The Methodist advocate. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1869-????, May 24, 1871, Page 82, Image 2

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Newspaper Page Text82 cient here.” Astonishing announcement this! It is well known and understood that a very large majority of the people with Methodist ideas belong to, and are in sympathy with the Methodist Episco pal Church, throughout all this country. Better have some correspondent to en lighten him on this subject, as the Meth odist Advocate, also circulates where it never did before. We wish to give a few items about this “show of an organization,” as he calls it, which will pxplain how it is kept up. In the Fall of 1867, brother R. 0. Ayers, a Christian minister, and a “stranger” all the .way from Ohio, was appointed to this circuit, and traveled it three years in succession with no rela tions or acquaintances to hold him up. Yet notwithstanding he succeeded in keep ing a show of organization, all the time. When he came to the charge, our Church numbered four hundred and eighty-six members and probationers, and at the of his third year, he reports three hundred and thirty-two members and probationers, and five appointments had been cut off during the time to Speedwell circuit, four of them having each a large membership. Does this look as if our Church or ganization was kept up here by one man, on account of old acquaintance? No, ver ily the “Lord of hosts has been with us.” Take another fact. The Minutes for last year show our numerical strength on this Speedwell,and Tazewell circuits to be 1284 members and probationers, while the Min utes of the Church, South, for 1869, (I have no later report) give on the same cir cuits 815 members, and five local preach ers. This showing does not look much as if our Church organization is tottering, and ready to fall, or dead and plucked up. We can safely say that the Methodist Episcopal Church is firmly planted in this the paradise of valleys, and all over these hills is healthy and spiritual. We could give a long list of names, if we wished to make a distinction among our members, who have been true to the Church, and done as much toward building the churches in the valley, and especially the parson age', as the most of those persons whom brother Carr, praises so lavishingly for their fidelity to the Church, South. We have had on this circuit, since last Conference two gracious revivals of re ligion. At Pleasant Grove, we had twenty-one conversions, and twenty-six joined the Church, making us a member ship at this place of one hundred and twenty-five—this is in the heart of the valley. Our 2nd quarterly meeting was held at Finoastle, and resulted in a most glorious revival, such a revival as had not been there for twenty years, according to the statement of the people who live there. Brother Carr was with us after the first two days all the time, and received as much attention as if he had been one of our own ministers. During this meeting forty joined the Church, and thirty five of them joined our Church, and not the “original Church, South,” as it is called, and three of those who joined the Church, South, told me afterward to take their names, as they wished to be members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and had joined the other through mistake. We are stronger at Fincastle to-day than we have ever been since the organizatin. Our Sd quarterly meeting which was two weeks ago, was well attended; about seventy-five oommuned on Sabbath,a much larger number than I had seen commune for a long time. Brother Spence, our presiding elder, was present and preached with his usual acceptability—and you know he can preach. In conclusion, you may tell your read ers that forty copies of the Methodist Advocate are taken on my circuit, and •we have a subscription of between eight and nine hundred dollars for building a new church. All this indicates to my mind that we are organized, and expect to remain hero until taken to the Church triumphant. May 6, 1871. Who Answers?— The Christian Neighbor wonders k * how many of the Methodist Episco pal Church, South and North, would meet in an independent Methodist Convention to sing, pray and preach together, and talk of what is agreeable and think of things still more agree able? Would it hurt any body or either one of the Churches? Would It be a drawback to Christianity?” Doubtless there is not one among the Northern Methodists at the South, but would jump at such a proposition, unless, Indeed, they should expect to be “ Ku-Kluxed” —for they are very scary. They yearn for the endorsement of our Church to our people—it might help on the work of * disintegration and absorption.’ We cannot answer for the other party. Perhaps they would prefer a treaty of peace and a pledge of veracity respecting the South and its condition, before they would be willing to unite iu a Convention, with the chief witnesses before the Ku Klux commission. But, doubtless, the Neighbor will inform us, if many of his readers second his motion. How many ot the 80.0J0 Southern Methodists in South Carolina, are ready to go into Conven tion with Rev. Mr. Whittemore and his sup porters?— Southern Advocate, The above is about what could have been expected from that source. The as sumption that the preachers or people of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South “yearn” for the endorsement of the Church South, is absurci. We have better endorsement than that in the con sciousness of right, and the approbation of God upon our Southern work. The question of “respectability,” according to the standard of that Church, is of very little moment with us. Some, however, do not appear to be able to see any other explanation of the fraternal offers of the Methodist Episcopal Ohuroh than merely to crowd into “society.” In coming years will find themselves the dupes ot their their own folly. We expected that the “authorities” of the Church South, would choke down the excellent suggestion of the Neighbor , but did not think that it would be done in just this way. The Methodist Advocate, ATLANTA, GA., MAY 24TT87*~ E. Q* FULLER, D. D., Editor. CORRESPONDING EDITORS s A. Webster, D. D., (S. Oar. Conference.) Orangeburg, 8. 0. Bev. Wm. G. Matton, (N. Oar. Conference,) Jamestoum.N.C. Bev. James Mitchell, Conference,) Leesburg, Va. Ber. Oi O. Fisher, (Washin ton Conference,) Baltimore, Md. N. E. Ooblbiqh. D. D., (Ho) a ton Conference,) Athens, Term. Bev. J.' BradE», A. M., (Tenn. Conference,) Nashville, Term. Bev. A. S. Lakin, (Alabama Conference,) Huntsville, Ala. Bev. James Lynch, (Miss. Oonferenoe.) Jackson, Miss. Rev. L. C. Matlack, (Louisiana Cob.,) New Orleans, La. Bev. G. W. HOMEY, (Texas Conference,) Austin, Texas. Another Dedication. —On Sabbath the 14th inst., Red Oak Methodist Epis copal Church on Whitewater Circuit, Georgia Conference, was dedicated to Di vine worship. The church is near the residence of brother Absalom Ogletree, in Spalding county. It is a very humble one built of logs by the people of color without aid, twenty-six feet square. It will protect them from the sun and rain, and will answer well for a school-house, and for Sunday-school, and all the purposes of a place of worship till they can do better. It stands upon an acre of land purchased and paid for by themselves. If these men in absolute poverty, can thus provide, without help, even, suoh a place of worship, who need be without? A little snap and enterprise could do as well anywhere, while laziness would sit still and grumble. We prefer, however, in such cases for the Church Extension Society to give a hundred dollars toward lumber, nails and glass and for the friends to add their mites with labor, and build a good frame church. But under the circum stances these brethren have done nobly, and are deserving of much praise. May they prosper. There is not a class in Geor gia, but that can do as well. The dedication services were attended by a number of white friends (ladies and gentlemen) some of whom, we understand, were formerly slaveholders, who thus gave countenance and encouragement to these worthy efforts of these freed people to become true men and women, useful to themselves and to the community. Among these friends were Rev. R. A. Murphy, a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Rev. J. H. Elder, a local preacher in the Church South, who kindly assisted in the services. For the good name of our com mon Christianity we wish (we can hardly say hope) that this brother may not be berated and “Church mauled”- by the narrow-minded Ishmaelites, for his liber ality and exhibition of Christian charity on this occasion. Our people should al ways be careful to exhibit good sense and brotherly love, however others may do. Brother Elder lias our Christian greetings irrespective of denominational differences. Many would worship with us, at least oc casionally, were it not for a fear of eccle siastical “ curtain lectures.” However pleasant, profitable or necessary these may be in the estimation of some, we should be ashamed of our people if they were, under any circumstances, to indulge in such littleness and stupidity. In go ing and returning, it was a pleasure to worship with the white friends at Mt. Olive. Dr. Reid’s Article. —We crowd our columns this week to make room for the excellent article of Dr. Reid, from the Northwestern Advocate. We do not re member to have seen any thing in the Church press more appreciative, discrim inating and just upon our Southern work. The importance of the suggestion in rela tion to Tracts can not be estimated by our brethren in the North. The subject was repeatedly canvassed in this office two years ago, and named in these columns. The want is very great. We fail to see how the Tract Society could at this time render so signal a service to truth with a few hundred dollars as in this direction. If such tracts could be prepared by some one who has been recognized as a lead ing mind in the denomination, and issued under the direct authority of the Church, they would have greater weight of influ ence than more fugitive articles. Minis ters and laymen in the South will unite with Dr. Reid, in his request. Give us the Tracts! Atlanta Daily Sun. —A few days since this paper made some sharp though not unmerited strictures on the New York Associated Press dispatches for the South, whereupon that Association refused the dispatches to the Sun; nevertheless that luminary still shines and flourishes. J. Henly Smith Esq. has become connected with that paper, and both its editorial and clerical force has been strengthened, and it is also about to be enlarged. We trust it will succeed in getting better dispatches from the North than most of the insipid and one sided stuff of the Associated Press. “ The Two Reports — Any one who wishes to form a Just estimate of the gen eral force and true relations of the two Methodist Churches in many parts of the South should not fail to read “The Two Reports,” in this issue. Brother Little is one of the most excellent, highly esteemed and candid members of the Holston Con ference. Each Report fairly represents the Church for which it speaks. It must be remembered that both relate to the same territory. The Sermon. —Wo favor our readers this week with a part of the sermon of brother Knowles. The principles it inoul cates will meet the cordial and unanimous indorsement of our preachers and people. These are the sentiments with which the whole South is being indoctrinated by the pulpit and press of the Methodist Episco pal Churoh. THE METHODIST ADVOCATE. MAY 24, 1871. The Three Levers. There are three agencies whkjfi, actirg jn harmony, will in course of time raise any people to the highest standard of Christian civilization. These are the Gospel of Christ, Education, and Money. Neither of these forces acting alone can T>roduce its highest results. Only the earliest, im perfect and half-ripened fruits of the Gos pel are realized without intelligence and industry, education and money. The sec ond, education, is essentially defective without the first and impracticable without the last; and separate from the former two, money is of but comparatively little value. Alone, it dazzles, but often destroys, acting as a flood or a fire to engulf virtue and consume the better qualities of men. With fire, water and perfect machinery, the en gine is a great power. Men strong in the principles of the Gospel, with disciplined minds and the arts of civilization sented by money) generally diffused among them, are a power. These constitute very largely national greatness and embrace the elemental germs of all individual and or ganic strength. The Gospel teaches the brotherhood of mankind and the relations existing between men. It gives the highest ideas of Divine purity and goodness and of human excel lence, and awakens in its believers the loftiest and holiest aspirations possible to humanity. Its fundamental principle is love to God and men, than which nothing human can be better calculated to correct many of the ills of life and lift the fallen to a happier condition. Add the Divine to the human force in the Gospel, the sancti fying Spirit to the enlightening Word, the life to the light, and herein is found the first and greatest lever by which humanity has been and is ever to be lifted out of the slough of sin and corruption into the puritj and joy of a true civilization. As an en gine draws the train after it, the Gospel, if given full play in all of its relations, draws a train of consequences which in clude intelligence, free thought; industry, art, refinement, culture. Wherever the Christian religion fails to lead its humblest followers in this direction, it in so far does not produce its usual fruits. This failure, however, must not be attributed to any de fect in the Gospel, but in its teachers, do not apprehend and appty it in all of its breadth and bearings. The dwarfed and gnarled oak on the mountain Side is not imperfect in nature or germinant force, but its development has been checked by the want of suitable soil. The beginnings of Greek and Roman Christianity were pure and healthful, but lack of education and general improvement left it to take on ab normal growth. Christianity and slavery are antagonistic, and it is as impossible ibr vigorous, holy and progressive Churches for successive generations to develop in the pews with slaves in the galleries as for healthful vegetation in a dark cellar. Nar row-mindedness and bigotry can only be counteracted by intelligence and charity. Knowledge of truth is the corrective of su perstition. Only fools or villains perse cute others for religious opinions. General education is to the Church what the helm is to the ship, giving to it steadi ness and direction. Errors are combated, extravagances avoided, and wrong tenden cies checked and corrected by general in formation among the people. Multitudes of follies which lead astray the ignorant become powerless in the presence of the common school. Education also gives breadth to ecclesiastical views and strength to Church enterprises. A conference of angels if ignorant of the thoughts, reason ings, schemes and history of men, would be unfitted to contend with the irreligion, infidelity and ignorance of earth* Good ness is essential to the Church, and general intelligence scarcely less so. Each npiem ber should be able to give a reason for the hope that is in him. Each should be able to defend his faith from the more com mon attacks of adversaiies. The views of all should be modified and matured by an intelligent consideration of the leading features of ecclesiastical affairs. All men, and especially Christians, should have a certain independence, should realize an ego , a selfhood, responsible alone to God and society for their opinions, beliefs, actions and affections. We are disgusted almost daily with men who seem to have intelli gence enough to know better,but who,never theless, hang (like timid children to the skirts of their mother) to recognized lead ers whoso principal qualifications to act as such are bigotry and impudence. That education which bids men think and act as accountable for themselves to God is the corrective of this great evil. Pious ig norance will doubtless gain beaten, but must stand at the foot of the class there, and is of but little value in conquering this world to Christ. Any Christian denomina tion which fails to lift up in the scale of in telligence its aggregate membership, rich and poor, young and old, white, black, red or yellow, is essentially defective, and will be unable to hold its position through fu ture ages unless it awakes from sleep and corrects this defect. Man has not only heart, but brain also. Christ demands both. The unlettered may be very devout, but they can offer but little resistance to trained infidelity, and are often found serving as puppets in the grasp of political intrigue. The Church calls for the school house. Society pleads for the school house. The nation demands the school house. It must stand within reach of all, open to ail, in all lands. Without the school-house the Church may become the home of fanatioism and the temple of idols. Piety, brain and money form a triplet of power stronger than princes. Money may represent commerce, industrial arts, includ ing agriculture and manufactures, and fine arts, or to include all in a single word, in dustry, the reward of which is money or its equivalent. This makes the farm, enlivens the shop with activity, spreads the sail, lays the track of the railroad, touches the clay and it rises up in the form of temple and city. Rock, earth, iron, every thing yields to the omnipotence of industry. Architecture is its fruit. Its skilled finger fashions the beautiful arabesque. Sculp ture, painting, music are the creations of intelligent industry. Grace, culture, money I What may not these accomplish among,men? There are ntone so high but that these may exalt them to a higher place in the scale of human excellence and re finement, and none so low that they dn not be reached and lifted by these three levers- Combined they are the great forces by which the world is to be renewed in righteousness. Let us pray for the first, study for the second, and work for the third, trusting God for the needed measure of each, and as they may be given use all for Christ in the promotion of his cause to the glory of his name. By them even bar barian's may be molded into Christian gen tlemen. But for the wickedness of men, these three forces would finally make the earth so mueh like heaven that the angels could scarcely tell the difference between them. > Dr. Prettyman writes from Knoxville, Tenn., May 18th, that he has another thousand dollars on the endowment of the University. We congratulate the agent and the friends of the institution on this auspicious beginning, and hope the Doctor may give us such an item every week. He says: The friends have done so well, that it ought to be reported for the sake of the University. Another thousand dollars on the endowment has been taken by four fi-10nd.3 hero, imd nnp hundred dollars on the debts of the institution, paid by four persons. Our Church here is highly favored in its pas tor, Rev. John R. Eads, “the.right man in the right place.” His health is feeble, but improv ing. As with many of our ministerial brethren, his wife is a helpmeet indeed. The Convention is full of interest for our people and friends in this region, and will be largely attended. The Great National Loan. —There is no government on earth so deeply and strongly seated in the affections of a large majority of its people at this time as the Government of the United States. Not withstanding threatened political revolu tions, fhere is none more firmly established or permanent. Consequently its loans are among the best securities in the world. No paper can possibly be safer than United States Bonds. Not a few Confederates indicated their appreciation of Greenbacks during and after the war, by getting and keeping all that they could of them. We call the attention of our readers to the advertisement of the New National Loan in another column. Here is a safe place to invest spare cot ton money. BBreaveent. —The Church, and the public generally, sympathize deeply with the brothers Kimball of this city, in the recent afflictions of the family circle. The aged, honored and affectionate father fell asleep at the old homestead in Nor way, Maine, on Sabbath the 14th inst., and Mrs. Mary Porter Kimball, wife of Charles P. Kimball, Esq., of Portland, Maine, died on the Bth of April. Earth and heaven seem not so distant as these friends were divided in locality during life, and always appear to be nearing each other as tho loved ones pass over to their rest. The real and abiding home of the good is above and beyond us. Publishers have just received a stock of “Hand-Book of Bible Geogra phy,” by Rev. G. H. Whitney, A.M. It is a capital work, and every Sunday-school teacher should have one. Retail price, $2.25. Usual discount to ministers and the wholesale trade. Dr. Crary, Editor of the Central Advo cate, has been South, was storm bound in Mississippi, had a good opportunity to make observations and take notes, and says many good things of his trip in his paper. We shall clip some paragraphs. Golden Hours for May abounds in in teresting stories, poetry, instructive lessons and fine illustrations. Let the children have Golden Hours ! Rev. S. W. Thomas, the active and effi cient Book Agent, at 1018 Arch Street, Philadelphia, has our thanks for hn early copy of revised Plan of Episcopal Visita tion. tSrWe understand that “ Peter Cart wright” is selling like hot cakes in Ten nessee. Send in your orders. The Pub lishers will keep you supplied. BSP’Gold Pens. —See advertisement of Hitchcock & Walden, in another column. Flan of Episcopal Visitation. In view of tbe severe illness of Bishop Clark, it has been deemed prudent to make and pub lish the following provisional plan of Episcopal visitation of the Fall Conferences. We trust, in answer to the earnest and continued interces sions of the Church, God will restore the health of our beloved colleague. If so, he will meet the Conferences assigned to him in our former plan, or such of them as his health and Con venience will permit. E. S. Janes, Sec. C010rad0..........Denver City July 8 Simpson. Delaware Salem, N. J, July 27* Janes. Oregon Portland ...August 16 Simpson. Cincinnati, Dayton August 18 Ames. E. Genesee Genera August 23 Janes. North Ohio Cleveland .August 23 Ames. Erie Mcadeville, Penn-August 30 Ames. N. W. ludiana-Crawfordvllle August 30 Janos. "California Sacramento .September G j.Slmpsou. Detroit Monroe, Mich September C... ....'..Janes. Central 0hi0.... Kenton ..September 0 A wee. S. E. Indiana...Jeffersonville ...September 6 Scott. Miohigan -St. Joseph September 13.......Jane5. Indiana New Albany September 13 Scott. Central lUtnoia.Peoria September 13 Ames. Nevada Reno September 14* Simpson. N. W. German.. St. Paul, Minn.... September 20 Janes. Illinois Jackson villa September 20 ..Scott. Des Moines Sioux City, lowa.September 20 Ames. S. W. German... St. Joseph,Mo,....September 21 ’Simpson. Minnesota Mankato .September 27 Janes. S. Illinois, Cairo September 27 Soott. Upper lowa Cliuton September 27 Amos. Oentral German.Alleghany City... September 23* Simpson. Tennessee Shelbyville.... October 4 Soott. lowa ..Mount Pleasant.. October 4.... ....Ames. Genessee Buffalo ....October 4 Simpson. W. Wisconsin... Mineral Point October 6* Janes. Rock River Aurora October II Ames. Holston Greenville October 11 Soott. 0hi0...... .Washington,o. H.Octobsr 11 Simpson. Wisconsin Milwaukee .October H ...Janes. Georgia ...Atlanta October 1$ Scott. Alabama ...Oomhouse Creek.. October 26 Soott. ’Thursday. A Southern View from Atlanta. BT ItLV. J. M. BBID, D.D. It is not five years since we before saw Atlanta, and in that time it has grown from a few scattered homes to quite a compact city. Long streets of brick business houses, thronged by a busy multitude, occupy what was then vacant space. The history of Chicago itself can present nothing more striking than the advance of this Southern city since Sherman left it a ruin. Our Book Room and Methodist Advocate are located here. A small but neat store, with a suffi cient supply of books and stationery,and an, editor’s office above, constitute our begin ning, We greeted Dr. Fuller in his sanctufn , and found him earnestly engaged for the prosperity of the Church in the South. Sabbath, the 7th, was assigned for the ded ication of the new [Xoyd-Street] Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a neat, brick edi fice, with basement that has for some time been used for worship, and henceforth to be for Sunday-school and for prayer and class meetings. The walls of the audience room are frescoed; the pews cushioned; the aisles, the altar and around it carpeted, and a good cabinet organ in place. As we saw it on Sabbath morning* filled with in telligent and influential hearers, and the air iragrant wiin roses the beautiful pulpit, we almost forgot that we were in a land where ourselves and onr Church, like the Master, were despised because identified with the poor and the outcast. Tears stole irresistibly from our eyes as we heard the choir break the silence with the chant, “I was glad—l was glad, when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord.” We saw the men be fore us who had suffered nearly all things, and never before did the initial repeat seem to us so heartfelt. And whqn they came with much expression to the passage, “Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity —prosperity within thy palaces.” our hearts said “Amen 1” and “Amen 1” We found the enterprise in debt five thousand dollars which was promptly liquidated with a sur plus, and after a day of spiritual feasting, left our brethren full of joy and never so hopeful. Rev. J. H. Knowle9, the pastor, who, with liis family, are endeared to us by past and most pleasing associations, is do ing a great work here for God. We were amazed at the influence he had acquired in a few brief months. We were aided in the services by Rev. N. E. Cobleigh, D.D., President of the East Tennessee Wesleyan University, at Athens, who preached, in the afternoon, a sermon rich in matter and spirit, on Christian joy. Rev. Wesley Prettyman, M.D., Rev. J. W. Yarbrough, the veteran of this Conference, a most hon ored brother, and presiding elder of the district, were also present, and Rev. J. W. Lee, presiding elder of the Dalton district. These, with Dr. E. Q. Fuller and the pas tor, made up the ministerial attendance and help of the .day. Each took his part in the services. The presence and help of three brothers, H. 1., E. N. and J. C. Kimball, are doing much for this infant Church. Tho 11. I. Kimball House, erected and owned by the first named, is a grand hotel standing in the very heart of the city, that in dimensions, furnishings and fare equals oue» own Tre mont or Sherman. The house is conducted by Crittenden & Cos., once famous hosts of Cincinnati. We never fared better than during our stay here, and found their house crowded. We were told that it was a fa vorite resort of many, in Winter, from the rigors of the severe climate of the North. We can certainly commend it to such, and to passing travelers. The Kimball House is itself an evidence of the thrift of Atlanta. The brothers Kimball are also leading bankers and enterprising railroad men, and are in every way devoting their energies and resources to the development of Geor gia. The South need not fear such “ Yanks” as these. -True men, they have not turned their back, in the South, upon their own Church, but give it their undisguised and weighty support. Our trip was necessarily hasty, yet we took all opportunities to in form ourselves afresh on the subject of cur Southern work and prospects, that we might inform our readers. Our couviction has always been that it is the duty of the Methodist Episcopal Church to overleap all barriers and enter every part of the land with the Gospel in all its freshness and power. Our own people are going into the South, and we should go with them. They find little that is con genial in Southern Methodism, and never oould be satisfied to worship at altars from which their own venerated ministers and spiritual fathers are excluded. Even South ern sermons and prayers are evermore adulterated with that which offends their patriotism. The presence of our people, if nothing else, should take us into all the principal places of the South. But the mountain regions of the South were always full of loyalty. There slaves were few, and the free balmy mountain air inspires the plain and laboring population with the spirit of liberty. Thousands of these na tive-born Southerners, life-long emancipa tionists, have little confidence in the former Church of the South, and welcome us. We have no right to omit ministering unto them the Gospel. The negroes, too, need us j they are numbered by millions, and are to exert a vast and inconceivable influence over the destiny of our land. If we do not educate and elevate them, as they have corrupted the very dialect of the South, so will they ruin us. To stand by them is to stand by our own future well-being as a nation; Southern eyes cannot yet see or feel this, and never would without our aid or example. Nor will it ever do for the people of this country to remain two dis tinct peoples. As this has once brought waste and bloodshed, it will do it again. It will cost far less of suffering and treasure for us to mingle together and thus secure and hasten the homogeneity of the nation, than it would to abandon our work and re main fenced from the South by a wall of prejudice and hate that must soon bloom out into blood. Homogeneity is to be ob tained, not by separation, but by associa tion. We cannot just yet unite at the same altars, but we must get as near to it as we can by association in the community. Now, and for some little time to come, we will all be “carpet-baggers,” and esteemed alike, as the heathen rank the profane and drunken sailor and the dishonest trader with the missionary. Time will cure this, and the people are already beginning to distinguish the true from the false. The day is not distant when our mission will be understood. Even now it is evident that we have no more important work than that of the South. What is needed in that field at this mo ment is a double portion of the Holy Spirit in the laborers, and a double measure of sympathy and support from the stronger parts of the Church. The battle has been fought; slavery is dead. All who wish to know, or will know the truth, understand what our real character and purposes are. Little is now to be gained by further con troversy. Let us plant our Churches every where, and save as many souls as possible. Let us go on promoting education and be friending the poor and needy. Let us cheerfully accept social ostracism and of fensive epithets, for Christ’s sake. It was once so in New England, and we outlived it; and we can outlive it in the South. Let us be charitable. We arc conquerors, the people of the South the conquered; we are enriched, they are impoverished; our land blooms, theirs was wasted; oar fondest hopes are realized in the preserva tion of the nation's life and unity, they have nothing left of all the anticipations with which they fired the first gun; the scepter is in our hands, but it fell from theirs ; their slaves have become their legal and political equals. Who can wonder that they are chafed and angry, even un reasonable ? True, they must govern their passions, and not venture to touch either person or property. Each act of aggression that proceeds so far as this should be promptly and severely punished. The law must every-where shield the American citi zen. The whole North should demand this in irresistible tones, and so will every true friend of the South. Dissent from them in politics or practice is no apology for arson or murder. All the rest we must bear until a better spirit can enter the peo ple. We are every year advancing, and are sure to become strong in the South if we are faithful to the mind of Christ. We want a few Sons of Thunder in the South, who, with all the heroism of the first Methodist preachers, will go into the mountain regions and make them rever berate with salvation. They could take horse and saddlebags and live among the people, and form circuits and districts that would glorify God for ages to come.— Young men, men without families, who would give themselves thus for a few 3’ears to this rustic but glorious work, would find in so doing a “joy forever.” Our bishops, who know the ground, can point out re gions where one could go in apostolid faith, without purse and scrip, and, spend ing the year, come back just as rich as he started,- and with a glorious and heroic record. Where are the men ? Who will dare so much for God ? Who would vie with the heroes of the first days of Ameri can Methodism, and become Jesse Lees of tho South ? Such men there are, and we wish they would speak. But we also need millionaires to be the patrons of this work. A whole church can be built in many small places if a single hundred dollars can be furnished to buy glass and hardware. Earth has no glory for such contributions, but five thousand dollars thus used would yield far more for eternity in fifty such churches than in one of metropolitan grandeur. Who will in vest for eternity ? Nashville and other places are already in condition to be benefited by anew mission in the outskirts. Enterprise and aotivity are the parents of spiritual prosperity. We must watch lest a tropical torpor steal over our Church there. But we have diffi culty in sustaining the present work. A lot and a temporary building would be the foundation of an important Church. No where in the world are so many poor un cared for in a Christian land. It is not possible entirely to suspend controversy. It will arise. But let our Tract Society give us a series of tracts suitable for our defense. One of them might explain the great secession that fol lowed the action of the General Conference of 1844. Another might treat of “Church Stealing.” Another might be on frater nization, and dispose of the Pierce em bassy, and so on; and they could be dis tributed as occasion requires. This would excuse our preachers from allusions to these matters in lectures and sermons, and the editor from much that is now demanded by some, but at the same time objected to by others. It would give room in the paper for better matter, and intone the whole Church to more Christly feelings than oan come of constant strife. Our brethren can stand all if they are only sure that their work is appreciated and that they have the sympathy of the churches in the North. Give them prayers, but give them also provender. —Northwestern Advo cate. Colored Spectacles. —To one with green glasses the world looks green, while all would appear red, yellow or blue to another with spectacles of either oolor. Judging from a recent number of the Atlanta Constitution, that paper has laid aside colored glasses for some of clearer light when looking upon matters pertain ing to the Methodist Episcopal Church. The change is not in the Ohurch, but in the spectacles. We are glad to have jus tice done to any of our brethren or in terests, and rejoice in the improved vision of our neighbor. Others will receive a Hike reward by and by. To find section alism in the ministers, members or press of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is certainly a brilliant discovery. Most people of ordinary sense and information, understand that there is not a more cos mopolitan organization on the globe than that Church. ISTWe are glad to hear that John Sou ders’ Cincinnati Sugar-Cured Hams are selling rapidly in this market and are find ing general favor.

Georgia Historic Newspapers

The Methodist advocate. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1869-????, May 24, 1871, Page 82, Image 2