The Russellville Democrat., 1888-06-28
FraternaI Address of the Rev. s.
 A. Steel, A. M., D. ID.

FraternaI Address of the Rev. s. A. Steel, A. M., D. ID. DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, IN NEW YORK
 ClTY, MAY IT, 1888.
 Mir. President and Brethren: l have been charged with the pleasant duty of conveying to you the frater- nal greetings of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South. In the name of more than a million followers of the Lamb bid you hall and Godspeed. x
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, while strongly conservative, is in profound sympathy with the progressive spirit of the age, and is striving with a noble earnestness to build up Christian civilization In the fields where Providence has as- signed our toll. We believe, sir, that the Gospel offers the only permanent basis for human society, and that its reign in the hearts of men will solve all the social, economic, and political problems that agltate our land. ltis the highest constructive force in civ ilization, and it's success will be the harmony of the world. We believe that, as public opinion is the basis of our government and the source of our laws, a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to the stabili- ty of our free institutions, and that the peace and welfare of the whole country demand the education of all classes of our people. And, sir, New England itself would not hold more tenaciously to the system of free public instruction, with all of it's ad mitted defects, than do the people of our Southern States.
 We believe that the separation of church and State is essential to the maintenance of both ciyll and religious liberty, and we look with alarm on any tendency to depart from this fundamental principle of our government; but we also be- lieve that the church ought to edu- cate public sentiment in favor of righteousness, that the Christian conscience of America ought to dom mate its political life, and that the only hope of free ballot, whether ln the South or in the North, is for men to regard American citizenship es & gift of God, and vote as they pray.
 We are pledged, sir, to the destruc- ton of the liquor traffic of America. We believe that thls traffic is the organized, vindictive, and deadly foe to our civilization; and we are de- termined never to cease war upon 1t until it shall be as impossible to buy and sell rum as a beverage in this country as it now IS to buy and sell slave. In the language of MT. Lincoln, we are "resolved that this nation, under God, shall have new birth of freedom, and that govern ment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"
 Mir. President, I would not exag gerate our progress, and am deeply sensible of our manifold short com lngs. But, beyond denial, there has been a marked advance in the public sentiment of the South all along the great lines of civilization. Without ceasing to be southerners, we, like ourselves, are becoming more largely American, Our horizon sweeps the whole cl.cle of our glorious land, and we feel equally at home among the orange groves of Florida or the bo- real solitude of far Alaska's shores. The material development of the Southern states is phenomenal and the steady influx of population, capital and industries, has given us wonderful impulse. Yet so vast and so varied are the physical re- sources of the South, that It IS safe to say we are ouly on the threshold of our progress. Speaking politically we have left the quicksands of revo lution, passed safely over the bar of reconstruction, and now we feel the long swell of the open sea of nation al life on winch we intend to sail for ever under the star-spangled banner of the freel
 Why, then, brethren, should we distrust each other any longer Why should not the sunlit waves of peace roll in perpetual music above the charm in which ancient preju-