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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. THE LARGEST LOT OF BLANK BOOKS & SCHOOL BOOKS Ever brought to Macon. o J. W. BURKE & CO., Second Street, next door to Baptist Church, JJAVE JUST RECEIVED LARGE additions to their stock, to which they invite the attention of dealers and others. BLAiYK BOOKS I Cap Day Books—half bound, Cap Journals—half bound, Cap Ledgers—half bound. Cap Day Books—full bound, Cap Journals—full bound, Cap Ledgers—full bound. Demy Day Books, half bound, Demy Journals, half bound, Demy Ledgers, half bound. Demy Day Books, full bound, Demy Journals, full bound, Demy Ledgers, full bound. Cap Quarto Day Books, Cap Quarto Journals, Cap Quarto Ledgers. Demy Quarto Day Books, Demy Quarto Journals, Demy Quarto Ledgers. Demy Miniature Account Books, Day Books, Journals, Ledgers and Records. Medium Miniature Account Books, Day Books, Journals, Ledgers and Records. 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