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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
15
FORMER METHODIST MINISTER
(Continued from Page 3)
me to do likewise. But she thought I should wait until
I was older and could appreciate better the signifi
cance of such an action. This is easily understood
when one considers how many Protestants regard
Baptism only as a sign, and in no wise necessary for
salvation. But I did not want to delay, and I finally
obtained permission to join the Methodist Church.
I began my first studies at six years of age, in a
private school, and continued to attend private schools
until I was about eleven or twelve years old; then I
entered the public grammar school. I was of a timid,
sensitive nature, and had a tender conscience, conse
quently I was filled with horror many times at the
profanity and obscenity of the boys.
My mother’s injunction, not to remain in company
with boys whose conversations and actions were bad,
together with a fear of offending God, won for me
many a taunt and mockery, and made me feel even
at that age how narrow and lonely is the way of
righteousness. But God’s grace was with me, and
the moral battles and victories of those days were
the formation and strengthening of the soul for
greater difficulties later on. During this time I was
faithful to my Christian duties, such as constant at
tendance at Church, Sunday School, reading the Holy
Scriptures, daily prayers, etc.; besides I was a mem
ber of the Juvenile Missionary Society. My father
being well-off desired to give me a good education;
so at fifteen or sixteen years of age, I began to study
at Emory College, only two miles distance from Cov
ington. I continued there until I had completed the
required course and received my diploma of B.Ph.
degree. The college being a Methodist institution its
general tone was religious, and there were in both
faculty and student body many earnest Christians.
Dr. Warren Candler was then president, and was con
secrated Bishop of the Methodist Church in 1898, the
year of my graduation. His lectures and sermons,
with those of Dr. Dickey, certainly had a strong for
mative influence upon my intellectual and religious
life.
It was during my student days at Emory, while in
the junior class, that there came to me a deepening
of my religious ideas and a formal and definite deci
sion concerning life’s work. What a vast difference
between a youth of twelve and a young man of nine
teen! Those intervening years had been passed in a
manner faithful and true to God, according to the
light I had; but the time was now at hand when I
should see all things in a greater light, and should
make decisions which have been my stay and strength
until this present day. It came about in this way:
At Covington, in my church, was held a revival
meeting, conducted by Rev. E. M. Stanton. The even
ing services were addressed particularly to sinners
and back-slidden Christians, while those of the morn
ing were directed principally to deepen the life of
prayer and personal piety of the more faithful Chris
tians. As I had always been identified with every
thing which promoted religion and the interests of
my church, I soon threw myself heartily into this re
vival, helping by prayer and personal work. God
abundantly blessed me, and it was especially in the
services conducted for professed Christians that 1
began to see my need of being all for Jesus and the
great responsibility of my soul s welfare, as well as
that of my fellowmen. So after the close of the re
vival there remained impressed upon my heart and
mind some great truths which transformed my whole
life, and from which, by the grace of God, I have
never receded.
As I have said above, I was then in the junior class
at college, and it was most natural for my father to
expect that I should begin to have some definite ideas
about a profession in life, and he from time to time
spoke of it. Finally I decided to become an architect,
and as there was then at Emory a course embracing
some of the more elementary principles of architec
tural drawing, I added it to my other studies. But
all this had been done without considering whether
God wished it or not—done more or less because my
father wanted me to have some profession and be
cause it was time to be planning something, as col
lege days would soon be over.
(To be continued next month.)
THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS.
(Continued from Page 13)
to know and to follow that which is right and
true. Yours co rdially, W. R. HERVEY.
From all evidences, the alleged K. of C. Oath was
composed either by the editor of The Menace, an anti-
Catholic paper, or by a member of its staff.
As to the Catholics pledging themselves to the Pope
in politics, the man who occupies the Vatican has no
more to do with the politics and ambitions of Macon
Catholics, and of any others that we know, than
Mr. Harding has with the politics of Democratic
Catholics.
These are facts that can be easily proven. The
court records of Philadelphia, Pa., where Charles
Megonegal, a printer, on February 20, 1913, pleaded
guilty to printing libelous matter (the alleged Oath) ;
the court records of Waterville, Minn., July 24, 1914;
those of St. John, Newfoundland, February 18, 1913;
the findings of the Protestant committee of Seattle,
Wash., September 1, 1912; the result of the Ontario
investigation all these stamp the alleged Oath and
similar matter as being false documents composed out
side of Catholic organizations by a man or men not
acquainted with the methods of the Knights of
Columbus.
The Macon Telegraph is in no way connected with
Catholics. It is simply a matter of duty that prompts
us to make statements in the interest of sanity and
justice. There will be no religious dissension in the
city of Macon in this regard—for such would be as
strongly put down as would any other undesirable
thing. And we do not believe that the selfish political
maneuvers of men who are this year attacking the
Catholic Church in Georgia will delude the sanely
thinking people of the State nor affect in the least
the excellent relations that exist between Georgia
Catholics and people of other faiths.