The Burke County news. [volume] (Morganton, N.C.) 1899-1901, 1899-01-13

lieved they were all ordained Of God
for the sacred calling. but in my later
years that reverence has weakened and
1t seems to me now that most of them
are only ordained of men. The pulpit,
both North and South, has been de-
graded and has lost its high standard.
Hardly q week passes but some preacher
has committed some crime and created
q sensation. Churches are torn asun-
der and the people divided into bitter
factions. Sensational preaching is the
order of the day, and every 10Y and
then q scandal with . woman in the
case occurs. Undignifed and bitter
controversies in the newspapers feed
the public mind and delight those who
are outside of the pale of the church. I
was called on yesterday for charity for
q poor. unfortunate family that lives q
few miles away, and was informed that
the only daughter. o girl Of seventeen,
who could help the aged couple at all,
had married an old Baptist preacher
Ct sixty, aud after q few weeks he
abandoned her and left for parts un-
known. The story is q pathetic one
and he ought to be caught and sent to
Indiana and lynched.' This lowering
Of the standard o: morality and good
old-fashioned Christian pastoral preach
ing is espto ally noticeable in the two
great lending denominations of the
south. l am gratiied to say that the
Presbyterian and Episcopal churches
have not yet shocked the public with
any ministerial scandal, though their
preachers are as class inferior IN
pulpit, eloquence to those OF hall q
century ago. No minister of the olden
x:~1o .o-l1 1ouo 0orrio6 hia 0QOA0YlAn.
ism SO far as to seek to expunge from
the Presbyterian hymn book that
beautiful hymn:
''There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from 1mmanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that
food,
Lose all their guilty stains.
This hymn was composed by William
Cowper, the poet, and is embalmed in
the sweetest memories of our child
hood. But this preacher wishes to
have it expunged because be says the
third line smacks of Baptism by i'm
mersion. Oh, my country! And now
some of our Atlanta and Nashville
preachers are ventilating their political
opinions about the war and the Philip
pines in their pulpits, to the disgust OF
every nearer who differs with them.
They forget that the pulpit is not theirs,
and their call was to preach the gospel
not politics.
Well, l suppose that some of our
soldier boys of the late war will soon
seventy-two of an Ohio regiment have
already applied. Ohio beats the world
on pensions, and has learned all the
tricks of the business. One man up
there was recently detected ir having
drawn three pensions for the past five
years. During the war he was transfer
red three times, and SO he made three
different applications in different
counties, and his sore leg went through
all right, and he now tells that his
lawyer put him up to it, and he gave
the lawyer one pension and he kept
two. The general opinion at Wash.
ington is that at least one-half the pen.
sions granted are frauds. But pension
money circulates freely. and that is {
good thing, and when it gets to circu.
latlng down here among our boys we
won't complain.
Well. We had q good old fashioned
Christmas 1T our house, and were
thankful hat no affection or calamity
had befallen us during the past year.
We had sixteen of the posterity at the
festive board, and they did eat turkey
and ct ~ceteras amazing. Next March
comes our golden wedding, and ther
all the distant boys and their wives AND
children are to gather at the famil,
mansion, and my wife and l will b.
calm aud serene. l read in a life in
surance paper that only one married
couple in 900 live together fifty years.
And so the event ought to be cele
brated. Bill Arp in Atlanta Consti
tuition.