The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-22

| wearing homespun ana giving tnelr Jew
| els TO be sold to send the gospel TO the
| heatben-if this is your oldfashioned
creed we must tell you that we have
found better day than since you ruled
and il you insist upon your dntiquated
! methods, we will have TO send you out
TO join the Salvation army. Would
such be the reception he would receivel
| think not. | am one of those who
believe that while Methodism has lost
much in it's adoption OF modern methods
there ahdes in il as if yore the spirit OF
self-sacrihce, and that while few maS
dress too fashionably, they are worthy
descendants of Wesley and Whitfield
aud Asbury and Gloss aud Wilson
and Soule and Marvin and Doggett and
Rurkhead and Reid, They ride on Pull-
man trains to reach most of their appoint
ments because it is cheaper than TO so on
horseback. and the sacrifices they make
to-day are more than the world ever
hears OF. The average Methodist preach
er's salary compels him To economize
and live simply. Nine times out or ten,
the fine clothes and slick hats they wear
at Conference are gifts from friends.
Alas, that all Of them have not generous
friends TO add TO their comforts! But
as I am sincere in believing that heroism
and self-sacrificc have not departed by
any means, do believe the pressing duty
that lies at the doors OF the Methodist
as we'll as the other churches is to change
the policy of massing all the strongest
men in the strong charges, and neglect
ing the mission or remote fields OF labor.
There is need of fifty educated, consecrat-
ed ministers in the mountain of West
ern North Carolina to-day, They are
needed TO teach as well as to preach, to
stimulate to a new life. And they are
needed in this Piedmont county and in the
centre and the East. The cry comes
up that ignorance and disregard of reli-
gion are retarding the progress OF the
State. The schoolmaster and the
preacher need to be multiplied. If the
church membership could realize the
need they would arouse themselves to
double and quadruple the number of home
missionaries, and instead OF putting
young and inexperienced men in charge
OF these most important points, they
would send their strongest men to Roar
ing River mission, Woharie circuit, in
the mountain coyes and on the sea
coast rather than into the heart of Ashe
vile, Charlotte. and Winston. The need
of strong men is great everywhere; it is
doubly great where the need is sorest,
and that is not in the great centres Of
population, bnt in the rural districts.
The tendency TO concentrate the best
energies and the best preachers in the
cities and large towns is perhaps a logi-
cal following of the tendency Of the peo
pie to leave the farms and flock to the
L.. g n ali
teal article / would show that this con-
slant stream of country boys to cities
was caused largely by legislation that
disseminated against agriculture, and
that had reduced it from an ayocation
where success crowded labor into a
drudge, where labor was poorly rewarded
The presence of tramps is largely due
10 unproductiye agriculture. The farm
err boys 60 to the cities. They are strong
er and more robust than the city chaps,
and they crowd them out or are crowded
out, and an army of idlers marches
through the country looking for work in
cities while the falow fields await their
industry. Shall the church be blamed
then for sending its strong men to the
centres where the eddies of population
flow strongest? Can the church make
agriculture prosperous and restore the
old time hon:e-life of the farms? Not
altogether. 1t must go where the gospel
is most needed whether on the noun
tain top, or in the crowded mart of
trade ii must touch mankind at every
point Happily for us here in North Car
olina the tendency eityward has not gone
SO far as ia most States. The bulk of
or population still derive their support
from mother earth The ministry can
stand as barrier TO this modern ten
dency by going with strength and cheer
and helpfulness into the rural districts,
and helping to teach the people there. A
preachers duty is not done when he has
preached his sermons. He is an object
lesson to those about him. His counsel
and admonition, his life and work, tell
more OH the opinions and character Of his
congregations than his sermons. Rather
they are his sermons incarnate. / once
knew preacher, he is now the honored
presiding elder of the Winston district,
Rev. Frank III. Wood, who was not only
the spiritual guide of the community in
which he lived, but their examplar as
well i'll gardening. He had the best gar
den in the town, the earliest vegetables,
anu the CuUiEtSt Vi every lhluB LldL grew
in the garden. He was the exemplar of
good gardening. He literally obtained
the reward promised to the man who
makes two blades of grass grow where
one formerly grew. 1t helped his preach
Ing, too, people said that a man who
knew so much about the laws of nature,
Of vegetable life, must believe and
preach a practical christianity And so
as pastor and gardener, he stood as TIE
light of the community. How would it 10
for the nest year for the Bishop to send
Rev. DR.. Greasy to Roaring River Mis-
sion ard put the poorly-paid preacher of
that mission as pastor of the handsome
Centenary Methodist church in Win
ston! 1t would be something like a re-
volution, but good one according to my
notion. am afraid that Rev. DR.. Greasy
might not like the change. am sure the
Winston people would enter a vigorous
protest against giving him up. But as
Dr. Greasy is a true and faithful timer