The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-11-26

|
the Present Time, by w. l.. GrisSom.
IN. .duc,ion by John }. Tigert, ID.
d., LII. D., Nashville, Tenn, Pub
fishing House, of the Nj. Il. Church,
south, 1905.
CBy the Rev. Robah F. Bumpas, Pas
tor of Edenton Street church,
To the Editor: Here it is at last!
That for which we have been longing
| and waiting.
More than a quarter of a century
| ago the inimitable DR.. John b. Nc
| Ferrin gave good account of Meth
odism in Tennessee in three octavos.
| About the same time DR.. A. H. Red
| ford produced a three volume history
of Methodism in Kentucky. Both of
! these books met with a warm well
come. and were read with interest
| throughout the church. Since then
| South Carolina and Virginia Metho-
| dism have found worthy historians in
/ Dr's. Shipp and Bennett. Other
| States followed but North Carolina
| has had to wait.
Some years since, the Conference,
desiring to hasten the matter, and
| secure the production OF history
| before the materials should disappear
| passed a resolution requesting the late
, Rev DR.. H. r. Hudson, whose pen
! had furnished the church with much
/ wholesome literature, to undertake
/ the task. He began to gather mater
| ial, and wrote some chapters OF the
| intended book, but owing to the dlff1-
Guilty of securing the facts necessary
| to a complete statement of our past,
the work was at length abandoned.
And so we have waited, and the
waiting has proven no loss, but a gam
the rather. Happily there has appear
| ed among US one able to command
both the time and the means for the
task: and ir producing this book, the
first of the three volumes which is
now before us. he has spared Meth
er. With him it has been a work of
love.
He will not live sufficiently long to
secure from the sales of the book a
moitv of that which its production
has cost him. The worlds best work
has always been done from love, not
from the hope of recompense. 10 op-
tain the material for this book, the
author has ransacked the continent
He has searched all the great libra
ries. rummaged the old bookstores,
climbed into dusty garrets, and has
brought out books, old, rare, forgot
ten. He has unearthed manuscripts
laboriously produced by the fathers,
but which have never seen the hgat
OF day: and out of this mass or ma
terial he has produced an orderly, m
structive, and intensely interesting
narrative of the struggles ana
triumphs of those who planted Meth
odism within the borders of our State.
a'he book contains statements which
doubtless will be news to some or It's
readers. We quote this paragraph
from the preface:
1T will be seen in these pages that
the first subscriptions to Methodist
school in America were made by North
Carolnians; that the first Conference
school was erected in North Carolina;
shat the first Meth0di{ periodical
published in America was launched
from North carolina; that the first
Discipline in it's present form was
prepared for the press by a circuit
preacher in North Carolina; and that
the camp-meeting, which gave TO
Methodism such an impetus in it's ear
" days, had it's origin in North car
DINA, and not in Kentucky, as is gen
orally recorded.
1t is interesting with Mr. Grissom to
trace the beginning of things in the
Old North State.
In 1749 James Davis set up the first
printing press in Newbern, and issued
q weekly entitled The North Carolina
Gazette" The first school established
by legislative enactment in our State
was the Newbern Academy in 1861
The first minister to preach the COS
pei in North Carolina was Quaker
The credit of preaching the first
Methodist sermon in North Carolina
has usually been accorded to Robert
Williams Our author very properly
gives this honor TO Joseph Fillmore,
who proceeded Williams, as was point
ed out by the writer Of this sketch,
some years ago, in a paper on Metho-
dism in Beaufort. on his visit to
Newbern in 1872, Mr.. Pilmoore says:
"In all my travels through the world,
/ have met with none like the people
of Newbern." They MAINTAIN the
same reputation today.
SO / might quote from this book
adj libitum. but / simply desire to Whet
the appetite of the reader for its thor
ough perusal. l am glad to see the
book as heartily commended by per-
sons wholly competent to judge its
merits.
DR.. Tfgert, the editor of "The
Southern Methodist Review, and
whom his friends expect to see eleva-
ted to the Episcopacy next spring,
says:
"Mr. Grssom's pages give ample ev-
| idence of the scope-I might say COM
pleteness-of his Investigations and of
| the accuracy of his results. He has
given many years Of untiring and in
telligent search to the collection of
his materials. These efforts have re-
suited in a measure of success SO large
that the author well deserves, and will
receive, q permanent and honored
place among those who have conse-
Grated their energies and time to the
preservation of the fast disappearing
sources of early Methodist history in
America. This wealth of material has
been utilized in the construction of
worthy and ample narrative of the
beginnings of Methodism in North
Carolina"
A gifted and scholarly professor in
one of our chief institutions of learn
ing says:
Brother GriSsom has given much
painstaking research to the task OF
reconstructing the story of the found
ing of our church, and he has sue
ceeded in collecting a great many
very valuable facts in regard to It.
His book is a new book entirely'
and it is very important because II ~
the first attempt to describe IN
formal history the wonderful story
of our past.
Gle has done q creditable piece o.