Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-03-15
A CARD FROM REV. HAMMOND,

Oiioh Oiii1EN.-l little tnOugn
should appear in the columns o
your paper or any other in the role
now do. A few days ago 1 received
letter from Rev. Joseph Ii. Amiss
presiding elder of K. M. District, in
which he said he "felt it to be his duty
to inform me of some things that had
come out that day in the quarterly
conference held at Heathsville," and
advised me to take some steps to "cor.
rect damaging reports about myself" +"
l suppose his idea was that ! should
write to some friend or friends there
and l deem it no fattery to say
that l have plenty of them in all
churches and in no church-to get
these kind friends to 60 around and
correct the false statements that have
been made and are perhaps still be-
ing made. | do not propose to adopt
that plan, but a more efficient and
and suitable one, if necessary. 1t is
sad state of things that in many
instances ministers of the gospel are
considered public targets st which
any one may take round whea he
pleases-a species of game that the
game laws do not protect. Itis sad
comment that many church meetings
have degenerated nto schools of scan
dal. Iquit holding church conferences
in large measure some years ago be-
cause it gave evil-minded people a
chance to say hateful and splteful
things about others.
1t seems that at the above quarter
ly Conference some parties went into
the meeting "sniffing" dishonesty in
the former pastor. No doubt there
bad been consultation among the
principals and some, too, who kept in
the background. One church had
been extorted upon to the amount of
one dollar. The preacher had said
"about $15 was DUE" and when Que
brother failed to come up, or by some
mistake in counting it turned out that
there was SIC behind aud when the
preacher said so it was clear case of
extortion! One brother had been
robbed of his subscription to the
Christian Advocdte and had received
"dun" for the amount, but the
preacher had receipt from the pub
fishing company for it. 1t had only
been delayed little to save trouble
and expense preacher might be
out 81 on the 100 subscriptions if he
sent each mans separately by 2. DOR
der. Others had given to "The goth
Century Fund"and had not seen where
it had been received by the treasurer.
Likely they took no church paper and
had no means of seeing. The preacher
had notice that the money was re-
ceiyed and the names of those who
paid were recorded according to plan
adopted in book left at the parson-
age. Another case was graver still.
The preacher said he was not paid at
one appointment, when a steward
contended that he was. He (the
steward) could not see why a dona-
tion from another part of the field
would not cover and cancel debt at
his church. If man owes me $40
for services rendered and some kind
friend meets me and through the
kindness of his heart hauds ME Sl2,
does not the $I2 cover the $10? Hen
derson was back some .$1S or
500 Go not give the exact sum,
because there was a question as to
several dollars as to whether it was
present or paid on the debit put
it on the debt-hence We adopt the
smaller sum- He says ] mistook
money sent by him as quarterage for
present as he collected it. Why
did he go out of his neighborhood to
collectit One or two members there
may have belonged to his church but
they had paid their assessment. Here
are my reasons for believing it to be
present: The steward sent by his
daughter $3.50 of the $3O.5O back at
that time. This was distinct and to it
self. His daughter-in-law, who lived
at Lodge, came at the same time with
another package which she said
some kind friends had made up as
donation and also said that good
Baptist friend wished to add to that
pair of shoes which he did (and
many thanks to him and his partner
for them and also to the noble DON
ors of the money!. Ishall never for
get the kindness of the people at the
"Lodge" and Melrose and the good
friends at other places in my own
church and other churches and
even those out of the church.
Along with this package was the