The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-02-25
CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
OVER THE DlSPENSARY-BUlL
CHURCH AT LIVINGSTON.
Presiding Elder Smith, EN-Presiding
Elder kilgo, and MIR. Graham
Write Letters.

| BILE for the Methodist church having
part in the erection of the now
famous church building at Living
ston, Orangeburg county, seems far
from settled and from the following
letters. published in last weeks
Southern Christian Advocate, seems
likely to provoke or has already
caused considerable feeling. All the
facts should come out that the re-
sponsibility should rest where 1t
properly belongs:
To the Editor of the Advocate: In
your editorial comment on my arti-
Gle concerning the Livingston church,
which you published in last weeks
issue of the Advocate, | find matter
which calls for reply. In that article
disclaimed any conscious voluntary
completely with that scheme and do
80 again here and now. But what
you say would lead the public to be-
lieve that l., and l only, Of the
church's representatives, am re-
sponsible for the enterprise | as
sumo you wish to be fair. If so, you
will fearlessly place the blame, If
blame there be (and you have de-
announced it as most blameworthy)
where it properly belongs. And
where does it belong? You, with
the facts before you, have used my
name, and mine only, with blame
attached to it. You surely must
have read my article. In it | set
forth as clearly as it was possible
tt inception of the enterprise, and
not until the church was well nigh
completed did [ come into any man
ner of association with it. Did no
other officer of the church have any
thing to do with it well-nigh to it's
completion before I knew of it? l
so stated it in my communication.
You could hardly have failed to have
read my article, and yet you men
ton no one as bearing blame save
me. Did you think that those men
toned were blameless? What about
the pastor, Brother Graham, and the
presiding elder, Brother J. w. kilgo,
both of whom endorsed it, while l,
on the contrary, denounced it?
Surely you did not intend to be
partisan. but your comments Will
bear that construction. You accuse
me of being guilty of not calling
another quarterly conference and
setting the matter straight Some
thing then was crooked and needed
STRENGTHENING. But who was respon-
sible for the crooked thing which
YOU blame me for not Strengthening?
Do you not know? You surely
must not have read my statement,
or, if you did, do you justify them in
doing the thing which l am blamed
for not Strengthening? You have
already denounced it. Do you then
condemn them?
Then, in justice to me, come out
and say so, and as explicitly state
it as you did with me, using their
names as you used mine. You say
great wrong has been done the
church. Then say who did it, and
don't sidestep the issue by attach
ing blame to one who would not
(could not) stop it before it got,
before the public. The wrong lies
not in the public knowing it, but In
the deed itself.
The fact is, the course have fol-
lowed has been premeditated. wait
ed for the issue, which / knew would
be a public one. Not one thing that
| have done so far do see to have
been wrong. The morning before
the article in the secular paper ap-
peared in the afternoon, | was no
tilted and asked to stop it. l replled
that l would not; that sooner or
later the affair would be made pub
lie and the sooner the better. l
thought the doings of the church
and ministry should be known. The
whole church was involved, not my
self only. If it was right, let it be
so declared. If it was wrong, let the
church so declare. Those equal IN
authority with me had planned and
executed the whole thing. Was it for
me to stop it? "He that dOeth truth,
cometh to the light, that his deeds
might be made manifest that they
are wrought in God" The brethren
already implicated doubtless believe
that their deeds were wrought IN
God, and would not hesitate to make
them manifest With that, however,
| have nothing to do; but this l
know, that many approved and en-
dorsed the work done by the Llv-
ingston authorities. and some or
these are high in the council OF the
church.
But the greatest blame attaching
to the whole matter lies in the in
iquity of the dispensary law itself:
This l deem to have been conceived
in sin and born in iniquity. This
is the judgment of the Methodist
church, and I am in utter harmony
with my church And I have proven
my faith by my works. In public
and in private, on the hustings and
from the pulpit, in season and out
of season, have ever given the
strength of my heart and mind to its
undoing. Can the editor of the Ad-
vocate say as much? ] have never
had any completely with the law,
either in it's formulation, or volun-
tarily, in it's proceeds, and have so
$oip IN n