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4 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA WHY A GEORGIA METHODIST MINISTER ENTERED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS By MR. F. X. FARMER, S. J. This is the sixth and last of a series of articles on the conversion of Rev. Mr. F. X. Farmer, a native of Conyers, Ga., a former Methodist minister in China, and now a student for the priesthood at Hastings, England. The account was first sent to Bishop Keiley by Mr. Farmer and later appeared in The Missionary, the editor of which has given The Bulletin permission to reproduce it. Mr. Farmer was born at Conyers, Ga., the son of a prosperous merchant. Later his family moved to Covington, Ga. He was educated at Emory Univer sity, graduating as a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1898, while Dr. Candler, now Methodist Bishop of Atlanta, was president. After a course in theology at Vanderbilt Univer sity, Mr. Farmer entered a missionary training school in New York state, going to the Orient in 1901. There he spent the better part of the last score of years. After the death of his wife, Mr. Farmer plunged into Church History. Although formerly so opposed to the Catholic Church that he refused to assist at an audience with Pope Pius, X, he now began to doubt the position of his church in many matters, and finally, in 1914, after a long struggle with himself, he went to visit a Jesuit priest, Father Bornand, in Shanghai. Father Bornand solved the difficulties of Mr. Farmer, thereby strengthening the minister’s conviction that the Catholic Church is the Church of Christ. Returning to Huchow, Mr. Farmer learned that he was being considered by his church as a possible rep resentative as a professor at the Protestant University at Nanking, an announcement which formerly would have pleased him, but which now only added to his burden. Letters from his family in America, express ing alarm at the change he was undergoing, increased his difficulty. After a conference with his Bishop, who suggest ed that a year in America would be the best thing for him, he returned home in company with the Bishop and his wife, where he found his family set against his proposed change from Protestantism. Often during this vacation, he would slip away to Sacred Heart Church on Ivy Street and the Immaculate Conception A REVIEW OF THE YEAR’S WORK (Continued from page 3.) olic Men, and Mr. Justin Magrath, editor of the N. C. W. C. News Service, the Laymen’s Association was able to give wide publicity in every state in the Union to the objectional conduct of the Junior Senator from Georgia. After the last convention, the finance committee of the Laymen’s Association appropriated $15,000 to run the publicity bureau for the year. The publicity com mittee finished with $2,353.3 7 to spare. It must be remembered that The Buletin was published monthly this year, instead of quarterly, as in former years. The Columbia Sentinel matter also boosted our expenses. We also published during August a new issue of Catholics and the Pope,” 10,000 copies, as well as circulars in the Columbia Sentinel Matter. A big year looms ahead of the Laymen’s Association. The Bulletin must be built up. The libel by the Junior Senator from Georgia must be dealt with further. Misunderstanding of the attitude of Catholics toward public schools in certain parts of the state must be cor rected through education. Most of our non-Catholic fellow-citizens are fair, and have only to be shown. The publicity committee in its report expresses its thanks to Rt. Rev. Benjamin J. Keiley, D. D., Bishop of Savannah, for his unfailing interest and assistance dur ing the year; to President Rice, who helped it over many a rough spot; to Vice-President J. J. Haverty and the other state officials as well as the officers and members of the local associations, whose constant and Church on East Hunter Street, Atlanta, for a few moments in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. In my home with my dear mother and sisters I tried to rest as much as possible, but at the same time I con tinued to read and investigate a subject which I knew was of greater importance than anything else in this present life. I found some books in the Carnegie li brary which also helped me. Finding there some of the works of Dr. Schaff, I was notably impressed by the quotations he gives taken from early Christian Apologists, Fathers of the Church, Creeds, etc., as they showed so clearly that the faith and practice of the first Christians was the same as that taught and believed by Rome today. Once or twice I went to see a friend whom I had known for years and in whose learning and piety I had great confidence; and not wishing to “leave a stone unturned,” as we say, and above all, not to be hasty, I opened my heart and mind most freely to him; and in answer to some of the most serious dif ficulties I received only sarcasm and ridicule. Now, ridicule stings, but it only dodges the issue; it does not solve the problem. After a painful conversation of that kind I parted with him saying that unless I saw matters otherwise, there was nothing to do but enter the Catholic Church; for everything showed that She, and She alone, was the true Church of Christ. I re turned home realizing how true it is, that a man can be wise and learned in many things, and yet be an ignor amus and bigot as far as knowledge of the Catholic Church is concerned. And truly as I consider the knowledge, zeal and piety of my former co-religionists, “I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Towards the close of the winter the Secretary of the Board of Missions came to Atlanta; I told him frankly that my “Catholic ideas” instead of vanishing were more confirmed than ever. I realized that the time had arrived for me to sever my relations with the mission, and I did so. The officers and members had been most kind to me in every way; they had continued my salary even beyond the time when I prompt cooperation made failure in its undertakings impossible. To them the committee refers any credit that might come as a result of the work of the year. THE SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION (Continued from page 2.) serving law and order and developing and cultivating respect for the constitution of our country. We deplore all lawlessness and all alleged attempts to enforce law and order except through the courts by the methods provided by the law of the land, and earn estly insist that no individual, no organization, has any right to act above or outside the law impartially and openly administered. We earnestly urge all Catholics to support and pa tronize the parochial schools as the one sure method of teaching our children that morality which is in dispensable to good citizenship, and notwithstanding that they shall pay their taxes for the support of the public schools, that they do not fail to fully support and maintain their parochial schools. As taxpayers and citizens we have the full right to patronize the public schools the same as all other taxpayers and citizens, regardless of religious belief. There is nothing in the teachings of the Catholic Church that prohibits or impairs in the slightest de gree, the efficiency of any Catholic teaching in the public school; that our position in this matter is to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and £o God the things that are God’s.