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jfjfM W 1: fill' Si 1 iM" it'J '11 -C. iH:f' f : 4a $2.00 PER ANNUM. THE ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONPERENCE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH. F. L. t?EID, D D Editor ESTABLISHED 1855. -1 a Tr-ri rf-iii-nr- ii MnjiTfcmwirmi COMMUNICATIONS. For the Advocate. Letter From Oiideroy. Our The twenty-first session of the North Miss. Conference was held in Grenada, Miss., Dec. 10th- 15th. The lession was short, sweet,harnionious. Bishop Galloway has a genius for business. lie knows how to make haste slowly and safely. He has presided over this Conference three years in succession, and we would be glid to have him for three to come. Dr. Morton was on hand and pre s an ted the Church Extension work in his own inimitable way. The collection, however, was small. Mrs. Hargrove of our own Conference, and Mrs. Dr. Wiley spoke of the Parsonage Aid at the same hour. This was too much of a good thing nt one time. A wearied audience is not in the giving mood. In the mat ter of lifting a collection it is best "to strike while the iron is hot." Dr. Morrison made a great Mis sionary speech and g t pledges to the amount of eighteen hundred dol lars in ten dollar shares. The pros pect now is that we will soon have men enough in the Mission fields to lax to the utmost the faith and liber ality of the church at home. Dr. Parker made a most interest ing and powerful address on the work in China. It was the clearest and fullest statement of the work in that far off land, I have ever heard. Dr. W. B. Palmore took us on a Missionary tour to China, Japan, India and to the Islands of the Sea. A large Missionary Map of the world aided the hearer in following the glowing address of the speaker. Dr. Barbee was on hand repre senting the Publishing House, col lecting accounts and preaching to the edification of the people. It seems to be certain now that we will soon have in hand the one hun dred thousand dollar endwment for our Millsaps College in Miss. The College will be located in February next, but where I will not say until I know. Bishop Galloway said, "The College will open next Autumn if it has to open in tents." We may have a good building to PO ET RY. J begin in. This College will be a great power for good to our Metho dism in Miss. We have already suffered great loss for the lack of it. Our people in Miss, are more nearly a unit on this enterprise than on any other I have known presented to them during the past thirty years. When the College gets under way i think they will readily furnish the means to educate a number of young men each year for the ministry. The need for this is pressing upon us more and more as the years go by. So far as I know, or have heard, the appointments give general satis faction to both the preachers and the people. Considering the num ber of men who had to be changed, the changes were comparatively few. One move often necesitates half a dozen or more. The Bishop and his cabinet con TitimiTiunn rniTrnTrigTir n Mimiii ir "imrnTiTiii aiw sidered the stringency of the money market and the heavy tax moving is to most men, so some of the Presid ing Elders told me. Your correspondent was returned to this charge for the fourth year, but whether wisely or unwisely will appear later on. We may not know how, but somehow God has a hand in this great work, and in this faith I try to go or stay. Preachers and teachers, of all churches and schools, are largely itinerant. The nature of the work in both cases makes this necessary. Comparatively few preachers or teachers remain long in the same place. Many stay longer than is best. Circumstances over which a preach er or teacher has no control, and for which he is nowise to blame, may make it best for him to move to go to another field. The Master "went about," the Disciples were "sent" and the commission says, "go." The ministry is a moving brigade. We have adopted moving tactics, and move by system. Others move without system and contrary to their tactics. We have five churches here. T wo are pastorless, and have been for I two years or more. One has had two pastors in three years with a vauuuuy ui siA iuuulus ueuwecu, tiiau. one has had the same pastor four years. Our church is starting on the fourth year under the care of the same man. This church has not been without a pastor a single mo ment since it was organized, and would not be, only for a fe w days, if the present pastor were to die. Yours, Gi LDEROY. Senatobia, Miss., Dec. 22nd, 'GO. For the Advocatk. "Bishops' Meet ing-. BY REV. F. M. EDWARDS. This gatb'3rin our olref pastors in the city of Nashville, on the 19th inst., will afford an opportunity for a valuable service to the church, if they will give for publication, their views on the proper mode of pro cedure in "the examination of the life and official administration of the preachers." Though called togeth er for another purpose,yet these load ers in ourZion will do a good work if they will taka time to consider the varied interpretations of our laws recently put forth in the press, and then let the church at large know what is the sentiment of the Episco pal College, and hence what may be expected in administration till the next session of the General Confer ence. That the language of the Discip line is such as to admit of more than one interpretation is as re markable as it is unfortunate. It is remarkable that the legal talent in the late General Conference should have allowed obscurity in the word ing or arrangement of important paragraphs. It is unfortunate that such obscurity (if it exists) should have had occasion for producing ex citement that may be detrimental to the church. To keep the Christian ministry free from all suspicion of wrong doing is of the very highest importance. Every care should be taken to give to the church and the world confidence in "the passage of character" at an Annual Confer ence. Hence no good man would desire a mode of examination which would admit of screening or excus ing even an approximation to an immorality. When an itinerant preacher goes out with the approval of his Conference, it should mean something. It does mean something. It is received by the average congregation as an endorsa tion of moral and religious charac ter. Attaching then great value to the passage of character, the thoughtful and pious member of the church must look upon an "arrest of char ter," followed by i trial and convic tion of immorality, as a grave, a lamentable thing. It is indeed a sorrowful, a deeply distressing ca lamity. To deal lightly or thought lessly with a matter so pregnant with serious consequences, must be looked upon as among the deeds most reprehensible. Now in view of the importance of the issues involved we hope the College of Bishops will make public the decision to which the body may come as to how RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14, I'Tumim wiininimm i unim a Methxlist preacher may be "tried, acquitted, or expelled."The itinerant who has no fortune in this world but his reputation,and no aim in life,but to do good, knowing that if his rep- uta:ion be injured, (no matter how good his character may be) his use- fulness is impaired, can but look with concern upon any law or inter- pretatiou of law which may possibly by used by prejudice, ignorance or malice to the detrimeutof that rep utation. It is hence a matter of great interest to him to know cer tainly to whom he is amenable. From the recent rulings and from I the discussions in the church papers, i it seems the most astute legal minds ; in the church differ as to the mean- ing of our laws. When such men as j Dr. Ilinton and Dr. Whitehead dit fer in criticism there must be some difficulty. When attending physi cians antagonize, the patient is in danger. As we read Dr. White head's expose of of the law and ex amined the law itself in the light of what common sense could be brought to bear upon it, we certainly thought that he had given the true meaning. Dr. Ilinton and others think differently. Our opinion, how everts as yet unchanged. The Dis cipline, in unmistakable language, declares an itinerant amenable to "theAnnual Conference which shall have power to try, acquit, or expel him. ' The rulings to which al lusion has, been made,seem to go up on the hypothesis that he is amena ble to only a very few in connection with the Bishop. If these rulings are correct then no itinerant's mem- bership is safe when the President of his Conference and a very small minority determine upon its destruc tion. No matter how high may be our appreciation of the wisdom and piety of the Episcopacy and the safety of reputation in the hands thereof, it is hardly supposable tint sen-ibis Uw-makeTo voul:l exhibit such absurdity as is involved in m ik ing a preacher amenable to his Con ference, and in the next, paragraph or page putting all authority for trial in the hands of a small num ber to be selected by one man. Any one can see that by this latter pro cess the body to which the preacher is amenable may have the highest appreciation of the innocence, the worth and piety of a preacher and yet be compelled to see him disgrac ed, his reputation ruined, and his ministry in the church destroyed by a verdict to which the body does not agree. What kind of amenability is this? Still further, the Discipline says (page 48-49.)"If there be a com plaint let it be stated to the Conference and let the accused have the privilege of replying. lie shall then retire and the Conference shall determine by vote whether or not his character shall pass." And "If a trial be necessary it shall be con ducted according to the provision of Chap. VII. Sec. II." By the rul ing spoken of, this part of the law is entirely omitted; as in no part of said rulings or of the practice thereun der, has the Conference as a body any opportunity to know anything about the case, or to vote upon any aspect of it. Surely the law-makers intended that this part of the law should be complied with, in some part of the historv of each case. We can see some amenability to the Annual Conference if this be done The law on page 49 makes an investigation necessary when the Conference determines that the case is of sufficient gravity as to call for it, and then such investigation and trial shall be conducted according to chap. VII. sec. II. The Discipline page 154, prescribes a penalty for the cessation of travel without the consent of the Annual Conference, (i. e. for abandonment of the work given by the Episcopacy) and then says "the final determina tion in all such cases is with the Annual Conference." How is the determination of anything with a body that does not determine? When the body would, if permit ted, determine directly opposite to the verdict rendered, how is that verdict with and by the consent of the body ? The proviso added to the above language that "such cases shall not be denied trial by committee" was, it seems to us, clearly in the interest of the accused. Denial of a thing pre-supposes request. No request, no denial. ! The use of this proviso then can j have no compulsory idea about it i when neither the Conference nor rhe preacher (whose case is with the j Conference) m.ikes a request. Had j the intent been otherwise, the use of such lauguage as"provided every case shall have trial by committee" would have been readily suggested, iiJat then if tried by committee means .'which what those rulings say take away the privilege of vote whatever at anv stage of the proceedings) we have a glaring -ibsur iity such as this, "the final determination of all such cases shall be cith the Annual Conference, provided no such cases shall ever be with the Annual Conference" this absurdity too, perpetrated by a large tody of men selected by their An nual Conferences on account of con fidence in their intelligence, and tenco knowledge of the force of Hnguage! Looking at the subject then with a sincere desire for the ascertain ment of truth and for the secure inent of fairness in judicial proceed ings, we ask our honored Bishops to make public their matured thought. It decisions upon points of law are proper at a called meeting let the matter be attended to at the Annual Meeting; but such is the feeling of many that it would be well to do it at the called meeting if it can be. If the law be as recently interpreted, then it ought(a speedily as possible) to be changed; and the Conferences should consider more particularly the meaning of auxiliary verbs. Murfreesboro, A7". C, Jan. 5th. 91. For the Advocate. Our Letter From .Japan. BY REV. WALTER R. LAMBETH. .It, will look at your Rand, aiiy & Co's Map of Southern J-H-f :". ,'!' ad at a lati tude of" 33 dg. 30 long, the 150th meridian of longitude passes through the town of Ohashi (great bridge.) We are at the date of writing up on the island of Kinshie (nine states,) five miles S. E. of Ohashi at a place calledToyatsu : a small town, but made important by the location here of two large government schools, a Grammar School of 250 pupils, and a High Common School of 300 pupils. We are sojourning, moreover, in the house of a Mr. Hubbard, a B. A. of the Michigan University, a Methodist,and for two years and over a teacher of English in that place. By we, I mean Bros. Wilson, Shi ba and Takata, who, with myself are on our way to Oita, by a new route. We generally go direct from Kobe by steamer, but this time came by Hiroshima, bringing Miss Strider that far; and then coasted along un til we reached Shimo-no-seki, the western extremity of Hondo (the main island.) At Shimonoseki we visited the Baptist missionaries, preached for the Presbyterians, studied the situ ation and then crossed over to this island in a steam launch and con tinued our journey by jin rike sha, reaching here last night after dark. This being Saturday, we remained to preach twice to day, twice to-morrow and, on Monday begin anew our travel with 145 miles between us and Oita. Now, I am ready to come to the point. I want to make a call for two additional missionaries for this Kinshin Coast, one teacher for this Government School, and four native helpers. The letter goes to-day to our na tive church for the four native help ers, and now Bro. Wilson and I turn to you and our home church for the other three. What is it that stirs our hearts so deeply and painfully at this writing? What is it that forces us to plead with the pure women of our Chris tian homes who love virtue more than life, and with our young men who have but to realize that the days of bacchanalian revelry and demon worship are not yet ended, when they would throw themselves with us into the breach and urge on the war against Satan and the powers of darkness. On Thursday evening as we re turned to our hotel at Shimonoseki, we could make out from our skiff in the dusk which was stealing down uDon the harbor, the outlines of i. 189 numerous boats filled with young women plying busily to and fro among the junks and steamers lying at anchor. "What does this mean ?" we asked of our box mm. Here- plied with a laugh: "Those women are taken to the ship: to the amuse- ment of the sailors, there are six hundred of them kept in the town for that purpose." Several years be fore I had heard that sailors landing at this port were paid off with so many dollars and so many wo men, but could not believe it. When the truth flashed over us Bro. Wil son and I were stunned, and our Japanese brother said he could only hang his head in shame for his coun trymen. What a sad spectacle this! Again last night as we rode hith er through the town of Ohashi a great religious festival was in progress. For blocks a;id blocks the streets were illuminated with thousands of lanterns. Before numerous shrines the people were worshipping, while hundreds at the same time in the streets were drag ging great cars upon which were monters idols or tables loaded with viaiiuo apicaii uuiuic tuc guu.5. With sad hearts we laid us down to rest and longed for the reinforce ment which might enable us to preach Christ to all these poor darkened souls. O, dear friends, if you could only once fully realize such a journey through the heart of heathenism, I am sure a hundred volunteers would leap to the side of my brother here who stands alone upon this coast the only Pro testant Missionary among one mil lion and a half of people. I can do no better than give some facts as you are not here to see with your own eyes. First fact. A population of 1, 500,000 upon this coast. The strong est Buddhists in the empire and hitherto the most bitterly opposed to Christianity. Second fact. PahUy u conse quence of this antipathy to Chris tianity and partly because the church has had her hands full else where, this field has been sadly neglected. We can only count 133 Christians of the 1,500,000 pagans. Third fact. Of the one hundred and thirty-six Christians, thirty be long to our Oita Church. These have been gathered in two years and are mostly young men. The most of them being soundly converted are full of hope and vigor ously aggressive. Six of the num ber are either preparing for or look ing to the ministry. Fourth fact. We have laid down a line along this coast stretching north and south 165 miles. Moji,a growing town at the north ern end, recently become the termi nus of a trunk line of railway. It is in all probability to be made a treaty port at an early date as it will ho made the port of entry for all vessels coming from Russia, Corea and China; in fact, all vessels from those countries pass through the strait between Moji and Shimono-seki non. Traveling south, eight miles from Moji is Kokura with 15,000 inhabi tants, fifteen miles from Kokura is Ohashi,5,000: five miles from Ohashi is Toyatsu (the place from which I write) 3,000; small, but an educa tional center being the country seat of Ex Daimyo or Prince. Eighteen miles from Toyotsu is Nakatsu another educational cen ter, population 15,000. Twenty-seven miles farther we find Kitsuki, 7,000, and twenty-five beyond, Oita with 15,000. At this point, as I have indicated, is the church of 25 members, with Rev. W. A. Wilson in charge. South of Oita, again in north, ex tends to Saiki, 42 miles, where we have a fine class of probationers. Fifth fact. These towns are all accessible by native boat, being on the coast, some by steamer, and all are connected by excellent roads kept by the government. One can make the distance, 165 miles, in four days by jinrikisha, and find native hotels at every stopping place. Be tween them are almost innumerable little villages and hamlets varying from 50 to 1,000 people. Sixth fact. From Moji, as a center at the Northern end of the line, within half day's travel, a popula tion of 75,000 can be reached, while from Oita as a second center at the VOL. XXXVI., NO. 2. Southern end, 50,000 people are ac cessible in the same time. The topography of the country is such that great aeceessibility is as true of this coast as it is of the main land. We find ourselves upon a watershed sloping Eastward and consequently have only the foot hills of the longitudinal mountain range to cross. Seventh fact. The first Europeans who touched Japan landed upon this coast,in fact, atOita, which was then called Funai (the name given by Rand, McNally & Co.) this was in 1542, Mendez Pinto, a Portu guese Captain and explorer, thus opened the way for Francis Varier, styled the Apostle of Japan. Ro man Catholicism was first planted here, took deep root, grew, flourish ed, became over weeniag, in tolerant, and grasping after empire under went a persecution so bitter, s) sweeping, that the world has rarely seen the like. "Extirpation, root and branch," was the first of the government, and so fiercely and so thoroughly was the work done that not a vestige has there baen left and in its place for two hundred years the v. ilcanic fires of an intense hatred have burned. Eighth fact. There are marked signs now of a coming change. The people who threw off Buddhism and accepted Roman Catholicism as a relief from the unintelligible phil osophy of an ignorant and supersti tious priesthood, but who had forged upon them'anew their former chains, are again becoming restless. Their very bitterness and opposition furnishes us with encouragement. The young men are no longer Budd hists and are seeking something more rational. What shall it be ? It rests with us. With you, my dear Brother,and those behind you. These people have gorl fiber. These have hearts which can be loyal to their conduction. Thousands died in. their own red blood whenCatho lics were crucifier!, wurcAnrowu from these cruel cliffs rather than recant. What would not such peo ple do if once in possession of the truth ! We think we know by what one heroic young man endured du ring the persecution which fell hut year upon our Oita Church. The very last youth I baptized in Oita was expelled from his father's house the next day. 1 te told me he knew it would come, but he could face it because he loved Jesus better. MONDAY, NOV. IOtH. I must close my long letter by saying, Bro. Wilson and 1 feel this to be a genuine Macedonian call. Trie II. 3. moved us to cross yonder straits. He has opened the way. A teacher is wanted for this school. Mr. Hubbard asks us to furnish one. We preached to large crowds on Saturday and yesterday and are invited to return. I will im mediately extend the lines of Bro. Wilson's circuit uu in.-ompass this goodly land. Now brethren in America, if you love the Lord Jesus come up and help us possess the land. Here are giants and walled cities, but they shall fall before us as grass before the scythe. FRIDAY, NOV. 14X11 KITSUKI. Last night and night before we preached to a crowded house in this place. A merchant called upon us this morning with two others. His remarks were so significant that I caughtat length. "I am glad to hear you preached in Nakatsu Monday night. It is my native city, I am here only on business. "Taking my friends here to your service last night we were much im pressed with Jesus the light of the world. Now is the time to enter my city. Even the old people are losing confidence in Buddhism, and deserting its shrines are returning to Shontopism the ancient religion, because they know of no better.There could be no better time to introduce Christianity than now when they are halting and undecided." Then he continued: "This man," pointing to one of the younger merchants, 'de sires to enter his name thi3 morning a3 a probationer. He is in earnest and if you can possibly visit his town across the peninsula here, you will be received gladly." I make no comments. None are needed. Toyatsu, Japan, Nov. 8th, 1890.
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Jan. 14, 1891, edition 1
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