Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-04-05
DIR. JOHN E. EDWARDS
SOME OF HIS "REMINISCENCES IN HIS
WORK "eY.aoNE YEARS.
The "Terrors OF tho Law" Forty Years
Aeo--rresehers sahjeet 20 Like Pas
sions with the Rest OF Mankind.


DR.. Edwards in "By-Gone Years" q se-
rios Of "reminiscences recently published in
tho Clrisida Advocate, said:
Tho first Conference session / ever at
tended was held in the city OF Norfolk,
February, 1886. Leaving the Campbell cir
cult about the 10th of January, went first
10 SEQ my parents IN Guilford county, n.
c.. a distance Of ono hundred and twenty
miles. After spending two weeks with
them started for Norfolk on horseback,
in mid-winter, the distance being some
thing moro than two hundred miles.
making three hundred and twenty miles
from my circuit-by this dcour--to the
scat Of the Conference. The weather was
extremely cold. roads bad. streams frozen
over, and long rides 20 be made to reach
stopping places, with Methodist families,
f0r tho night. IL was not an infreQuent
thing. at the time referred 10, for preacher
O. travel as much as Eve or six hundred
sometimes seven or eight hundred--miles
from the time OF his leaving one charge be-
fore be reached the next circuit assigned 10
him OF Conference. Nor was IL an unusual
thing Tor two full months TO DO occupied
IN the interval between closing the work
on one circuit and beginning on another.
REFLECTION Just HERE.
- The preachers Of forty and fifty
years ago preached what are popularity call
ell the terrors Of the law" as they are
not preached nowadays. We rarely ever
hear sermons In our present times on hell
and its torments. Formerly sinners were
warned 20 "heo the wrath 10 come" as
they are not now. Hell, as place with It's
terrible agonies, its companionships, its
memories ITS despair its eternity Of dura-
ton, was depicted as stern reality. Rev.
Anthony Dibbrell used to preach a sermon
on the text, " Behold, set before you life
and DEATH" &c. that so alarmed sinners as
in many instances TO make them cry out
for mercy while he was preaching. Con-
yictions for sin under sermons OF this
character were deep and abiding. Repent
ance was thorough. Conversions were
clear and bright. and often attended with
marked demonstrations. Is it not to be
feared that this way of getting converted,
now much In vogue, by rising UP. shaking
hands, and the like, is ouly skin-deepy
believe that the fear Of hell and eternal
Punishment from all that is good quite as
often leads TO repentance as the love OF
God and the attractions of the Cross.
THE DEEAm-IIKR PAST.
+|* There is a sort of haze and glamor
that invests the objects presented TO our
retrospective survey that has the same
effect in mellowing and shading of the
rougher and less attractive features Of the
objects contemplated that obtains in tho
contemplation OF natural objects seen in
the distance through the atmospheric vel
Of a clOudless day in Indian summer. 1t is
not poetic fiction TO say with Campbell
""Tis distance lends enohantment 70 the view
And robes the mountains In their azure hue"
What is softer OF more ethereal and dream
like than distant mountain seen through
the hazy mists and gauZe-hke yapors that
1 - A L. IL. A.. - h..
Of the SPECTATOR All the rugged features
are toned down. The gaping chasms and
jagged rocks disappear aud all that IS ugly
and rope liant blends into the softer and
more delicate outlines of picture,
"Wiih less Of earth In II than Heaven"
In looking back to the heroic days Of
Methodism we are likely 10 be imposed
upon by the same deception. Things are
not exactly what they appear TO be. The
distance Of even fifty years has the effect.
measurably, of sinking the harsher and
less alluring features of the men and the
times below the horizon, or of so dimming
them by the misty veil as 20 leave only
"the good, the beautiful, and the true"
standing out 10 our backward contempla-
tive survey.
PREACHERS COUNTING.
The preachers and the Christian people
Of fifty years ago were not faultless. They
were not free from the ordinary infrmi-
ties and imperfections that attach to hu-
man. nature IN its best and most favored
conditions. The preachers, like Elijah,
were men subject to like passions" with
the rest of mankind. Instances OF defec-
ton were quite as frequent as in our day.
The sacrifices and hardships of the travel
ling preacher were greater than our times.
Men were admitted to tho ministry with
ont any previous training, and often
from tho humblest walks OF social
life The wonder ia that the lapses
we're not more frequent. Anything short
OF "a sound and thorough conversion, after
the old Methodist standard, and an inward
moving by the Holy Ghost TO the Office
and work of the ministry. utterly failed,
as a general thing IN keeping preacher
up TO his duty. Without these he soon
fell out of he{pnks, either by wlthdrawal.
location. or'SsSlosion. Then, as now, there
were hangers-on who were but little in de-
mand by reason of inefhcioncy; and even
60 a greater extent than now there were
disturbers of the peace and harmony
Of the Conference. Scarcely SEES
SION of the body passed without some
disturbance, occasioned by some captlous,
fault-fnding, censorious member. Com
plants were lodged against brother on
the passage of his character for the most
trivial things. There were selt-constltuted
censors in every Conference lying in wait
and watching an opportunity 10 spring
upon an unsuspectng victim. Under the
old Skidmore rule, making il an actionable
offence 10 court "A young lady under two
years after entering Conference, many
Young brother was carried through the
mill. ! saw young man hacked till he
blubbered and cried outright under the
charge that he had been guilty of the hor-
rible offence of counting a pretty young
lady on his circuit. The preachers and
the people-especially the young preachers
aud the young ladies-forty and fifty years |
ago were very much like they are at the |
present dav. Would we not have n |
gay time OF it in conference SEES |
sions If every young preacher VINO
courts girl before his probation |
expires we're hauled up to answer at the |
bar of the Conference for his contu- |
macyY Church trials in former times were |
Of common occurrence. Conferences and |
societies were often torn by dlssenslons |
occasioned by church trials. Some preach |
efs were great in the exercise OF discipline: |
The haze and the mist shade of many OF |
tie rugged features of the years gone by; |
and. happily for us, il may be, lead us to |
magnify the virtues and excellenees OF our |
preachers and people who lived fifty years |
ego.
RICHMOND THEATRE.