The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-19
DIR. TIGERT ON METHO ODISM Strong Address at Court
 Street Church. PREDICTS AS TO FUTURE Negro Problem Will Be Solved
 by Churches. Wesley Bl-centenary Exercises Will Close Sunday When Bishop
 Candler of Georgia Will
 Deliver an Address.
PREDICTS AS TO FUTURE

Court Street Methodist Church last night A large congregation was present, includ- ing among its members q number of Leg lslatures and a larger number of minis ters of the various churches.
 The services preliminary to the lecture of the evening were conducted by Rev, J. H. James of the Perry Street Metho. dist Church.
 The occasion was anotable one because the lecture of pr. J. J. Tigert of Nash vile was a notable utterance. His sub- ject was. The Future of Methodism.' ' Contrary. doubtless, to the expectations of many of his hearers, he did not speak in the spirit of prophecy and paint in bril- liant colors a glowing future of triupmh and victory to follow the splendi dachieve- ments of the past. but addressed himself rather to the more sober duties that lie ahead.
 Methodists Not Satisfied.
 He disclaimed in the outset that these Wesleyan celebrations were conducted in any spirit of vain glory or boasting. or that the Methodists are a self-satisfied and self-sufficient people. On the con- trary. they are moved now as formerly by a sense of the dependence on the help of Jesus Christ and the blessings of God.
 The first point made by Dr. Tigert as to the probable course of future events, was the unlikelihood that there would be any drift of Protestanism toward the Roman Church. He paid, in passing. a tribute to the abilities and successes of the late Pope, and to the qualifications of his successor. But the difference between the two branches of the Christian church Is fundamental. One believes and teaches that the church makes the Christian. The nthar that Christian the church. The one sets the priest between the Christian and his God. The other believes the humblest Christian Is as near to God as the priest or bishop. and his with the Heavenly Father just as close and direct. Wherever two or three are gathered together in be- lieving. there is the church of the Pro- testant just as much as if 1t had a his torical connection with the apostolic age.
 Dr. Tigert said the Methodist church had never had a program. It had been developing church, changing with its new duties and its new environment Wesley. himself. did not know one year what the next year might bring and did not fore see the form which the movement would assume. He defended the church policy which changes to meet new conditions. We do not reflect on the past
  CT rather than the sailing vessel, the in preference to the stage coach. Life Is the continuous adaptation to en- vironment and Methodist as a living branch of the living church and must adapt itself to the environ ment.
 Concerned With Whole Man.
 Here came out distinctly and with prominence the principal idea of the lec- ture. viz. that the church is concerned with the whole man. When a man Is hungry, feed him. When he is naked, clothe him. When he is ignorant in- struct him. When he is in sin, help him to the salvation of his soul. The church will become more of an institutional church because as our population drifts into and gathers in the cities. our duties and the church must go further than the one work of spreading the gos- pei.
 The church has a duty to educate. No man would obstruct or impede the great work of the common school which is so dear to the hearts of the American peo- pie. But why should not the boys and girls who labor in the day. not be gath cred at night in the basement of a church like this and taught freely by the church as part of the duty enjoined by Jesus Christ upon the Christian? And so with the building of asylums and hospitals That is one of the great sources of the strength of the Roman Catholic Church suffering humanity is relieved there when relief and comfort are nowhere else to oe found. That and not the doctrine of the church prevails over the hearts and minds of men.
 He alluded to the Sisters of Mercy and Charity who go about doing good and en- iorsed the recent creation of deacon ssses in the Methodist Church as a step llong the line of the church adapting It. 'elf to new conditions and duties.
 Locking to the Future.
 Dr. Tigert saw in the future a gradual 'ading out of the line between the Meth ,dist Church, North and South. The re- ,ent adoption of a common order of ser vice means that the Methodist from Bos- ,on will be at home in the church at and the Methodist from will be at home in church at Boston or New York. All sense of diff ference will fade from the minds of men and progress of unity and brotherhood Tn this century no man can foresee.
 The future of the church Is big with a solemn duty to the negro race, he de clared. The politician will not solve tho problem. He works through party and for the triumph of party. This is the work of the Christian moved by his sense of duty and the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the souls of all men, white and red and black. In the days of slavery the Methodist Church had some hundreds of thousands of black members. The galleries of our churches were filled with them; we had them IL our family altars. They had been set gida in n PhYF0h nf hoir Christian duty to them, as an inferior and a weaker race, Is none the less now than 1t was then. Not all the negroes are The millions spent on their education have not been spent in vain. However, the waves of feeling aroused by the indiscretions of those in high places may rise and flow, however horrl- ble may be the deeds of some negroes themselves. the Christian church will go forward in its duty to this ignorant and helpless and lift 1t up
 Religion and Immc"ality.
 Perhaps the most striking of all the many forcible things said by Dr. Tigert In his masterful and chaste style was his appeal that We get rid of all idea that any man can be at the same time a re- ligious and an immoral man. Religion and immortality cannot be joined together In one life.
 The announcement was made by Mir. James that on Sunday morning the Sum day schools will convene at 9:3O o'clock and dismiss at 1O:3O o'clock in order that all may have time to attend the Union services at the Court Street and Dex- tex Avenue Churches. Bishop Candler of Georgia will preach at the Court Street