The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-07
Methodist Circuit Riders
Past and Present.
Editorial Correspondence

(Edltorlal CorreSpondeHCe'J
wilmington, N. c., Dec. 6.-Twenty
wears ago there were more candidates for
odmissiSn into the Methodist Conference
than there were available pulpits as the
stations and circuits were then arranged.
Tn order to admit all who applied, cir-
cuits we're divided and sometimes two
men were sent on large circuit-an old
ond Young preacher together-after the
order of the early Methodists, providing
for the guidance and teaching of the
Young preachers who were received on
nrobation. That was splendid system Oh
instruction for young ministers in 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 DOCKS
hut he learned them "by heart as we
saw. AS he travelled he studied Wesley's
Sermons, Watson's Institutes, the Bible
and the Hymn Book. That was day
when the memory was given higher
Mace than now. The education of today
puts too low an estimate upon memory
and teachers too often declaim against
"parrot- like repetition as they call
memorizing rules and hymns and poems
and speeches or anything else. AS
result the old preachers knew more Bible
than the young ones and what they knew
they knew better They had to. Oftener
than otherwise they preached in groves,
| or by candle-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 of memorizing the
brief and impressive ritual Of the church,
particularly the marriage service. The
preacher who has made his memory the
| store house OF hymns and texts and pas
sages of Scripture, as we'll as the great
orations OF the world, can throw his
| manuscript to the winds.
The theological seminaries> of most of
the pioneer Methodist preachers were the
mp-meetings 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 lorraine" 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
and they read better. Sometimes it is to
be doubted if they reach the hearts and
consciences 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
university. It's earthly founder was
ripe scholar, having easily mastered
| seven languages. He wrote or translated
|
accomplished lingust and scholar his
church has known, and yet he knew that
learning and scholarship were valuable
only in the ministry as a means to
equipping them for reaching the masses.
His followers in America, going into the
wilds of the forests, had no opportunity
| obi hut do
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-
tions and trials were greater than any
man of today can reckon.
The new school of preachers know
more, 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 grandly 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
a sermon like the two great sermons of
Gloss What is man that thou art mind
full of him." But there are fifty preachers