The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1904-09-27
Communication
From Rev. BarnWelI.


r. w. Barnwell, which We cheer
fully give space in our columns !:
Editor Commercial:
Nothing is gaine1 by allowing
inferences, seriously damaging
ITO the work that Bishop Bratton,
as the leader of the Episcopal
Church in the Diocese of Missis-
sippi, is trying to do in Gods
name, to go uncorrected. | most
/ cheerfully aequit your paper of
any desire to injure our good
/ Bishop, or our church, but when
/ you state editorially that 'sweep-
/ ing charges" are made against
Bishop Bratton, without saying
anything about the nature of
those charges or the source of
them, the door left open for in
| ference is a very wide one. /
therefore enclose a brief notice
of the action of the "Standing
Committee, which was taken
upon these charges, as showing
the nature of them. And for
fear lest some minds may still
think that there is something
underneath, | beg leave further
to state that this clergyman men
toned in the clipping, is attack
ing his superior for giving the
''letter dimissory" which another
clergyman attacked him for not
giving. The Bishops actions
were dependent on those of his
Standing Committee, which he
was careful to follow. All of this
appears in the formal charges as
made and printed by the Rev.
Mr.. Hallam, and in the recent
matter made public by Rev. Mr..
Ewing, Mr.. Hallam made a
charge of ''falsehood" but it was
simply the technical one of using
the word qualified" clergyman
in an official paper as descriptive
of Mr.. Ewing's status, after the
Standing Committee had 50 de-
clared him to be. Mr.. HalIam,
though bent on charging the
Bishop with something, found it
difficult indeed. For the rest the
charges related to the fact that
Mr.. Hallam tried to force Bishop
Bratton to take up a certain mat
ter with the Standing Committee,
and not succeeding, he made the
charge of conduct unbecoming
to clergyman, ETC." Th at mat
ter concerned Bishop Thompson,
who was dead, and the Standing
Committee of the past, so that
there was probably abundant
good judgment in Bishop Brat
toms refusal to aid the stirring of
closed issues.
But, if Bishop Bratton's char
acter be deemed for one moment
assailable, never mind what the
nature and source of the ''sweep-
ing charges, +" it may not be
amiss to say that he has risen
from honor to honor because first
rising from confidence to con-
fidence. | know whereof | speak
when | say that his associates of
the past, whether fellow students
or fellow teachers at the Univer-
sity, parishioners whom he led to
stability and success, fellow pro-
fessors of the College where he
long taught, teachers under him
in the College of which he was
the head, and the whole number
of Bishops of the Southern Dio-
ceses will all testify that every
honor was deserved, and that this
mans sense Of responsibility to
God is supreme over every ac-
ton.
And let me add a word. When
We were all boys together, the
Bishops brother, supposing the
younger one was running rabbits
on Sunday, with the sons of the
tenants, rebuked him, but got
neither defense or even denial
from the future Bishop, but only
the boyish reply: "Mind your
own business. When he went
into the barn one Sunday, he
found where the younger one ran
rabbits. He had coralled those
boys and was teaching them a
Sunday School lesson. And if