The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-09
Methodist Circuit RiderS==
Past and Present.
Editorial Correspondence.)

A141o
Wilmington, =. c., Dec. 6.-Twenty
| years ago there were more candidates for
| admission into the Methodist Conference
| than there were available pulpits as the
| stations and circuits were then arranged.
IN order 70 admit all who applied, cir
| cults were divided and sometimes two
| men were sent OF a large circuit-an old
| and a young preacher together-atter the
| order Of the early Methodists. providing
for the guidance and teaching OF the
voung preachers who We're received OF
probation. That was a splendid system OF
instruction for young ministers in a day
when comparatively few OF them came
from college walls, most Of them needing
the call and studying as they preached
The college OF the early circuit rider was
in the saddle and his library was in the
saddle-bags. He had very few books,
but he learned them by heart as We
say. As he travelled he studied Wesley's
Sermons. Watson's Institutes. the Bible
and the Hymn Book. That was a day
when the memory vas given a higher
Lace than now. The education Of today
PUTS too low an estimate upon memory,
and teachers too often deCialrn against
''parrot-like repetition" as they call
memorizing rules and hymns and poems
and speeches or anything else. rs a
~csult TIE old preachers knew more Bible
than the young ones and what they knew
they knew better. They had 20. Oftener
than otherwise they preached in groves,
or by candlc-lights in rude house, and they
gave out their hymns from memory and
gave their text without reference to the
Bible. Bishop Coke Smith yesterday, in
addressing the young preachers, empha-
sized the Importance CT memorizing the
brief and impressive ritual Of the church,
particularly the marriage service. The
preacher who has made his memory the
store-hcuse of hymns and texts and pas
sages Of Scripture, as we'll as the great
o~rations Of the world, can throw his
manuscript to the winds.
The theological seminaries of most of
the pioneer Methodist preachers were the
camp-mectings and the long journeys on
horseback from place to place. Many OF
them learned Wesley's sermons in these
| horseback rides and MADE the primeval
| forest melodious with the hymns of
Charles Wesley. They didn't know very
much about "do-ra-me' and the rules
Of music, and their voices were not al
| ways trained, but they sung ever with the
spirit If not with the understanding. The
| new theological schools make broader
| scholars and sermons of more learning
ard they read better. Sometimes it is to
be doubted if they reach the hearts and
| conscicnces Of men so surely as the
sermons of many who never saw the in
| side of the college walls.
The Methodist church was born in a
university. It's earthly founder was a
ripe scholar, having easily mastered
| seven languages. He wrote or translated
two hundred books. He was the most
! accomplished Iinguist and scholar his
| church has known, and yet he knew that
learning and scholarship were valuable
only in the ministry as q means to
| equipping them for reaching the masses.
His followers in America, going into the
| wilds Of the forests, had no opportunity
for a college education, but they made
up in knowledge of the Bible and heart
religion what they lacked of classical
lore. In that theological seminary the
ranks were kept full, though the priva-
tons and trials were greater than any
man of today can reckon.
The new school Of preachers know
moro, they are better educated. the aver
age of ability is higher than a generation
ago, but there is now no preacher in the
North Carolina Conference who stands
head and shoulders above his fellows as
formerly. Was it because the average
was so much lower than now that Gloss
and Wilson and Burkhead and Robey
doomed up so grahdly in the pulpit? There
are more ministers here today who can
fill important positions than thirty years
ago. The whole mass Of the ministry has
moved UP on a higher plane of all-round
ability, but there are no mountain peaks
as formerly. There is no Gloss in the
conference.-the man who approaches him
in fine analytical power, in sweeping
and powerful logic, in all the elements
Of the great preacher. There is no man
now among the preachers who could make
q sermon like the two great sermons OF
whu have splendid gifts in the ail-round
qualities essential in a useful preacher
l of today. The old order chanGeth Civ