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OL. XXIX. NO. 9. THE ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. ESTABLISHED 1855 RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, MAR. 5, 18847 f.S.LACK,D.D. i Editors. ItANK UEI1 C XEUMS:,1 5itr AnTiM' S'i'ri Mix Jiouluiii, tluO For the Advocate. ' Our Virginia Correspondence. BY REV. JOHN E. EDWARDS, D. D. I AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. T have been deeply interested in reading the "interview" between the stenographic reporter for the Atlanta Constitution and Bishop Pierce. The reporter went to Sunshine the Tishop's residence near Sparta, Ga., :ad spent five hours in taking the bishop's responses to leading interrog r tones. The Bishop talked like a I OoJc. But few men living can extem porize in as fine a style,using as select rnd copious a vocabulary, as Bishop Pierce. The reporter did his work vrell. The whole interview has the charm of a romance. T ie Bishop narrated in succinct form the leading incidents of his own life. His con version call to the ministry his col lege education his marriage his trork in the pastorate his profession si work in institutions of learning his election to the episcopacy his over land journey to California, etc., etc. It i all interesting, and instructive. "what are the dangers to the I CHURCH ?" I In response to this question Bishop "Herce is reported to have said : "The principal one springs from a desire to press for an educated ministry. The Listory of the Church, past and pre sent, shows that many of the most ef fective workers were men that had ijbver been educated. To press an c ideational standard would be to shut these effective men from the ministry, and to diminish the number of candi dates." Let us review this answer, thoughtfully, for a little while. It is riot a flippant utterance. The sub stance of it had been in the Bishop's rnind before it was formulated in this answer. It comes from the Senior Bishop of the M. E. Church, South. It comes from an educated man, of large experience and wide observa tion. It comes from a man who loves his Church, and feels an abiding interest in its fortunes. Can it be that the Bishop really thinks that the htcijHil danger to the Church Sout .ern Methodist of course springs from a desire to press for an educated miiiistrv? His observation is wider than ours. The Bishop is presumed to speak by the card. He knows that hereof he affirms. Beyond the limits f the Va. Conference I know but Ut ile of the prevalent sentiment, of our Church, touching this subject. In irginia, I do not think, from my ob servation, that there is any danger the least, to Methodism on this score. I When the Bishop speaks of "press ing for an educated ministry," he is presumed to mean, pressing for a high literary, scientific, and languistic ed ucation a full, rounded scholarship; such as is to be acquired by long and Jpatient study in our Colleges and Uni Iversities. Perhaps this is putting: it a ilittle too strong;. If it is not putting Bishop. lit too strong:, I am with the In Virginia, I am quite sure that there lis no desire to "press for an educated ministry" in the sense of a finished University scholarship. Nor is there, so far as I know or believe, any gener al desire among the Methodists for a high theological education, before be ginning to preach. The times are im perative in the demand, however, for a higher standard of education for our preachers entering the Conference than formerly. Bishop Pierce must recognize this fact. "The history of the Church, in past and present may show that man- of the most effective workers were men who had never been educated." But, the men of fine na tural gifts who have achieved a high success in the past without education, would not be likely to succeed so well in the f uture without education. Our Colleges, Male and Female, and our common schools, have diffused educa tion among the people, and an edu cated ministry, under qualification, is an absolute necessity. Not so much Latin. Greek, and Hebrew not a three year's course at a theological school but, a good education. CHOIRS AND ORGANS. The Bishop is pronounced in his opposition to choirs and organs in our Church service. But, as a matter of fact, choirs and organs have almost become a necessity in our Churches. We cannot well get -along without them. I have as little patience with a quartette choir, of paid singers in a Church, as .Bishop Pierce. But a full chorus choir, of good singers, leading the congregation, and encouraging all to sing, with a fine organ accompani ment, is a grand thing. I can't get on well even at my Wednesday night Lecture room service without tne organ. It is a great help to the preacher, when he has no one to raise the tune, as is often the case. Some preachers cannot sing at all. Even, Bishop Granbery, with all his fine gifts as a preacher, can't sing. A good or ganist to set the tunes and lead the singing is almost indispensable. It is too late in the day to talk about a bolishing choirs and organs. And yet I am frank to say that I admire the independence of Bishop Pierce in giv ing expression to his own views on this subject. We may be traveling a little too fast for the Bishop; but, for myself, I propose to keep along near the head of the column. Our people, as a general thing in Virginia, are singing far better than they ever did before; and with an organ to weave all the discord into harmony, very many are encourag-ea to sing: that would not sing; at all in the absence of the organ. We all need more spiri tuality in singing and in prayer. We need more pungent, direct, earnest preaching. We ought always to have pious, godly men and women for or ganists, and Christian men and wo men in the choir. The preacher can keep operatic music out of the Church. We are not ready yet to shut up organs, and turn down choirs. OTHER SUBJECTS. The Bishop seems to think that the general sentiment of the Church rather in favor of two years as the al lowable term of the pastorate, than four years, as the law now stands. His observation is wide. No such sentiment prevails in he Va. Confer ence. On the subject of negro educa cation he takes many by surprise; not that they dissent from his views, but that they had not suspected him of holding the opinions expressed in the interview. The Bishop, in my judg ment, is sound and sensible on the subject of negro education, as he is on the subject of a free common school education of the whites. Hi.s langriaae is: "The negroes are entitled to elementary education the same as the whites from the hands of the State." If negroes or whites desire a higher education let them get it as best they can get it as thousands have gotten it before them. High school education, by the State, is a premium on indolence. For one I don't believe in it. Call me Bourbon! The Bishop says more many will agree with him some will not. He savs: "Mv conviction is th t negroes have no right in the juries; legfisla- atures, and public offices." There now ! Will not some of our Northern friends howl over that? Let them howl. Bishop Pierce does not care. He is the individualized impersona tion of independence. What does his particular friend, Dr. Haygood, think of that? I have not the space to quote all the Bishop says on this subject. The utterances of the interview, in the main, please me well. I have occupied so much space in reviewing a few things in the "inter view" that I have no room for other subjects in this letter. Petersburg, Va., Feb. 23rd, 1884. How Much Shall We Give ? An Address Delivered by Rev. T. A. Boone to his Congregation in Durham, N. C. Dear Brethren : To you is com mitted in part, the financial interest of the kingdom of Christ. God help eacaofyouto understand the nature and magnitude of the trust. Heaven ly wisdom, must be implored. If God has spoken to those whom he has call ed to so great a trust, take heed, that you may obtain the reward of fidelity. The great problem of the near ap proach of the conversion of the na tions to Christianity, will be solved the day that the Church shall discover and adopt the divine method of the financial economy of his kingdom. The Church's great need at this hour is the gathered treasurers of her num bers, thrown out into the opened ports of the world as God has given opportunities. The Holy Spirit will work his wonders in the conversion of the nations when the Church is obedient in her abundant giving, in proportion as she has abundantly re ceived. is there no law ? It is wise, therefore, in us to make diligent inquiry concerning the truth of this matter. Has the Head of the Church ever spoken to his people to gave them a law of proportionate giv ing towards the maintatnance of his kingdom ? Or, has he left this great ; duty at the loose ends without defi ! nite lines ? Is this important interest, so vital' to the ends which are to be wrougrht by God through the Church, t left to depend upon the ever chang ing caprice of men ? Is it left to each individual to say whether he will, or not, bring his offerings4 to the altar; and if he comes with his gifts, that he alone shall determine the time and character and quantity of his giving? Is the Church without law, or under law, in this matter of money or its equivalent ? The Church is a thorough organ zation. And as no government on the earth could long exist without a law fixing the proportion of income from each of its citizens, and will be strong or weak, as this law is perfect or im perfect in its operations, so is it likewise true of the-Church or king - dom of God. It is strong or weak C5 in communities, in the proportion of the fidelity of each individual mem ber, whether they be poor or rich. Not dependent so much upon the amount it has in the treasury, but the ratio of that amount, to the amount in the hands of its members. God's law is equal proportionate as ye receive. ADAM WANTED ALL. From the beginning God has ever laid his law of proportion upon our temporal good, as an assertion of his sovereignty and of our dependence upon him. He chose this method of testing man's love for him, and man's trust and confidence in him. Adam was put under this test, and failed, as many of his sons have done since. God gave Adam the fruit of all trees, reserving the one only, for himself this was God's portion of the fruits, and Adam coveting that, lost his en tire inheritance, and caused its de struction. CAIN AND ABEL. - After the expulsion from the gar den, we find the same principle com ing to light at the altar of sacrifice, with fruits of the ground and of the fold the race put on trial again, and the same test of man's fidelity given. The two brothers appear before the Lord of all the earth. Cain and Abel each with a portion for God. Each builds an altar, and each burns the portion as a gift or sacrifice to God. Abel's is accepted, and Cain's is re jected. Why is this distinction made between the brothers ? The answer is one was perfect, according to law, and the other was incomplete; Cain failed in the measure of his offering. The race failed again, with one fam ily excepted, in less than two thou sand years, and were swept away by the flood a tradition of which is found among all the races of men. An altar, with God's portion buring upon it, is the first duty performed by the patriarch after his escape from the perils of the deep God's portion mark you. And it was accepted, an evidence, that it was a perfect offer ing, according to the appointment of God. ABRAHAM'S GIVING. Four hundred and thirty years af ter the flood, Moses, continuing the brief narration of events in the line of the Messiah, mentions incidentally an act of religious service, on the part of Abraham, in his meeting with Mel chizedek. He gave one tenth of all to this strange personage, as an act of worship, indicating clearly the supe rior character, if not the divine nature, of Melchizedek, King of Salem and Priest of the Most High God. The face that Abraham presented gifts, is not so strange, as benevolence was a trait of his character, but the narrator goes on to state the fact of proportion ate giving one-tenth, mentioned inci dentally, as if this was the custom of the ages coming down from the begin ning, with the habit of religious wor ship in the system of sacrifices. One hundred and fifty-three years subsequent to the meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, Moses re cords the vow of Jacob, made at "the gate of heaven," to give one-tenth un to God of all that God should give unto him. Here is the law of propor tion giving as he received, and mark how naturally it falls into the narra tive, showing that one-tenth of income was the custom and the law of accept ed religious service. the law of tithes. Again, two hundred and sixty-nine years pass, and the inspired histo rian is recording the stiange and stir ring events of his own times. He is making history and giving laws for the nations and establishing principles of government which are serving as the source and foundation of strength to the best and most stable govern ments of this age. He is organizing a government where God was the King a pure theocracy. He is com manded by God, as king, to give his law providing proportionate giving for the maintainance of the theocracy. One brief sentence and the end is reached : "All the tithe of the land is the Lord's." One tenth of all the in crease. Like the Sabbath, it is no longer a tradition, but is lifted by di vine authority and imbedded in the organic law of God's peculiar people. And there it remains unrepealed upon the statute book of the Church, under 1 the same divine sanction, and as of ' supreme authority to-day as in the beginning. It can no more be abro gated, without violating the establish ed principles of the divine govern ment, than can the law of the Sab bath. The seventh of our time and the tenth of our increase, rest upon essential principles in the economy of fhis kingdom, involving the good of men, and the glory of God. It is good to rest on the Sabbath, but it is bet ter to give on the Sabbath works of mercy first and then praise and prav er. The Sabbath releases the body and mind from the trend of six days of toil, burdened with vexation and anxious care. The law of the tenth provides for gratifying and resting the heart, or personal soul, by turning aside the energies of the whole man, from get'ing and heaping perishable treasures, into the higher and holier delights of doing good, whereby the earthly treasure becomes heavenly treasure. pious rest and giving. The reservation of a part of our time, and of our increase, is coinci dent and coevel with he history of man. Pious rest and pious giving are linked together as the main ele ments of ,, religion, from the begin ning a measure of our time, with a measure of our substance one sev enth of time, one tenth of substance. God did not leave it with man to de cide the measure of his time, or the measure of his increase, which he should devote to religious use, but gave him a law of regular proportion ate giving, both of time and means. Man must work six days and rest on the seventh. But the day of resting must be the day of giving that is, this day must be distinguished by our gifts, above the other days, as the regular period of settlement. "Let every one of you lay by him in store, on the first day of the week, as God has prospered him." Here is order, system, perfection. The world needs the seventh of its time and the tenth of increase for its religious worship. The welfare of the human body and soul emands it. The ministry must teach it, t ?e Church must practice it, the world must learn it. Let this truth, dear brethren, melt down into your hearts with fervent devotion, un til it shall glow through your souls like the fire flame in the molten steel. As the Sabbath is the least part of time set apart for worship, so the tenth is the minimum of our gifts. As prayer, meditation and searching the scriptures, should mingle writh our six days work, so our freewill offer ings, like a golden thread, should run through all the activities of the week, binding our holy Sabbaths into the web of a consecrated life "to live is Christ." (To be Continued Next Week.) For the Advocate. Helping One Another. BY REV. A. W. MANGUM, D. D. Selfishness is sin, and benevolence is godlike. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." To criticize a man, on be practically indifferent to his welfare, while he is living, and then to shed tears and pronounce sorrowful eulogisms upon mm, when he is dead, is a very poor kind of friendship and, if possible, a poorer kind of re ligion. It may be that in many instances less harm is done to a brother's influ ence by direct utterances about him than by the pitiful policy of cowardly prejudice in one that desires to be thought friendly to him and names him in such way as to wound him by faint praise. Such prejudice is some times afraid not to mention the man in question, and is unwilling to men tion him justly. How seldom is a brother spoken of favorably in a company of his breth ren without some one introducing some ungenerous criticism ! This comes from a want of right feeling and sound judgment. Even wise policy would dictate a different course. As a rule Presiding Elders speak very kindly of the preachers in their Districts, and give as good reports of them at Conference as conscience will allow. Still, it is believed that in most cases preachers are more damag ed than benefitted by the comments of their brethren. As far as my own observation extends, I am led to the conclusion that our ministers do not help one another in the chivalrous spirit of Christian sympathy and fideli ty; Now and then a favorite is prais ed too much in. and out cf his own presence and is thereby injured in several respects. I have known an ill-advised, extravagant compliment to fall like a dead weight upon a man's reputation. There are other instances in which high-sounding eulogy of an ordinary man brings both the eulogist and the eulogized into ridicule. These instances are, perhaps, not very un common. Many a man is ready to give a positive opinion about men whom he is incompetent to judge, and about things concerning which he is well known to be utterly unniformed. Presumptuous or immodist words may be excused, if they be kind; but they are certainly bad indices of character when they are such as to betray bad feeling or prejudice as their origin, and want of discretion and fairness as the best apology for their expression. It Is strange how many unqualified declarations are made about particular objects or men, when the speaker has no knowledge to justify such declara tions, his only ground being that for certain light reasons he entertains such opinions. Even the civil law condemns such language as equiva lent to falsehood. Oh, that as breth ren we could or, rather, icould, learn to help one another in every legitimate way ! It would add to the pleasure and to the usefulness and success of every one of us. More brotherly kindness means more precious com munion, more cheerfulness in toil, more resignation in trials, more hop in the days of darkness, more influence on the world, more success in training the young, more progress in all the blessed work of the ministry. There is no consistency in prejudice and envy. Wrhat is wrong should of course be condemned, and, in a pro per way, opposed; but that does not imply unkind or unlovely feeling. The ministry should have no ambition, but to be faithful no rivalry, but to pro voke unto good works. High honors in the Church or the world can be won by only the few; and it should be remembered that those high honors, as mere honors of earth are fleeting, vain, and dangerous. True glory con sists in unfaltering devotion to duty. That devotion is the surest path to the best rewards even in this life, and certainly leads to the shining goal where Jesus waits to adora the im mortal brow with a crown of g:old, burnished by the splendors . of Heaven. "Well done," from the lips of godly wisdom, i the highest praise that man can win from his fellowmen; the most to be desired, if true, on the tomb stone that guards the sleeping clay; and the most to be hoped for by the soul as it looks away to the day ot everlasting honors vhen God will crown his children forever. . a . I, i. . . Georgia Afjamsc- ii-.s. ;'. WHAT BISHOP PIERCE THINKS. In the recent interview with Bishop Pierce,which a reporter of the Atlanta Constitution published in that paier, in response to the inquiry of the re porter as to what are the dangers to the Church, Bishop Pierce said : "The principle one springs from a de sire to press for an educated minis try." WHAT BISHOP-ELECT. HAYGOOD THINKS. Some one said in the Wesley an Ad vocate recently : "Our Church has departed from the old land-marks, and like some other churches I wot of, has made education a test of license, and not only an Eng lish education, but a strong inkling to wards a collegiate education . . . Let your mind run through the North and South Georgia Conferences, a id how many seek admission in your An nual Conferences that do not come through Emory College ?" To this Rev. Dr. A. G. Haygood replies as follows : "I have let my mind run through the Minutes and Catalogues. Begin ning with the session of the Georgia Conference in 1550, coming aown to 1882, and counting both Conferences since 1866, 1 have before me not a complete file, but the Minutes of thirty one sessions of Conference. At these sessions there were "admitted on trial" 278 men. How many "did not come through Emory College ?" Ans wer, 232. Of the whole number only 46 are Emory graduates. Perhaps half as many more spent some short time at Emory College. The deluge of college-bred men has not yet over whelmed the Conferences. Nor does there appear to be so much as a "tendency" to such a catastrophe. The College Catalogue shows the names of 168 graduates from 1876 to 1883. Of the whole number 23 are noted as preachers. Of the 23 only 7 fill ap pointments in Georgia; 2 are in Flori da; 1 in Mexico; 3 in China; 4 in the far West; 4 are local; 2 are in heaven, DR. HAYGOOD 'S CONCLUSIONS. I wish in concluding this article to lay down a few propositions that can be maintained, to make a few state ments -that rest on facts, and to offer in opinion that I believe to be rea sonable. 1. There is not a particle of evi dence that one illiterate man was in the company of the apostles or evangelists. 2. There is not a word in the Bible, nor a principle in philosophy, nor a fact in historv or nature, that favors the notion that ignorance is a means of grace, an instrumentality of useful ness, a condi ion of spiritual power. 3. There is nothing in revelation.or philosophy, or history, or nature that indicates that education is, in itself, injurious to its possessors, or hurtful to society, or dangerous to religion. 4. Our Methodism does not demand much education as a condition prece dent to "license to preach." Witness Quarterly Conference records. The education tests are easy even for ad mission to Annual Conference rela tions. My own Conference has, with in the last ten years, time and again, received "on trial" men who could not write a fairly correct English let ter who could not read correctly a chapter in the Bible. I am only offer ng proof that the Conference standard is not high. Some of these men vere pitiably ignorant of Bible history and as innocent of knowledge of the :r..e principles of Scripture exposition is of spectrum analysis. But they .vere rushed into Conference; some, by the conceit of their own native tal ents; some, by the indiscreet zeal of ill-informed advisers who suspect that education has in it more Satanic dy aainite than heavenly grace. Some of them have been crushed by burdens coo heavy for them; some of them are now learning that they need to learn what are the first principles. 5. A preacher should be able to teach what the Bible teaches. If he is to teach he must first learn. Or, shall we assume that God will, by in spiration, impart knowledge of the Scriptures ? If one is not to teach the people if he is only to "exhort the people, then give him "license to ex hort." This would be inside the "old land-marks." 6. A "call to preach" is first of all "a call to get ready." Unless one is called to do what he can't do; unless the unready one may claim a miracle wrought in him; unless he muy pro perly use a long-suffering Church as a mere grind-stone to sharpen his dull tools. Let raw and ignorant, youths eager to assume the "care and cure of souls"'meditate on the call and waiting and getting ready of such men as Moses, and David and Saul of Tar sus. On this subject Lovick Pierce of blessed memory, has left us an instruc tive paragraph. He recounts his spiritual conflicts when he first felt called to preach. He was tempted to plead his ignorance in excuse. Com menting on this state of mind and many practices in our Methodism that grieved him, Dr. Pierce said : "I now think my idea of ignorance then arose chiefly from rny illiterate condition. It never entered my mind that a call to preach was, of course, a call to prepare for it. This was a sort of ingrained error in American Methodists, to wit: That a man was emphatically called to preach, just as the Lord might lay hands on him. I say this was an error of American Methodists; I do not think that Eng lish Methodists were much, if ever at all, affected with this low-bred enthusi asm." 7. I offer an opinion in harmony, I believe, with all the facts of the case. No danger to our Methodism is more remote than the danger of an over educated ministry. The Christian Advocate presents some statistics of the religious de nominations in Canada from which it draws the following conclusions: The Methodists are increasing at a much greater rate than the population in Dominion, Province, and city alike; that the Church of England and Ro man Catholics are not increasing as fast as the population in the city, and at a slightly lower rate than the popu lation in the Dominion or Province, while the Baptists are incrsasing'faster than the population in the city and Province, but at a slightly lower rate than the population in the who'e Do minion. It is not generally known that Mil ton's tomb is still intact in London, and that at the parish church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, the remains of the great poet, interred in 1664, lie with those of his father, interred in 1646. At the south-east end of the Church an elaborate shrine, designed by Woodthorp, has been erected over the original marble bust of Bacon, and the poet lies a short distance from it. The Church is the oldest but one in Lon don, being built in 1090.
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 5, 1884, edition 1
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