The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-04

get the full penalty of the law. whose hardships. in theory only. fall on all alike. And they lynch people--inno- cent people. We have fewer lynchings in Alabama, at least, thank God, than in almost any other Southern State. Last year we had one. and this year we have begun with one. Let me give you a sample.
 Some time ago, In county in this State, poor old crippled negro in s justice court swore to a statement dif- fering from the sworn statement of young white woman in the some court. This was his whole offense. It is not an unusual occurrence to have wit nesses in the courts differ in their testimony. A trifling little case In a justice court A complacent constable on his way to the jail turned over the crippled to a small mob of regulators, and the cripple that night supped In another country. I have often won dered if that figure, hastily summoned to another court, ever comes back to sit at the humble feast of his murder CTS as did the ghost at the great Mac beth's table. These murderers could get their full deserts If the crippled negro would walk by their side in every furrow that they made III the springtime and in the summer. In the heat and In the cold; an ever present and averaging Nemesis. If were stony of heart I could wish that the mur- derers when they finally come to face the inevitable. to look in the face of that judgment to which they ushered without notice the poor unshrived dew il; that at the very moment when their eyes were being closed to earth, If I were stony of heart, could wish that they would look at the last on the face of the poor and humble cripple. II is not all of life to live. There is a good deal of 1t after death. This is a mere sample of what we can do. The Constitution of this State makes 1t my duty to see that the laws are d. Hence my disposition to preach. to seize the opportunity to beg your assistance. Standing on the sec ular ramparts I cry out for your as- l sistance: Come over and help us, - | help us more and more. If I were a judge on the bench. there would be a vacant seat near me for minister and in the bar places for every holy man | of God who was willing to occupy them | A secular official needs the help of tho l spiritual.
 l I am only here to give the repre- sentatives of your great church a wei come to the State, and I am led off to talk ahou; the things that most con
 my office--to talk shop to you, l know your great power for good and | hence my earnest effort to invoke IL. A great church with hardly more than a century and a half of life, and yet find you covering the earth with temples Of worship. and seeking out in this land particularly the remotest hamlet for a spire and a minister to point the people and to lead the way You, in the language of the psalmist say 'I love thy law" meaning the d. vine law So influence the youth. in the cities. in the country in crowded communities and remotest hamlets, SC 1 teach them more and more that they can lay their hands on the statutes ot their state, and say T love Thy law
 We are proud to have you with us It pleases me and if awes me to stand before you and give you welcome oui you have welcome. I hope 1t vii prove as strong as are our hills as gracious a s are our fields, and as ten de" as are the hearts of our people
 Immediately upon the conclusion O the bishops address. a telegram eX' to J c. Bcrryman, of Caledonia, Mo. who is in his ninety-seVenth year, an6 who is the sole surviving member o the Methodist General Conference o 1844
 A message of sympathy and esteem was received from the Woman's Home Missionary Board which has just aG journed al Asheville N. c.
 J NJ Heidt of Atlanta presented tC the conference through Bishop Wilsor a garel made from the wood of thu tro" under which John Wesley. the founder Of Methodism, delivered hi' first sermon in America, near SaVan nah Ga The gavel was made by R l F. Repper, of Savannah.