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REPORT
Os the Committee on the Btate of the
Church, adopted by the Georgia Confer*
ence.
The goodness and mercy of Almighty
God toward ourselves and the churches un
der the care of this Conference during the
past year, call f»r our profoundest gratitude.
But two of our number have fallen; and we
are permitted again to meet, after passing
through a crisis of trouble and anxiety and
affliction, that will ever stand out, an era in
the world's history.
During the year, by the fortunes of war,
our civil relations have been changed ; but
we feel satisfied that we correctly estimate
the sentiments of thig body of ministers
when we say, that they humbly bow to the
will of Providence; and that, true to those
Scriptural precepts that enjoin obedience to
rulers and submission “to the powers that
be,” in all points where the rights of con
science are not invaded, they accept the re
construction of the States of this Union as
an accomplished fact, and, in perfect good
faith, pledge their example and influence to
obedience to its constitution and laws, and
to the promotion of peace, good will and
harmony between the various sections of our
common country.
In taking a general view of the condition
of the church entrusted to our pastoral care,
we find some facts that are encouraging;
but much likewise to sadden the Christian's
heart.
It is a subject for thanksgiving that from
so many sections of our Conference tidings
have come up, that God has been graciously
reviving His work, and that many precious
souls have been added to the Church of
Christ. Those brethren who, unmindful cf
all else but their Master’s work, have steadi
ly gone forward, sowing and reaping, amid
the distractions of war, and the less agoniz
ing, but not the less discouraging distrac
tions of the peace that has followed war,
deserve the gratitude of the church. An
ticipating the higher commendation of her
Lord, she may even now say to each one of
them, “Well done, thou good and faithful
servant.”
But while a gracious God has allowed to
us this ground of rejoicing, we feel that the
church and ministry are called to deplore
many existing evils—evils following inevi
tably in the train of war; or else growing
out of a corrupt heart from which are re
moved many of those checks and balances
that were safe-guards against its dangerous
developments, when the country was in a
better condition, and the people in far dif
ferent circumstances.
■jesome of these evils, we feel it our duty
of the Conference.
■h££S of our people have been
I ■tt^pne”—“the dearest and
Beneath the sod” —of
this be writ
distress
I? wait tli'> .
1® ' ' ' . ex
.ns j§§ybk.
tempers have been indulged against the
helpless—if not the innocent. The negro
has been freed—but by no act of his own.
Freedom took him by surprise, and it is no
wonder, if, guided by evil counselors or
drifting at the mercy of circumstances, with
out a sound discretion or the experience be
gotten by previous responsibility for his con
duct, he should have acted unwisely and
ungraciously, and suddenly broken ties that
the kind offices of a lifetime and a sense of
moral obligation ought to have made irre
fragable. He may have acted badly—he
might have done much worse. But the re
sponsibility lies chiefly beyond himself; and
it is not the part of wisdom to cast him off
in the hour of his weakness; much less is
it that of Christian charity to visit upon the
helpless and ignorant the misguided acts of
others. Prejudice against him —a refusal
to him of Christian privileges—a denial of
the right or opportunity to labor, to learn,
to receive Christian culture, to enjoy life as
best he may without damage to society, can
never find sanction in the heart of him who
believes that “of one blood God hath made
all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
face of the earth.”
The duties of the church toward our col
ored population will be reported on by a
special committee; but we cannot forbear
just here to warn our brethren against the
indulgence of such feelings towards them,
for any supposed injustice or real grievance,
as will lead to a neglect of their spiritual
welfare. Such a course would signalize ours
as a Christianity so low, that it gave the gos
pel to the negro, because he was our slave;
yet would deny it to him a freedman, though
he no less has a soul to save. This would
leave our church under the imputation that
self-interest rather than Christian principle
lay at the foundation of all these efforts for
the negro’s religious instruction, for which
the world has commended us, and on which
we sometimes plumed ourselves. If our im
poverished people can do no more, they can
at least bestow upon him sympathy; and
they may keep their own spirit sweet and
pure in the sight of God, by cultivating the
remembrance that for these little ones, too,
Christ died.
But the decay of faith we have indica
ted does more than sour the temper, hinder
growth in grace, and disturb the soul’s’ re
pose on God. Many practical evils originate
in it. The character of the calamities that
have befallen us is such, that among the
greatest sufferers are many heads of fami
lies, whose hopes of a lifetime for them
selves and their children are in an instant
swept away; and, in too many cases, they
now, after years of Christian profession,
find themselves without that hold upon God,
that should have sustained them amid the
ruin of worldly good. Their faith has failed.
Unbelief has set in, in a strong cuirent,
and swept away the family altar—household
religion; and such a paralysis has seized too
many of them, that the arm is no longer
nerved for family discipline. The deterioa
tion of the older is transmitted to the young
er members of society. The times have not
only been inauspicious for the control of the
young, but also directly promotive of law
lessness. The vices learned in the camp by
unsophisticated youth have been distributed
through the land, and are easily acquired by
those still younger. The Sunday school is
Suspended—the day school closed—the op-
Bktunities of religious instruction in many
■Mfc^urtailed —the Scriptures are gone
111 Ifßkny houses —the father who at home
household well, has been away to
Bw« r hap s has come home no more —
the two races, accustomed
■Diingle under circumstances of
■EplI-'-l'i;- Iteint, now, in widely differ
iSltf ' t ''Bkthose of old, are allowed
Mir. I 's ( .Jocularly upon the Sab
|!!!P%!: wSlMkteaeli. each to other,
gggfeirlt f u ntil now the pro
younger portion
SHBjjf''*'.'l, appalling. —
gASra; . ~ Wkice for age or
A mare fast dis
.;r Bkrty are dis-
X < s’ ■ration just
• ■ar from an
>1 e, than
1 **’ • "-‘h i’/ ,j : I
iVid body
kpe,
i*P
■ry
Sc
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.
places, Sabbath-breakers and drunkards and
swearers, the dishonest and the licentious,
have given name and oharaoter to the body
of Christ, in the judgment of a scrutinizing
world ? May we not all, licentiates and dea
cons and elders—the humblest servants and
the highest officials in the church, take some
blame to ourselves for unfaithful perform
ance, for failure to hunt up tho wandering,
to bring them into Christ’s fold —for relaxed
eflort, for neglected discipline, for scanty
work, for diminished zeal, for lack of enter
prise, for an examplo of indolence; and is
it not God’s Judgment upon our own imper
fect service, that wc havo now to deplore
the decaying piety of tho church and the
multiplying obstructions to a successful min
istry ? It is not our purpose to accuse any —
we would probe ourselves with severe self
questionings, before we would approach our
brethren with the language of reproof; and
we deem it proper, before the members of
this Conference tax the church with failure
in duty, or with neglect in Christian privili
ges, that they should ask themselves first of
all, have ice done our duty, “giving no of
fence in anything that the ministry be not
blamed; but in all things approving our
selves as the ministers of God, in much pa
tience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis
tresses, in labors, in watchings, in fastings,
by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffer
ing, by kindness, by love unfeigned”—in
short, have we done our whole duty by word,
by work, by study, by travail, by exam
ple ; and offered to the people everywhere
within our reach—n-ty, as their instructors
and guides, jiressed upon them, those Chris
tian privileges, that might have saved them
from religious retrogression, and ourselves
from almost feeling sometimes, that we are
dead pastors of a dying flock ? Brethren,
to our consciences, as in the sight of God,
we must answer these questions, and if there
be need of amendment, let us “cast the beam
out of our own eye that we may see clearly
to cast the mote|out of our brother’s eye.”
Let it be allowed that in your field of la
bor you have unusually many discourage
ments; perhaps, indeed, but little to encour
age you. It is a lamentable fact, that too
few of our laity, too ftw even of the office
bearers in the church, take a deep and liv
ing interest in the work of the church.
With a very large number, the Sunday
morning service, when convenient, begins
and ends the period of their devotion to her
prosperity. They listen to a sermon, if it
so far interests them as to gain their atten
tion ; but the Sunday school, the night ser
vice, the class, the prayer meeting, the love
feast, the quarterly conference, have no
charm for them. Even the essential finan
cial work of the charge—work the preacher
cannot for delicacy be required to do—is
frequently devolved upon two or three zeal
ous souls in a membership "of hundreds.
The preacher, generally, has to bear the
burden of the work, uod&r all the discour
agement of finding few laymen to help lift a
finger’s weight. Could our voice be heard,
we would rouse the laity from this apathetic
indifference to the interests of Zion. But
the remedy is not to be found in the call to
duty by this Conference. Were it trumpet
tongued its voice could not reach the distant
sleepers. The day is gone when men yield
passively to mere exterual influences. What
does not incorporate them into itself, cannot
move them to action. The genius of our in
stitutions has been to make men a part of
every thing they take interest in. It is no
longer in the power of the preacher to stand
at a distance,,and by argument or persua
sion, by declamation or threatening, to turn
the current of the world’s activities. This
is the age of clubs—of leagues—of combi
nations—of associations, in which men act
and react directly upon each other; and he
who takes his station afar off and only thun
ders at the moving, working masses from the
pulpit, will directly find that he is but a
guide-post marking the road where the
world has passed; and that his congregation
has sped onward, leaving him with the halt
and the lame, the idle and unenterprising,
to wonder that his voice echoes back with
so hollow a sound from empty walls, and to
feel, when his life’s work is done, that he has
wasted his powers in exhortations that have
fallen fruitless to the ground, because the
age has left him far behind. No;.if the
Church is to be stirred again to activity, it
be done by anew inspiration of zeal, ema
nating from the preacher himself. He must
put forth all his energy —seek new fields—
form new combinations with his co-laborers
—devise new and constantly expanding
plans of usefulness, bearing such 'good fruit
that he will per force rally around him an
appreciative laity.’ He must be a leader in
every Christian enterprise; not afraid to
work —not afraid of undertaking too much
work—not sparing himself while anything
■mains undone; but, instant in season, out
he must gather his forces about
Unsaying, “ come, let us do this or that in
. of the Lord.’’ Patience—perse
—example, in this line of conduct,
' ; :iwei: or later ensure success. Hisac-
JMI become contagious —the spark in
spread into a flame of zeal
} ‘vllßkrch, and, round such a leader, the
CfcH^Bplly; while he who only points
in which he takes no part,
t # f ‘ of usefulness, in which
co-laborer, will spend his
V jjlßttcc know well, that this is an
to counsel the ministry to
of their work for the
4"U of them have been impov
' sent to an impoverished
|§BE|tte£’ ! :t support the latter can
fswlpsaßr • r in many places, be eked
'"HUmI of secular labor. Such
' . Aven in a minister. Paul,
HBfi>no less an apostle for
if|!Sl \ r M jJ/-'l||»tli his own hands. All
|hß|M * puts his children
jfHFMßjjf«*&#®ut lie alone and not
for its
iTo in
st ruin
Aback
j*rd
ttic
|g
we ourselves must fix the time and measure
and character of the secular employments
of those he has called to the ministry.
There is great danger here, lest we take our
cause into our own hands, and so entangle
ourselves with business, that our ministerial
duties may come to hold a secondary place,
if not in our esteem, yet in our occupation.
Brethren, to say that this ought not so to be,
should be enough to carry conviction of this
truth to every mind. You will allow it true;
but yet"the danger remains, and must be
guarded against. For, how hard is it in a
world which needs that gospel laborers
should be multiplied a thousand fold, to de
termine when one of them may be justified
in turning from ministerial to secular labor,
to know when honest convictions of duty,
and not covetousness or worldly aspirations
or a spirit of speculation, move him to the
change; and again, when the necessities of
a dependent family have driven him to the
world’s work, how difficult to resist its
temptations —to tear away from it, to turn
to those higher duties of the ministry, that
often seem to bring so much scantier a re
ward. But to those whose duties, in the
providence of God, are thus divided, here is
their trial—God here proposes to them a
test of their fidelity to Him, His church,
His cause; and if they pass the ordeal ap
proved of Him*, it will be found, that they
have never neglected their duty to their
flock to plow or to plant, to sow or to reap,
to buy or to sell, to make or to save, and
that they have not soiled their Christian
character or bartered their ministerial use
fulness for paltry pelf. If any of us have
done so, in the straits' to which war has
driven us, may God help ns to repent, to re
new our vows of consecration, and, rebaptised
by the Spirit of all grace, to begin our
lives anew, and, with a higher and holier
aim than ever heretofore, to follow our holy
calling.
The question is often asked in those days,
what is to be the future of our Church. We
answer, whatever her ministry may, under
the blessing of God, choose to make it, by
pureness, by zeal, by fidelity to God and to
duty. We have only to do his work —to
preach Christ and him crucified —to feed his
flock, and to confide in him for our stability
and perpetuity, putting away every question
of doubt and distrust. When God ceases to
bless our labors, indicates that our peculiar
work as a distinct organization is done, and
that he has no further use for it, then, and
not till then, need we cast about for refuge
in another Church. There is enough of vi
tality yet left in our system to warrant us in
turning heedless ears to all suggestions of
absorption into other communions. As to
union with the Methodist Episcopal Church,
that is no guestion. Our Bishops have spoken
on this subject, and we have no word to add
—except to commend their sentiments and
declarations, not because it is our Bishops
who have spoken, but because their utter
ances are true, their words wise and whole
some, and because they declare what well
nigh every minister and member of our
Church thinks and feels and purposes.
When Christian courtesy and decency ap
proach us, and offer to us the hand of fel
lowship, then it will be found, doubtless,
that Southern Methodism is as well-bred, as
courteous, as catholic in feeling and as chari
table in deed, as any embodiment of Puri
tanism. Until that time, dignity and self
respect impose silence upon us.
Two papers have been referred to this
Committee which call for some remarks.
One of these states the fact, that the distil
lation of spirituous liquors is a growing evil
among our Church members, and invites
some Conference action against it. This
specific form of wrong doing is only one of
the signs of the times. It is not an isolated
sin, standing out prominently as an excep
tion to the consistency of a Church, other
wise pure. It is not to be reached by spe
cial reprobation, or by further legislation. It
is the outgrowth of that worldly spirit that
manifests itself in a thousand forms among
professors of religion, and results from a far
too prevalent deadness of conscience, de
clension in piety, and indifference to Chris
tian obligations. The remedy is discipline—
bringing the church back to its former pu
rity. It is indeed wonderful that any man
who can stoop so low as to make gain by
opening the floodgates of drunkenness upon
a community, can desire to remain for an
hour a member of tbe Church of Christ. He
could not, he would not do it, were that.
Church that body of holy men—that assem
bly of saints, which a better Christian dis
cipline would make it. Let the Church
herself rise to her high position, and she
will soon leave behind or beneath her all
those worldlings, whose lives and character
and conduct are a discredit to their profes*
sion, a foul blot upon Christianity, and
whose work is to sow an evil seed, continu
ing to bring forth fruit of evil, long after
they have been summoned to the bar of
that God, whose glory they have sacrificed
to gain.
Anothee paper referred to the Committee
is Dr. A. L. P. Green’s Memorial offered to
the Tennessee Conference, advising several
changes in the polity of our Church. The
Committee believe—and recommend to the
Conference to adopt and assert the same be
lief—that while it may be granted that the
course of events in these days of upheaval
of old institutions and of unparalleled
change, may render some modifications in
our economy necessary and proper; yet, at
the present juncture, this body is not pre
pared to decide questions that affect our en
tire Church not less than ourselves and the
people under our care; and we would,
therefore, advise that all questions of change
be referred to the wisdom of the General
Conference, with this suggestion, modestly
but formally tendered to that body by this
Conference, viz :—that great care and de
liberation should be exercised in making
any radical changes in the economy of
Methodism —lest Christ be wounded in the
house of his friends.
In conclusion: We have been called to
survey a wide field, an 1 from every point of
departure, and on every lino of observation
we find proof—constantly accumulating
proof, fixing at least one conviction firmly in
our minds. This conviction is, that to insure
the prosperity and progress of Methodism,
nothing is left us but work, work , WORK.
There is abundant work for all to and
white and black, for old and young, for men
and women, for laity and ministry, for all
our private members and for all our office
bearers, from class-leaders to bishops • -work
enough to keep our heads, our hands, our
hearts all under full pressure, unless we
would see the Church decay under our care,
and the world rush to ruin out of our very
grasp. On our.part, it must be work in the
pulpit and out of it, in the closet and on the
street, in the sanctuary and by the fireside,
on the Sabbath and in the week—work
sanctified by prayer, and prayer answering
itself by more work. The Church—the
ministry must rouse themselves for anew
and fierce conflict with the powers of dark
ness—must use every appliance and every
energy to make all the healthy activities
and excitements of this stirring age minis
ter to the salvation of souls and to the glory
of God, that they may become a savour of
life unto life, and not of death unto death.
The Committee recommend the adoption
of the following resolution :
Resolved , That the Ist Friday in April be
set apart by the Georgia Conference as a
day of humiliation, fasting and prayer—to
make confession of sins, to implore pardon,
to intercede for the restoration of prosperity
to our country, to invoke the Spirit of grace
and wisdom upon the deliberations of our
General Conference, to entreat the blessing
of God upou the Church, and the anointing
of the Holy Ghost upon the ministry; and
further, that the preachers do, in their sev
eral charges, make arrangements in ample
time, with the aid of the class-leaders, ex
horters and local preachers, to hold, if pos
sible, one or more religious services on that
day with every congregation in the Confer
ence ; and that they convey to the Churches
the affectionate greetings of this body, with
a respectful request, that every member of
our communion attend upon such service
and otherwise solemnly and sacredly observe
a general fast.
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o
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A large variety of School Slates, of the
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Smith’s Arithmetic,
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Call and see our Stock, Second St.,,
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Two excellent Steam Engine*—one of Four Horse and
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