The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-11-02
IN. Y. INDEPENDENT
That Alabama IeDrOSy.

w men we printed, some weeks ago
card of Northern Methodist min
lister in Alabama, saying that his
church was for sohite people, and COL
ored people were not invited or ex-
pected to enter it, we supposed that
some explanation would be given at
once of so strange an act. So far no
word has been written to give further
light. Meantime, we are glad to
state, Northern Methodist papers are
speaking of the matter in severe
terms. lions Herald calls it a brutal,
unchristian act and there are demands
for an explanation. We had supposed
| that this was an isolated case. 1t was
horrible to think that there was even
one such minister in that great Church
but it seemed probable that he had
come into the Church by accident, and
would soon find his own place again.
But the revelation made by Zion S
Herald staggers us. There is, it
seems, another minister in the South
who defends the Alabama abomina-
ton. He is not merely minister; he
is president of the East Tennessee
Wesleyan University and his name is
John F. Spence, D. D. He says in
his paper, the Southern Adgance, that
the disapproval which has been ex-
pressed of the course Of the Alabama
pastor sis a remnant Of fanaticism
which is rapidly dying out. 1t would
have been well had it never existed,
and the sooner it disappears the better
for us all, North and South, white
and black"
Now, we understand DR.. Spence has
gathered many dollars for the sup
port of the institution over which he
presides from Northern churches. 1t
is Northern school and this is all
right; but the work of the University
is among a population of which the
colored element is large. Can the
Northern Church, which has no busi-
ness In the South at all, unless it is
there to preach the Gospel to all,
without regard to color, afford to have
man at the head of one of it's chief
institutions who teaches that there is
a Gospel for the whites, and another
Gospel, not so respectable, for the
blacks? t
The last General Conference pro-
vided that the Freemen's Aid Society
might assist struggling white church.
es in the South so far as it could with
out injuring the work among the col
ored people. Is the result Of this
rather doubtful policy to be the erec-
tion of barriers between white and
black Methodists Of the same COM
munion? If so, the sooner the action
of 1880 is repealed the better for
Northern Methodism in the South
We do not believe the churches in the
North will give their money to pro-
mote Gospel Of caste and disunion.
In the name of the Lord, is there
church, North or South, calling itself
Christian, which dares to tell any race
or class of men not to enter it's doors?
It were better for such a church that
it had never been organized; it were
better that it be razed to the ground
and it's members scattered; it were
better that a pastor teaching such a
monstrous doctrine be degraded from
the ministry. The Methodist Epis-
copal Church cannot, ought not stand
in the South if it stand on such dis
honoring platform. The Christian
Adgooate demands that the Church be
''purged from the stain and stigma of
this thing" May this be done thor
oughly and speedily.