our damage. Our Sunday
school libraries are full of books, not in accord
with Methodist theology and experience.
scattering here and there.
Bishop McTyeire grand and great man
he is has allowed himself to be interview
ed by Dr. Fitzgera'd of the Christian Ad
vocate, Nashville, or at least in the Editori
al office in relation to his mode of introduc
ing visitors to the Conferences over which
he presides. The Bishop vindicates his
mode, with his accustomed good humor,
and plausibi ity satisfactory, no doubt
to the Bishop and others of like mode of
thinking if such there be ; but, not satis
factory to Brother Weber, of the Southern
Christian Advocate, nor is it satisfactory to
the Virginia Conference as the Bishop
has occasion to know. The Presbyterians
in Virginia,both at Synods and Presbyteries,
introduce visitors by personal presentation;
d the Virginia Conference cannot afford
to be outdone in ministerial courtsey. The
Bishop that presides, hereafter in the Vir-
r lit i
gima ionterence, win nave to introduce
visitors by personal presentation, or, not
introduce them at all, except such as it
may be the pleasure of the Bishop himself
to introduce. It does seem, with all due
respect to a presiding Bishop, that it is
graceful and courteous to conform to the
prevailing usages and customs in a Confer
ence, where no principle is invaded. Such
conformity keeps up the good, respectful
feelings between the Conference and the
Chair. Nothing is gained, and much may
be lost, by persistence in carrying out pet
plans and measures, in opposition to the
respectful request of a Conference to the
contrary. What is here said, is said in the
spirit of respect personal and official
for Bishop McTyeire ; but, at the same
time, in earnest remonstrance against a
procedure that cannot fail if persisted in
of exciting strong opposition in some of!
our Conferences.
Petersburg, Va., Feb. 2nd, 1883.
The hand of Christ, first strewed the
snow on the Lebanon; and smoothed the
slopes of Calvary. Ruskin.
It is the merit of those who praise that
makes the value of the recommendation.
Mill de Lespiesse.
0., WEDNESDAY,
A REVIVAL NEEDED.
BY BISHOP GEO. F. PIERCE.
Having completed my tour of Confer
ences, I have thought a word of encourage
ment and exhortation to the preachers and
churches might be appropriate and useful.
I am glad to say that the pleasure of the
Lord has prospered in the hands of his ser
vants and that on the whole we have had a
good year all round. The reports from my
colleagues confirm this statement. Revi
vals, perhaps, have not been so general, as
in some other years but; there have been
many and they have been fruitful. In the
aggregate the increase bf members will at-
rtest the presence and blessing- of God
9
among us. Financial results in the support
of the ministry, and the collections gener
ally, indicate the growth of broader, more
liberal views, a missionary spirit of better
tone, more Scriptural faith, more fervid as
pirations and clearer, stronger convictions
as to the possibility of the world's conver
sion. Assurances come to me from many
brethren, both clerical and lay, of a quick
ened religious spirit, a spirit of unity, har
mony, love, of co-operation and enterprise,
of cheerful hopeful feeling as to the future.
I am looking for a year of marvelous spiri
tual power one of the years of the right
hand of the Most High.
My District embraced one missionary
field, the Indian Mission Conference,
and the Virginia, North Georgia and Ala
bama Conferences. The last three are
old, strong, well organized bodies. They
include every class of work have a very
diversified territory and are advancing in
every department. The work among the
Indians progresses steadily and hopeful.
The outlook is full of cheer. The growth
is slow but healthy. Schools are multiply
ing and are well patronized. The older
stations and circuits are learning to rely up
on themselves. New fie'ds are being en
closed and cultivated. Preachers are be
ginning to appreciate the enterprise and are
offering themselves for service. The hard
ships and deprivations, which have deter
red many, will soon e nuMb-red with the
past and the whole field become inviting
and remunerative. But I will not go into
particulars. These remarks are preliminary
to an ulterior purpose, as will appear in the
sequel.
I have been holding conferences for well j
u .i n r
gh thirty years all over our territory from
nu
ocean to ocean. Never have I been
more conscious of Divine support and
guidance. Never better satisfied with the
general arrangement of the work and the
More important
distribution of the men.
still never have I seen the preachers
more loyal to our en corny, more devotional
in spirit, more loving, consecrated and
ac u 1 r u u
ready for the work of the Master's vine-
yard. Veri
, ., 1
iy, mey are a royai generation.
I love them with "a pure heart, fervently."
God bless them evermore.
The spirit of the Conferences has been
delightful, inspiring. I accept the token
and rejoice in hope. Now, brethren as
we have entered upon a New Year, let us
have in the name of the Lord Jesus a revi
val yt2Xy an epochal revival, wide, deep,
abiding. This is the supreme need of the
times. Such revivals have occurred in the
history of the church. Our own country
has been favored with them again and
again. They rescued us from the flood of
French infidelity in the beginning of this
century. They determined the type of
civilization as the tide of population rolled
Westward. The society, the tone, the sen
timent, the institutions of every State have
been moulded by their power or married
by their absence. We are now in a crisis,
socially and politically, where nothing but
the power of God embodied and manifest
ed in a general revival of religion can con
trol and eliminate the elements of evil.
The moral atmosphere is
full of malaria,
We need a pentecostal revival mighty,
rushing, to purify it. Mere human agen
cies may modify, abate the trouble and
thus postpone the disastrous issue, but they
cannot reform and redeem the nation. The
catastrophe will come. Neither education,
nor iegislation, nor administration can do
the needed work. They can help, co-operate,
but they cannot rule the sea and stay
its tidal waves. We must have the power
from on high. Local, religious excitements
will not meet the exigency. They are not
to be ignored or underrated. They have
done good and will do good. Like show
ers here and there in a general dry season,
they save the land from a universal drought.
FEB. 14, 1883.
Still, as a rule,
There is scarcity
the crops are a failure, j
and distress. So in the !
church, a few conversions, now and then,
in this place and that, prevent utter stagna
tion, yet leave the great mass of the church
inert and unfruitful. Our cities, towns,
counties, stations and circuits all need a
moral -upheaval, a work of thorough regen-
eration. The church itself needs purifica- j
tion not so much by the expulsion of the
disorderly, (though this may be necessary)
as by a higher standard of ethics in busi
ness, in personal habits, in social life and a
daily conscious experience of the grace of
God in the heart.
, Dearly beloved, I am not croaking. I !
am not taking gloomy views of .things. I !
am not a panic maker. But I address my-;
self to a felt want, to potent facts to what 1
every thinking man, who loves his race
knows as well as I. Any every system
of theology or morals, which leaves the
heart unchanged is a failure, a fraud, a
snare. I believe in the Christian religion
as the wisdom and the power of God
the great salvation provided for all people.
I believe in prayer and effort, faith and
works. I believe a great revival of pure
and undefiled religion is according to the
will of God as revealed in the Scriptures,
and that God will respond in power to the
cry of faith and the agony of prayer.
Now then I beseech the preachers to set
their hearts upon this general baptism of
the Spirit. Arrange all your plans to this
end. Adapt your sermons to this result.
Enlist the laity everywhere in the activities
of the church. Give the women something
to do for Christ and human salvation. In
terest the children and make the Sunday
schools auxi'iarv to the work. Do not be
content with good meetings and partial
scanty results. Aim at great things, ask
for great things, expect great things. "Open
thy mouth wide," says the Lord, "and I will
fill it. Jesus is ab'e and wiling, mighty
to save. When Christ went down to heal
the ruber's daughter he wrought a famous
miracle on the way, but he rested not till he
reached his destination. You, my brethren,
are doing good m many ways, uui mis is
incidental a work by the way, your first
chief business is the conversion of sinners.
j Let not the erection of churches divide
j your mind or delay your steps. The par
sonage ought to be built the collections
all taken everv dutv done but do not
rtU J
stop snort 01 a revival among your peupic.
Good salary, comfortable surroundings,
pleasant society, these are all desirable, yet
they cannot compensate you for a barren
ministry- Let nothinS "f 'OU but SUC"
cess, "iwaKe run prooi 01 yuui iiuihsu,
"Do the work of an evangelist." Travail
3W ,
Hunt the lost sheep. Persuade the prodi-
AAUllt . . , v., ,
1 p-ai to return to ins uuuci uuuac.
.
the Drano irom me uummg.
Be instant in
season, out of season.
By all means save
some.
Let us all prav and work
for another
A
Pentecost. Oh, that we too may count our
converts by the thousand! Why not dou
ble our membership this year ? Is this ex
travagant presumptuous absurd ? Why
so
? Vnn npvpr saw the like never reao
of it never heard of it. Well well, is
that the measure of your faith ? Are your
hones bounded bv what you have seen,
..
read and heard ? Is there nothing better ?
Are we to live forever at this poor dying
God forbid! . Is the Lord's ear
rate
heavy that he cannot hear ? Is his hand
shortened that he cannot save ? His prom
ise is given, let us prove Him. His power
is sufficient, let us test it. Oh, that Zion
may travail! Let every member go into
his chamber and pray three times a day,
"Thy kingdom come." Let every preach
er ascend Alt. Carmel and pray till the lit
tle cloud rises from the sea and then in the
the church
j 5111 U1 V"v"J -----
that he hears the sound 01 aounaance 01 iun.
Wesleyan Christian Advocate.
For the Advocate.
POLITIC AL MADNESS.
BY REV. J. J. RENN.
Messrs Editors : I have just read your
editorial in this week's Advocate on the
1.1
late effort in the N. C. Senate to repeal tne
"Omnibus Bill" of 1881. I say Amen ! to
every word. Verily, "whom the goos de
stroy they first make mad."
This effort is not the work of Statesmen
and patriots, but of politicians only short
ii(rhted ones at that. As such, in these
. . , 1
changing times, they are engaged in a
life
II. X. IIUISO, I. !., Cor.Edltor
and death struggle for both personal and
partv existence, and thev think that to rp.
peal the legal forms of prohibition will se
cure the desired end. But let us rememi
ber that our people are not all politicians
and nothing else.
We have more Statesmen, patriots and
philanthropists outside of our legislature
than in it, and what that legislature may do
or attempt to do cannot blot out the moral
sentiment of the people, who are the real
authors of all the prohibitory acts on the
statute books. And where is that moral
sentiment to-day ? Just where it was a de
cade ago, "rooted and grounded" in the
faith of its cause and winning converts ev
ery day. For a generation the temperance
leaven has been working in N. C; yet ten
years ago prohibition was scarceiy thought
of among us. Only eighteen months ago
the first opportunity was given our people
throughout the State to cast their votes on
the subject. On that day, in the face of
bitter, unscrupulous opposition, 50,000 men
cast their votes for prohibition on principle;
for they knew that they were voting for a
worthless Bill. And who voted against
them ? A large majority,composed mainly
of over 100,000 negroes who had scarcely a
dollar invested in the liquor traffic, and
knew not what they did.
The battle of Alamance wasv nothing in
this nation's progress toward civil liberty,
compared with this first effort in our noble
State to free ourselves from the dominion
of alcohol. After that first tkirmish what
did the Regulators do ? Did they give up
their principles, or lay down their arms ?
No. They only waited patiently until the
other States fell into line with N. C, and
when they came they found those old Reg
ulators at the front "with foot to the field
and face to the foe." And these 50,000
are resting quietly on their arms, waiting
for re-inforcements.
Just so surely as they came in the "times
that tried men's souls," so surely are they
coming now. Individuals, communities,
States are coming. "Revolutions never go
backward," and he who cannot read the
those politicians who see nothing in a great
Christian nation except that which will
contribute temporarily to the aggrandise
ment of self and of party. The moral,
Christian sentiment of N. C. is not dead,
neither is it on the wane; therefore, prohi
bition in N. C. is neither dead nor waning.
It is a living organism, young, vigorous and
growing into gigantic proportions; and its
living, powerful presence is the very reason
why such ado is made against it. And
when the leading political parties of this
nation are scattered skeletons of the living
principles that once held them together,
Prohibition will be repealing their sanctions
of the liquor-curse which flattered and
feasted them, and turned their wisdom into
folly, while it preyed on the vitals of the
nation.
Really, considering its antecedents, the
present legislature is doing well for the
cause. It was elected by the "overwhelm
ing majority" of anti-prohibitionists; and
we might (logically and politically speak
ing) expect it to go by an "overwhelming
.... y .1 1 nr ! . .
! majority" lor tne repeal 01 xnc wmmuu
! Bill." "Tell it not in-Ethiopia ! It has
! gone back on its beloved constituency ! and
we
still have the "Omnibus Bill." bo
i "tnere is mc n. mc .,..
I bow of promise spans the cloud.
Henderson, N. C, Feb. 7th, 1883.
The New York Tribune says : "If clergy
men will become editors, they must expect
to receive the usual treatment accorded to
these useful men. The Rev. Dr. J. M.
Reid, of the Methodist Missionary Society,
tells this good story about himself:
"While he was engaged in editorial work,
some time ago, he was invited to preach in
Chicego. As he took a seat early, in a
pew, to meditate on his sermon,he discover
ed that a prayer-meeting was going on in
an adjacent room, and that he could over
hear what was said. Presently a loud and
lusty brother engaged in prayer, and the
bulk of the petition was for the preacher of
the evening, who was listening. After
touching on vaious matters, in which he
the thought the Lord, needed information,
he said : hj l-ioru, uiev' mm wnu is
speak to us this evening. He is a poor,
week man, but make him a power. Bless
his message. We know that he is only an
editor, and that he is rusty; but do, Lord,
rub the rust off.
r
J