Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-05-15

aggregating less than 10000. Now we
have fourteen white, and as many color
ed Conferences, with little over 2OO,-
600 white members, and a eOlOred men,
bership of 10000; and an attendance on
our Sabbath Schools in the South of 49,
600. These fourteen years, it is readily
seen, have not been wasted. Bishop
Ames did not do this; but to him more
than TO any other man does the
Church owe her conquests in the South !;
and few years since, when prominent
men advocated the giving up of this pro-
ductive field in the interests of the bO-
gus fraternity, then so popular, Ames
contended that an abandonment of the
field, while it would not help real fra
ternity, would be an abandonment of our
friends, our duty, and the responsibility
God has laid upon us. The policy of
the Church is at length settled-we have
gone South to stay. In this there is en-
inent craftsmanship, and the real ele-
ments out of which fraternity will by
and by grow. Nothing will save us from
national breakage and eventual diSu-
Mon, but for the North to permeate the
South with what is to them a new civil
ization. And surely believe, and am
frank to confess, that no agency is bet
ter adapted to that work than the Church
represented by Bishop Ames, and no
policy promises greater results in that
direction than that inaugurated by the
late Bishop.
DR.. Fowler, in writing on the charac
ter of Bishop Ames, says: His history
is woven into the order of events. Like
all men of deeds his life is to be found
in the scenes in which he lived, and in
the general history which he made. The
man who is great only in his speeches,
can be bound up in the volumes of his
speeches, and thus he can be handed
down to posterity without much loss in
size. But the man whose greatness is
condensed into a wise resolution in a
different matter, or into decisive action
in critical moment, passes into the
common inheritance of the peoples he
blesses, with the causes he serves, and
may finally occupy but limited space in
the printed history of the age"
For nearly fifty years he has been
closely connected with all our aggressive
policy, going West to organize school
out of which has grown McKendree
College, in 1928. If we would estimate
such a practical man, then, from this
vast bulk of policies inauguraled, sys-
TENS ordained, work done, Just and
skillful historian and eulngist could con-
struct figure that would represent
properly his greatness.
But he has endeared himself to the
Church in the course he took in Mission
airy operations. We have seen already
how he planned for and regarded our
Southern work but he was no less zeal
Gus for our work in foreign lands. He
was opposed to the Church always talk
ing about the debt of the Missionary So
ciety, but insisted on the Church going
forward with her GOd-given work. He
used to say, in substance, "The Church
is not dead thing. 1t is not dying. 1t
is young 1t will live. 1t will give the
money needed in due time" He was es-
pecially in sympathy with China, and
the emigrating Chinese, and was fore
most in securing the cooperation of all
the missionary societies to prevent their
abuse by the California sand-lOtters. And
am sure the time is coming when the
American people will be heartily asham-
ed of the legislation of the last winter
on this question. OF the policy of Mis-
sionary aggressiveness advocated by
Bishop Ames, / am sure the Church will
more and more esteem, and pursue it.
The American Church is destined to be
a great Missionary Church, and second
to none will be that branch we have the
honor to hold membership in.
Bishop AmeS was born in Amesville,
Athens county, Ohio, May 20, 1906. He
came of Massachusetts, Puritan stock,
his grandfather being pastor of COngre-
gatiOnal Church in Massachusetts,, chap
lain in the Revolutionary army, and dy-
ing while at Valley Forge. He was ed
ucated at the Ohio University, and while
student there was converted, and i'm
mediately united with the Church. 1t
was my privilege to read an extended
account of that remarkable revival,
about year understandable in the
fact that it furnished some of the ablest
men that have ever occupied the pulpit
of Ohio. Among them were Drs. Joseph
NJ. Trimble, VIM. Herr, Henry E. Pilch-
er-all of whom are living over
half century of effective labor for the
Church. In every revival, especially
if it includes intelligent young men,
what vast possibilities suggest them
selves. / cannot but think more than
one of the young men of our recent re-
vival ought to find a place in the minis
try, and go forward, to hasten the COM
ing of the King of glory. This revival
settled the future of young Ames; We
find him Immediately after his gradua-
ton organizing a school at Lebanon,
Illinois, out of which has grown McKen-
n, oil A OF hn 10 In
diana Presiding Elder, then for four
years a Missionary Secretary, again a
Presiding Elder, when in 1852. with
Simpson, Scott, and Baker, he was ele-
waited to the Episcopacy.
l have mentioned his being an Ohio
man; and yet as often as l have heard
him, and before Ohio audiences, / have
never heard him allude to that fact. l
am sure he was not ashamed of Ohio;
but 1 attribute it to the fact that he rose
above State pride, and doubtless saw the
ruin wrought by the attempts so sue
cessfully made to wrest one community
from another, and thus sectionalize men
and communities-am sure he depreca-
ted the sectionalism that says l am from
Ohio, l from Virginia, from Massa-
chusetts. What are State lines but one
of the accidents of civilization; and the
place of our birth but a fortunate or un-
fortunate line of circumstances; but our
whole country, with State lines and
sections eliminated is the greatest en-
pire the world has seen. 1t is imperial
in its limits, and is rapidly growing inn
perial in its populatiOns-may it grow
imperial in its unity and its purity.
Think how absurd If sounds tn hear n
man talk of the sovereign State of Ohio,
or of South Cardinal What is Ohio
without the nation behind her! Why,
she would not make decent tail to the
national kite. Bishop Ames was cos
mopolitan, national, rather than narrow
and limited. And we need a revival of