The Methodist advocate. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1869-????, June 12, 1878, Image 1
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The Mississippi Martyrs.
Murder for Opinion’s Sake.
[An Address delivered at Metropolitan
Church, Washington, May 19, in commemora
tion of the martyrdom of the Chisholm
family, by Bishop Haven.]
It is an instinct of man that
funeral rites should accompany his
body to its long home. The ancient
heathen could not cross the Styx
and reach the Elysian fields-if his
body lacked the proper ceremonies
of sepulture. However hasty the
flight of the living, he must still
Eause long enough to throw three
andfuls of dust upon the corpse of
his comrade, and pronounce a solemn
hail and farewell. Otherwise that
companion must wander a hundred
years on the shaded side of the land
of shades ere he finds repose an l
bliss.
What is instinct is also religion.
Christianity lays a like necessity on
its devotees and the peoples to
whom it is the only religion, even
when they are not its devotees. One
shrinks less from the cremation fires
than from the faithless and hopeless
and riteless circumstances that at
tend that act. No prayer, no word
of sympathy, no hymn of consola
tion, no hint of reunion accompany
the dread burning. ’The ancient
employers of this mode of burial
were less irreverent. To the height
of their religious knowledge they
performed this sad service.
In accordance with this race-hon
ored cußtom,we come together to-day
to engage in the solemn duties de
manded by the dead, no less than by
the living. We come to bury, not to
praise. We come to satisfy the
just longings of a widowed and
child-rest heart, of a fatherless and
sisterless family, that their dead
may be decently buried. We come
to scatter flowers from full hands
on “a rare and radiant maiden,” on
a brave and true man, on a sweet
and loving lad. We come to bury
the dead out of our sight by those
ceremonies known and felt in all
ages and lands as befitting these
sad necessities of humanity. If the
occasion leads further in its sugges
tions, these suggestions do not create
the occasiofi. A stricken family
craves a funeral service. Shall it
be refused? They have waited a
year and, a dam lot, mifth services.
Bball they continue to wait? Shall
the wife and mother mourn with a
bitterer mourning because no voice
of prayer, no song of comfort, no
word of Christian consolation has
been uttered over her lost ones? '
Who of us can begrudge this little
gift? Who of us shall say that such
consecration is a desecration? Who
shall complain that the Lord’s day
and the Lord’s house are employed
in this most Christian service?
Let us with bowed hearts dwell
under the shadow of this still present
calamity. Let us stand around this,
mourning Ilizpah, who lies prostrate
before her dead, not sonß alone, but
husband, and daughter, and son—
that perfect trinity to woman’s
heart—who has lain there, 10, these
many months; who refuses to be
comforted, not only because they are
not, but also because, in every fiber
of her soul, they are still unburied.
Let us gather about these lads, who
stand in manly silence before the
graves of their household, the re
vered father, the oldest brother,
heir thereby in their consciousness
to the headship of their own family
and generation, and their adored
sister, and who solemnly await the
due rites of the Church over their
beloved dead. May Ilizpah now
find comfort, and the household ac
cept these tributes as a proper
burial!
I shall not dwell upon the scene
that rises before your eyes in all its
horror. I dare not. My own feel
ings cannot bear the Bight. A year
ago, the 29th of last month, no hap
pier family blossomed in all this
land—in any land. The father and
daughter had just returned from a
journey to the North, where the
mighty Niagara had been first seen
by those young eyes, which dreamed
not that they should look ere many
weeks on a more deadly cataract,
and be whelmed beneath its rushing
torrents of madness and death.
She had written a description of that
trip only two days before the open
ing of the fearful drama. They
were exulting in the opened glory
of the comiDg year—the soft, rich
landscape, the blooming trees and
fields, the music of the birds, every
gayety of nature in its ecstacy of
joy. How beautiful was that open
ing landscape let that daughter’s
words tell, written just a week be
fore the fatal shot:
“This afternoon brother and I
mounted our horses and galloped
away for a ride. We left the road
about five miles from town, and
took to the woods; and I would tell
you how beautiful they looked if I
could. The trees are all clothed in
a soft and tender foliage, the leaves
being about half grown. There are
lovely flowers of every color and
variety now in blossom along the
creek. The beautiful yellow jessa
mines meet across the stream, and
clasp their soft, sweet blooms and
tendrils togther, while the banks
are gemmed with forget-me-nots,but
tercups, wild violets, dogwood, and
honeysuckle. 0,1 wish you could
have been with ~us on our ride!
YOL. X. NO. 24.
then you would know how delight
ful it was. Sweet, papa has just re
turned from St. Louis.”
What a pretty picture is this—the
lad just budding into youth, the
sister blossoming in maidenhood,
knit together in the last ride on
earth, amid the glories of a Southern
Spring. “Sweet papa,” too, is in
troduced thoughtlessly, but with sad
significance, into the picture. Into
that scene of loveliness in home and
nature the destroyer came. On the
fifteenth of the next month, a year
ago last Wednesday, the grave has
closed over three of that household,
gone down in bloody winding
clothes, unwept, unhonored, and un
sung. No prayer, no sermon, no
word of Christian strength and sym
pathy was uttered at the darkened
home, or at the grave’s, mouth. The
stroke of fate was never swifter or
sharper. “So swift treads sorrow
on the heels of joy!” Had this
violence happened at the hands of
the red man, how the whole land
would have rung with indignation,
how fast would have flowed the
tears of neighbors and of the nation,
how intense the throb of sympathy,
how earnest the prayers, how hot
the righteous anger! But it was
thou, mine equal, my guide, my
acquaintance. We took sweet coun
sel together, and walked- unto the
house of God in company. It was
those that had eaten bread from his
hands that smote him unto the
death—nay, it was the great, great
Wrong behind, above, below, through
these, which bore them on too wil
lingly to the deed. To-day the
only reparation meet is a public
funeral where they fell, a public
confession from those by whom they
fell, a public monument testifying to
their sorrow at the - event that bas
made their country fearfully famous
in all the world. Such lamentation
and dedication will yet be made.
If they or their children fail to do
this holy duty, others will certainly
do the same. It is the eternal law.
A week ago, I rode by a granite
statue, exquisitely carved, of a brave
and beautiful woman. It was
erected only a year or two since,
and is in honor of Hannah Dustin,
who, in 1698, nearly two hundred
years ago, there showed extraordi
nary valor in rescuing herself and
children from savage captors.. The
land has never let the memory of
her courage die, and has at last
molded in into enduring sh»pe.
None the less will the same land re
member the not inferior courage
and faithfulness of Cornelia Jose
phine Chisholm. Nay, it will the
more remember, for this woman
died for her love and devotion. She
chose to die. Her “sweet papa”
was in jeopardy—nay, was in the
grip of death. Rather than fly
from his side, she hastened unto it.
She prepared for the defense of his
life with amunition concealed about
her person. She interposed to save
him after her own face had been
filled with wounds from shot that cleft
the iron from the prison bars, and
her arm had been shattered from
wrist to shoulder as she covered his
heart with its protecting embrace.
She begged them to take her life
and spare her “darling papa.” But
all in vain. Theirs was the long in
timacy of the oldest child and only
daughter with the father, an inti
macy the deepest that family ties
can know, unless it be the corres
ponding affection of the oldest child
and only son with his mother, and
this intimacy is less delicate and
tender in its filial phases. They
had made this depth of mutual de
votion deeper and dearer by their
Winter in Washington, and in
Northern travel. They had clung
together these many months of
home separation, only now to show
how they could die together.
Brave and manly as were the
father and son in that awful hour,
they were exceeded in coolness of
daring,in intensity of purpose, in
readiness of resource, in earnestness
of petition, in every element of high
est humanhood by this frail girl of
nineteen. Cornelia is a name that
ranks high in Roman annals. Her
boast of her sons as her jewels has
shone her brightest jewel for more
than twenty centuries. But this
Cornelia excelled the earliest of
her name. Her jewel was her
passionate devotion to her father
in this hour of death. That shall
shine forever. No waste of time
can dim its brightness. Immor
tality will but increase its beauty
and its worth. Josephine is a
historic name. A proud and capable
woman stands at the front of this
century mastering the master of the
world. Divorced and degraded, she
rules him from her enforced’ se
clusion. Those of her blood still
sit on thrones and are heirs to im
perial crowns. But this Josephine
would be gladly welcomed by that
illustrious lady as her peer in every
quality of womanhood and manhood,
for the highest traits of humanity
met and mingled in one brief hour.
On that morning she was a sim
ple girl, “heart-whole” as she wrote
loving, girlish things. In that hour
she towered into an angel, princely
and potent, glowing in the fires of
death with the strength and glory
of Beatrice in the upper circles of
the heavens. Welcome to the undy
ing names of mankind, be that of
this worthy successor of the great
Cornelia and Josephine.
We* shall not enter upon the field
that lies before your every thought.
Why was this deed done, and what
shall be the end of these things if
allowed to go unrebuked of the Na
tion, ye need not that I should
teach you. Your hearts are inditing
no pleasant, though perhaps it may
prove a profitable matter. The
sodden lamb, the unleavened cake,
and the bitter herbs, made a useful
meal to the thoughtful Israelite. He
reflected on the hour when death
reigned in every Egyptian house
hold, and his own, by miracle,
escaped. So may we sup on lenten
food this hour, and find it nutritious
to soul and spirit. The angel of
death, not God-sent, but devil
driven, hovers oyer much of our
land, smiting with blood-strokes the
victims of his cruel wrath. He has
left your homes free, yet only for a
season. If we allow
MURDER FOR OPINION’S SAKE
to be the law of one part of our
land, it will soon be of all parts.
Can one member suffer, and not all
suffer with it? Can a leading citi
zen and his family be set on and
slain in Massachusetts for political
causes, and peace and safety attend
the ballot in Mississippi? No more
can the reverse be true. The pres
ent honeycombing of Pennsylvania
with murder, which stern and unre
lenting justice cannot abate; the
communistic threatenings in Chicago
and California; the bloody strikes
along the Ohio; the tramp wander
ing murderously over one-half of
our Union, is the natural, the inevit
able outcome of the unwillingness of
the National Government to protect
its citizens in the other half. The
theory that State governments have
such absolute control of life and
death within their territories, that the
nation cannot cross their boundaries
to protect its citizens and punish
their murderers, has brought us to
this weak and miserable pass. We
are affrighted at the shadow glower
ing at our own hearthstone. In se
cluded Vermont, in crowded Cincin
nati, in remote Maine, in central
Indiana, the same terror besets us
by night, the same deadly danger
by day.
One Indian massacre arouses
every part of the land, be it the
Modocs of Oregon, or the Sioux of
Minnesota, or the Utes of Colorado,
or the Oamanches of Arizona, in
dignation and wrath leap from end
to end of the continent, and that,
too, when no one dreams that the
dread foe is to steal into Eastern
homes and renew his horrors at
Wyoming or Schenectady. But
this deed has universal national ap
plication. It proves universal na
tional weakness; it breeds universal
national disaster. A people that
cannot protect itself is no people.
It falls to pieces when it allows its
members to be cut to pieces. [Ap
plause.]
Said a gentleman to me but yes
terday, who had just returned from
abroad: “The old world is ovaj
governed; we, under - governed.”
Nothing strikes one more forcibly
on re-entering this land than
THE LACK OF NATIONAL POWER
over its own citizens. Unless a
stronger government arises, we
shall dissolve and disappear as a
nation. We sigh for the verification
of the seal of Massachusetts— : an
uplifted arm holding a sword,
which alone gives placid quiet undef
liberty. We have taken the first
step in verifying our right to exist
as a nation on gigantic fields of
strife by bloody and costly valor.
We must carry forward and com
plete this work in the national pro
tection of every citizen in his every
right. [Applause.] We must de
fend freedom of speech and freedom
of ballot, or we perish from the
earth.
To this coming perfection of na
tional peace and power this sad
event will contribute. This family
group are martyrs to American
equality of right, to the Declaration
of Independence, and to the pream
ble to the Constitution. It was for
the cause of equal rights the father
fought and the family fell. It was
for the protection of every citizen
at the polls; for true democracy—
the government of the majority of
the voters legally and fearlessly
expressed; for the American.nation;
for the rights of mankind, that
this citizen of America, his brave
son and braver daughter, laid down
their lives.
Their cries of agony and death
shall never be forgotten, never
below, never above.
“Their moans
The vales redouble to the hills, and they
To Heaven.”
Their forms will be wrought into
marble, painted upon canvas, hon
ored in prose and verse, held in
high and higher remembrance as
years and ages go by. The children
of the fathetg so ignorantly
slew them will build their sumptuous
sepulchers. That lone and dread
procession that thrice threaded the
dismal path a score of miles—a
feeble few, without minister or even
sexton, to assist them, bearing the
bloody dead, in jeopardy of life, as
they pursued their mournful journey
—will yet be changed into a solemn,
penitential, but glad multitude of
the citizens of the same county,
with their wives and daughters and
sons, gathering about that green
spot, where they were thus buried,
to make confession of their fathers’
transgression by such deeds of atone
ment as marble, and eulogy, and
ATLANTA. GA., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1878.
prayer, and sermon are able to give.
May those remains, now on their
way to a safer resting-place, be re
called, as were those of Dante’s, by
the city of his birth, by those'still
hostile fellow-citizens to the place
of their birth, and death, and the
name of that country, so dishonored
now, by this act of penitence be
restored to its former esteem. '
To the future, then, poor stricken
wife and mother, poor fatherless
and sisterless youth, to the future
cast your wet but hopeful eyes, wet
with joyful tears, tears for the dead
beloved, joy that they died so glori
ously, and won in one short hour im
mortal fame. Had they not thusdied,
the world had never known them.
"Had they not thus died,liberty,equal
ity, fraternity for all our land, and all
its peoples, perhaps, had never b&m
attained. There may be
MANY ANOTHER BLOODY STEP
ere that high table-land of humanity
and America is reached.
It may be that others, who now
speak and hear, may be required,
also, to make for their nation like
holy sacrifice. In this city, where
our greatest citizen gave his life
for the life of the land, we can
properly note the slow and bleeding
feet of the martyrs to Christ and our
country. May we, if called, be as
willing and ready to follow Christ,
and-these His disciples, for the per
fection of the work of human regen
eration. It may be that the whole
nation will yet be compelled to
wrestle in the sweat of this great
agony for equal rights of all men,as it
has had to wrestle for independence
and for existence. It may be that
Enceladus will yet arise , from under
this mountain of permitted preju
dice and hate in a manner at which
all the world shall stand aghast—a
Kemper county massacre in every
hamlet of the land. It may be that
we shall yet be compelled to cry out
in bitterness of spirit:
Ah, me I for the land that is gown
With the harvest of despair!
Where the burning cinders, blown
From the lips of the overthrown,
Enceladus, fill the air!
God forbid that such a horror
shall light upon our land! God will
not forbid it if we let his children’s
blood cry to Him from the
ground. God did not forbid, could
not forbid, Cain’s deluge washing
out Cain’s sin.
Yet if the deluge shall come, if
the waters of death shall prevail
even above the tops of the highest
mountains, if the nation shall be
wrapped in the flames of civil strife
more dire than any we have yet felt,
and our indifference to the fate of
our brothers shall doom us to a
worse suffering, out of it all shall
the new earth come. The deluge
shall pass away; the land of right
eousnesness, of brotherliness, of
Christ, without caste or violence, or
hatred, or disloyalty, or murder,
shall appear above the flood. And
then will still gleam forth, nay will
more brightly blaze, the fame of
this just father, this bravo lad, this
Cornelean jewel of filial maiden
hood.
Hope, then, sad hearts; hope and
endure, and be patient. Pray for
those who have despoiled your house
of its home, its head, its heart.
Pray for them by name, pray for
them with all the heart. So will
you be still one household, for thus
prays your family in Heaven. In
Christ they lived, for Christ they
died, with Christ they dwell. Live
ye in Christ in petition for the for
giveness of your enemies, so that if
spared the martyr’s fate, you may
still rejoice in the martyr’s crown.
For thus you shall win like honor
from God, with those of your own
flesh and blood that have gone up—
yes, blessed be the [Lord, gone up,
up, up, up, in human love and rev
erence, in earthly fame, into heav
enly seats, through great tribulation,
and have washed their robes of
blood, and made them white in
the bloodier blood of the Lamb,
who died for them as they died for
Him, and will make them to reigfr'
with Him in peace and bliss for
ever and forever.
How to Construct a Tele
phone.
Procure two pieces of tin spout
ing, about nine inches long. Over
one end of each glue parchment, or
two thicknesses of very heavy
writing-paper pasted together, and
dry them near the fire or in the sun;
pierce the centre of each parchment,
when dry, with a pin; then through
the hole made, run copper wire,
about the thickness of an inch pin,
and secure it by means of a cross
piece of heavier wire. Fasten the
two pieces of spouting to the wall, or
table, or wherever desired, one at
either end of the circuit of com
munication, making them stationary,
and leaving the open ends exposed
so as to speak into them. Conduct
the wire, from tin to tin, looping it
up at intervals with a twine string, so
as to keep it from touching wood or
anything that may be a conductor.
Draw as tight as possible, and fasten
securely at either end.
This, though a home-made tele
phone has proved so successful that
1 can be called from my study,
situated in the third story, by any
one on the first floor. Through it
even a whisper can be heard. The
cost is but a trifle.
— Rev. 0. O. McLean in Monthly Meuenyer.
Advertise in the Methodist Advocate.
A Plain Talk.
Second Paper.
BY REV. D. B. LAWTON.
If the scanty support of the ministry
affected the preacher’s physical comfort,
and that of his family only, it were a
small matter; but the evil effects as to
his mind, his morals, his piety, and es
pecially as to church and people, are
tremendous and far-reaching. How
can a minister throw his whole soul into
his proper work, when he is constantly
burdened to know how he is to feed and
clothe his family? How can he pay his
debts when the church is defrauding
him every year and every month? How
can he have that “charity that covers a
multitude of sins” when he is the sub
ject of injustice all the time? How can
he be qualified to instruct the people
without money to purchase and time to
read the current news and controver
sies? Even if a man begins his minis
try with a collegiate education, he needs
at least twenty-five to fifty dollars’
worth of periodicals and current litera
ture each year, in order to let the peo
ple know the state of the home and
foreign church work, the condition of
the heathen world, and meet the cavils
of skepticism.
The time has gone by, in most por
tions of our work, when the people will
take up with mere “humdrum” preach
ing, or merely good pious talk that any
pious old man or woman could give.
There is. a portion of thinking people
who want ideas, and can not be drawn
to church to hear mere rant. Can we
get qualified ministers to serve the
church on starvation salaries, when
their talents will secure a thousand
dollars a year in other honorable call
ings?
I purposely passed by the Bible au
thority for the support of the Gospel as
too plain to need repeating here. If the
apostles were sent out without purse or
scrip to depend on the people for their
support when they were endowed with
a plenary inspiration and. miraculous
powers, how much more do their suc
cessors need this support, from whom
these gifts are withheld I
“Even so hath the Lord ordained.”
“The laborer is worthy of his hire,” or
wages. But my mind reverts to the
injustioe done the ministry in withhold
ing a competent support. I once was
traveling along theline of the Erie canal,
late in the Fall, after the close of navi
gation. I saw by the roadside a poor
horse trying to bite some short grass
frori| under the frost and snow. I in
quired of a man near by, “Whose horse
is that?” He replied, “0, that is
nobody’s horse. It is one of the canal
horses that they saw it would not pay to
Winter through, so they worked him
hard and fed him scant, to the close of
navigation, and then turned him loose
on the commons to get his living as best
he could or die.”
A little distance from there was old
Father S , of three-score years and
ten, who had done eminent service in
the itinerant ministry for a half a cen
tury, rheumatic, driving, on a load of
goods, in the rain and sleet, to earn
something to keep soul and body to
gether. That is the sample of thou
sands. That is the way the church
treats her clergy—works them hard and
feeds them scant up into the winter of
life, and when of no more use they are
turned out on the commons to graze
and die! Is this robbery? 'ls it idol
atry? What do God and Paul say?
The Question Before the
Country,
Two things have been made per
fectly evident since the passage of
the Potter resolution. One is that
the action of the House is the be
ginning of an attack upon the title
of the President, and the other that
the attack becomes necessarily the
immediate and paramount question.
This is inevitable, for the movement
is one of revolution. It can settle
nothing, but it can unsettle every
thing. It is fatal to every industrial
interest, and to the tranquillity and
prosperity of the country, and of
fers nothing whatever but prolonged
excitement and agitation and pos
sible civil commotion. Mr. Potter
said that he meant no attack upon
the Presidential title, but a resolu
tion to that effect was voted down
in the caucus, and the whole pro
ceeding is a challenge to the coun
try. The House has raised an issue
that for the time supersedes every
other. The question of attempting
the removal of the President is made
the issue of the Congressional elec
tions as much as that of war or
peace would be raised in England
by a dissolution of Parliament. It
is not of the slightest importance
what personal interest may be para
mount in the matter, and it is amus
ing to see the morbid eagerness with
which Mr. Tilden’s hand is supposed
to be revealed by the course of
events. Undoubtedly the movement
has his approval, if it is not the re
sult of his instigation. But it tran
scends all personal considerations.
It involves the peaceful acquiescence
of the country in a constitutional
settlement of a disputed Presiden
tial election, and it is therefore a
question not for passionate partisan
appeal, but for patriotic union.
The facts can not be too con
stantly recited and remembered.
The dispute that followed the elec
tion of 1876 was irremediable ex
cept by a common understanding
between the two parties. This
seemed to be hopeless, so inflamed
was party fury, until, to the joy and
relief of the country, the settlement
of the question was left to the Elec
toral Commission. That body did
not assume to settle the right and
wrong of the election, but deciding
upon general principles what, acting
with all the powers of Congress, it
had a right to do, it awarded the
Presidency to Mr. Hayes. Congress
accepted its decision, and Mr.Hayes,
with the assent of Congress, was
constitutionally inaugurated. He is
thus as much the constitutional
President as any of his predecessors,
and he can be removed only in the
way that the Constitution author
izes. No proceedings of a subse
quent Congress, except in the form
of impeachment, could constitution
ally invalidate his title. But an in
vestigation aiming to show frauds
that vitiated the election could have
no other effect, if successful, than to
throw doubt upon the title. If that
were the sole object sought, the re
sult would be a public excitement
and disturbance for no purpose what
ever. If that were not the object,
the only other possible intention
would be Congressional refusal to
recognize a President whose title,
was declared by it to be invalid,
and that would be naked revolution.
This is the ultimate significance of
the action taken by the House, and
nothing is plainer than that it in
volves the possibility of immense
mischief. The universal feeling of
good citizens every-where is that
the question of the election of 1876
was happily settled by a common
agreement, and that Congress should
now take care that such a dispute
shall not arise again. Instead of
doing this plain duty, the House
proposes to re-open that dispute,
and does nothing whatever to pre
vent its recurrence hereafter.
It is evident, we say, that the re
sults may be exceedingly grave.
The power of party spirit is shown
in the virtual unanimity of the ma
jority, and in the refusal to allay
public apprehension by the passage
of a resolution declaring that the
title should not be questioned. Yet
even if such a resolution were passed,
the spirit which unites the party in
authorizing the investigation would
push it to the next logical step. The
appeal of the situation, therefore,
is to the patriotic good sense of the
country. It is for that to determine
whether the question of a Presiden
tial election once constitutionally set
tled shall be re-opened except in the
courts of law, and whether the Presi
dential title is to be assailable by
any party majority in Congress that
may choose to attack it. It is sim
ply silly to insist that the only ob
ject of the present movement is to
frauds were com
mitted. There is certainly no need
of proving that frauds were com
mitted, if the only purpose be legis
lation to dispose of the consequences
of fraud hereafter. It is evident
enough that fraud is possible, and
that there is no present method of
adjusting the consequent disputes
that may arise. To provide this
method is the duty of Congress, and
not to endeavor to prove frauds
which, if they are proved, can now
be made “operative” upon the title
of the President by action of Con
gress only by revolution. This is
an issue which has been raised by
party action, but which must be met
by patriotic union. The Presiden
tial dispute of 1876 having been
solemnly settled by the common
consent of both parties in Congress,
and by the ratification of Congress
lawfully given, can not now be re
opened by Congress under any pre
tense, without the most dangerous
disturbance of the Government and
of the public mind, which is fatal to
the confidence upon which a return
to industrial activity and general
prosperity depends. Should they
carry the Autumn elections upon
this programme of revolution, Con
gress at its next session would hold
that the country had sanctioned
revolutionary action, and constitu
tional liberty in the United States
would be exposed to a severer strain
than it has yet experienced.
—•Harper's Weekly.
The deception of Our Delegates.
Two great Churches have been
gratified by the manner in which
Dr. Foss and Uon. W. Cumback
were received by the General Con
ference of the M. E. Church, South.
All that has been done in the past for
peace has been crystallized by the su
preme authority of the Southern
Church. The action from time to
time has been up to the advance line.
Conviction and judgement have out
run feeling and prejudice. The
best wishes of the best men have pre
vailed. Thus fraternity has ad
vanced officially as fast as its friends
could hope, or as the facts would
justify.
Experienced men do not expect
fraternity to carry a unanimous vote.
That is more than the polity of the
Church would carry in either body.
Important features of our Church
polity are antagonized by many
among us. We believe fraternity
would poll a larger vote in our
Church than the limitation on the
term of pastoral service. If some
cry out against it and prophecy evil
between the Churches, that need not
seem strange. Such prophecies are
common concerning every thing.
So long as the action of the bodies
in authority is in the right direction,
the friends of peace have nothing to
fear.
WHOLE NO. 493.
The Editorjof the Daily Advocate,
in complimenting the speeches of
our delegates, goes a little out of
his way to suggest that there was
not a word about the negro, which he
interprets as a demonstration that
the negro, is not “inevitable.” He
seems to think that this omission is
reason for thanksgiving, and com
mendable in our delegates.
Some may regard this as a doubt
ful compliment, but we do not so in
terpret it. Our delegates represent
our colored brethren no less than our
white. Every sentence spoken for
the M. E. Church included every
last colored minister and member.
Unless our delegates made special ex
ception of some classes of members,
all were included. It is our fixed
policy to treat and consider all our
members alike. Every right claimed
by one race can be claimed by any
other. The treatment of the Church
as a whole was all that our dele
gates had any right to undertake.
It occurs to one reading the above
quotation from the Daily, to ask the
editor, if Dr. Foss and his associate
had the good taste not to project into
their fraternal greetings obnoxious
subjects, by what law of hospitality
does he go out of his way to drag
such subject into his commenda
tions? Instead of proving that the
negro is not a necessity, he proves
that he is a necessity. Receiving
him into our communion, we can
afford to give him the liberty of a
common classification. We will sug
gest that a similar treatment by our
Southern brethren will give alike
quiet rest to the colored man and to
the brother’s conscience.
Some have asked why our dele
gates did not refer to our staying in
the South? The answer is evident.
They desired to treat of living is
sues. Our stay in the South is
settled. Nothing but a revolution,
that will make all Churches in the
South either impossible or unneces
sary, can open that question again.
Matthew Arnold said: “There is
that in things that makes for right
eousness.” So we say that the elec
tion of a fraternal editor to the Nash
ville Advocate has in it that which
makes for peace.—A. Y. Advocate.
Unpraised Helpers.
There are many people in the
world who are doing much good,
and who are unnoticed by the world
and do it unconscious to themselves.
They often stand in close relation
to very active, conspicuous and
useful people with whom their hum
ble souls contrast themselves, to
their own increase of despond
ency.
For instance, here is a woman,
without any genius, who has a
brilliant husband, a man distin
guished in the councils of the nation,
or the lecture forum, or in the pul
pit, or at the bar; or a man
perpetually increasing the area of
known truth by his investigations,
and enlarging the field of human
intelligence by his publications.
The good woman compares herself
to this brilliant husband, and says,
“Alas, I am doing nothing. What
a sensation his last book made; it
has gone far and wide; in many a
household it is for comfort or in
struction, but I have never written
a line which can be of any benefit to
any human being, unless it may
have been in some of my poor let
ters.” And so she depreciates
herself and grows sad.
In a church a humble layman
may look up at the pulpit and see
his pastor, as on a throne of power,
when he is using the Word of God
authoritatively, and is evidently
swaying multitudes into paths of
righteousness. The layman says to
himself, “I can scarcely lead my
family in prayer, so broken is my
thought, and so lame is my lan
guage. I very seldom have the
courage to say a word in our prayer
meetings. I seem to have no talent
in the world but the talent for
money-making. I can work down
in my counting-house, and turn
over and over dollar on dollar, and
get richer and richer; but what is
that compared with being rich in the
souls one has brought to God in Je
sus Christ?” And so he becomes
discouraged.
But let these good people look on
the other side.
First, take the case of the wife.
Why is her husband so successful a
man? Simply because he has not a
particle of domestic care. His wife
has raised his children so that not
one of them has ever given him a
pang. They are ensamples to the
whole flock. He can say to his peo
ple, “Follow my children as they
follow Christ.” Everything is at
peace at home. This could not
have come to pass if the good wife
had not assiduously employed her
practical common-sense in looking
after the domestic matters. Now
let her remember that while she was
cheapening groceries, patching little
trowsers, darning her husband’s
stockings, mending here, saving
there, smoothing yonder, often when
her own heart was tired and her
hands weary, she was, in all these
things, clearing the field for the ex
ercise of her husband’s great ability.
He could not have had half the
power he wields, nor half the field
he occupies, but for th 9 good wife’s
good management. Half the glory
of the crown which the Lord will
give at the close of this ministry
will belong to that good woman.
Methodist advocate.— v omu
Tkmth.—Has never missed a week or been
an hour behind time. E. Q. Fuller, D.D., Editor.
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E. D. HOLCOMB, PRINTER.
She has done her part as faithfully
as the husband has done his, and the
Lord is not unmindful to forget her
labor of love.
In the other case, let the layman
recollect that, as times are now in
the present organization of society,
churches cannot be maintained with
out money. Land must be bought,
and materials procured for the erec
tion of ecclesiastical edifices; re
pairs must be made; constant attend
ance is required; and there must be
some one who can furnish tbe pecun
iary supplies. The pastor wants
some members of his congregation
who have, rather, financial ability,
and whose engagements allow them
to do something for the church. He
must never have financial cares; he
must never have to think how his
own support is to come, how a church
debt is to be paid, how money is to be
raised for repairs. It is a vicious
system which rolls any of this work
upon the heart of the pastor.
Every man that takes any portion
off leaves the soul of his pastor
more alert, his intellect more elastic,
his heart more ardent for the special
work of edifying the saints and of
calling sinners to repentance.
There is many a blessed pastor
this day who has a good time preach
ing the Gospel, and who may not
himself know to what plain man of
plodding, practical intellect he owes
arrangements which make the finan
cial affairs of his church run so
smoothly as to relieve him of all
care. But, when the crowns come
to be distributed, then the Lord will
remember the layman that had un
circumeised lips, like Moses, and not
forget his labor of love in that he
labored for the saints.
Let us not be betrayed into mis
judgments or despondencies by the
appearance of things; our main au
dience is behind the scenes. Where
there is one seeing us on earth,
there are multitudes looking at us
out of eternity. Little fames on
earth are small indeed, but the glory
of eternity is enduring.— Rev. Dr.
Deems, in Frank Leslie's Sunday
Magazine for June.
SOMETIME.
Sometime, when all life’s lessons have been learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have set,
The things which onr weak judgments here have
spurned,
The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet,
Will flash before us, out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
And we shall see how all God’s plans were right.
And how what seemed reproof was love most true.
And we shall Bee how, while we frown and sigh,
God’s plans go on as best for you and me;
How, when we called he heeded not our cry,
Because his wisdom to the end could see.
And e'en as prudent parents disallow
Too much of sweet to craving babyhood,
So God, perhaps, is keeping from us now
Life’s sweetest things because it seemetb good.
And if, sometimes, commingled with life’s wine,
We And the wormwood and rebel and shrink,
Be sure a wiser hand than yours or mine
Pours out this portion for our lips to drink.
And if some friend we love is lying low,
Where human kisses can not reach his face,
0, do not blame the loving Father so,
But wear your sorrow with obedient grace!
And you shall shortly kuow that lengthened breath
Is not the sweetest gift God sends his friend,
And that, sometimes, the sable pall of death
Conceals the fairest boon his love can send.
If we could push ajar the gates of life,
And stand within, and all God’s workings see,
We could interpret all this doubt and strife,
And for each mystery could find a key 1
But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart I
God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold.
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart;
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
Where tired feet, with sandals loose may lest,
When we shall clearly kuow and understand,
I think that we shall say, "God knew tbs bestl’’
—Selevted.
THE BENEFIT OF FLOWERS.
It is a decided mistake to think
that money expended in purchasing
shrubs and plants is thrown away,
but on the contrary, it is fre
quently the most direct way to
increase the pecuniary value of
your estate. Well arranged lawns
and gardens, with neat fences,
and flowering vines clustering over
the piazza, porch and windows, give
such an air of refinement and beauty
to your home, that it will often
attract the passer by, and create in
him a desire to possess it.
Flowers and vines add a refine
ment, all their own, to every home;
and there is no gorgeous upholster
ing, no rare draperies of velvet and
lace, that can equal them in the
adornment of our apartments.
Just look at the window at which I
sit. No lace curtains fall from
gilded mouldings, but the brackets
of imitation bronze are screwed into
the sides of the window, and each
one holds four or five pots, from
which hang clustering branches of
tradescantia and money • worth,
while tall, shapely fuchsias lift their
flower-covered heads in perfect
loveliness,and bright hued geraniums
contrast beautifully with their grace
ful bells, and dark vined ivy leaves
entwine about the walls and pictures,
and on the window-sill stand pots
of fragrant heliotropes, sweet tea
roses, primroses and calla lilies,
and a hanging basket, gay with va
rious kinds of oxalis, is suspended
from the center of the window.
Can you not see how they enliven
the room with their beauty and
fragrance? Do you know how at
tractive tHey make my little parlor?
And yet they cost but a small sum;
but “Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these.”
—Cor. of Country Gentleman.
The question, “How many of you
attribute your imprisonment to liq
uor?” was asked the 110 prisoners
in the Connecticut jail, and all but
ten raised their hands.