Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-10
ALooALpREAcHER,s A WOES.

A LOCAL LPREACHER.s WOES. He is a Little weary but will Try, l Try, Again Despite His Fineen Failures to Pass the Conference Committee,s Examination - H1s Work in a Lonely Long Island Re. zion. An incident of the recent session of the New York East conference which was mentioned in our telegraphie reports of the conferences doings, and has excited ripple of interest far and wide, was the case of a local preacher, Charles E. Curtis, who has preached in various Connecticut towns and who for the fifteenth time failed to pass the requisite examination neces- sary for his becoming full f1edged preacher, or admitted into full member ship in the conference.
 Last Saturday morning Mir. Curtis har- messed his stubbly little bay pony to the unpretentious wagon in which it IS h1s wont to trundle over the levels of Long Island visiting his various charges, and wended, with his wife for company, over ten miles of sand to Patchogue to hear the report of the committee on studies, and learn what was to be the out come of his application. He had been trying year after year trying in vain-to pass the examinations which would admit him to the conference make full fedged Methodist parson of him. On Tuesday, March 31, he had gone at 9 o'clock in the morning before the com mittee, which consisted of the Rev. w. M. D~ir 4ha " Ko11u nf Cf Jnhn3o Brooklyn the Rev Joseph Pullman of New Britain, Conn, and the Rev. F. G. Howell of Bethel Auu from 9 in the morning even until the going down of the sun they had questior l him on various and divers topics whic, man must comprehend to be ordained do the high class work of the .aster according to the method 0. Arminius. They had given him some sheets of paper containing questions in the different branches, and had let him go into corner to think them over. But as for the an swers, never word might he write. All was oral; and when he had pondered the various subjects to which reference was made in the questions, the four wise men industriously pecked and pounded away l at him, to discover how well crammed he was with learning. Well, when the deci- sive day came, the committee reported to the conference that six was the required 1 average standing, and that Local Preacher Charles Curtis had only attained five and l two -ffths.
 Now, in all the reaches of Long Island l and in all the hill districts of Connecticut, l it would be hard to find doughtier war rior on the side of the faith than is Local Preacher Charles Curtis, and his hair is beginning to grow gray in the service, too. In consideration of all this and of his use- l fulness the committee announced them selves as willing to recommend his being received, although their consciences were not sufficiently ''academic'' to admit of their knocking off that three -ffths of 6 point and saying that Curtis was really scholar enough to be Methodist
 There was right lively discussion ir the conference, and proposition to sus | pend the studious standard an admit him Was combatted fercely. The matter was not, however, put on personal ground but rather on the ground of maintaining { high degree of intellectually and cultiva tion in the church. Dr. Joseph Pullman of New Britain said good word for the candidate. So did Rev. Frank s. Town send of Greenpoiut and Rev. R. w. Jones of Watertown, but J. A. Roche of Wash ington street, Brooklyn, was warm against him, and spoke in a sarcastic strain of the l HaOACl1C COuulLtCo It was no go. Again the persistent Cur tis was told that he would be taken on pro bation, and be given another chance tt pass the religious service examination.
 In an interesting article on the subject yesterdays New York Recorder speaks O. the indomitable character of MT. Curtis and how resolutely he faced the music when he found himself again baffied, and goes on to detail what the preliminary ant later examinations for admission to ful membership in the conference consist of Proceeding it says:
 He stuck to it with pluck worthy o John Wesley's own great Methodist self but by and bye-untoward fate-the gri] caught him, and not being at liberty to re sort to the secnlar remedy for that disease system with large doses of "Thalheimer' Ancient History" and the Cheeks of An tinamianism" and the Theological encyclo pedia and methodology, Crooks ant Hurst, s. 50 (A) in the hope to cure hi cold and fit himself to be ordained. Ther was rhetoric, too, at which he had practic enough in administering pulpit food to hi three flocks, there was the "Plain Accoun of Christian Perfection" !" a stout catechisn tions, and answers abundant, by the peru sal of which a man might find out jus how sanctifcation felt, and what were tn
 indisputable evidences thereof.
 Alas and alack! Alas for the high stand ard of erudition of the Methodist body ,an
 alack for Curtis and his years of faithful plodding toll. He drove home in the evel time and put out the horse and then wen into the study and sat down and looked
 through the weli-thumbed and scored an, annotated volumes of Harman and Pope l t,o %ho
 he had strong ly tn pencil underline
 "Pectus f"cit theologum hearts devc
 tion makes the theologian." Then b
 looked out of the window and saw that tn
 sun had set and that the long sand levels
 with their monotony of bushes stretchin
 away in the distance, looked very cold an
 cheerless.
 Maybe there are dozen houses in th
 Suffolk county settlement known as Lax
 Grove, over the Methodistism of whicl l Curtis is custodian and from which hi lines, which do not appear to have falle
 in the pleasantest of places, run out to S
 James and Hauppauge. The parson live in chilly looking gothic house on 8 littl
 rise about two miles out of town. It ha at sometime been painted green and coat of white subsequently applied not havin ! S6TVOu LO ulSo Gu0 oAASiAoi CO1oAy LILO O"O
 ling has now @ bluish tint which is ia from attractive. There are no trees abou the house. In the winter the wind has
 glorious sweep across the neighborin
 fields and piles the snow high about tn parsons door and in summer the sun ha full play at it.
 A knock at that door the parson himsel
 answers when he's at home. He is a ma
 of middle height, dark, with mustache an
 side whiskers aad clear, fine, blue eyef
 His features are clean and regular. Mos
 people would pronounce him handsome
 There can be no Methodist parson withou
 @ dressing gown. Greek can be dispense
 with Hebrew is a luxury for bishops
 but the dressing gown is 8 necessity. M,
 Curtis had on his dressing gown when
 visited his house. The rest of his atti,
 was that of the clergy. It is humbl = home he has.
 i r q do not know," he said, eff it is th best for me to say anything about rh matter The questions were very hari and I had been sadly interrupted in m studies by sickness. Of course tho stud time must all be taken outside of churc | duties That might be easy enough if m work was all right at hand, but you see is some distance even to the church { Lake Grove, and long, long way either of the other charges. To get i each of them twice during week is pretty good bit of a task. Then there been a good deal of sickness, and I hay l had to go about good deal visiting Tt