The southern press., 1850-10-02
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.

THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
The Southern Christian Adrocate, of Charles
ton S. c. is inmourning for the death Of Bishop
Bascom. 1t contains the following able bio
| graphical account of that eloquent minister
Death of Bishop Bascem.
The intelligence of this mouraful event, COM
muncated by telegraph from Louisville, reached
| us just after our last weeks edition had gone
to press. The Bishop died on the morning Of
the 9th inst, after a protracted illness, taken as
he was returning TO Kentucky after holding the
st. Louis Conference.-The first and only Con-
| ference session at which he lived to preside af-
ter his elevation to the episcopal office Striken
down by death in the ripe maturity of those
| great intellectual and oratorial powers which
had made his name familiar to the whole nation
and upon the threshold Of a new field of ecclesi-
astical responsibilities, wider than he had ever
| filled before, with the promise of many years
| valuable service to the church which had hon
ored him with its highest confidence and affec-
| ton, the visitation is one OF the utmost solemn
| ty. In view of the fresh grave where now lies
the mighty master of eloquence on whose lips
hundreds Of thousands have hung entranccd,
whose name could call togethera vaster throng
of listeners than that of any other man on the
continent THE grave where every trophy of
genius, and every lineament of manly beauty, is
laid low, we are reminded of ALassillon's impress
sive exordum over the plumed and scutchoped
bier of the young French prince-"ihere is no
thing great but God"
Born in Western New York, DIR, Bascom was
admitted into the travelling connection in 1914,
! if we mistake not in his sixteenth year. He
has been thirty years before the public eye.
| In 1928 he was elected President of Madison
College, the second Methodist College establish
ed 10 this country. In 1880 he was appointed
agent for the Colonization Society In 1882 he
accepted Chair in Augusta College, where he
remained until elected President of Transylvania
| University in 1912 With this latter institution
he was connected until l849. Thus for nearly
| twenty years he has been identified with the
cause Of education in the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Our personal acquaintance with DR..
Bascom began at the General Conference Of
| 1910. During this Conference he presented
n mastery report in favor Of the right and eig-
ibility to orders of local preachers holding
slaves within the Virginia portion of the Balti-
more Conference. This paper was a specimen
of clear and close augmentation At the same
Conference he preached in the Light street
| Church to as dense throng as could crowd into
| tiIc SIpuClouo ddJOuILltiS Sttect
being filled with people who could not find en-
trance into the church. His text was" Be-
hold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin
| of the world"
| The sermon embraced all the cardinal Gle.
ments of the Christian system, set forth in II
| light so vivid, under illustrations so overpOwer-
! ingly magnificent, and with a vehemcnce SO
| rushing and pauseless, as to hold the vast audi
ence spell-bound. At particular passages sew
eral of which we distinctly remember the effect
WAS awful The sentences came like the sharp
| zig-zag lightning, the tones Of the preachers
voice were like articuate thunder. The hearer
covered under the weight of thought piled on
thought, and was driven almost beside himself
by the rapid whirl of dazzling imagery The
sermon artistically considered, had the strange
| fault Of being too great. 1t covered too vast u
field Of thought, it was marred Ey excess Of
grandeur You were bewildered by the quick
succession Of vivid pictures thrown off as by the
turn of some grand Kaleidoscope The irnpas-
stoned iervour of the preacher seemed too self
consuming We felt, as some one has happily
remarked respecting Chalmers, that powers and
resources such :s these, devoted to the service
of the Gospel, were indeed not needed by that
Gospel, but much needed by Gospel rejecting
man. The consecration of such majestic III
tellect and Imagination to the work Of propaga-
ting the principles of Christianity could but
make IA profound and wide impression upon So
ciety. Thousands of cultivated minds coming
within the reach of such an influence, have been
compelled to respect the system advocated by
so lofty spirit, and have been prepared to lend
an unprejudiced ear to simpler mnistrations.
DR.. Bascom's sermons while Chaplain for Con-
gress, in the early prime of his colossal strength,
are spoken of to this day for their power and
effect upon the high places Of the country. He
was once describing the peril of Il sinner hang
ing on the verge of eternal retrbutions, and so
awful was the picture that President Jackson
who was one Of the congregation, started up
with the involuntary exclamations--aM My God
he is LOST"
| The composition Of these magnificent SER
mons, it is reasonable to suppose and indeed it is
| a we'll known fact, cost the preacher world of
| pains. He subscribed heartily to DR.. Johnsons
opinion that s.no one ever did any thing well, to
which he did not give the whole bend Of his
mind" They were by no means impromptu af-
fairs, thrown off under the inspiration produced
by facing three thousand people. Carefully ar
ranged, minutely mapped off in their several de-
partnents, and even filled up, by foregoing
mental elaboration, they were mastery pulpit
oratons,--to have heard one of which formed
an era in the life of those Yho sat from year TO
year under the ordinary ministrations ofthe pull
pit. Many time has he paced his chamber
half the night, in state of high nervous excite
mtnt, while preparing for the next days effort
! And even during the last year or two, when by
advice ofhis physician, in the shattered state Of
his constitution, he confined himself mainly to
his manuscript, his preparations were scarcely
less laborious. The youthful preacher who
scorns preparatory labors such rs these, and
contents himself with the utterance of crudities
and common places wrapped up in flimsy decla-
nation, need not wonder that what is remark
ably easy preaching to him, soon becomes matter
ofsuch difficult hearing to his congregation as to
leave the fewest number of listeners. There is
no danger of his being run after
In the disruption of the Methodist Church
growing out of the shvery agitation, DR.. Bascom
took no part in the Debates but watched the
drift of things until the crisis came AS soon
as all hope of honorable compromise was ex-
hausted, and il was evident that the Southern
Conferences were to be degraded in the person
of Bishop Andrew, and practically denied equal
I