The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-17
Conditions In South Are Not Under stood, and Roueher Classes '1b- feet to Episcopal Church Doc
 trInes-Negroes Amenable

INl. IAeNs OdIlel OylNSSNcl AuitiS, D'Dss LID. bishop of Missouri, and presiding bishop of the c4urch, presided at the mis- sionary meetings. and the speakers in- cluded Rt Rev. William Boyd Carpenter. bishop of Ripon, England; Bishops c. K. Nelson of Georgia, Peter Rowe of Alas ka. Frederick w. Keater of Olympia. Wash, and Lucien Lee Kinsolving of Southern Brazil.
 Bishop Nelson described the conditions in the south at length. He said in part:
 Bishop NeIson's Address
 Tt Is an axiom of missions that knowl- edge of persons and conditions stands at the door of appreciation of the one and a just estimate of the other.
 "No reader illustration can be found than the lack of interest in different sec tions of our common country by people of real sympathy and genuine culture. To myself, although southerner. it was. and to most of you 1t Is now true that the southland is terra incognita.
 'The lack of detail in description and doings leave most not uniformed but misinformed of people. conditions and prospects. The work of the church in the great seaboard states from Delaware to Texas has probably been seriously studied by few, while the interior states are, from all ordinary meaning, vast will derness and native jungle.
 "The larger number of the southern people, as Is popularly supposed, do not live In noxious swamps and impenetrable morasses, nor drink marsh water, but fully one-nalf of all the country in the southern states Is salubrious in climate and even those localities which In more northerly attitudes would be pest-holes are here perfectly safe, because the sup ply of drinking water Is unsurpassed in quality and abundance.
 T am not acting the immigration agent. though deeply interested in that subject; but cite these facts to let you see for yourselves how much of the south Is strange and unknown to you. and to il- lustrate the equally meagre knowledge of the church in the south.
 "A comparison of old conditions with those now existing presents contrast which may seem like an exaggeration. The prosperous days of yore were not conducive to the extension of the church.
 Within the past twenty or thirty years there has been a visible awakening of privilege and duty. The dominating marks of the episcopate have been zeal and energy in missionary endeavor. The laity have been shaken up out of their sleep. The results are manifest in ex- pansion wherever a foothold can be ob- tained.
 Difficulties Developed.
 Modern conditions develop new diffl- culties There are sections of the south where attachment to the Episcopal church involves heroism in kind, some times in degree, equal to any found in foreign missions. l have known a father to threaten punishment from home to a daughter who applied for confirmation. Out of the candidates for subordinate office the best equipped was turned down deliberately because the tank couldn't afford to take in an Epjscopalian for fear of losing business.
 'The church in the south has no mo nopoly of culture, education, refinement or wealth. The temptation of social rec ognition rarely exists. The prominence of the church presents few Inducements to enquirers; but often ban Is pro- nounced against connection with a body of Christians which are widely confound- ed with Roman Catholics, and still more frequently regarded as an exotic, and often looked upon as children go to see a group of Dahomians.
 You may readily perceive. then, that without the prestige of our older dio- ceses. under a policy utterly different from the missionary method in the west, among a people primarily indifferent to and later prejudiced against the church and her institutions, laboring under the charge of worldliness, pride, and indif- ference to the conditions of the masses, the extension of the old church exacts of her missionaries the exercise of wis dom patience, energy, persistence, for bearance and all the other attributes of loving and devoted service
 But there Is another and brighter side to the picture. The confusion of the church with foreign communions genera tions ago, especially of the Roman form, the criticism which regarded churchmen as interlopers, have all, to a large ex- tent, disappeared, almost wholly so in communities of 5000 and upward.
 Classes to Deal With.
 Here in the east the church has to deal mainly with two classes; in the south there are three classes; Q) the cul- tured and comfortable. who, totally con- trary to conditions here and in Nary land and Virginia, are traditional mem- bers of one of the other of the modern cOmmunlOnS. Few or them nave ever seen the church at her best or in her full spiritual power, which fact, combined with an antecedent prejudice against a liturgy, and historic rites and usages, makes approach difficult and the presen- tation of the strue claims of the church appear presumption. @ To these peo- pie an eduvated ministry is in the first instance an affront, the prayer book Is gibberish. the orderly customs and dress of the clergy repellent to their uneon- ventional modes of thought and practice. (3) The negroes with whom the way is easier but wanting Gas we have shown missionary effect to bel in local encour- agement They are more amenable to church instruction than either of the other two classes.
 But the immense preponderance of q gandism and with efficient racial admin istration and a secret social bond promo ted by innumerable organizations presents a serious bar to progress. The white mans church is not in popular favor. It is not broad enough either in worship or in morals to meet the popular desire. It's ideals are too high, Its standard is not compatible with their possibilities.
 ''The second class comprises most of the industrial forces of the south, whose religious tendencies are all of the ultra protestant type Among these people the church has scarcely made a beginning Their characteristic traits are general anativ distrrIst of all who have the Q u-