The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-11-24
GOOD BOOK no READ.
Arp Has Been Reading the Late.
Simon Richardson's Work.
Iii knew h Good old Man and Adj
mired Hin-Glimpses Of His
Life and WOrk-An Enigma
for the Chudren.

49,
Lights and Shadows of |Itinerant
Life" being the autobiography OF Dir.
Simon Peter Richardson. For 5O-years
he was on the go from the Blue Ridge
to Key West from Dalton to Bruins
wick and all the intermediate coun-
try. He knew more people and was
known. by more than any man of his
day. He was original, unique, fearless,
honest in his convictions and ready at
all times to maintain them. He never
complained, never shirked aduty, trav-
eled thousands Of miles on horseback
and sometimes on foot, crossed swamps
and forded streams at his peril, wasted
and sheltered by the poor, What faith,
what zeal, what diligence, and all for
what-a sense of duty and his love for
the Master and the Masters work. No
earthly reward was gained or expected,
for he and his family often suffered the
pinchings of poverty and even the ca
lamity of having his house burned and
all its furniture, and his wife and chill
dren had to sleep in the barn upon the
cotton seed.
But he never faltered and was al
ways aggressive. He fought a good
fight and kept the faith. He would
have succeeded in any of the learned
professions and acquired both fame
and fortune, for he had great mental
force, quick perceptions, personal mag
netism and was a holy terror to evil
doors.
Nj. Lucien Knight has reviewed the
little book with charming and truth
full words. AS he says, there is not a
page but shows the genius, the faith
and the humility of the a He was
not bound through prejudice OF early
training to any creed, but made his
own, and even dared to impugn the in
consistepcies of John Wesley. His n
tipathy to Calvanism was intense. The
idea of mankind being responsible for
Adams sin shocked him and he would
have stricken the words original sin"
and total depravity" from every creed
and prayer book. The doctrine of lost
infants provoked his bitterest sar-
Casm. ...
But these things are notin the book
to any invidious extent, and it con
tains but one sermon, and that is in
the appendix. The charm of the book
is the recital of his experience as an
itinerant-the lights and shadows of a
busy life and his mingling with the
great men and ministers of the Olden
time, for he was side by side with such
men as Judge Longstreets' Bishops
Pierce, Paine, Andrew Capers, Soule
and K~aVanaugh, with Drs. Boring,
Means, Parks, Evans, Anthony and
Glenn, with Levick Pierce and Allan
Turner, and in natural mental power
and pulpit force he was their peer.
The book will make you weep and
laugh by turns. Relating his first ex-
~perience in 1910, when he left Dublin
for his circuit, he says: 'That night I
was as sad as the grave, for I had just
walked up to- the realities Of my situa-
ton and felt conscious of my inability
to meet the expectation of the church.
After supper I went out in the dark
to pray, kneeling in the corner of the
fence. The dogs found me and I was
forced to get on top ofthe fence. From
there they chased me to the shedath
was built over the potato banks. The
barking of the dogs aroused the boys
and they came running with a torch.
shouting: We've got him!" supposing
that I was the same negro who had
been stealing their potatoes. They soon
escorted me to the house, amid CON
WILSON'S of laughter, and the young
lady thought I was intensely green"
He refused to administer the sacpa-
ment to anyone who sold OF drank
whisky. At a revival once a church
member who was well off but very
stingy began to shout with great We
hemence, and Simon Peter stopped his
e~xhOrtation and p~eremptorily ordered
him to stop or leave the church, for no
mar had any right to shout who had
not paid his q~uarterage. During re-
construction days a federal captain
forbade him to preach unless he would
pray for the president. "And so
prayed that the Lord would take out of
him and his allies the hearts of beasts
and put in them the hearts of men OF
remove them from Office. The captain
never asked me again to pray for the
president. I have never been con-
WINGED that we did any wrong in seced-
ing or fighting, and I can see no good
now why we should not do it
again" Speaking of original sin, he
says: "Mr. Wesley declares that all
the children are born under the dis
pleasure Of God and are subject to spir-
final, natural and eternal death. This
to meis a horrible doctrine" Speaking
of r~evivals, he says: "a revival is, a
solemn farce that does not produce a
radical reformation. Faith without
works is a low form Of Calvanism that
has quietly stolen into Methodism and
.paralyzed her power"
When the earthquake of 1886 came
the doctor was preaching at a camp
meeting, and says: "The people be-
came much alarmed, and we had no
trouble in getting mourners to flock
to the altar"
A Campbellite preacher got into a
doctrinal controversy with Simon
Peter in Augusta, and DR.. Landrum
took it up. Simon Peter says: Broth
er Landrum is a very lovable man and
a very popular preacher, but in his ser
mon he is like a pig in a china shoD.