Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-09-24
DIR, SMITH WRITES
ABOUT DR.. BRADLEY

great crowd Of Baptist Journal readers
escapes him.
1 am Methodist of over go years mem
bership and a Methodist preacher. We
Methodists, and there are a good many
of us, are a retiring modest people, who
say little of ourselves and of our concerns.
so while I have always read with great
pleasure what my Baptist brother has to
say, The Journal knows have said little
of the society.
The retirement of DR.. Stiles Bradley
was not unexpected. He has done what
he and every honorable man who found
himself in a church whose polity he does
not indorse and whose doctrine he cannot
accept do, and. unlike my friend. DR.. Lee,
fully believe he said all that the report
er reported. He owed 1t to the church to
give his reasons, and he gave them can
didly. They are such as have driven
many a man to the same course. If to
have a creed and a polity makes church
narrow, the Methodist church is narrow.
1t was the object of John Wesley, the
founder of the Methodist societies, when
he presented for the adoption OF the
Methodists in America a platform for an
Episcopal church, to make 1t broad
enough for all. A good Catholic may fnd
missing in Methodist articles much he be-
lives. So will a Presbyterian, Baptist,
an Episcopalian, but each will find moth
ing he does not believe. A Unitarian and
RatioN alist, or one who rejects the
atonement, cannot stand on a Methodist
platform. In many things DR.. Bradley
found himself forced either to conceal his
views, or to repudiate his Methodism. He
could not change his views. so he changed
his church. He did not like the polity
which called for changes every four years.
He never had but two appointments to
pastorates one was to Trinity church In
Atlanta, the other to st. Johns In st.
Louis. There are no other churches IN
the connection which pay larger salaries
or are considered more desirable appoint
ments Methodism having given him her
best, he certainly had no personal ground
for complaint. That our economy is NOT
democratic, we,freely admit, as preach
er of so years, 1 would prefer to trust my
chances for an agreeable appointment to
the Methodist bishop and his advisers
than to any congregation whatever.
DR.. Bradley does not like the plan. and
in that many people agree with him, but
IT, is purely a voluntary submission, and
no one is forced into the association, and
any one can withdraw at will and the
whole body can make the change when
II desires to do so. 1t is purely matter
OF personal choice, and DIR. Bradley Is
not at all discourteous in saying he does
not like the method of appointment and
prefers to retire.
have been 80 years an itinerant and
have had appointments from the Ches-
apeake bay to the Florida line and the
policy suits me- 1 have seen no way
in which it could be improved and while
I know its defects. take 1t with them
all as the best we can devise.
For Dr. Bradley personally, as Metho-
dists. we have none but kind feelings
We will find no difneulty In fihng his
place and there will not be weeks IN
terruption.
The Congregational body to which DR..
Bradley has gone is very broad and lib
eraI and each congregation is independent
Of an the others.
In Methodism our churches are all link
ed together. The laymen and the preach
ers alike surrender the privilege of per-
sonal choice, and in the south all recog-
nize the fact that there is time limit
to the pastorate. To some this Is very OBJ
noxious and for many years the enort
has been made to change 1t, but it is still!
the usage in the Methodist church south,
and will probably so continue
Few men in Georgia have risen so rap
idly as Dr. Bradley. There has never
been a stain on his moral character. He
was never tried for heresy. An effort
was made to have charges entertained
but the committees to whom the matter
was referred said no trial was necessary.
He married a lovely Georgia girl and
will doubtless find a very congenial
home in Massachusetts. May JOY go
with him.
Writing of DR.. Bradley leads me nat
uraIly to speak of his good father. He
was the genial mayor of Gainesville, and
a
Methodist as any man in the city. lie
was a druggist with two drug stores. He
lest a little girl. 1t almost broke MS heart
He sought religion; he Joined the church,
he became a Methodist preacher, and died
in the work. The general conference OF
the Methodist church, south, is the law
making body, and to 1t is assigned the
selection of the general officers-bishops,
editors, secretaries. 1t is to meet next
May. AS it is a democratic assembly,
any member can propose any change he
thinks for the best. AS there are an equal
number Of laymen and preachers, II any
CHANGES are accepted. they become laws
binding all. There are some things. how
ever, which have to be referred to the
annual conferences which meet IN eacn
state for confirmation.
The next conference will meet in Ashe-
VILE, N. c., in May, of 1910, and there Is
a great stir among the Methodists, and
sundry changes are proposed. One is to
change the name, leaving off the south.
It's advocates say that it sounds sectional
and political
The friends of the old name say ii is
simply geogra phical; that it ought to be
no more offensive than the church OF
England, or of Canada. or of Germany
Then there are those, my friend DR.. Lee
among them, and number of the Atlanta
preachers who object to any limit to pas
torates The preacher should stay just so
long as the people want him. Its oppo-
inents say that a good man should be used
IN many places, and an unacceptable man
should be removed, and that four years
IS a sufficient time for the average preach
err to remain in one place.
The presiding elders are called in the
north district superintendents. They are
appointed by the bishops. and they NOM
mate the pastors. Churches look to them.
las their immediate representatives, and
pastors look to them as theirs. There are
10 Of them in Georgia, and they form a
conclave Theoretically it is in their
power to do injustice to preachers and
people, but practically, I have never
known it to be done.
her that he was guilty of the crime h
Some theorists for years have urged
that they be elected by the preachers and
laymen. The conservatives say Ii is best
they should be appointed by the bishop,
as now The time of service is only one