The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-04
THE ADDRESS


THE ADDRESS
OF DR.. Boyce, Delegate from the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church to the United Presbyterian
General Assembly, which met ut
Sparta, ILL.,, May 1890, 1877.
lr. Moderator: It was once n custom In the
State OF Connecticut TO open the meetings Of
the Legislature with ascrmon. On O certain
occasion that duty deyolved on q certain
minister, and when the morning of the day
for the preaching Of that sermon had arrived
he was lodged in the house of q Doctor of
divinity in that town. He was q subject of
that days performance, which became SO
visible that Il brother minister approached
him in a somewhat ocular style and address
cd him thus, "My dear sir. with your permits
sion I will give you II piece of advice, which
will enable you to steer your way through ell
your difficulties; 1t will rid you of MI your
embarrassment and will bring you out victo-
riously at last; ana mat advice is THIS:
| Representatives, before all this nrray of OFF,
ciai Importance, just imagine you are ad-
dressing 50 many cabbage heads!!' At that
instant IT, bell began to ring-the minister
Sl-lS Jul III Viz VI SbS 1NobS wa
accompanied by his venerable host. The
Doctor says to the minister: Il heard the
advice which was rendered you just now.
Will you allow me TO give you mine and 1t Is
this: when you attempt the performance OF
your duty to-day rise to the conception that
you are n minister of the gospel. nm embas-
sldor Of Christ, and that these people who
are Eefore you arc fellow mortals, destined
to an eternal existence with yourself, and
speak IN accordance with these convictions"
L proprose to take the last advice, and
bly,, composed Of Doctors OF Divinity, Thco-
logical Professors, pastors OF city and Of
country chuchcs, OF Intelligent elders, | am
tempted to ask myself the question, have l
anything to say worthy Of the OCCASION, wOr-
thy of The curs of the representatives Of n
churcl. extending over the States from Bos-
ton to san Francisco. with Il respectable
showing in foreign fields, in EGYPT, India,
Although / am confronted with n great
house full Of strange faces, ! comfort myself
with the thought hat | address q body of
ministers holding the like precious faith
exactly in the bonds Of q more distant broth
erhOod, bat In such bonds as arc presumed to
exist between two or more similar bodies.
for as In matters Of common kindred well have
brothers, sisters. II "forty-third cousins"
with the intermediate relations, so 1t Is in
the household OF faith where a corresponding
diversity OF spiritual kinslolk exists, uegin-
ming with those who are brought near INTO
us by reason OF c6ngcnialil.;; or tastes of hab-
It's; ed of vie"cc, and ending with those who
are lc..,,rc remote, and with whom We happen
not TO be on terms of such intimate CORES
pondence.
AgreeabIy to this principle it is not quite
and the one to which have the honor to
represent a z Protestants. ante-papal, evan
gelical, that they stand on the COM
on platform Of the Westminster Confess
sion Of Faith. The lines draw up tighter and
closer than that. We have q common ances-
try. Many Of your people and some of ours
point with pride to the Emerald Isle or to
home of their fathers. We imagine there Is
q sort of family likeness, and that the parties
use the same spiritual dialect. "Thy speech
bcwrayeth thee" They look ut most things
through the same medium, and they 70
about their duties much In the same way.
while their theology is cast in the Scotch
Gcncvan mold MANY degrees removed from
the S~coltstlc of the middle ages and from the
rationaliStic Of the nineteenth century.
Yes. there Is q difference between us after all,
and it is Identical with the case which my
friend pr. B.. OF Boston. when on the floor OF
u Canadian Assembly, made out agninst the
Old Associates and the Associate Reformed
the enc singing David's Psalms, the other the
Psalms of David =!
wishes OF my Synod. and to assure you OF the
p, cuSure 1t affords us to be informed Of your
success in cultivating your omeand Foreign
fields, 10 such an extent as to enable your
lTltlluS W SHY III SOu "lllOuG cAnBScIdllOu
you arc widening out, vol are breaking forth
npon the right and upon the left, you arc en-
tending from sen TO sea, with one foot upon
the Atlantic, the other upon the Pacific.
We are pleased to know that you now rank
among the larger and more influential
churches in America, and that your t~cstilno-
ny operates rs a check on the latitudinarian-
ism Of the day, and that while you may not
have succeeded In putting u stop TO the de-
sccnding train, YOU have upplled the brakes
with some good results.
We have no great things to say for our
selves. When we place our statistics side by
side with those Of some OF our ~neishhors' VIC
discover that they avail themselves OF the
higher figures by which to count their minis
tiers, their members, their congregations, and
their dollars, while we assume the lower fig
urcs-they using thousands, we, hundreds.
We have about eighty ministers, with a pro-
portionutc number Of congregations, distrib-
utcd over some ten or a dozen states, and
thus we have imposed upon US the necessity
Of exercising Il jurisdiction over u territory
rather too extensive for perfect cultivation.
Our College Is doing a good work for the
country and for the church, In contributing
TO the different learned professions, while our
Theological Seminary is thruStins annually
upon the field additional laborers.
Operating upon comparatively sparse pop
ulaLiOn we can not exhibit the visible results
that we might other wise do, OH the principle
thai: musketry fired in upon a few men will
do less execution tlun If fired In upon II
dense crowd. The actual results OF a minis
try spent upon Il sparcly populated commu-
nifty must Iull short Of the results Of the same
ministry when brought 10 bear upon multi
tGdeS.
Our people have been greatly impoverished
by the inielicity of the times. We have lost
the greater part of our cndowmcnts. Never:
thcless, we are endeavoring to rccuperatc,
with the hope OF ultimate SUCCESS.
In the face OF these drawbacks we think
we may safely say, we are getting our heads
above water, we are on rising ground, we arc
on the up grade. a singular fact in our his
ality among our people now in their compar-
impoverished state than there was
when IN Il prosperous condition.
We are not without our advantages, as We
We arc not troubled with many
nntionnllticS. We are farther off from the
tower Of Babel than some of our brethren.
We have heard more strange tongues ON one
train of cars from Chicago going in the direc.
ton of omaha, than We have heard tor the
last fifteen or twenty years In the South.
have we much cause for computation the
score OF tsnls. There are grievOuS horesics
among US, it is true, and of which we ure
most h~enrtily tired, but then we have not
quite SO many of those Wild notions which
Ire up the minds OF men and disqualify them
or SOBER thought. Our rural and cOmpara-
lively isolated position may be conceived to
put us to Il disadvantage in some things, and
30 1t does, but then there ARE compcnsatIng
circumstances, and one of these In fuund in
he fact that we have congregations to whom
I would be almost lost time to deliver d Sc
les of lectures on the evils of that almostI
ubiquitous system of R%onIanisln, because lto-
nanisn Is known to these congregations by
he hearing of the ear rather than by perso-
lal experience. We are in the eddles of the
stream, the floods are rushing by, we read OF
he whirl and Of tho storm, but arc ourselves
II calm waters.
Now with regard to the feeling of our pco- I
lie in relation to the United PRESBYTERIAN !
1t becomes necessary for me to say !
hat 1t has been somewhat check ed, thut the
has been rutled by the events Of the
year-a state Of things to be deprecated !
all on both sides Of the house who are {