The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-23
PASTOR LOVES SIDE OF 1T.
he Tells His Story Of the state Bap-
tist Convention.

Rev. r. X. Love, pastor OF the FIRST
African Baptist church, returned yester-
day morning from Atlanta. He informed
! the MORNING NEWS that it is true
| that split has been caused
in the denomination of the state, partly
on his account, but he said he was still
solid with his congregation and all re-
ports of dissension in the church are
false. His arrest in Atlanta, he said,
was rase on the part of the anti-Lo7e
| delegates to prevent his appearance be-
fore the convention, which reacted
upon themselves, as their action was
severely censured BY the meeting. The
warrants were sworn out by Mary j..
Marsh and another woman named Hill,
both Of Atlanta. The grounds alleged, he
said, are that in an article in his defense,
which he published in the Georgia
Baptist some time ago, he pub
lished a statement made by the
wife of Rev j. w. Lyons before a com
mittee of the state convention in which
she charged these women with intimacy
with her husband. DR.. Love does not an
ticipate any trouble in disposing Of the
charges.
j. H. Brown, the leader of the anti
Loveites, stopped at the house of the
Marsh woman during the convention
and Is charged with mitigating the
warrants.
DR. Love went to atlanta he said, with
a committee Of the Missionary Baptist
convention, the old organization, of
which he is president, TO effect a recon-
ciliation if possible with the disaffected.
He thinks if the committee had been
given a fair hearing before the meeting
the new convention would not have been
organized; but this, he says, was pre-
vented, as the committee secured only a
partial hearing.
The committee asked for the grounds
on which the organizers of the new
convention had seeded. They
were first told that it was on account of
the charges of immoral conduct against
the president of the Missionary Baptist
convention, DR.. Love. DIR. Love stated
his willingness to resign, in the interests
of harmony, and his resignation, ad
dressed to the convention executive board,
was presented by Rev. w. J. White, of
Augusta.
1t was alleged that the state was too
large for one organization, and that the
work could best be conducted by a divi-
sion of the state. They were answered
that II this were true they were 60
ing about it in bad way, as thelchurches
which they represented were scattered
all over the state, and were not confined
to any particular section.
DR.. Love says that it was then asserted
THAT the majority of the colored Baptists
of the state were in Southwest Georgia
and that Love controlled them all and
that it made no difference whether he was
president or not he would still be in con-
troll"
This, DR. Love says, is the meat in the
cocOanut and the real reason why a split
was brought about. The members of the
denomination in the upper portion of the
state have claimed, for some time, that
they were outvoted by the dele
who secured all the Offices to
themselves, and left the brethren in the
northern portion out in the cold. He ad-
mits that the new convention has a very
large following.
"The colored Baptists have sixty-two
associations in the state, heasaid. "Of
these eighteen have cast in their lot with
the new convention. They claim mem
bership of over 100, 900, but their actual
following is about $1,000. The number of
colored Baptists in the state is 1877, 600
Many of these associations went into the
new movement by majority vote, how
ever, and the result will be that several
new associations will be formed from the
minorities, which will return to the old
organization.
"Nearly all of these IS associations are
from the upper portion of the state The
Zion association is the only one from this
section"
DIR. Love admitted, however, that the
Zion association is perhaps the largest in
the state, including nearly all the
Savannah churches, except the First, DR..
Loves church The Zion association, he
said, however, had been disaffected to
the state organization for a number of
years and seized the first opportunity to
enter new organization. DR.. Love did
not say so, but jealously
of his prominence in the
state convention is judged to be
churches have gone into the new conven-
ton.
AS the result Of the split in the denomi-
nation the Baptist Home Mission Board
(white) has withdrawn its annual appro-
priation of $1,000 to the coiored
Baptlsts for home mission work
and will await settlement
of the differences in the denomination be-
fore resuming the appropriation.
DR. Love was the agent of the board for
the distribution of this fund. When the
fight was made on him when he was cleo
ted president of the Missionary Baptist
convention (colored) this summer,
the appropriation was withdrawn.
The new convention is making
strenuous effort to secure the corpora
ton Of the mission board, but the board
has announced that it is unable to decide
which has the right of the question, and
will eXpend its money through other
channels for the present.
DIR. Love denies that the recent resolu-
tions passed by the First African Baptist
church to cut Off certain collections were
aimed at him. These collections, he said,
went to visiting ministers and for other
outside purposes. The church is in debt
and decided to keep all its money at home
for the present. The pastor does not
have the handling of the church money.
he said, and consequently can not misap-
propriate it. The report that the resolu-
tons were aimed at him, he said, came
from his opponents and not from the
members Of the church.
A SILENT SERVICE.