The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-10
THE ATTACK FROM DURHAM UPON THE METH
ODIST MINISTRY.

congregation with them, and thus the in
tiuence OF the church and its ministers has
had tendency for evil rather than TOR
good. But, as / said above, this Writer
has given his opinion; he has let the
secret out, and now the honest, conscient-
ious minister will examine his life and
conduct and see if this criticism APP
plies to him. Let me illustrate, I have
heard that the only Methodist minister
who ever mentioned the Wilmington muir
ders did so to approve of them and jus
tilted the act. That sermon has hurt the
Methodist church and the cause of the
Christian religion more than this min
lister could ever undo if he lived ard
preached a thousand years. We have
had a performance in the Methodist
church here that was disgraceful beyond
expression which no minister OF any de-
nomination, so far as I know, has ever
had the courage to denounce. Silence
does not help in such cases. The stain is
on the church and is as plain as the
mark on the forehead of Cain, and there
is no outside power that can ever efface
it. The cleansing must come from within
and neither the church nor the ministers
have the courage necessary for the per.
fruits you shall know them" IS applied
to the church and the world passes on
desp,sing the very institution that should
be the ennobhng and elevating influence
of society. There is one other passage
in regard to the ministers that I will no
tice in this connection which is this:
'They stand and have long stood in
the way of all progress in thought in
the South. They have been used by
the politicians and they use the
churches to stife real freedom"
Brethren, examine yourselves and see
| If this Is so. / remember in 1899 hearing
a preacher remark that he was one of
the first men in this State to put on a
red shirt. Now that man might have
! preached a sermon as beautiful as the
dawning of creation. when God sprinkled
| the armament with the stars from his
finger tips. and to me it would have been
a piece of splendid Oratory, full of splen-
did imagery, but devoid of life and soul.
There was not a red shirt outrage In
this State that was not contrary to law.
There was not an outrage on a RepubG-
can or Populist speaker in 1898 or 1900
| that was not violation of the fundamen-
| tai principles of our government. which
| every church member and especially every
minister was duty bound to rebuke and
denounce, and yet how many dared to
do it? The most of the ministry are
Democrats and all this devilment was
done in the interest of the Democratic
party. To stop it, to denounce it, to
| even advise against it. might mean to
! jeopardize their party's success and so
| they held their peace and crimes went
on. This meant they loved their party
better than their Lord and His service,
| and so the world judged them. By this
| they encouraged lawlessness as much as
| Saul did when he held the garments of
| those who stoned Stephen to death and
by this living of life and by their silence,
generally often with their advice, and
nearly always by their vote, they have
| really helped ito stifie real freedom"
Men and Brethren: What do you think
| of this raving? This is a damnabie sland-
er Of the Methodist ministry of North
Carolina made by North Carolinian in
North Carolina newspaper expecting to
go into North Carolina homes. The au-
thor OF that article cannot name two
Methodist preachers in the State who
nave taken active part IN partisan poll
tics. If any preacher ever put on red
shirt in this State it was because the
nightmare of misgoyernment under Rus
sell forced him to do so to protect his
wife and daughters. He was driven to it
by the destruction of decent government
by the Republican party in North Caro-
lima, between 1896 and 1898. t~
Preachers in North Carolina, Methodsts
and all others, stand for law and order.
They are not towards, they are not the
puppets of politicians, they have the
courage Of their convictions. The Win
ston Republican ought to be ashamed to
publish this vile Islander of good and true
men.