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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA 13 FORMER GEORGIA MINISTER. (Continued from Page 4.) solemn consecration of myself to Him, as in my vows of Religion in the Catholic Church, it is only the precious and mature fruit of the earlier consecration back there in the days of my young manhood. All my prayer, reflection, the Grace of God all in a word, moved me to become a minister of the Gospel, so that I could give my whole life to Christ and the salvation of souls. But now with this decision came a great cross, that is to tell my father of my purpose. I was the eldest child and only son at that time, my younger brother having died; and my father looked forward to the moment when he should see me launched forth into my career; business was first and everything to him. O what hours of anguish and prayer it cost me! But God gave grace and courage, so I told my father humbly and frankly of the great obligation weighing upon my heart and of my changed views of life. He was outwardly kind and patient, but I knew that it was only in appearance, for as soon as he was alone with my mother he gave full vent to his disappoint ment and chagrin. At the end of my Junior year I spent the ensuing vacation in helping Rev. E. M. Stanton in evangelistic work, such as camp meetings, revivals and tent meet ings, in different towns of North Georgia. Truly nothing gave me greater pleasure than to see sinners .repent and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. When I had completed my Senior year at college and had spent the vacation days as in the previous year, I went in the fall of 1898 to Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn. which at that time was under the jurisdiction of the Southern Methodist Church to study theology, and thus fit myself for the ministry. At the University I passed two years completing the Minor Course in Theology. During my residence m Nashville, I came in contact with a band of earnest Christians, who, being tired of the worldliness and coldness of their respective churches, and longing for a deeper and more intimate life with God, had organ ized themselves into a Mission with headquarters at Old Tulip Street Methodist Church, where they held their services and gave themselves to much practical Christian work. Naturally their tenets, as far as doc trine is concerned, varied much; for the spirit of division in Protestantism is ever the same, whether in greater or lesser sects; but the zeal and earnestness of these young men attracted me and was more a recommendation for their doctrine than anything else could be. Now, one feature of their work was foreign mis sionary activity; consequently I had occasion to hear now and then a returned missionary tell of the great need of the Gospel in pagan lands. At Emory Col lege missionary interest was not lacking. In fact, for one of my declamations before Dr. Candler and the class, I had chosen as a theme Foreign Missions, and the Doctor had warmly commended the oration. Moreover, at Vanderbilt University, there was an or ganized branch or chapter of the Student Volunteer Movement. I mention all this in order to show what missionary influence was brought to bear upon my life. Nothing more fully expressed my ideal at that time and expresses it yet than the words of two well- known Protestant missionaries, viz.: Henry Martin, who said, “Let me burn out for God”; and Carey! Not ,where I am needed, but where I am needed most. There were multitudes of workers in the homeland, but so few to go abroad to the needy and difficult harvest-field of foreign missions. Why should I remain at home? Did not Christ need me a ° ro ^’ How could I refuse Him who had given up all the glory of Heaven in order to bring to us the glad tidings of redemption? Love for Him won in the struggle, for struggle it was for a time. For me to become a Methodist minister had been a hard blow for my father, and when I told him of my intention of going to China (as that field of labor appealed to me most), it was a veritable climax of disappointments of all his hopes. The Mission at Old Tulip Street Church, at that time, sent both their missionaries and missionary con tributions through the Christian and Missionary Al liance, whose soul and leader was the late Dr. A. B. Simpson, of New York City. In the Alliance were many godly and zealous men and women laboring in several mission fields. What attracted me power fully was their life of comparative poverty and great confidence in God, as they received no guaranteed salary, together with their life of spirituality. In a word, they endeavored to follow a life of great sim plicity and “literally conformable to Scripture” in several points of doctrine. This last fact I mention, merely in passing, to call attention to the fact that great earnestness and extreme conformity to Scrip ture (alas! falsely interpreted) do not hinder Protes tants from falling into error. For there is but one official interpreter of Holy Writ and its application to the Christian life, and that is the Catholic Church. Outside of her, people with the best of intentions go astray doctrinally. It is a fact too evident to discuss. Before going to China I spent several months at the Missionary Training Institute of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Nyack-on-the-Hudson. There I passed through a kind of novitiate, attended lectures upon the Holy Scriptures, studied foreign missions, the difficult fields, methods of work, con versed with returned missionaries, and did all I could to nurture my vocation and perfect myself for my future work. Finally, in the spring of 1901, the year following the memorable Boxer uprising, I arrived in South China, my soul aflame with the desire to preach the Gospel to the Chinese. My first task was to master the language, which no one who knows anything about it will say was an easy one. We were given about two years to devote to language study, but even before the lapse of the second year I began to render efficient service. I lived in the interior of China at Kivei Lin, the capital of the Province of Kwang Si, and wishing to reach as many people as possible, I tried to conform largely to Chinese cus toms, by adopting their dress, shaving my head and wearing the queue, eating native food, etc. “I be came all things to all men that I might save all.” My work at this time consisted of preaching in the street chapel, on the streets, distributing copies of the Gospels and tracts, and making occasional evan gelistic journeys to other towns, villages and market centers. In 1903 I was married to Miss Martha A. Beeson, who had come to China to do mission work among the women. How faithfully she fulfilled her mission has been told in her biography, “A Missionary Heroine of Kwang Si, China.” Between Wuchow and Kivei Lin is a city called P ing Loh, which had not yet been opened to the Gospel. I was sent there by the Mission to open a station, and, as we were the first white people to reside there, we had no easy task and some of the difficulties are told in the book mentioned above. Two or three years later I was sent with another missionary to open a chapel at Fin Cheo Fu, a city still more remote and in a district over-run by brigands. There my wife and I lived and worked until our first furlough to the home-land in 1907. My father passed away several months after my re turn to the United States of America. (To be continued next month) We hope the college students of these days are not to be judged by a recent “College Wits” number of a national humorous weekly.