Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1903-10-02
Reply to Rev l1r Root

reply to Rev. Roots explanation
which | do not think explains, but
is worse than the original offense
In addition to reaffirming that two
thirds of orr citizens are in the
same state as the heather Ephesians
before the gospel had been preach
ed to them, he tries to saddle the
same belief upon the Methodists
and nearly every body else. AS a
Methodist may | presume to speak
for Mothodists? <~s
| still believe his statistics and
remarks put US in a false light. |
know Of no county viewed from all
noints that can make a better show
ING in morals. There are no sa-
looms. The Jail is nearly always
empty. The courts have scarcely
nothing to do. A criminal, a tramp
or vagabond is quite a curiosity
ND here. If we were not a little
above the average these things
could not I've.
Orr people are not all true chris
tians but the most of US regard the
laws of God and man.
It is not true in any sense that
two thirds of our citizens are bad
and wicked people without God
and without hope. Neither are we
an ignorant people like some Eas-
tern people imagine We are. We are
fairly we'll civilized and likely to
remain so unless too many Foreign
Missionaries come among US and
succeeded IN overturning our GUS
toms and civilization.
Mr. Root SAYS he used the term
"without God and without hope"
in the same sense in which it is
used in Ephesians 2, IL.
That is what | objected to. He
asks me what think it means.
Well, | think it means just what it
says.
Now let us read the following
translation which is easier under
stood than the King James trans
!ation, but which means exactly
the same thing, and see if their
case is the same as that OF two
thirds Of us.
Remem Der, therefore, how you
were once heathems yourselves, as
your bodies showed. You who were
called The uncircumcised' by those
who were called The Circumcised,
their circumcision beng a cir
cumcision performed upon the
body by the hand of man. At
that time you were far from Chris! /;
you were cut off from the priyi-
leges of Israel; aud, as regards the
Covenants formed on Gods prom
Use. you were outsiders; you were
in the world without hope and
without God"
So Mr. Root reaffirms most OF us
are hpnthens like the Ephesians
without hope and without God. He
surely does not mean what he says,
or else does not know what he has
said. Charity requires us to say
we don't believe he means all he
says.
| am aware that his church calls
all other Christians The Unbaptiz-
ed and of course The Outsiders.'
They will not allow US to commune
with them. and will expel men,
Der for communing with us.
But he informs us that while our
condition is like that of the Ephe-
slams he does not consider us be-
yond recovery.
And | presume that he means as
the apostles preaching gave these
heathens hope for change, so
the sending of missionaries to us
gives us hope Of getting within
the Covenant and finally into heay-
en- at last.
That we may yet become baptiz-
ed, ceased to be outsiders and OBJ
tain a knowledge of the true God.
In the name Of the M e Church,
South and for more than 100
members in the county and as a
citizen | protest against summing
up all the little children and plac-
ing them on the side of the damn
ed. TO sum up all the little chill
dren and then lump them off in
one bunch as fiji subjects for an
endless hell is as bad as casting
them aliye into the Gauges River
to appease the wrath of an imangl-
nary God.
He says that he, the Methodists
and nearly every body else believes
that children from birth till they
personally believe have no expert
mental knowledge Of God or union
with him. Experimental knowl-
edge of God in infants is some
thing of which Mr Root or myself
know very little. God is a spirit
and all who worship Him must
worship in spirit, and not in feshy
knowledge. The spirit of a child
is as much reality as the spirit of
a man. We get in deep water at