The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-05

cultivated people that the earth holds.
The tribute to the pulpit's strength for
evil has its strange complement in the
ACCOMMODATING assertion of the pulpit's
imhecility: the whole monstrous accusa-
tion swallows itself, tail, body and head,
including brain.
AS if bent on double decentralization,
the paragraph rests in a surrounding
atmosphere in which it must inevitably
die This shall clearly show My as
sertion is that the paragraph misrepre-
sents it's writer to such an extent as to
make him profess to believe a thing
which he can not believe if he believe
other things which he says in the same
article Just before and just after this
paragraph.
The charge is that the preachers are
responsible for the Nations loss CT the
force and character Of the South. But
the body of the article was written for
the express purpose of claiming and
showing that this loss is now in process
CT rapid recovery under the operation of
1.-TWO new forces at work" The one is
the Acknowledgement of negroes and the
other is industrial prosperity. But
now" says the author, "there are two
new forces at work. The mass of ne
groes have been DISTINGUISHED in many
of the States, and soon will be in more,
and the full tide of industrial prosperity
is now having effect" The writer then
goes on to show that the industrial pros
perity is promoted by "the gold standard
by expansion by shipping subsidies;
and discusses Senator McIaurin and
President Mckinley. These 1.-TWO new
forces thus fostered and the fostering
agencies becoming more generally ac-
copied at the South, the "loss TO the Ma
ton" will be proportionally changed to
gain.
Now it is no part of my object to dis
cuss these secular political views. In
forcing the argument, it is not necessary
fer me to accept them or reject them.
The only nail care to lay the hammer
upon and drive to the head is that these
two new forces" With their fostering
agencies are described as restoring to
the South her "old-time force and char
acter" as a factor in the Nation. The
lack of these very things, therefore, must
be what the author holds to have been
the FATAL lack This is his real opln-
ion, las his whole article shows The
ology'' is not even under discussion. Not
one specification is laid under the charge
pendence by out-worn creeds. Not one
doctrine of religion is discussed, or could
have been discussed, with any degree of
proprety to the line Of thought The
whole trend of the article is secular. The
whole reference to preachers" is IT.
relevant. The whole dogmatic accusa-
ton ia not only sustained by even an at
tempt at specification or proof but is dis
proved by the writer's own explicit views
cnounced and elaborated i'll the same ar
ticlc. If 1.-The politicians and the preach
crs" have ruined the South and two
new forces" are now saving it, surely
one of them would need tC be theological.
But the writer does not attempt to snow
that either of the new forces so ade-
uuate to save us has one thing 10 do
with "creeds." Theology today is Just
what it has been.s 1t cannot be that
'preachers" and "out-worh opinions and
creeds" and most stagnant waters of the
ology' have been a prime factor IN de-
bilitating and running the South If two
new forces" both secular, can redeem
and save it, And this is claimed by the
writer who pays no attention TO things oil
religion beyond denouncing them. Is this
reason? Is this breadth and tolerance?
4. | now come to part Of this wanton
invective which l would prefer not to
touch. The reading of it is sorrow, the
mere quotation of it is burning shame.
Here it is: Doctors of divinity who
herd good women by the most stagnant
waters of Theology"
Now this writer is not ignorant or
words He selects his synonym to carry
its shade of meaning. His metaphor is
forcefully, coarsely, repulsively express
sive 1t cannot fail to draw its picture
upon the mind: dead, "stagnant waters"
upon the brink, the creatures of the
herd" cattle, sluggish stupid, dumb,
driven; and over these, whip in hand to
suppress independence, those who herd.
These putrid waters are the theology"
the views of God and Of Gods word,
taught in the pulpits of the South. These
ignorant and tyrannical herdsmen are the
criminal preachers" of the South. But
my pen positively refuses to write down
who the cattle are. For this l refer the
reader to the metaphor.
This answers good women These
submit to the suppression of intellectual
independence" and are passively charge
able with the woes of the South as are
the preachers" who herd" them.
common stupidity and responsibility.
Intellectual independence is noble at
tribute. The women of the South possess
it in all it's glory. Their thought has
never been suppressed. They have. been
the companions and counsellors of their
husbands in highest positions both in
church and in State. Their minds, "since
the war" have enriched the nations lit
erature and largely educated the nations
children. But it is not their intellectuali-
ty which endows them with "old time
Southern force and character since the
war" Woman's source Of power in this
land is that very thing which the editor
of the Worlds Work seems so lightly to
esteem. Her holy religion is the deepest
thing in her heart, the fairest and the
most potent in her life. The man proud
of his intellectually may be, after all,
only the 'wisest. brightest, meanest of
mankind leaving the world to turn from
1.-The spectacle of so much glory and so
much shame" But the lullaby of the
modest hand maid of the Lord shall
rule the chords of human feeling and hui
man destiny with more of Transforming
power than all the eloquence of De-
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