The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1899-10-14
NEMO'S LEGAL VIEW.
HE MAKES A LENGTHY REPLY no
THE REvs. scHfLLING AND
SCARBOROUGH.

Editor Gazette: Your corres-
pondent desires to give the legal
view of the case OF Rcv. T. c.
Schilling vs.. Memo.
Mr.. Schilling holds an indics-
ment against Memo, founded upon
an article printed in Gazette on
I'd of August last, in which the
plaintiff alleges that the said de-
fendant did with malice prepense
and aforethought slander, thrust,
and misrepresent the Baptist min
istry at large.
The first count Of this indict-
ment is that Memo in said article,
did aver and say, 1.-THE average
preacher is satisfied with the mere
Introductory form that religion
assumes among US. To this
count, charging disrespect to the
Baptist ministry, the defendant
enters a plea OF not guilty, as the
term, average preacher, can never
be made to apply to the Baptist
or any other ministry, and as the
term preacher is a noun in the
singular number, it can have no
plural signiiica.ion, therefore the
expression, average preacher, can
only apply 70 some one preacher
and himself no known or definite
denomination, but man oil straw
valueless as a living organisln
because he stands like Melchise-
dek Heb. 7:3, without descent.
having neither beginning of days
nor end of life. /" He, the aver
age preacher, in any denonina-
ton, is unlike the king Of Salem
in one respect, for he breaches on
and on as the seasons roll amain
without Improvement or effect.
Now as this first count in the
Indictment is sustained by no
proof from the article itself. i'll
must be admitted that no denom-
ination was touched or even re-
ferredto in this count: for to prove |
anything in law the testimony
must not be only accusatiye,
referential, or circumstantial, but
be active, definite and positive.
"How fatty are our day dreams thrown |
When Justice once ascends The throne. . |
The defendant here requests
Mr.. Schilling to bring forward |
now some legal point, something
that he could go into court on, to |
show by testimony, not by ram
dom and unchristian assertions. |
that would have no weight in law,
to sustain his count, and this tes-
timony must come out of the in
dictment itself, as question is
involved in which no oral testi-
mony can be introduced.
2. The second count in the in
dictment in which, according To |
the plaintiff, Memo dug his last
ditch and plunged therein, is
count that requires wisdom, skill
and accumen TO digest and under.
stand. The plaintiff had been so
accustomed to pulpit subservience
where mere dictum stands apart
from all legal examination, that
he is indisposed to yield to any
argument founded upon mere
law.
In examining this second count
! would say that testimony stern
and positive is one of the neces-
sary requirements upon which
conviction must be founded. Tes-
timony then, notsupposition, must
be the basal rock on which all
judgments must be builded.
This count reads: Our preach
ers seem to desire no high attain
ments in grace; no upward !
mountings in spiritual life, no re-
quirement for a closer walk with
God. Their memberships, thus
deprived Of all incentives to a
higher life, set down upon the
ordinances and do nothing and
soon lose all sensibility on the
matter of religion. -
In the above count the words
Baptist preachers do not oc-
cur, nor can those words be found
in the entire article. Bro. Schill-
ing is entirely out of court and
hopelessly non-suited, unless he
can prove from the indictment
that the words "our preachers
mean Baptist preachers. The
word preachers here is an illimit-
able noun, or only limited by the
wide spread bounds of christen-
dom.
The word Baptist was only used
one time in all the long article
that SO mortified Bro. Schilling, |
and lnal Was not used in connec-
ton with the word preachers.
In referring to- the Lane card in