The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-12-15

| creators, of any religious life ] have had
| tho chance to observe. The creator has
always been a person. In this case the
personality of Mr.. Hepburn, though com
para.iyely unaidcd, was oiso compare
lively untrammelcd.
such a life as Mr.. Hepburn's is not
unique in Virginia In fact, with change
Of personality and location, it is dupll-
Gated all through the South. One rector
in the city Of Richmond tcid me that
| early in his ministry lie had similar
rural parish His church was in the cen
ter of population. ana there we're preach
ing places eight, ten, thirteen miles
| away in different directions. Most OF ms
time, he told me, he spent on horseback.
And this was his testimony as to the
hopefulness of Southern rural life:
There is in the main no sign OF moral
or religious degeneracy. Nine-tenths of
the theological students come from rural
| parishes. In the parish I had, six mon
| out of fifty communicates have gone 1870
| tho ministry since I left. eighteen years
ago, and it was not a remarkable parish,
either
another rector *, Ri.!,a1orl told me
that his first experience in the paste: ste
| was in circuit-riding, all in connection
| with negroes: and that it involved all
sorts of work-going into their cabins,
giving them orders on stores, providing
them with medicines, and praying with
them.
II have mentioned these Episcopal min
listers because think it is generally he
lieved that circuit-riding is peculiar 10
the Methodists AS a matter Of fact, I
found it common in all the denominations
in the South. This fact was impressed
upon me in conversations I had the privi-
lege Of having with several students at
Richmond College, one of whom was a
minister's son from Georgia, another
from Florida, another a resident, I be-
lieve, of one of the Carolinas. They all
told me the same story of circuit-ridinS.
In the course of one of these converse
tons I heard of one village of five hun
bred inhabitants-and this goes to show
that circuit preaching is not confined to
the sparscly settled country regions
which had five churches of different de-
nominations, each with a preacher of its
own. Not one of these preachers lived
in the village One had his home in the
| country abou: ten miles away; the 9TH
ers all had their residences in the city
of Richmond. This village was simply a
| part of their circuits. And yet some
| Sundays every church was closed. There,
| at least, there seemed to be lacking the
| saving power of the right personality.
'The student from Florida was the son
! of Il Baptist minister, in whose circuit
| was the Baptist Church of Tallahassee,
| the capital of the State. At first he lived
| outside of Tallahassee, and came periodi-
| cally to preach in the city. Gradually the
| church grew, until now, that it has a
| membership Of seventy-five, he has moved
| to Tallahassee. but has retained charge
over a church in another place. He was
still a circuit preacher, with his head
| quarters in the capital of the State.
Nothing could better illustrate the fact
| that in the South rural conditions largely
| preponderate And if the country rector,
| whose life had a glimpse of, is typical
| of rural ministry in the South, as have
| good reason to believe, there is justitica-
| ton for the hopefulness which I found
to be Southern characteristic"