The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1897-01-01
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
DISCUSSES CHURCHES AND THEIR
MANNER or GOVERNMENT.
Tho Philosopher Gives Quotation from
Dean ~Hlfl oa Pastor without
Following.

Hl.I'f without uuY people
like church without q Hooplr."
Dean Swift added two lines. which said,
"a people without p1at0r
Arc like dog without o. maslor.n
This fls us better, Tor We have lost
ours and are now cropping around ia
search of another Uuo Calling
/ preacher is always % perpleyiug and
embarrassing thing 90 do. What Is
the best mode of procedure has long
been yuScj question among the
| churches. There are some objections
10 every method that has been uiod.
( 10 rs like the election of Judges of our
courts; nine times In my recollection
the mode of their election has been
changed in Georgia and now the press
and the people are bowling for another
/ change But the churches don't
change. They think 10 better TO en-
dure the objections rather than aban-
don the faith and formula of their fa-
theirs. The Mcthodists get their
preachers from the bishops
and the people have no choice in the
selection. III they are disappointed
they makeuo complaint, fort they know
that the year will soon pass and
change will come Tho rotation must
so on. There is no nterregnum.
They are never without q preacher.
This plan saves the people some en-
barrassment It is hard upon the
/ preachers and especially upon their
wives and children No permanent
abode; no home attachments; no vine
and fig tree; no neighbors Of long
standing who have been true and tried
IN sickness and health. BY the time
| they begin TO know them and to love
them the year is gone and they must
separate. DR.. Johnson, the great phi
losopher said: 81 have always looked
upon it as the worst condition Of mans
destiny that persons are so often torn
asunder just rs they become happy in
each others society," Methodist
preachers wives and children are the
| gypsies of the church. 1 have always
| sympathized with them.
Another objection to the Wesleyan
method is the bishops lack Of infor-
nation as to the needs Of the different
churches and the qualifications of the
preachers to be assigned. OF course
he has to consult the elders and these
have their fayorites, their college
mates, their likes and dislikes, and the
! appointments sometimes are disap-
pointments and cause heart burnings
that are smothered, but felt We see
by the papers that Rev. Robert
Ioombs DUbOse, a grandson of Bob
Toombs, was given six little scattered
country churches for the coming year,
and he says he cannot take the burden,
for his health is very poor and the win
ter's travel from church to church
would endanger his life It looks like
somebody ought to have known this
before. Some forty years ago a Mr..
Graves wrote a sarcastic, unkind book
about this power of the bishops over
the people, and pictured a great iron
wheel revolving horizontally and the
bishops sitting on it in dignifed ease,
while the wheel rested on the bowed
shoulders of the humble preachers.
The Episcopalians get their preach
ers from the bishops, too, but they
don't rotate, neither do they get far
away from railroads or civilization.
They are the most devoted sectarians
of all Christian denominations--de
voted to their church, it's venerable re-
nOwn, its rituals and traditions-de.
voted to their bishop almost to idola.
try. An Indifferent preacher is oil tho
same to them as the most eloquent di.
vine, for they perform as much Of the
service as he does 0nd only need him
for leader. If he can read the ritual
| passing well and administer the com
munion he is all right with them. It
Is an admirable feature in the ritual Of
this church that the people both young
and old take 80 prominent part in the
service. asked n critical cynical
friend ons Sunday morning where he
was going in such hurry. I'm going
up to my church to worship God, not
man, " said he. read the other day
about an old fisherman who had taken
a great liking to an Episcopal preacher
who was fishing in his neighborhood
and he accepted his invitation to come
and hear him preach in a neighboring
church next Sabbath He put on his
best clothes and rode the old marc to
the little chapel and took front seat
and tried to be devout for the first time
in his life. After the service was over
he took the preacher by the hand and
said: "Well, parson, I promised to
come and come. l didn't understand
much of what you was saying and do
ing, but 1 ris and sot with you the best
could" have always thought that
there was most too much risin and sol,
tin in that church and not enough in
the others. We took little city boy