Newspaper Page Text
TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS
per
VOL. XLL, NO. 39.
Faith and Scepticism.
BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
NUMBER FIVE.
1 shall now, before I close, sum up
wbut I have been saying, which must
be very disjointed and cursory, consid
ering how very wide the range
of our subject is. Hear now some
extracts from the Holy Scriptures,
and judge whether they will not meet
the several heads on which I have
dwelt. First, “ Prove all things ; hold
fast that which is good.” Again, “ Bo
ready always to give a reason for the
hope that is in you.” There is no
dissuasive in either of these passages
from a reasonable examination of the
scientific proof of the truth of our re
ligion. Remark that the Apostle whom
I have last quoted adds, that you are
to “ be ready to give a reason for the
hope that is in you, with meekness
and fear.” The last words indicate
the very state of mind in which a
scientific man will address his oppo
nents, however much he may disap
prove of the arguments they use.
Again, we read of man being “deliver
ed from the fear of death by which he
was all his lifetime subject to bond
age and another writer says that
our Saviour Jesus Christ bath “abol
ished death, and brought life and im
mortality to light through the
Again, looking toward tho changes
that may come upon the world, and
the day of judgment, we real that
one day with the Lord is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one
day.” “The Lord is not slack concern
ing his -promise, as some men count
slackness.” “He shall bring every
work into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether it it be good or wheth
er is be evil.” And we are promised,
at the last, “ new heavens and a
ear! a, wl.-oreil •' ”• 0 r , P
nes.” And if lor a moment we are
tempted to look upon the certain judg
ment which follows upon sin and crime
committed, as if it were but tho neces
sary consequence following without
any intervention of the great personal
Governor of the world, we are re
minded that “ He that cometh to God
must believe that Ho is, and that He
is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him.” “ Thou, Lord, in the
beginning hast laid the foundations
of the earth ; and tho heavens are the
work of Thine hands. They shall
perish, but Thou shalt endure; and
they all shall wax old as doth a gar
ment ; and as a vesture shalt Thou
fold them up, and they shall be
changed ; but Thou art the same,
and Thy years shall not fail.” And
if any doubts are felt as to the per
sonality of God, what do we mean by
God being a person ? That He is a
willing, a living, a sentient, an intel
ligent, a benevolent substance. God
is a Person ! It was no dead law of
nature which made things, but it was
this intelligent, loving, willing Being.
“ He that made the ear, shall Ho not
hear; or He that planted the eye, shall
He not see ?” And if our hearts are
filled with the thoughts of this great
personal Being, thus ruling, and di
recting, and controling, and loving,
and helping, shall he be dumb, and
unable to make himself heard ?
“ God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake unto the fath
ers,” spoke unto the human race by a
thousand voices, and among others
“by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken to us by His Son,” and
this Son, having come upon earth,
“ is risen torn the dead and become
the first-fruits of them that slept.” I
thought that we could not do better
than sum up all that has been said
in these words of Hoiy Scripture. For
indeed we should do well to search
the Scriptures, for in them we have
eternal life, “ and they are they,” saith
Christ, “ which testify of me.” Let
us thank God that we live in a land
in which men are familiar with these
Scriptures of truth. Let us prize
them, and teach them to our children,
and believe that in them, after all,
though we may find in them no in
struction as to the secrets of common
physical sciences, we have great truths
that an immortal being is capable of
understanding.
And now, my friends, in closing
these remarks there is one other point
on which it is difficult not to linger
for a moment. Is it true that there
is here in this country, and still more
in other countries, a determined war
PUBLISHED BY WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL FOR THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
CHARLESTON, S. C., SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1878.
between Faith and Unbelief? Is it
true that great efforts are being made
to sap the foundation of those princi
ples on which all our hopes for eter
nity are based ? nay, even, to sap
those religious principles on which tho
stability of human society depends ?
And is the antidote to be found in the
pure Gospel of Jesus Christ ? By
the pure Gospel I mean the simple
doctrines which the Apostles taught.
“ I have determined,” says one, “to
know nothing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified.” This was
the rock od which Christ declared
that He would build the Church—
tho belief in Himself as the Son of the
Living God. This was the doctrine
which Martha came to believe—that
lie is the Resurrection and tho Life,
and that whosoever believeth in Him
though he were dead, yet shall he
live. To this Scripture everywhere
gives testimony. “ Every spirit that
eontesseth that Jesus is come in the
flesh is of God ; and “ Whosoever
eonfesseth that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, God dwelleth in him and
he in God.” To teach this St. John
wrote his Gospel—“ These things are
written that yo might believe that
Jesus is the Christ the Son of God,
and that believing ye might have life
through His Name.”
What then shall we do ? Shall
we quarrel about minor points ? Shall
we tear each other to pieces for a
vestment or a candlestick ? Or shall
we desire, unwisely, to pull down any
good old institution, which through
many generations has taught that
pure Gospel of Christ ? Shall we
seek for any minor reason of so-called
political consistency to play into the
hands of those who desire to pull down
the Gospel which wo love as our own
lives? It will be very easy to unite
•vitb those with whom otherwise,you
1 f£***ao vefdjpyrnpal li v U' thy
! institution wifich'the Gospel has
j been maintained in this land for bun
j dreds of years ; but when you come to
divide tbe prejq I suspect they will
have the lion’s share. I know of none
who will benefit by such attempts ex
cept those wbo dislike the Gospel of
Christ, or those who hold up a stand
ard which is not tho standard of the
Scriptures of Truth, who, teaching in
the name of the God of Truth a sys
tem which is very unlike His pure
Gospel, find in every land crowds
flocking into their communion, ■ sim
ply because of the fear of something
more dangerous even than a mutila
ted and disguised Gospel. I advise,
my friends, that all of us should en
deavor, in this age, when thero is
real danger of a violent assault against
the Gospel of Christ, to act heartily
together to maintain it, and not mag
nify differences which will weaken
our hands in the great conflict for our
Lord and Master.— McMillan's Maga
zine.
Historic Notes about Sunday-
School Conventions.
NATIONAL.
The first National Sunday-school
Convention was held in New York,
October 3d, 1832. Two hundred and
twenty-four delegates, from fourteen
States and Territories, were present.
Our State was represented, but names
of delegates are not given in any ac
cessible record.
A second National Convention was
held May 22nd, 1833, in Philadelphia.
Nine States only were represented,
showing, perhaps, that it was a mis
take to call a second so soon after the
first.
The general revivals throughout
the country, in 1858, created a wide
spread demand for some united ef
forts on the part of Christian workers.
The third National Convention was
held in Philadelphia, February, 22nd,
1859. Seventeen States were repre
sented.
The civil war and its results defer
red the call for another for several
years. The fourth National Conven
tion was held in Newark, New
Jersey, April 28th, 1869. Twenty
eight States were represented. There
were also visitors from Canada, Eng
land, Ireland, Scotland, Egypt, and
South Africa, five hundred and twen
ty-six delegates in all. A single dele
gate was prosent from each one of
several Southern States, no one being
from South Carolina. It was there
determined to hold conventions trien
nial ly.
The fifth National Convention was
held at Indianapolis, April 16th, 1872.
Twenty-two States were represented.
Very few reported from Southern
States. No one from our State. Dele
gates were present again from Canada,
and it was thought proper to acknowl
edge the fact by considering subse
quent conventions as international.
international.
The first international Convention
was held at Baltimore, May 11th,
1875. Twenty seven states were rep
: resented. Of the sixteen delegates
to which our State was entitled, nine
; were present, Rev. A. W. Walker,
| South Carolina Conference, being one.
i The second International Conven
i tion was held at Atlanta, Ga., April
: 17th, 1878, Gov. A. H. Colquitt, of
Georgia, being President. Thirty
three .States were represented. Del
egates were present from every South
ern State. Our Stale was represented
by a full delegation, with visitors in
addition. Our Church was represent
ed by two ministers, Rev. R. C. Oli
ver, Rev. J. M. Carlisle, and two lay
men, Messrs. V. C. Dibble and Charles
Petty. Number of Delegates in all
was perhaps four hundred.
The third International Convention
will bo held in Toronto, Canada, May,
1881.
state, —( Denominational .)
“ In obedience to a cail from the
Quarterly Conference of Columbia,
S. C., a large representation of minis
ters and delegates from tho Sunday
schools throughout the bounds of the
South Carolina Conference, assembled
in the Washington Street Church,
Columbia, S. C., to consider the in
terests of the Sunday-School cause,”
May 5, 1859. Gov. W. 11. Gist was
elected President. Dr. Myers offer
ed a roßqJji+ia 'niy<fc.u other Conner
to join iti calling for a South
ern Methodist Sunday-school Con
vention at Nashville, in the fol
lowing year. The minutes of the
Columbia Convention were published
in pamphlet form.
(This General Convention was not
held until May, 1871, when all the
Conferences nearly, sent delegates to
Nashville. The minutes of this con
vention have never been published.)
A second Methodist Sunday-School
Convention was held at Spartanburg,
May, 18th, 1860, Rev. N. Tally being
President. No minutes were pub
lished.
In Darlington County, Methodist
County Conventions have been hold
annually for several years.
The Baptists of the State, in 1876,
organized a State Institute, which
meets annually, its third session being
in Sumter, October.
The Presbyterians have, in one or
more cases, held conventions covering
the extent of a Presbytery.
state. (Union.)
Th efirst State Convention was held
in Trinity Church, Charleston, May
12th, 1870, Dr. W. W. Hicks being
President. The published minutes
form an interesting and instructive
pamphlet, the circulation of which in
South Carolina and adjoining States
did great good.
The second State Convention was
held in Charleston, May 15th, 1872.
No minutes were published It was
there resolved to hold the State Con
ventions triennially, immediately pre
ceding the National Convention.
No State Convention was called, how
ever, in the spring of either 1875 or
1878. Our delegates came back from
the Atlanta International Convention
under pledges to organize a State Con
vention. This was done at Greenville,
August 21st, when the third State
Sunday-School Convention was held.
It was there resolved to hold annual
sessions, the time and place of next
meeting to be selected by an execu
tive committee, of which Hon. Charles
Petty is chairman.
County Conventions have been held
in perhaps twelve counties.
In Spartanburg County, Township
Conventions have been held with good
results. J. H. C.
■
There are no little events with the
heart. It magnifies everything ;it
places in tbe same scales the fall of an
empire of fourteen years and the
dropping of a wsman’s glove, and
almost always the g'ovo weighs more
than the empire.— Bazac.
Letter from Bishop Wightman.
[From Wesleyan Christian Advocate.]
The Annual Se.ssion of the Pacific
Conference was opened on Wednes
day, October 16th. We had a pretty
good attendance of clerical and lay
members. All the routine business
was carried through with satisfactory
results. The cry of “ hard times and
no money ” is heard over here with an
emphasis as startling as in the East.
Many of the preachers had received
poor salaries ; in many instances the
Conference and Missionary collections
were largely deficient; there was pres
sure in the direction of tho College
and tho Conference organ. Never
theless, general cheerfulness prevailed.
There was strong faith in God, and
pretty strong faith in California. We
had a whole afternoon devoted to
the consideration of tho affairs of tho
Pacific Methodist, upon the report of
Wick B. Parsons, who is tho only
layman in our broad Connection who
is in charge of a Church paper, Editor
and manager-in-chief. His hold upon
the confidence and affections of the
Conference is very strong. lie de
serves it all. Tho wonder is how ho
can bring out so excellent a Church
paper, from week to week, with a
mind distracted and a heart burdened
with the business management of so
respectable a journal. Iho Confer
ence took vigorous action to collect
tho outstanding accounts of the paper,
and gave tho Editor pretty substan
tial proofs of their determination to
sustain him. Careful and prolonged
consideration was also given to the
affairs of the College at- Santa Rosa,
tho only institution oflearning under
tho patronage of the Conference. This
is struggling under a debt on which
interest at i5 per cent, per annum is
charged. One wonders how anything
cJsf survive a squeeze of that sort.
'The interesting feature of the Mis
sionary Meeting was the presence of
Miss L. Rankin, the lately appointed
missionary to the women of China,
on the part of the Ladies Missionary
Society, recently organized. Miss
Rankin is a native of Tennessee, well
educated, gentle and refined. She is
petite in person, yet possessed of
strong decision of character, together
with unaffected piety. She has been
engaged in the teacher’s vocation for
three or four years, tho last two at
the New Hope Mission School in the
Indian Territory.
Being in San Francisco, on her way
to Shanghai, she was present at the
sessions of the Conference, and at the
Missionary Meeting. Her address
there, when called out by the presen
tation of some mementoes of affec
tionate regard, was quite affecting.
She had the good fortune to sail in
the same steamship with the Rev. Dr.
Hartwell, his wife, and a young lady
missionary, who were on their way
to Fouchow, where tho Doctor has
labored for some years as a mission
ary in the employ of the American
Board of Foreign Missions. Miss R.
could hardly havo found more agreea
ble friends, or any who would take
greater interest in her than these nice
people. In company with several
of our brethren, 1 spent the last hour
of her stay in her native country,
with her on board the ship; found
that one of the best state rooms had
been obtained for her; that every
comfort possible to life on ship-board
was at her command ; and devoutly
commended her and her missionary
companions to tho caro and protection
of Him who controls winds and waves.
The Belgic is a large iron ship, of
3000 tons, belonging to the British
line of steamships plying between San
Francisco and Yokohama. Dr. Hart
well will have charge of Miss Rankin
to Shanghai, through which he passes
en route to his own station at Fou
chow. It is pleasant to think that
our missionaries at Shanghai will have
the opportunity of acknowledging and
responding to the courtesies received
by Miss Rankin from him and his
family.
There are a few of your readers,
Mr. Editor, who have ever seen a Chi
naman, but probably all have read of
him. You find him everywheree out
here. I don’t think I should have
troubled myself to go of my own ac
cord into the China-town they have
in the heart of San Francisco. But
among the visitors to the Conference
—ministers of the M. E. Church —Dr.
Gibson was introduced one day.
F. H. KENNEDY, D. D Editor.
Rev. S. A. WEBER...Associate Editor.
WHOLE NO. 2119.
Learning that he had been a mission
ary to China, and was now in charge
of the Chinese Mission School of the
M. E. Church, I requested him to
favor the Conference, and particularly
myself, with an address on that sub
ject. This he did, with straight-for
ward earnestness and telling effect.
I was so much interested in the sub
ject as he presented it, that I gladly
accepted an invitation which he gave
me, to go to the Mission House on
Washington Street, and make person
al inspection for my own satisfaction:
and then allow him to show me over
China-town. Accordingly, the day
after adjournment, accompanied by
brother Chamberlain, I went to the
large and well furnished Mission House
of which the Doetor has charge. The
basement is rented out and brings in
a monthty income of 860. Above this
are two stories, tho main and second
floors being commodious schoolrooms,
while the third is used for a female
department, the expenses of which are
largely met by the Woman’s Mission
ary Society of tho M. E. Church, on
the Pacific coast. These rooms arc
on one side of the building ; on the
other is a comfortable parsonage for
the Superintendent’s family, and for
the accommodation of assistant teach
ers. No 15 or 18 per cent, has ever
put its paralyzing touch on this prop
erty. What the venerable Dr. Schud
der said at the dedication of tho Mis
sion House, on Christmas day, 1870,
has been true ever since: “ The
building, standing as it does upon
a hill, can look out all over the
city and into every man’s face and
say, 1 1 am an honest building; my
biils are all paid.’ ”
There were about twenty Chinese
girls at their recitation, in one of the
rooms we visited with Dr. Gibson.
reading in “Jacob’s Reader,” one
of the young Chinese preachers was
called in and seated at the organ ;
then all sang hymns, first in our tongue
and then in Chinese. The whole per
formance was creditable. Every night
in tho week, Sundays excepted, there
is held a school for boys and J’oung
men, the attendance averaging eighty
a night. We saw the black-boards on
which stood the exercises of the night
before. Each of those scholars is ex
pected to pay one dollar per .month.
When I was in California eight years
ago, there was a pronouneed and de
termined hostility on the part of the
influential Chinese in this country,
to the education in English letters of
any of tbe young men brought over
from the Celestial empire. This is
now considerably changed, as tho
facts just stated will show. I learn
also, from Dr. G., that the total aver
age attendance upon all the Chinese
Sunday-schools of the Pacific coast,
including five denominations of Pro
testant Christians, is about one thous
and ; and tho average attendance on
the week-schools may be set down at
eight hundred. The scholars from
these schools are found all over the
coast. They cannot fail to carry, in
most cases, pleasant memories of thei r
Christian teachers, a desire for further
improvement, the knowledge of a
language full of new thoughts—in a
word, the germs of a higher civiliza
tion.
After an ample and elegant lunch,
at which Miss Rankin was one of the
guests, we started out to visit the
Chinese quarter. Wo went down
Washington street, the Mission House
standing on that street, at the head of
China-town. We began our walk by
a brief visit to a Christian Chinese
home, stopping long enough to see
that the rooms were cleanly, comfort
able, I might say, cozy. Then we
went down the street, which is wide
and paved, with side-walks. In most
other respects, our cicerone says that
in this China-town one can sec China
as it is, almost as well as in Shanghai
or Fouchow. The streets were alive
with Chinamen. A few, very few,
women, and one or two children, are
visible. The universally-worn blue
blouse, the wooden-soled, cloth shoes,
the long black queue falling behind,
three feet, ending in a silk tassel—
behold ! they are hero, there, every
where. Hundreds on hundreds, these
people with their wonderful sameness
of face, complexion, almond-shaped
eyes, and closc-shaven heads, are
passing up and down the streets. Tho
shops of every variety, particularly
[Concluded on fiftli page,]