-
VOL. XXX. NO n
THE ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
EST 'SHED 1855
trV. FRA3TK I.. REID, i
I'ilitorawl IulIilir. f
RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, MAE. 25, 1885.
(SS.OO IMA ArMT.TI,
layalle in Alvsmce.
For the Advocate.
Qur Virginia Correspondence.
BY REV. JOHN E. EDWARDS, D. D.
THE RELIGIOUS WEEKLY.
In looking over the columns of a
newspaper, more particularly a re
ligious weekly, I sometimes inquire
how much of the contents is read by
the Te.it majority of those who look
over the columns from week to week?
Very many of the subscribers barely
run over the headings of the leading
articles, glancing here and there at a
few paragraphs, then delay for a few
moments' on the editorials, if they are
found to relate -to subjects of special
interest, then run the eye over the
advertisements, and miscellaneous
scraos thrown in to fill out the col
umns, and then cast the paper aside,
and that is the end of it. But even
This is better than not to see and read
the paper at all. This, however, is
rot the end of it. There is the wife
who picks up the paper, and while she
does not read all, she nevertheless
rinds something that interests her that
escaped the eye of her husband, it
may be, who first ran hurriedly over its
columns. But it does not end here.
Some of the sons or daughters, or oth
er members of the family, pick up the
paper, in an idle moment, and read
the scraps in the poet's corner, and
some of the obituaries, so that when
the paper is discussed at the table, or
in the family circle in the evening
hoar, it is found that everything in
the paper has been read by one or an
other of the family. Nothing has been
overlooked or lost, and it becomes
common stock. The interchange of
opinion on the different articles, and
mibcci.reous scraps and paragraphs,
adds something to the store of knowl
edge and general information in the
family. In this way the weekly re
ligious paper becomes an educator;
and even in the absence of a library
of choice books, it will be found that
the family, where the paper is regular
ly read, is well informed, and prepar
ed to enter into conversation upon the
current news of the day, and really has
a respectable fund of information up-
C ..iC JUllim ill! O- ?-v.I en
gaging the thought and the pens of
the writers of the day. The value of
the weekly religious paper is not to be
determined so much by what any one
member of the family culls from it, as
by the addition which it makes to the
stock of knowledge in the household.
SOMETHING FURTHER.
There are too few persons who really
rise to a proper estimate of the value
of the family newspaper as an educa
tor. It stimulates thought, and draws
cut the mind, and puts the reader on
the path of inquiry and investigation.
A single paragraph, not longer than
one's ringer, not infrequently contains
the results of years of patient toil on
some line of scientific inquiry. That
paragraph finds a lodgement in the
memory of the reader. It is a seed
planting. It quickens the mental ca
pabilities, and possibly turns the whole
current of the after life. In like man
ner a single scrap of less than a dozen
lines at the bottom of a column may
contain the outcome of long years of
doubt and conflict in Christian, experi
ence. That little scrap may put the
reader at a point on the path of the
divine life that was attained by weary
years of up-hill toil by the traveler
who went before him. Some appar
ently trivial incident, narrated in the
compass of a few inches in the printed
column, may furnish an illustration
that may find its way into the pulpit,
and not improbably throw light upon
some mind, touching a question that
has been the occasion of perplexity
and trouble though a whole religious
life. We cannot easily over-estimate
the value of a weekly religious news
paper, in the family, as an educator.
The value of the paper in our day far
exceeds its value in former times. For
many years the religious weekly was
confined almost exclusively to the dis
cussion of controverted points in the
ology, notices of revivals, obituaries,
and but little besides. In later years,
running up to the present, the religious
weekly has spread itself out over the
whole range of science, philosophy
and general literature' The reader of
a live, wide-awake paper, in the pre
sent day, is betier up in all the materi
al that constitutes a well assorted stock
of digested and classified information,
than was the man or woman of a past
generation, who had access to the
best private libraries of the land. It
will surprise any one, who has not
been very observant, to sit down and
classify the subjects that are introduc
ed and treated more or less extensive
ly in a single issue of a good weekly,
-he catalogue will be found to touch
history, biography, invention, science,
art, physical geography, general litera
ture, etc., etc. The object of the fore
going line of remark and observation
(is to excite in the public mind a high-
I er appreciation of our weekly papers
There is positively no investment that
pays so well as the subscription price
to a first-rate religious weekly for
family reading.
AN EASY TRANSITION.
The transition from weekly papers
to books is easy and natural. Let us
then turn to books. What a vast
number of books is written, printed,
and advertised that finds but a limited
sale ! Neither author nor publisher
is indemnified against financial loss.
Again, how many books are bought
th.it are never read by the purchaser !
This applies with special emphasis to
books hawked around, and sold by
subscription. The canvasser is glib
of tongue. He has a list of reecom
mendations, generally, from well
known and popular preachers. He
discants on the merits of the book;
shows the fine pictures; enlarges on
the elegance of the paper, type, bind
ing, etc. He parries every attempt to
put in a word on the part of the per
son to whom he off rs the book for
sale. The price can be paid in month
ly installments. Quite as often to get
rid of a garrulous canvaser as otherwise,
the book is taken. It is laid on the
centre table as an ornament, but never
read. There is an immense amount
ofhumbuggery in selling books by
subscriptions. I do not now remem
bei a single book I speak not of
encyclopedias that I ever bought
from a book canvasser, selling by sub
scription, that I would not have gladly
disposed of for one half its cost, in less
than three months. Possibly I might
except Dr. Pond's History of the
Church of God. For myself I have
quit buying any book sold by sub
scription. So I tel! the canvasser as
he unstraps his bundle, and begins
to say his piece." It is a good way
to save time and money. This is my
way. Others can do as they please.
But, in turning from newspapers to
books, I was thinking of a little bundle
that came to me on yesterday by mail,
from our Publishing House in Nash
ville. There were two span-new little
books that took my eye at once. The
title of the first one I opened was,
"Alma's Lamp," by some gifted wo
man whose pen ought not to be idle.
The little s'ory is charmingly told.
Young Church members, of both sex
es, ought to read it. The style is
simple and yet bewitchingly beautifnl.
It adds another to the new books just
now coming from our Publishing
House, exactly adapted to Sunday
school library purposes. Only 50
cents per copy. The other book has
the title, "Working Together for
Good," by the author of "Two Weeks
with the Greys.7' This too is an ad
mirable little book, sold at 60 cents.
Like the other it is suited to private
reading, and at the same time just the
book to be added to the Sunday
school library. It is brim-full of en
couragement and comfort for those
who are struggling with adverse for
tune. I cannot speak too highly of
these new books.
ANOTHER TRACTATE.
Our press at Nashville is fruitful in
the line of pamphlets or tractates.
Here is another with the title; " What
Church shall I join?" By Rev. C. L.
Chilton, of the Alabama Conference.
In the main, the author disposes of the
public objections to joining the Church
in a clear and forcible manner, and
gives good advice as to the Church
one should join. But, there is one
point on which, personally, I disagree
with the author. I refer to his argu
ment with the man who says; "I will
not join the Church till I am convert
ed." The person so objecting, in my
judgment, is right, and the author
wrong. This is the fly in the pot of
ointment. It may be safe, where there
is a probation to Church membership,
to advise some, not all, to join on trial,
as a seeker of religion; but no one
should be received into full fellowship
in the Church without conversion, by
which I mean being born again. The
abrogation of probation, as a condi
tion to membership, contemplated
conversion as the scriptural condition
of fellowship with the body of believers.
The reasoning on this subject in the
tractate under notice, as it strikes my
mind, is fallacious, sophistical, and
unscriptural; and as I believe it to be,
un-Methodistic in the Church, South.
It is worse than a calamity it is a
positive curse to fill up Church
membership with unconverted per
sons. It is idle to quote the General
Rules on the subject. A Society is a
different thing from the Church. The
dancing, card playing and theatre go
ing that prevail in some portions of
Southern Methodism is traceable to
the fact that numbers are received
without conversion. There has been
no satisfactory evidence of conver
sion, "the genuineness of faith," given
on examination by the pastor prior to
admission. It is full time that this
loose-jointed way of receiving mem
bers were stopped; and it is no time to
circnlate tracts, the design of which,
in part at least, is to overcome the
scruples of an honest man who says;
"I will not join the Church till I am
converted." I have been a pastor for
fifty consecutive years, and I have yet
to receive the first person into the
Church, who did notgive evidence of
conversion. I am not going into any
controversy with any body, in any of
our papers, on the subject. I have
no time for that.
Danville, Va., Mar., 1885.
For the Advocate.
Our Texas Correspondence.
By Rev. II. M. DuBose.
I congratulate you, Mr. Editor, up
on the continued improvement of the
Raleigh Christian Advocate. Its
well filled columns filled with fresh,
juicy mattter its neat appearance and
generous dimensions have placed it
amongst the first and best of our Ad
vocates. What a difficult art the edit
ing of a paper must be; and how
greatly must the difficulty be increas
ed when the paper to be edited is a
religious weekly. The conclusion
reached in my own mind, after a some
what limited observation, is that the
danger of becoming dry and vapid
through a certain constrained religious
ness on the one hand, and that of be
coming on the other, too literary, are
about equal. In other words, I ap
prehend the dangers menacing the
man in the pulpit are about the same
as those menacing the man on the
tripod of a religious newspaper. As
specimtns of what I mean, take in the
first instance the ordinary holiness
sheets, and, in the second, such papers
as the Christian Union and the Inde
pendent. Incomparable weeklies,
these latter, but a little too secular
and political to be styled exclusively
religious. These, understand, are only
the views of an unii i dated scribe,and
are not meant to be taken either as ,
advice or criticism; but as this is a
newspaper era, and one in which the
religious newspaper especially rloui sh-h
es, I suppose every one accustomed,
or privileged, to talk in print may ex
press an opinion thereupon.
decline of infidelity.
One of the most hopeful signs in
connection with our work in the South
west is the evident decline of infideli
ty in its more brazen forms. A
widely circulated daily paper that has
been for years the mouthpiece of in
fidelity in the West has recently ex
cluded from its columns certain com
munications, the object of which was to
perpetuate controversy by radical ut
terance against Christianity; and this
action was taken avowedly in defer
ence to the religious sentiment of
the country, every day becom
ing moie and more decided. We hail
this as presaging a deepening respect
and reverence for the truths of the
Bible, which may eventuate in their
more general and practical accep
tance. I cannot refrain from remarking in
this connection that it is rny convic
tion that this hopeful state of feeling
has been brought about by the judi
cious silence maintained by the Chris
tian community. Infidelity will soon
spend itself if left to beat the air. Be
sides, it usually germinates and flour
ishes in that status of intellect with
which it is impossible to reason; hence
the best argument with which to meet
its platitudes and generalities is the
argument of silence and consistent
Christian lives. The fact is that every
error in the world, whether appear
ing in its own proper guise or
masquerading in the semblance of
truth, is courting opposition and con
troversy. They have no other means
of perpetuating their existence. If we
could only prevail on the teachers of
religion everywhere to leave Inger
sollism and all its kindred "isms"
alone,the whole brood would soon die
out. The Pauline Epistles preserve a
marked silence respecting the organiz
ed errors of the Apostle's times, ex
cept where they may have insinuated
themselves into the young and grow
ing Chuich; and the charge to the
young Bishop of Ephesus is especially
to avoid "perverse disputings of men
of corrupt minds, and destitute of the
truth."
a great need.
You will, I trust, pardon me. Mr.
Editor, for referring to a matter which
I have already mentioned in your pa
per; but my heart really yearns to see
a movement made to meet the need
which becomes every day more and
n.ore apparent. The need is that of a
monthly Magazine of high order in
the South. The time has come when
such an enterprise should no longer
be an experiment. What is needed is
a publisher with ample means and
large confidence in the scheme, to
gether with a little patience a willing
ness to wait the results. I make the
assertion that the time has arrived
when such an enterprise w uld abun
dantly succeed after careful observa
tion. I have not been in a city, vil
lage or hamlet East or West of the
Mississippi, where there was not ex
posed for sale in the news stalls one
or more of the leading Magazines of
the North the Century and the North
American Review ahvays leading. A
recent issue of the former periodical
reached the enormous circulation of
two hundred thousand copies, and I
am prepared to assert that fully one
half of the reading matter of said
Magazine was the product of Southern
pens ! We have talent in the South,
but it is measurably inactive, because
there is no great channel through
which it may speak. For this reason,
as soon as man acquires repute as a
writer, he must either imgrate to New
England, or compete at great odds
with the literati of that favored sec-
j t'.on. Let some of our publishers who
have faith in the talent and growing
taste of their section inaugurate this
movement. It must be no experi
ment no niggardly attempt to get
something out of nothing. It must
spring full fledged from the brain,
heart and purse of its originator.
With this condition it would meet
with an enthusiastic acceptance and
support.
our dead.
Texas Methodism has suffered,
since the beginning of the New Year,
irreparable loss in tho death of sever
al of its most gifted and heroic preach
ers. Chief among these fallen breth
ren was the Rev. William H. Seat, D.
D., a pioneer and a man of remarka
ble gift, and phenomenal power in the
pulpit. In the early days of Metho
dism in Texas, he stood without an
equal in this particular, and many re
main to testify to his untiring zeal and
godly life, witnessing for the Master.
And now to add to these afflictions
comes the crushing news of the death
fBishopParker. We ofTexas felt that
he was in an emphatic and endearing
sense our Bishop. His first official
acts were performed in our midst and
the first two of his three years of
Episcopal service were given exclu
sively to Texas. In fact, he had be
come the Paul of our Border Work.
During the period of his assignment
to the district ofTexas, he went every
where, establishing and strengthening
our Missionary work amongst the
Spanish populations of the border;
and his name will always be remem
bered and tenderly revered amongst
those dusky children of the Church.
What a marvel of earnestness and
consecration is presented in the life of
Bishop Parker. From an humble be
ginning and with few ear'y advantages,
he rose to the highest rank of useful
ness and distinction; and in the full
fruition of his holy and consecrated
life, he has been called to an eternal
reward. How rapidly the great and
good of our Israel are passing over
the flood. What shining ranks of
princely spirits are marshaling on the
other shore ! God of our fathers, be
praised, it is no uncertain hope in
which we rest.
Houston, March 10th, 1885.
For the Advocate.
Division of the X. C. Conference.
divide or not divide; that is the
question.
BY REV. J. T. BAGWELL, D. D.
Whether or not a discussion of the
question will accomplish any good, it
11 .it i j . j
Will gVe ail WI1U IU UU SU, All
opportunity to express their views,
und rnmmit themselves on the subiect.
This will probably show the trend of
sentiment before the meeting ot our
Conference where decided action is to
be had pro or con. I like the spirit
1 1 .1 ; 1 4.1.
wnicn nas ciiara.eieiicu uic vviiicis su
far. If some of the arguments have
been bad, the temper has been good.
We can hold each other to rigid logi
cal account, without asperity. If our
heads would be level, our brains must
be cool.
The friends of division have ad
vanced, with more or less clearness
and cogency, what they seem to think
sufficient arguments to show not only
the utility and practicality of, but the
necessity for division. Some of the
coiiVnt nnints are these : previous
promise to the transferred territory
Conference too targe ana unicxeiay
necessity for toe great haste in the
trtMJtantian of business leant of op
portunity to speak obstreperousnsss
of m em bers bit rden of en terta in m en t
expense of travel the more rapid
development of the west.
I think these pretty well cover the
ground traversed by the writers in
favor of division. For the sake of
perspicuity, I shall take these points
up seriatim, and number them as I
proceed.
1. previous promise to the trans
ferred territory.
What the character of the promise,
by whom made, and by what authority
it was made,I do not know; but of two
or three things, I am satisfied :
First. The transferred preachers, as
a rule, have fared thus far as well as
they could have done in their own
Conference have had as many hon
ors and as good appointments. If so,
they have no right to complain.
Second. The type of Methodism
and of Christianity as well in the
transferred territory, so far as I know
it, has vastly improved since the
transfer; a fact that even many of the
laymen have recognized and confess
ed. If so, the people ought to rejoice
that they have been brought under a
different administration and are being
assimilated to the old N. C. type.
I am not now criticising men or
methods, but stating a fact that has
be?n noted by every preacher who has
served both classes of territory.
Third. The laymen so far as I know
them in the transferred territory and
the laymen so far as I know them all
over the State not only do not desire
a division, but are earnestly opposed
to it. I do not know a man, woman
or child in the Charlotte District in
favor of division; since coming to
Winston, every layman whom 1 have
heard mention the subject, has ex
pressed the earnest hope that the Con
ference will not divide.
2. too large and unwieldy.
This is a reflection either upon the
ability of the presiding officer or upon
the character of the body, or both. If
this be the case, it applies as well in
the government of a smaller body. If
the presiding officer is inefficient, and
the body of men composing the Con
ference is untractable, the decrease of
the size of the body will improve
neither. The esprit de rorp of an
army will depend upon the esprit de
corp of each regiment and company,
and fuither, upon e?ch sofdier. Surely
no one will seriously argue that a
Bishop of moderate executive ability
cannot manage the movement of two
or three hundred orderly men men
who claim to be Christian gentlemen
It ought not to require the special quali
ties and spirit of a martinet to do that.
If it is argued that the fault is in the
method, then the same method would
be employed by a smaller body. As a
rule, the persons who complain most
of government, are themselves hardest
to govern.
4. necessity for too great haste
in the transaction of business.
This might have some weight if an
Annual Conference were a legislative
body, called upon at each session to
review our system with the view of re
constructing old, or making new ma
chinery. Such revisions and re-adjustments
would require much time
and slow and careful deliberation. But,
where it is chiefly year by year the
repetition of routine business that
every intelligent preacher and layman
perfectly understands before meeting,
what is the necessity for such prolong
ed sessions ? We could transact all
legitimate business of an Annual Con
ference in one week if the body were
twice as large as it is.
The trouble is not haste, but waste
unnecessary waste of time either by
exhaustive talking upon plain and
simple things, or by transacting busi
ness that does not necessarily belong
to an Annual Conference. It requires
comparatively little time to ask and
answer questions marked, 1, 2 and 3,
if men mean business. If they mean
pleasure or buncombe, then the case
is different.
4. WANT OF OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK.
This is adduced as a very powerful
argument. Pray, brother, where is the
necessity for speech making ? You
certainly have lost sight of our beau
tiful democratic (?) economy. Don't
you know that nearly all the business
requiring speech-making is done in
the Bishop's Council ? What little is
left, is done in the Committee rooms.
Making of Missions, making or chang
ing the boundaries of circuits and
districts more important than almost
anything else done, and about which
neither preachers nor people have
anything to do though they are more
directly concerned discussing the
qualifications or disqualifications of
all men, but themselves, maKing ap
pointments all are done outside of
the main body.
The educational matters of the Con
ference used to evoke some discus
sion; but they are now so adjusted
as they should be so that the Confer
ence has little to do with them. Noth
ing in fact, but mere formal action.
What is left of formal business is so
matured by Committees that little is
to be done, but read and adopt their
reports. The recommendation and
admission of candidates is almost ex
clusively by the P. Elders, the Con
ference knowing and seeming to care
very little about it. Now, if the above
is true, my loquacious brother, what is
there to speak about that you so sigh
for an opportunity to give expression
to your burning eloquence ?
Besides, people should learn by ob
servation and some already by experi
ence, that too much speaking does net
contribute either to the popularity or
influence of the man so frequently ex
ercising his special gift.
5- TOO MUCH NOISE AND CONFUSION
IN AN OVERCROWDED CONFERENCE.
This is urged as a reason for di
vision. Compared with other bodies,
we are remarkably tranquil. The
writers are unintentionally guilty of
very great exaggeration up"n this
point. v hile there is more noise
than suits the placidity desired by a
nervous man excited unduly by Con
ference viands, Conference smoking,
and ;ate hours, it is not attributable to
its size so much as to other matters
that would also be attendant upon a
smaller body. The confusion of a
Conference room is due to several
things, some of which might easily be
obviated, others would be harder to
control. It is due in part to distribut
ing blanks, papers, etc., preparing re
ports in doing which, sometimes a
preacher has to change nis seat to
consult his P. E., or some layman
about some unfinishrr1 -.---- ger
mane to the report and iiu y to
its completion making re :r. iban
cial and statistical. To attend o t'jese
matters during Conference ho irs, re
quires considerable movement on the
Conference floor. Sometimes a preach
er is button-holed by a layman who
wishes to have a talk with him in the
vestibule. (I hope the rice versa re
tort cannot be given by a layman'.)
The members of Committees must
sometimes consult a little before a
meeting. It may be replied that these
matters could be transacted in the in
terim of sessions if the body were
smaller. So it could now if we would
tr) . Tardiness is the principal cause.
But does not any person know that if
a preacher is slow in making his re
ports in a large body, he will be
equally so in a smaller ? The size of
the body will not accelerate the m ve
ment of a slow coach. Another source
of confusion in the Conference room
is social intercourse chiefly between
preachers and old friends whom they
there meet. But this would be the
same under any other set of circum
stances. It is the necessary outcome
of the social life of preachers and
people.
But even these do not distract or
obstruct business so much as the fact
that so many preachers stand outside
of the Conference room and talk and
smoke cigars instead of being in their
places and giving attention to what is
being done. This is the principal
reason so many "do not know what
motion is before the house," and what
the action of the Conference is. They
are not likely to hear through inter
vening walls. But is the Conference
to be blamed for the inattention and
therefore ignorance of such men ?
Would it be better in a smaller body ?
Does not every one know that it is even
worse at a District Conference than
an Annual? Sessions are delayed
because it is often difficult to get men
in the house. Size has nothing to do
with it.
6. BURDEN OF ENTERTAINMENT.
This is specially stressed by the
friends of division. This ought to be
considered from two points of view,
the abstract and the concrete. As a
matter of fact abstractly considered,
there are twelve towns and cities
where Conferences have been 1 nd
somely emertained, and where they
would like to have the opportunity
and enjoy the pleasure again.
This would require twelve years for
the wheel to revolve, supposing the
alternations to be regular. But some
of the larger places desire it oftener,
which relieves the others of the sup
posed burden. -Pari passu with the
growth of the towns is the improve
ment and enlargement of Church
buildings so as better to meet ail the
demands of a growing Conference.
I suppose few of the stations where
Conference is held have a less number
of members than the number of mem
bers of Conference. Some considera
bly more embraced in two Churches.
The average entertainment of each
member, even if the numbers were
about equal during ;the twelve years,
could be easily calculated. The curi
ous manipulator of figures could
(CONTINUED ON TlIIRD PAGE.)