Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-11
DlD SAM JONES SAY II?
A Preacher Talks About the Bill
Iingsgate of a Mountebank.

HngSEate of a MounteDank.
Sam Small, the sub-evangelist, will be-
gin series of meetings in the new city
hall next Sunday, and Sam Jones will
come to his aid on the Tuesday following,
writes an Indianapolis correspondent of
the Cincinnati Enquirer. They will labor
with the unregenerated for two weeks,
and if success attends their ministration
the meetings will be continued indefinite
ly. Yesterday, after the close OF the
church, the pastor, Rev. DR.. def
frey, asked the congregation TO
remain while he presented a protestwhich
may be said TO have gone for the evan
gellst, Jones, in manner severe. 1t
seems that Or. Jeffrey, in the New York
independent, saw where Jones was
quoted with saying; elf any man says
that only immersion is baptism, tell him
l say he is a liar" and he took some pains
10 verify the fact that Jones really said
it, and it made his Baptist blood boil.
Hence the protest. 81 take exception TO
this language" said he In his protest. mot
because he has expressed bis dissentfrOm
an opinion held by millions OF Intelligent
people, not because he has violated the
demands Of courtesy and good faith in
proclalmIng sectarian opinion from an
mathematician platform, nor because
more intelligent person would have rep
resented the views he travesties in more
exact phraseOlOgy, but because of the
gross and insulting epitbet with which
he has branded the men and women who
hold sacred conviction. If Mr..
Jones had charged them with a want OF
intelligence l could have smiled at his
ignorance and pitied his sell-conceIt;
but when be says that in protesting
this conviction they are liars" he
presumes to stigmatize them with
an epitbet that society has ever
regarded as among the vilest in the cata-
logue of the terms of Vituperation-an
eplthet which gentlemen never apply 10
each other, and which the lowest scullion
would not use except in the passion Of
malice and for the purpose OF inflic,ing a
deadly insult. Mr.. Jones has already
grieved multitudes of decent people by
the coarseness of his denunciati0ns OF
meanness and vice, but they have ac-
cepted his plea that he resorts to such de-
vices in order to attract people of the
baser sort. When, however, this moral
scavenger dares to reckon as offal
any accredited denomination of Chris
tian people for the simple
reason that they are true to their con-
scientious convictions, he proves the
coarseness of his moral fibre and puts
himself beyond the pale of recognition on
the part of all who have regard for the
amenities OF Christian brotherhood, of So
cial comfy and decent speech. | utter
my protest alike in the interest Of denomi-
national fealty and Christian cathollcity.
/ should count myself pOltroOn were |
to give the countenaDce OF my support or
even my presence to man coming here
in the garb of Christian minister, who
vilides the honest convictions OF the de-
nomination to which ] belong, or out
RACES my sense OF the respect due
to the equally conscientious opinion
of any portion of the great brotherhood or
Christians. Further along in his protest
the doctor said that, while he did not wish
to appear as debating to his congregation,
he for one should stay away; nor could he
see how sell-respecting immerslonists
could seek a lesson of purity, love and
honor from ''the billingsgate gatherings
of mOuntebank, who, in addition TO all
the other indecencies of his speech, has
dared to call them liars. = Mr..
Jones claims, l understand. that his
| special mission is to the mean and vile
| Let all who consider themselves in either
claes find ample time to wait upon the
ministry OF a man whose stock in trade is
scurrilIty and scum" With due defer
ence to DR.. Jeffrey, it will put even the
evangelist Jones upon his mettle to say
anything more bitter than has Jeffrey ia
his TRADE against Jones. The doctor
is pastor of the largest and most i0fiuen-
tial church of the Baptist denomination
In this city, ana what he has said will
have considerable influence in the recep-
ton to be given by the local ministry to
the apostle from the South. His own
congregation heartily Endorsed his pro-
test,and it is pretty sure that Jones will be
made to feel the weight of a Baptist boy
colt when he comes.