The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-17
BISHOP NELSON
AND The SOUTH
BIAS AGAINST THE CHURCH
MAKES THE PRESENTATION OF ITS
CLAIMS DIFFICULT. HE SAYS.

Prejudice Against the Liturgy nnd
Historic Rites and UsnEes Bar
to the Rapid development of
Episcopn lila anlsm-The Glasses the
Church Has TO Deal With-Tbe
Negro ns Churchman-The south
as Desirable Field for Immigra-
tion.
Boston. Mass, oct. 16.-Bishop Gle
land Kinloch Nelson of Georgia, in his
address before the Episcopal mis-
sionary meeting to-day dealt with the
difficulties the church has to contend
with in the South. He said.
1t is an anxiom of missions that
knowledge of persons and conditions
stands at the door of appreciation of
the one and just estimate of the
other
No reader illustration can he found
than the lack of interest i'm different
sections of our common country by
people of real sympathy and genuine
culture. To myself, although a
Southerner. it was. and to most of
you it is now true that the Southland
is terra incognita.
The lack OF detail in description and
the garbled report of the sayings and
doings leave most not uniformed but
misnformed of people, conditions and
prospects The work of the Church I'm
the great seaboard states from Della
ware TO Texas has probably been seri-
ously studied by few. whi5a the in
terror states are. from all ordinary
meaning. vast wilderness and native
jungle.
The larger number of the southern
people as is popularity supposed, do
not live In noxious swamps and im-
renetrable moiasses nor drink marsh
water but fully one-half of all the
country In the Southern states is salu-
brious In climate and even those
localities which in more Northerly lati-
tudes would be pest-holes are here
perfectly safe because the supply Of
drinking water Is unsurpassed In
quality and abundance.
l am not acting the immigration
agent. though deeply interested in
that subject; but cite these facts to let
you SEQ for yourselves how much Of
1 he South Is strange and unknown TO
you, and to illustrate the equally
meager knowledge of the Church in
the South.
The south As II II.
A comparison of old conditions with
those now existing presents a 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 visible awaken
Ing Of privilege and duty The domi-
mating marks of the Episcopate have
been zeal and energy in missionary en-
deavor. The laity have been shaken up
out Of their sleep. The results are
manifest in expansion wherever foot
hold can be obtained.
Modern conditions develop new diff
hculties. There are sections of the
South where attachment TO the Epis-
copal Church involves heroism IN kind,
sometimes In degree, equal to any
found I'm foreign missions. have
known a father TO threaten banishment
from home to a daughter who applied
for confirmation. Out Of the candidates
for a subordinate office the best equip
ped was turned down deliberately be-
cause the bank couldn't afford to take
In an Episcopalian for fear OF losing
business.
The church I'm the South has no
monopoly Of culture. education, refine
ment or wealth. The temptation of
social recognition rarely exists. The
prominence of the church presents few
inducements to inquirers; but often a
ban Is pronounced against connection
with body of Christians which are
widely confounded with Roman Catho-
lies, and still more frequently regard
ed as an exotic, and often looked upon
as children go TO see group Of Da-
homians.
EpIscOpnI Church Extension slow.
You may readily perceive, then, th.t
without the prestige of our older do
ceses, under a policy utterly different
from the missionary method I'm the
West. among a people primarily indif-
ferent to and later preJudiced against
the church and her institutions, labor
ing under the charge of wordliness.
pride and indifference TO the condi-
tion Of the masses. the extension of the
old church exacts OF her missionaries
the exercise of wisdom, patience, ener-