Newspaper Page Text
TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS.
PER ISTTsTITIMI.
VOLUME XL., NO. 39
Sttlttfimts.
THE UNCHANGING.
Friends I love m y die or leave me,
Friends 1 . mi may TTifaihe rout i-rove;
J3 -i Thou never wilt deceive me,
Oh uiy Saviour! in thy love.
Change can ne'er this union sever,
i earn ite link- may never part,
Yesterday, to-d < y. for ever.
Thou tho same Redeemer art.
On the cross love made Thee bearer.
Of tra -Ficressions not Thine own,
A . i that love still m *kcs Thee sharer
fn our sorrows on the throne.
From Thy k!<t thou art hen ling
Still o earth a piryii if eye ;
And 'mid angel songe ascending,
ilearcit every mourntr’e cry.
In the 1 ■ * of worldly gladness
Cold and t rood our heirt may be,
Uur t w horn in te ir or -adness
Oar, we tro hut unto The-.?
Fr on that depth * f doom and sorrow
\Y ere I'hy love to man was shown,
Kv* ry hie- . riff hea. l may oorr<-w
Hope and strength to ita own.
Th'-uffh the rap I drink be bifte\
Y Th u hast, m .de it mine.
This Thy ! v* w 11 - aVe it sweeter
Than r ** n-i- ,d'< be-t .singled wine.
I) .rk■ r d.iv may yet betide me.
} ,rf.. r < rrow- I may prove:
]*.it the wnr-r will ne’er divide me.
Oh my Saviour! from thy love I
— Sunday at Home.
From the Nashville Chrsiian Advocate.
LETTKIt I ROM IIISIIOP MARVIN.
NO. XXXIV.
HAAIRW, ZAHI.KH, BEYROOT.
Three days from Damascus brings you to
Baaiben bv easy stages. There ii a consid
erabie country village here, but ihe only real
intere t of the ( lace is in its ruins. These
have mode it famous throughout the world.
There are scia-cely ary architectural remains
anywhere, coining from the old time 3 , so
well preserved as these. But they are not
so old as many others—Karnak, (or instance
—nor so extensive as those at Karnak; yet
they are so massive as to be the wonder of
architecture in all modern eyes. They are
wha* survives of two temples—one very large,
th * Temple of Jupiter—and one small one,
the Temple of the Sun. I say small, but
that is only because it is put in comparison
with the other. If it were off somewhere by
itself it would be a huge affair.
The wails of the smaller temple are stand
ing, and at their full height, but the arched
roof is all cone. The ornamentation of the
walls on the inside was very elaborate and
very rich, consisting of moldings, projec
tions, and figures, cut in the stone in great
variety. At the end opposite the entrance
there was a space partitioned off by a series
ot arches, used, I suppose, for religious
solemnities. In after-years, at least, it was
so, when the building was used as a church,
as it was for a time, in the age of Constan
tine, and later. The ends of the broken
arches still appear, and the stump of one o*
the supporting columns still stands; hut the
other is prostrate. Within th s space the
designs and carving are different, and per
haps more abundant.
The front entrance is very large, but much
injured now. many of the stones in the arches
having fallen. It has been propped in one
place to prevent a great keystone from com
ing down. Around the entrance, above and
on both sidrs, there is much and elegant
chisel-work in the stone. Before it was a
portico, supported by fluted columns, with
ornamented capitals, only two of which are
BtiSHim® no*. This portico was ntr ..>, ..
magnificent and elegant structure, but
-nothing remains of it except the two columns
yh’ ve already meritVr.etf. 1 doubt not that,
it presented a gable, and perhaps arches, of
rich design and delicate tracery.
Besides this front portico there were towb
of columns along both sides and the rear end,
on the outside, standing about ten or fifteen
from the wall. These columns were the full
height of the wall, from the top of which
arched slabs, curving upwards, covered the
space between the wall and the columns.
These immense slabs were ornamentally car
ved on ti e under surface, and in the center
of each is a mythological figure of nearly
life size. On one which has fa'len is the
figure of Ceres. On some, perhaps, are
busts of emperors instead of gods, but the
greater number are of gods or goddesses.
Very near this, and in the same inclosure,
is the great Temple of Jupiter. It is a singu
lar structure, and covers many acres of
ground. The buildings in front of the prin
cipal ;emple were larger than the temple it
self. The walls were very thick and very
high. In some parts they are much broken,
in others quite perfect. I can attempt no
description, At the rear of this wonderful
front structure, and considerably narrower,
was an area surrounded only by columns on
three sides, and the wall of the front build
ing on the other. The columns were sur'
mounted by a cornice, but there was neither
wall nor roc f—just these rows of columns
find the cornice joining them on the top.
All but six of these columns have (alien,
and those that still stand are much injured
on one side by the weather. Until 1769
there were nine standing, but the earthquake
of that year prostrated three of them.
The columns of the smaller temple are 461
fee* lrgh, and those of the larger 60 feet
Those of the smaller building stand around
the walls, and are connected with them.
The look of the whole is very grand. But
tire six of the other stand out by themselves,
having the moun ains in some directions, in
other directions the sky, for a back ground.
If we were disappointed in the size of the
stor-.s in the Pyramids, so we were here —
only that the stones there were smaller, and
these as much larger than we expected.
Take the columns, for instance. Most of
them are in three pieces. At the base they
are 71 feet in diameter, and taper but very
little toward the top. Think of a stone 20 or
SO feet long, and 71 across, hard limestone,
or granite, separated from the solid mass in
ti e qnariy, trimmed perfectly round, brought
to a high polish, moved several miles, lifted
forty fee' into the air, raised on end, poised
and set on a column of two similar pieces,
already raised 1 It makes my head swim to
think of it.
Then some of the single stones in the outer
wall are thirty, forty, fifty, or more, feet
long, the other two dimensions correspond
ing. The question of questions with all
modern mechanicians is, How were these
stones handled? What sort of machinery
was used? What adjustment of levers,
screws, wedges, was it by which such stupen
dous forces w-re delivered and directed, so
as not only to move and elevate these im
mense blocks, but to lay them exactly in
their places in the wall or set them on end
on the top of a column already forty feet
high? The necessary fixtures for this ele
tion and placement must themselves have
cost millions of money.
We entered the great inclosnre on horse
back, through an arched vault, which must
be a hundred yards long. This is now pro
perly underground, but I could not deter
mine whether it was always so, or whether
the earth that covers it is not merely a mass
of ruins. Before proceeding with our ex.
plorations we took our lunch in the peristyle
of the Temple of the San, ander the deco-
fioalhcrit Christian jMunrak
rated ceiling, from which all sorts of gods
and goddesses looked down noon us. When
our train came up the tents of both parties
were pitched in the Entrance Court of the
great temple, where we found room for 9
tents, 25 persons, and 48 horses, mules, and
donkeys, with space for as many more. This
court is 147 yards long from east to west,
and 123 yards wide.
But those who desire an elaborate descrip
tion of these wonderful remains must seek it
iq books. The buildings were the work of
the Romanß. Two Latin inscriptions on the
bases of columns which stood in front of the
great temple set forth that it was erected and
dedicated by Antoninus Pius and Julia
Domna.
In the village, at a distance of a quarter
of a mile, are the remains of a very small
circular temple, well preserved, which is by
some considered a gem of art, and which
has, at least, the merit of being entirely uni
que in in iis whole design.
Scarcely less interesting than the ruins are
the quarries from which the stone was ob
tained. Many great blocks, already quarried
and shaped for their place in the wail, lie
still in the vast excavation, having never
been removed. Others were partially pre
pared only, as if work had been suddenly ar
rested. Two immense square columns sepa
rated from each other try a space of four
inches, fifteen or twenty feet high, stand
rooted in the living rock below, having never
been separated from it. They were hewed
as they stand from the solid bed in which
they were once contained.
But the lord of the quarry is a block 71
feet long by 17 wide, and about the same in
thickness. It is perfectly dressed on three
sides to ita full length, and was cut under,
so that perhaps half the work of detaching it
was done. Some have supposed that it was
abandoned for the reason that the architect
faund it bo large as to be unwieldly. But
there is abundant sign, both in the quarry
and in the outer wail of the building, that all
work came to a sudden stand still before the
structure was finished. Possibly the death
of an Emperor, or the outbreak of war, or
some such event, brought it to an end. After
the miracles of stone lifting which had al
readv been performed, it scarcely admits of
a question that this might a’so have been
done. At least they would have separated
it from its bed and made the attempt.
llow much the idolatrous religions of the
ancients cost them 1 Is it not true that the
devotees of false religions bestow their money
and labor more freely than the followers of
Christ ? Surely nine-tenths of us are not
more than half converted.
Leaving Baalbec we descend the valley of
the Litany, which is well cultivated, and
quite thickly populated. This valley divides
the Lebanon from the anti-Lebanon range,
and is the scope of country formerly called
Coeie Syria. Some forty miles south of Baal
bee the river forsakes the valley, turns ab
rubtly to the west, and plunges through a
gorge of the Lebanon on its way to the sea.
This valley is called by the natives B.kaa.
After lunch at a way side khan we turned
from the main road to visit the village of
Kerak Nvh, just at the edge of the valley on
the Lebanon side. Here is the tomb ot “the
Uuvkiit Kki."- nigd two o* three,
piasters to see it > worth seeing? Let.
de describe it. We entered a ricKe y
"winc'd was'unlocked for us, ascended a flight
of stone steps to a low stone roof fifty yaids
long. On this again we found a long, low,
narrow structure, to which we were admit
ted. In this we found a sort of rude sarcop
hagus, made of plaster, I should say, meas
uring three or four feet across at the largest
part, and—now as to the length of it: My
pencil hesitates, but—it is 44 yards—l 32
feet. If any conscientious or cautious reader
doubts, he must make a visit to Kerak Nub,
and see for himself.
A half hour farther brought us to the
Christian village of Zahleh. This is a
flourishing town of 15,000 inhabitants, lying
on the slope of the mountain, on both sides
of the brook El Berduni. a copious mountain
torrent which flows into the Litany. As we
approached this village our eyes were de
lighted with the fresh, white aspect of its
houses, many of which are of good size, and
actually have glass windows. This goes to
establish the truth of the statement several
times made to us, that the most vigorous and
enterprising people of this country are the
Chr-slians. They are decidedly superior to
both Mussulmans and Druses.
The Christians of Syria are more numer
ous than I had supposed, and are divided
into three classes —the Maronites, who are
Roman Catholics; the Catholic Greeks, who
acknowledge the supremacy of the pope of
Rome; and the Orthodox Greeks, who ad
here to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Maronites are a Syrian sect which sub
mitted to the See of Rone some centuries
ago, on condition of being permitted to use
the Syriac as their sacred language, and to
re aiu the privilege of marriage for their
priests. At a later day a large body of the
Greeks of Syria, having a quarrel with the
Patriarch, were courted by Rome, giving
heir adhesion to the pope, but reserviugthe
use of the Greek ritual, and the privilege of
marriage for the priests, with some other
special rights, conceded at the time, but no w
being gradually taken away.
These Christians are scarcely less super
stitious than the Moslems; yet the universal
testimony is that they are a shade more ele
vated in morals and intelligence, and that
they are greatly in advance in industry and
enterprise, being decidedly the most pros
perous class in the country. Their progres
sive character and evident increase, it is sup
posed, provoked iu part the massacre of 1860.
Since that event the Turks have been com
pelled by the European Powers to allow a
special government of the District of the
Lebanon, the Governor being a Christian,
and under a species of Protectorate of the
Christian Powers. Under this government
anew era of prosperity has dawned upon the
country, which is strikingly in contrast both
with its past condition and the present con
dition of other parts of it. The taxes, when
collected, are faithfully returned. Property
is held by a more secure tenure, and life is
protected with some efficiency.
Yet. religion among them is a mere form.
A man is a Christian, not on the ground of
repentance and faith, but because he has
been baptized and confirmed. Faith he has,
in a certain sense —a faith that is very in
tense and bigoted—but of that faith which is
a vital grasp of the atoning merits of Christ
he knows nothing. The Church exercises
no moral discipline, a const quence of which
is that the most profane and profligate are in
the Church, and reckoned Christians all the
same. It is ritualism gone to seed—Roman
ism in full flower. Religion is in the ritual,
not resting on any spiritual, nor even moral,
basis.
Never was a reformation more needed.
We were glad to find here in Zaleh two Ame
ricans of the Presbyterian Board—Messrs.
PUBLISHED BY J. W. BURKE k COMPANY, FOR SHE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
Dale and March. They have been at work
here less than four years, but with marked
success. They have organized a Church,
had a number of instances of most remark
able conversion, established several schools,
built a house of worship, and extended the
work abroad in many neighboring villages.
They are men of large intelligence and great
energy, and seem to be devoted to their work
with single minded consecration. They have
encountered strenuous opposition from the
native clergy. The Jesuits are opening op
position schools. In fact, the presence ot
the missionaries creates an opportunity for
the Jesuits, who are distrusted and hated by
the native priests, especially as they are not
under the control of the resident Bishops
But on the plea that their work is necessary
to counteract the influence of the missiona
ries, they are allowed to come in with their
convents and schools. Whereupon the mis
sionaries rejoice ; for the people are learning
to read, and will be able to read the Bible
as it becomes more and more disseminated.
The Jesuits are driven to the extremity of
even making a translation of the Bible for
their people into the vernacular language.
At Zahleh we met Mr. Dale, who accom
panied us to our camp. As we passed over
the spur of the mountain he pointed out to
us, across the valley of the Litany, the
ruins of Chalcis, which we had not time to
visit. On the way we met Mr, March, com
ing from a visit to some of the neighboring
villages, who also turned back and accom
panied us. At Shtora we came again into
the diligence road. Half an hour farther on
was our camp, where our missionary friends
dined with us, and spent the evening. We
invited Dr. Schaff, and the three or four min
isters who were of his party, to meet them.
They were full of information, which they
gave us freely, varying thus the monotouy of
Camp life for us in a most delightful way.
The occasion was as pleasant to them as to
us, for in their inland station they rarely see
fiieuds from America. They are not with
out some solicitude about the war, which, as
we have just learned, is now imminent,
though they have no fears as to their own
safety. At ten o’clock we sang “ All bail
the power of Jesus’ name 1” Dr. Schaff led
us in prayer, and our friends returned to
Zahleh to devote their lives to the work of
(iod in Syria. Our hearts went with them,
and we did most earnestly commit them to
the care of Him whom they serve
The next morning we crossed the great
Lebanon range by the diligence road, the
only improved road in all Syria. It is owned
by a French company, and there is scarcely
a better road in the world. The diligence
runs each way between Damascus and Bey
rout twice a day; making the distance, sev
enty miles, in fourteen hours. The road is
macadamized, being kept smooth and hard
from one end to the other.
From the summit of the range Bey rout and
the Mediterranean were descried, but we had
a descent of 5,000 feet to make. Three or
four miles from town we took our lunch. A
Nubian had come out in a hack, in hopes of
getting a job. He offered to take us in cheap,
but we could not think of endiug our tour of
Palestine and Syria in so tame a fashion. So
we mounted our faithful steeds again, and
ai.id., our last rd“ ♦ twiirisW "ace. bringing
„ toe nrw Arrrenmt HOtef, on me
with the waves dashing
against the rocks immediately beneath our
window.
For my part I enjoyed the saddle, and was
not at all over-fatigued. It was going back
to old habits, and proved to me that I was
not yet disqualified for circuit work. I had
hecome quite attached to my little bay horse.
He was the best walker I met with anywhere
on the road. He was “ tough as a pine
knot,” though it must be confessed that he
was both lazy and hard-headed ; albeit a good
stout hickory always brought him to a sense
of his duty. He had but to know it was
there and would be used— the actual use of
it being seldom necessary. Under such cir
cumstauces he was a most exemplary quad
ruped, and when I remember what roads he
carried me over without ever making a seri
ous misstep, I do most freely forgive him
everything I considered wrong at the time,
and part from him with a feeling of gratitude
and regret.
Beyroot is a city of 80.000 inhabitants,
having grown to this importance from a pop
ulation of 20 000 in less than thirty years.
What the causeof this sudden and surprising
start into prosperity is, I scarcely know. —
Several causes have been at work. The
Christian Government of the Lebanon has
brought a large district of country immedi
ately tributary to it into anew life. The
French road to Dimascus has made traffic'
with the interior practicable and easy. It is
also the headquarters of Protestant Missions
in Syria. One English company has brought
the water of Dog river to the city, conveying
it to every part, while another has lighted it
with gas.
Be it noted that all this stir in the imme
morial stagnation of the place is due to for
eigners. This despot ridden country has not
life enough to make a road, or construct
water or gas works, nor, indeed, to do any
thing else. It would be difficult to invent a
worse government than this. It seems to
have no idea of government, except as an
engine for collecting taxes; nor has it the
sagacity to collect the tax on principles t-ljftt
will enable the people to pay more ano'h-r'
year. To squeeze out of them the blood that
happens to be in their veins now, is the ulti
mate wisdom of the Turk.
The American Board of C. F. M. estab
lished Missions here more than fifty years
ago. The work is now in the hands of the
Presbyterian Board, and a great work it is.
The actual communicants do not number
over one thousand, but the American reader
will get no idea from that fact of the extent
and importance of the results already secur
ed. The Bible haß been translated into the
vernacular, schools have been opened in
many towns and villages, a large printing es
tablishment is in operation, and a flourishing
college, with a medical department, is well
launched.
In this Missiou there are: Central stations,
5 ; out-stations, 44 ; ordained missionaries,
11 ; female missionaries (unmarried), 6 ; na
tive pastors, 3; native licensed preachers,
12; school teachers, 60; other helpers, 14;
preaching-places, 38 ; girls in boarding
schools, 125: pupils in day-schools, 2 107.
The number of volumes printed at the Mis
sion Press, 30,000; tracts, 15,000; pages
printed during the year, 14 317,290; pages
of Bibles, 8 410 000.
Besides the translation of the Bible, a
number of valuable text books, scientific and
historical, have been prepared for schools in
Arabic —a great work; for many of them
will be used In native schools.
In addition to these Missions, the United
and Reformed Presbyterian Churches have
occupied several points, and established a
good many schools.
1 ought to have said that the statistics given
MACON, GEORGIA, TUFA&XY. SEPTEMBER 25, 1877.
above are four years old. The statistics of
this date would show a large increase in
several item-, and steady advance in all, for
the work was never more prosperous than
now.
There are, then, “The British Syrian
Schools and Bible Mission,” carried on by
Church of Englaud people, with schools at
Beyroot, Damascus, Tyre, and other places,
and 2 652 pupils enrolled. The Free Church
of Scotland, also, has quite a large number
of schools. All taken together there is a vol
ume of Protestant and Evangelical agencies
and influence active here, that has already
quickened the country to a perceptible de
gree, and promises to produce a moral, in
teilectual, and religious revolution.
The College, which I have already men
tioned, doss not belong to the Mission prop
er, nor to any Church; yet it is founded on
strictly Evangelical principles; the Bible is
a text book, and the faith of the gospel is
earnestly inculcated by all proper means.
It has been built, and partially endowed by
Christian men in England and America, the
property being held hv trustees in Amer
ca. incorporated under a general law of
State of New York, in 1868 The corpo
rators were, Wm. A. Booth, Win. E, Dodge,
Divid Hoadley, S. B Chittenden, of New
York, and Abner Kingman and Jos. S.
Rop°s, of Boston. A special act of the
Legislature, in 1864. invested them with im
portant special privileges. The immediate
management of the Institution is in the
hands of a local Board of Trustees, most
of whom reside at Beyroot. Already it has
done a great work, and stands head and
shoulders above any educational institution
in Syria. For the extent of its curriculum
and the thoroughness of its instructions it
has no rival. The graduates of the Medical
Department, already number twenty, who
are the only thoroughly educated native
physicians in the country.
We received very cordial retentions from
Mr. Edgar, the American Consul at Bey
root. He is the son of Dr. Edgar, one of
the former Presbyterian pastors of Nashville,
a man largely known in the South.
Our visit to Syria has been very suggestive.
Here, where there was a high state of civili
zation, while yet the greater part of Europe
was still in a savage condition, society is now
in a semi barbarous state. How is this?
Why is it? Is Moslemism responsible for
it? Did these countries, in rejecting Christ,
recoil into stagna'ion and render progress
au impossible thing ? A mere glance at the
country is sufficient to show that it is not
due to physical conditions, for there is every
thing here to constitute the basis of the high
est,pro=perity. Enterprise, intelligence, and
moral power, are all that is needed to make
this what it once was, one of the most mag
nificent countries on the face of the earth.
The Turk and the False Prophet have shed a
blight upon it.
In proof, see the prosperity already brought
about, in less than twenty years, under the
Christian Government of Mount Lebanon.
Ou the last day ot osrr stay in Beyroot, our
Consul invited us to ride wi'h him to the
Prussian Cemetery. There we saw a granite
shaft, of good size. On one side we read,
“Rv. Calvin Kingsley, D.D , Bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Born in the
I *tats of New York, United S'ateS Ot A™*- 1
cl, Tfept. rn .V4,U CLLad in Syria. April 6.
trUO, while making for bis Church me first
Episcopal tour of the globe.'” On the oppo
Site face are these wor Is: “May his tomb
unite more closely Asia and America.” The
Consul gives attention to the monument, and
it is in good condition. The grounds around
it are neat, and very well ker>t.
In the rear of the Mission Press is a sma'l
cemetery in which I read the following epi
taph on a small and modest slab, which
serves as a horizontal covering of a grave:
“Rev. Pliny Fisk. Died Oct. 23, 1825, JE
33 yrs.” That was all. It is enough. If I
am not mistaken, Pliny Fisk was the first
man sent by the American Board to Syria,
the forerunner of all that followed, and al
that is lo follow.
Protestant Missions are not a failure, but
a great success. We have had large obser
vation of them now, from Yokohama to Bey
root. The men engaged in the work are
generally of a high order of intelligence and
personal force. They are the representalives
of the Son of God among the heathen —and
among the half heathen found in di generate
Churches. They are charged with his word,
which is quick and powerful, and is proving
itself to be so by incipient victories already
achieved. This divine word is the sword
having two edges that proceeds out of his
mouth, and pierces to the dividing asunder
of the joints and marrow, of the soul and
spirit, being a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. The nineteenth century
ii anew point of departure in the history of
the Church. It opens the missionary epoch,
and is itself the outgrowth of the great revi
vals of the eighteenth century. Those revi
vals are again the fruit of the Reformation,
which expended itself in controversy for two
hundred tears, until its ideas became crys
tallized and its forms defined and animated
with their proper spirit.
The forces that are potential in the Eter
nal Word are coming into full expression,
and he is going forth conquering the nations.
Surely he will never stay his hand until the
last enemy is prostrate under his feet.
. E. M. Marvin.
Steamer Esp.ro, off the Dardanelles, May, 7, 1877.
LIGHT LITERATURE.
Sensational ana highly seasoned mental
food brings on mental dyspepsia just as eure'y
as epicurean sauces and highly seasoned
dishes disorder the stomach and make it di -
fieult to convert food inlo proper nutriment.
It ia to he regretted that the lasbion of the
day is gross exaggeration and without it
nothing is palatable. Everything, from a
news item to a theological dogma, must be
mixed and kneaded with the pepper aid
spice of fiction, and then dressed in grotesque
garb, challenging incredulity and arousing
speculation, or it will not meet the popular
fancy. This fact can be noticed in the strange
combinations which ingenious news editors
display in the headings of the otherwise tame
columns of daily papers; in the startling
titles invented for books; in the strange and
unseemly themes frequently advertised by
popular preachers.
While we deprecate the disposition of tie
age to fritter away its intellect and time in
such reading as is the fashion, we must say
that there ought not to be an indiscriminate
and wholesale denunciation of everything
that is given to us in the garb of fiction. All
food is not bad because it is made palatable
by the skill of the cook, nor does medicine
lose its effect because of its sugar coating.
Let us discriminate between fiction and
novels. The cue is a genus, the other a
species. Fiction is thought dealing with the
ideal; it is idealism in liierature, as painting
is idealism in colors, or as sculpture is ideal
ism in form. The novel is a book through
which a love affair runs, and is usually the
of m-eative work, full of stir-
<fnd denouements. For
instancflo give our idea form, we refer to
BunySi Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson
Crusoe Don Q ixote, as among the
noblest irks of fiction. The parables of
re for the most part fiction, illus
trating! iths in sue i a way as to bring them
to the o ids of his hea r ers. This being ti e
general aqth, the value of any particular
work w\v|n the great class of fiction, wili
depend ’lolly upon the value of the thing
idealized If great religious or social or
philoa<ijlte_flneßti o nß are grasped, and great
characus are created to make ideas stand
then we have a book not to be
c-judem fed because it is fiction ; but to be
classed j&h Pdgritn’s Progress, or Paradise
Lost, or *h the idealizations ot Shakspeare.
—PacijiMethod ist.
NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
■ FRFEDjiS'S AID SOCIETY OF THE METHO
■>l>r Er SCO PAL CIIIIKCH.
rvTHE REV. R. K. HARGROVE.
[This ,'ticle was sent for publication in
April luf"* 'ha Christian Advocate, of New
V i -<*Vial organ of the Methodist
INpu-o; ’ C .urch. Being a remonstrance
agains* * flifimal utterance of that Church
as nufrt, , o ul, by a representative of the
Southey e lurch in the Cape May Commis
sion, it i hoped that it would he admitted
into thehper After nearly four months of
delay, w U repea ed excuses therefor, and
promise-' from time to lime that it shou'd
tipp-a 3 ry soon, sometimes in the next
issne. th ‘writer was forced to the conclu
sion that i.-re was a settled purpose that its
facta *h and not come before the readers of
the AJccate, and therefore, as the best
means-is*, attain his object, sent it to the
Method:..:' from which we copy.]
This -iport, the Corresponding Secreta
ry, the lv. R. S. Rust. D. D., has courte
ously sei to the writer. It sets lorth as
the aim .nd purpose of the Society, to pro
vide for ie freedmen from their own race
cultivate Christian teachers both for the
school ud the pulpit—an object heanil/ ap
proved !/ me, and, I believe, by So them
Metho-I'ftsin general.
To u 4 as far as practicable, represent
tives frY the masses to be reach- and, as t e
be<£j]|kfh for reaching them, was clea-ly
o'tr Saviour, and lias ever been
a cok lßuous and efficient method o! M> th-
principle, now generally ao
cepted-*(d employed in missionary work,
has a s*!-‘cial fitness in this particular case.
Every ;j-thodist, therefore, of whatever sec
tion, to do wha’ he may to forward
the aiir, of this well conceived and worthy
enterpr je.
Whi! I ask God’s blessing on this good
cause, here are features of the Report deep
ly to b ,deplored. They are the more tin
fortunde and damaging at this time, since the
Freediten' Aid Society is now a part of the
raarhitfry, and its report, therefore, an offi
cial uterance, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church bet men which and the Methodist
Episi A1 Church, South, there have recent
ly bee'* established “formal” fraternal re
lations. My record having already been
made fir peace, as a member of the Joint
Fraterad Commission, may I not, as a
South* Methodist, for the good of the
causeXvolved, and iu ths interest of fra
ternitwwi'h kindness and yet with can
dor. M' Ct attention to some features of
of the audreijiefNof the ijtgb
offijjMß^FitripaVyilig'h,-n-Wch are ennaid,
yrecf uNl'ist to the Southern people, and es
peoia# to Southern Methodists? Allow me
to us>lai nne3B °f speech, seeing a sense of
injustice, renewed from year to year by these
docun'ents, has engendered in us toward the
work of the Society a degree of reserve
which some have mistaken for actual oppo
sition,,
Our complaint it twofo'd: at what has
been said, and at what has not been sab’.
We have been wronged both positively and
negatively. On the one hand, y/e have be--n
represented; on the other ignored.
Is" nit the field of the long, earnest, and sue
cessfrf labors of Southern Methodism repre
sented'and treated of as if it were the very
heart of heathendom ? Wiien oir presence
and vork have not, been utterly ignored,
have they been recognized in terras suited to
the fotsand our mutual relations? Are we
not virtually set forth as a scourge and calam
ity to the colored race?
A fsw quotations, breathing the general
spii<i*of the Report, will in ficate my mean
ing: -
Bi-hop Bowman represents this Society as
an rtfent of the Methodist Episcopal Church
for ihe evangelization an 1 elevation of :he
Soil Ji, and especially of the colored peo
pie.” p. 39.
Paje 40 he speaks of the colored people
as “partakingof ihecommon weaknestot the
Souti;” as “in the miist of communities
who have made them what they an- and who
have neither the ability nor the di p sition
to itfieve them.” “The same interests
whicu held them in bondage will keep them
in servitude and degradilion unless Chris
tian people of the North come to their re
lief.’’ He say=, p. 41: “It is well known
that there is a large white population as ig
norant. degraded, and vicious as the lowest
of tt* blacks.” Bishop Wiley says, p. 44:
“ TvJ hundred years ot this system of deg
radalion resulted in this country in a race o f
four or five millions of ignorant, demoral
izedipeople.”
On pag-8 the Report says: “Ascertain
wha> slavery was, and you may learn its ter
rihl influence upon this people. It t.rans
forilj'td immortal men made in Gods image
into Chattels, and bought aud soid them like
beat!.’ in the market; it broke dow i all dig
lincigLns of right and wrong in their minds ;
<iv i ft j_ to them alt meaus of improvement;
for oSe ot them to have been found with
ever, a New Testament in his possession
would have subjected him to most fearlul
pun'.shment.” It says, p. 9 : •* With un
wavering confidence in the right, we antici
pate ail over this land, at no distant day, the
triumph of freedom over slavery.”
This last sentence suggests Rip Van Win
kle. But wa not this sentence written with
the fact distinctly in mind that years ago,
“all over this land,” a complete and final
“triumph of freedom over slavery” was an
accomplished fact ? Who, “with unwavering
confidence in the right,” doubts it? Some
thing must be wrong when men “auiicipae”
backwards.
Why continue to exhume a corpse known
to be laden with noxious odors? Why
should Christians desire to agitate a dead
issne after the nation has grown sick of
strife? Surely the Church and lhe country
ha e long enough confronted and struggled
wiiu the difficulties of an institution which
both inherited without their choice. Is not
Dr: Bidwell’s manly utterance true? “ Tbe
Church, the rsalion, the South even, are no
nvVre to blame for the euslavement of the
African race than they are for the destruc
tion of the world by the flood, or the murder
of the Son of God by the Jews.” At any
ralte, it is ceitain that no Methodist of this
generation, of any sec ion, could have had
any part in this action; nor was it iu the
pHwer of any of us to prevent, the existence
of! slavery in this country ; and, I suppose,
feV, if auy, desire or would conseent to its
restoration. While it existed, good men in
Church and State, viewing the institution
frt.m different standpoints and under differ-
ent aspects, reached conclusions widely at
variance. The wisest on both sides faded in
a practical solution of the perplexities in
volved. Let us thank God for an end of the
controversy, and, forgetiing the old acerbity,
address ourselves to the removal of present
difficulties and the performance of present
duties. Prejudice and passion, vituperation
and sectional hate, have done mischief
enough, both to the white and colored race,
and will not forward the Christian aims and
enterprises of to day. Surely a continuance
of the agitation cannot be necessary. The
merits of the Freedtnen’s Aid Society ought
to appeal sufficiently to Methodists without
the need of adventitious excitants.
Reproaches, when just, are not always
wise; and when felt to be undeserved, are
likely to enkindle resentment, if not defi
ance.
Of the great names which have made this
coun'rv illustrious impartial history accred
its the South with an honorable proportion.
The glory of the North forbids disparage
rnent of the Sou h. The most signal proof
of ii.s power is seen in the result of the late
war. It required the resources of the United
States and tour years of bloody, heroic
struggle to triumph over the South. It may
be questioned whether any other existing na
tiou was capable of the achievement. And
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to
find of another nationality an equal number
who, in the circumstances, could have made
the issue prolonged and even doubtful
against the mightiest government on earth.
No mat'er what views may be held abiutthr
causes and ihe policy of the war. to class
the Southern people as weak and ignorant,
and to speak of them as helpless and degra
ded heathen, is not merely to do them in
justice, but to grossly stigmatize and dishon
or tne nat'on.
The attention of some of your readers
may never have been directed to the follow
ing fuels, indicating the relative material aud
moral status of the late slave holding Slates,
even since the devastation of war, and du
ring the disorganization incident to the inau
guration of a tew industrial system. On
page 568 of the “ Ninth Census of the Uni
tpd Stut s” is a table showing the paupers
supported and iho criminals actually in
prison in each State on June 1, 1870. The
figures show ibis comparative lesult:
In the late efave- Informer
tioidinu Stott*, free Stateh
Total paupers to total popula
tion lin 703 lin 428
Native whiie |lvui>-is uauvo
white population lin 758 lin 580
Colored piuper-i tocolorotl pop-
ulution tin 6>5 lin 13J
Total criminal o t0t..1 popula
tion lin 1,227 1 n1.137
Native while criminals to native
white population lin 2,158 lin 1,596
Colored cri iuals to coioreu
population lin 716 lin 200
Thus the official report of Lhe Government
shows that pauperism and crime are less
prevalent, both in fact, and in proportion to
population, at the Sou h than at the North
with all classes of native citizens. Respect
ing native whites, the figures show a decided
advantage in favor of the late slave holding
States; while among the colored race, ac
cording to numbers, the Northern States
have nearly four times as many criminals,
and nearly five times as many paupers, as do
the Southern States. In other words, the
official report shows the native whites South
to ').■ i —<”•'* ■ morqlfchar
octet, about u&hty five py cc% jn aWmSe
or the * w4Ue.*h4N;qDiiitiCt>
of the negro !N trih,'.s more deplorable, four
or five fold, than of lhe same class in the
Southern States. An inquiry iuto the causes
and the remedy might prove interesting and
salutary.
'Would Bishop Bowman think me consid
erate atid kind to represent these colored
p-y pie of the North as “in lhe midstof com
munities who have made them what they
are, and who have neither the ability nor
the disposition to relieve them,” arid that
interest “ will keep them in servi ude and
degradation unless Chri tiau people of the”
South “ rorne to th lr relief”? And should
I i.ttirm of the North that “it is well kuown
hat there ia a large white population as ig
norant, degraded, and vicious as the lowest
of the blacks,” leaving out of view taste
and truth, would he not suspect me of an
intention to be invidious and offensive?
That such representations of us are un
warranted and needless is fur l her shown by
the C-nsus, page 500, In the late slave
holding States, far a population of 13,877,-
015 there are 29,385 church organizations
and 7 801,485 church sittings; while in the
rest of the country 'here is a population of
24 0-°0 756 with 43 074 church organizations,
and 13,803,577 church sittings—a result
slightly in our favor.
Thus, whether the comparison be made
with reference to physical comfort and moral
character, or to ecclesiastical organizations
and church accommodations, the inexorable
facts vindicate us, and rebuke the assump
tion of suprrioriiy by our accusers.
Iu that famous paragraph of the Sermon
on the Mount, about judging and being
judged, measuring and being measured,
shout motes and beams, our Saviour, with a
solemn warning, discloses the real human
heart, and lays down and emphasizes the
order of both policy and duty for all ages
and for all sections.
We are not willing to believe that our
brethren intend to do ns injustice, and yet
I must be permitted to say that some of their
statements are lacking in historic accuracy,
and are fitted, if not intended, to wound.
We dare not assume that the authors of this
Report and of the accompanying addresses
are ignorant of the condition of the native
tribes in Africa, as disclosed by modern ex
plorers and travelers Then they miist know
that the low intellectual, social, and moral
grade of the poor negro antedates his en
slavement on this continent. His deficien
cies an 1 needs may not have b- en removed
as they should have been, but they were not
caused by his abode in this country.
’• Naked Truths of Naked People” heads
the title page ol Col. Long s recent treatise
on the native African. From a letter just
published by the Rev. J. T. Gracey 1 quote
a few sentences:
“Tde kings of Dahomey and Ashantee are
allowed three thousand three hundred and
thirty three wives. On the death of the king
the women express their grief by cutting
themselves or each other with knives. In
some cases they are immolated.” “ Un
chastity among unmarried people is scarcely
considered a vice, and a state of morals ob
tains which I cannot wiihout gross indelica
cy so much as name.”
But I cannot, a-k your space to quote from
other sources the abundaut recorits of their
fearlul aebasement. All travelers report the
universal belief iu witchcraft and fetishism
and lhe prevalence of devil worship, and in
some tribes of human sacrifices aud canni
baliam.
Whatever tbe real grievances of the negro,
it is certain the Southern people did not
make him a heathen. Bishop Wiley ought
not to have said that the ignorance and im
morality of the race “resulted” from the
system of slavery practiced in this country.
Results which prece3e3T their enslavement
here could not have been produced by it.
In the light of modern explorations, and
with a knowledge of the meaning of lan
guage, the colored people are declared in the
Report to have been “degraded,” “demor
alized,” “robbed of the elements of Chris
tian manhood,” and to have suffered the
loss of all moral distinctions by their recent
subordinate relation to us of the South.
From what grade of the scale intellectual,
social, ethical, have they been “degraded” 7
We are not told from what moral elevation
their demoralization has proceeded. B irth
and Burton and Anderson and Cumming
and Wilson and Taylor and Livingstone, in
all their accounts of the native African, have
failed to mention those “elements of Chris
tian manhood” of which we are said to have
‘robbed them,” and those nice ethical dis
criminations which Southern slavery “broke
down.” One special touch in the ardent
recital of the Report would almost leave the
impression that they were an unfallen race
at the time of their transfer to this contineut.
For expressions so loose and offensive, so
gratuitous and damaging, it is hard to excuse
intelligent Christian teachers.
The immediate enfranchisement of the
freedmen by the Government, the prompt
recognition of their Christian stetus by ec
clesiastical bodies of the North, and espe
cially the eager reception of multitudes of
them into the Methodist Episcopal Church
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
arentterly incompatible with these charges;
on the contrary, they assume both civil re
ligious progress and improvement during the
peri id of their subordination.
While Dr. Bidwell in his admirable ad
dress disavows all fellowship with slavery,
for which we esteem him none the less, he
has the candor to declare his belief “that
these freedmen are belter off than they
would have been if they had never been
slaves.” He finds with George Whitefield
a providential “explanation o° the Africa
on this Western Continent in the evangeliza
tion of Old Africa across the seas." His
consistency consists not in the concealment
of facts, but in harmoniziug them bv a broad
and sound philosophy.
Because brethren disapprove slavery, they
are not under a necessity to deny the Chris
tian benefits, direct and indirect, conferred
upon the poor negro by the churches of the
South. Had the Freedmen’s Aid Society
recognize and promptly and cordially the Chris
tian labors and achievements of the Me'hod
ist Episcopal Church, South, for the colored
race, both before and since their liberation,
it would long ago have filled up the chasm of
reserve between us in reference to this par
ticular enterprise, about which we agree in
principle.
It is to bo rpgretted that this Report,
scarcely more than it,B predecessors, can al
low nny good to come out of this Nazareth
Bishop Bowman says flatly that we lack “the
disposition to relieve them.” The managers
say that slavery “denied to them all means
ofimprovement; for one of them to have
been found with even a New Testament in
his possession wmild have subjected him to
most fearful punishment.”
It is true that in self protection against in
cendiary publications many of the Southern
improperly it mav.be.
exacted statutes against the of the
ffir %Miefgfsowc'
at a distance that “for one of them to naW 1
been found with even a New Testament in
his possession would have subjected him to
most fearful punishment”; and yet we of the
South, and others well informed, know that
many negroes had New Testaments, and
lhat some of them read and expounded there
from, publicly and by authority, the Gospel,
and none of us ever knew of any punishment
therefor, ‘ most fearful’’ or otherwise. Many
families, too, taught their servants to read,
and no case of prosecution on that account
is believed ever to have occurred.
If the gospel be a “means of improve
ment,” then these managers affirm even that
to have been “denied to them ” This is a
grave charge.
Allow me once more to refer to facts and
figures. The “Fifty eighth Annual R port
of the Missionary Society of the Me'hodist
Episcopal Church” places, for the year
1877, the entire missionary appropriations
for English speaking missions within the
limits of the late slave holding States at SBS,
300; and the apportionment for collection
within the same limits at $66,100, making
an actual proposed contribution by the orig
inal free States of sl9 200 to the great
Southern work.
The “Sixteenth Annual Report of the
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco
pal Church, South,” shows an actual collec
tion in the year 1860, the last before the war,
of $220,532 76, all of which, except sl3 000.
was expended on missions within their lim
its, and mainly to the colored people. There
were 248 missions exclusively to the blacks,
and 215 others to them in part. The same
Report shows that these 463 missions includ
ed only 77 912 colored members; whereas,
the actual colored membership of the Meth
odist Episcopal Church, South, at that time
was 207,766 Nearly two-thirds of our col
ored members, and a large proportion of our
colored congregations, then, must, have been
served o herwise than through the Mission
ary Society, which is known to have been the
fact.
Our stationed and circuit preachers, sup
ported by the whites, supplied the gospel to
both races together, or at services conducted
at different hours. The writer and many of
uis brethren throughout that period of their
ministry, without additional compensation,
emploved nearly every Sunday afternoon in
Sabbath-school and pulpit instruciion of this
people. Their congregations being largest
about centres of wealth, they received main
ly the services ot the very first men in the
Church, who devoted a large part of their
time and sireugth to this fruitful field, thus
securing to them au order of ministerial tal
eut not usually enjoysd by the humbler class
es of society any where else. Not to find
fault, but to be understood, do we refer to
these facts.
I ask pardon for this unpleasant compari
son, rendered necessary by the circumstances,
and which is made as an humble coutri
bution to the cause of e genuine and lasting
fraternity.
Nashville, Venn.
“ I could write down twenty cases,” say
a good man, “ when I wished God had done
otherwise thau he did, and which i now see,
had I had my own will, would have led to
extensive mischief. The life of a Christian
is a life of paradoxes. He must lay hold on
God, he must follow hard after Him; he
must determine not to let Him go. And yet
you must learn to let God alone. Quietness
before God is one of the most difficult of all
Christian graces; to sit where He pleases, to
be what He would have us be, and this as
long as He pleases.”
F. M. KENNEDY, D. P., Editor
J. W. BURKE, -.Assistant Editor
A. G. HAYGOOI), D. 1).,-...Editorial Correspondent
WHOLE NUMBER 2069
PASTORAL VISITATION.
No part of the pastoral work is more gen
erally or more justly esteemed than that
which is performed by means of personal in
tercourse. And yet it is safe to say, that
while not a few instances exist in which this
part of the work is faithfully performed and
gratefully enjoyed on the whole, there is less
satisfaction felt by both parties with regard
to it, than with regard to any other. You
can scarcely go into a congregation without
hearing the complaint that the pastor does
not visit enough. And as seldom can you
go into a pastor's study and introduce this
subject, without drawing from him the pain
ful statement that, with all his efforts he can
satisfy neither his people nor himself in this
matter; that he cannot visit them as often as
he would, or conduct his visits with any rea
sonable degree of success or profit.
We have long been convinced that many of
the chronic complaints of too little pastoral
visitiDg proceed not from any desire for close
and faithful dealing of the pastor with their
souls. 1 but from a worldly and selfish desire
for meresocial recognition and social enjoy
ment, and would be suddenly and effectually
silenced by one or two really spiritual, devo
tional, and faithful interviews. It is not a
real pastoral visit which such persons de
maud, but frequent visi’s by their pastor as
a man of position, culture, and influence,
and perhaps of pleasing manners and enter
taining conversation. Happy is that pastor
who does not yield to this perversion. How
many an hour of precious time, how many
au opportunity for the highest profit has been
lost and worse thau lost by mere gossip or
literary chat, or, what is little better, the
free interchange of statements and opinions
about the mere “ outward basiness of the
house of God,” about tbe secularises of the
personnel of the Church, not to speak of
mere idle j -eting.
We are not to be understood by this that
we would exclude the social element from
pastoral visitation. Herein lies its specific
difference from formal services iu the pu'pit
and in the prayer meeting, and herein lies
the channel of its power. The old idea that
the p <stor is to be a man of such gravity and
sternness of spirit, aud such solemnity and
awfulness of demeanor and appearance, as
tha f his coming is the signal for the children
to flee and the adults to put on long faces,
is as false to the scriptural model as it is in
stinc ively repulsive to every human heart.
He should come to their homes as their
friend, warm with love and sympathy, cheer
ful in spirit, as the messenger from .the Good
Shepherd to his beloved <1
words of love and joy and consolation. He
should be and act and talk as one with them
and one of them —for this is one reason why
God made pastors out of men iustead of
angels—so that his coming should be wel
comed by all the household and his visit en
joyed as an occasion of real pleasure. This
is the true epiritofthe relation, and it is this
which gives the pastor such peculiar power
to train the lambs of the flock, to comfort
his people and also to teach them, even in
the way of correcting errors and removing
prejudices against the truth, and also to ad
monish and rebuke them when occasion re
quires. He has their hearts and their con
fidence.
, N<ow what we wish most to sug
uebt is. ih u. the people can give immense
coir jjaat-vs in this matter of visita
Vio.lmt%fc;Xi*s*j' had promote mu
tual satisfaction. They should seek his vis
its for the holy and spiritual aims for which
this relation was created, and should open
the way for his approach to their hearts as
their religious guide and helper. One rea
son why many pastors make their visits in
frequent and repeat them with reluctance, is,
that in such cases they are kept at arms
leugih by those whom they would benefit;
they are baffled in every attempt to reach the
heart and often in their efforts even to intro
duce the subject of personal religion. Some
ministers have no facili y in leading conver
sation, and are easily kept from any topic by
the freer tongues of those to whom that topic
is unwelcome. Some have so much timidity
and reserve that they can scarcely introduce
topics on which their people desire conver
sation and are only waiting to have the ice
broken. Here is an occasion for their help.
Open the way ; ask his advice, or instruction;
tell him your wants, your troubles and per
plexities; show him that you would welcome
and prize his services. No'hiug gives the
true pastor more pleasure than to be thus
sought and thus used. He values it more
than the richest intellectual treat, more than
compliments, especially more than any pos
sible gossip. He would give any amount of
time and thought your case would require,
and give them most cheerfully. Aud we
venture to add that if you use him thus, you
will have far more visits from him. He will
feel that he has a tangible object in coming
and that he is doing important service
thereby.
But “pastoral visitation” is a phrase that
may also fitly describe what we regard as an
important part of the duty involved and of
the privilege too. —and that is visitation of
the pastor by the people Physicians and
lawyers regard their office-work as a valuable
part of their practice. It is even more valu
able a part of pastoral practice. It may be
abused to the thoughtless and criminal waste
of his time ; but this is not likely to be the
case, if these visits are truly made for the
sake of instruction, counsel, or any form of
spiritual treatment. The busiest pastor will
welcome such visits, unless they come while
he is in the glow of composition or thought
in his preparations for the pulpit: but this
can easily be avoided. The advantages of
such intercourse are obvious. It saves the
time of the pastor. It is more private and
less liable to interruption. It has a definite
object, which, being presented by the visitor,
is promptly met. It occurs at the right time
the time when it is needed—and is therefore
more likely to do good. The pastor may
make his rounds very often and yet fail to
sirike the appropriate occasion. Then it
makes up for all the lack of visits by the pas
tor which is so frequently complained of. If
you need to see him, you can always go to
his study. And the object is spiritual con
tact, irrespective of place, and uotthe mere
showing you attention. Why should any ob
ject to this me'hod? You have no objection
to going to your lawyer and your doctor
when you need their services; aid if you
need them at once and cannot go to them,
>ou never hesitate to scud for them. We see
no reason why a similar course should not
be adopted iu the case of the pa.-tor. He
does not generally know when you need him
m is'. Sometimes he does not know you are
sick, and the first he hears is the complaint
that he has neglected you. Certainly in
such cases it is Better to be sure he is ap
prised ot your condition, before complain
ing. Better still, send for him ; aud we ven
ture to say he will c ime as promptly aud
and cheerfully as your family physician
would. The capabilities of the pas oral re
lation are immense; and if only partially de
veloped, the fault is not wholly with the pas
tor.— Southern Presbyterian.