The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-11-08
OFFICIAL ORGAN CRISP COUNTY
THE FALLEN STONE.

Did you read the news accounts
what a Poughkeepsie pastor, Arthu
Worthillgton, has been doing OF late
tn shock the morals of all the chris
tian world? He had nine wlVes'-
nine of them,-not nine lives, bu
wives, He was a bigamist of terri
bic accomplishment, and besides, wa
found guilty Of swindling and blasphe
nv all at the same time. And TINS
little reference does not tell the thou
sandth part of this bad character,
news accounts are true. But he wa
not a Catholic priest, say, for instance
a Hans Schmidt Another stone fallei
from its place in the great structure
of the Christian church!
We undertook to defend the poor
old Catholics some time ago when the
Veazy law was before the state legs
lature. We said the Catholic churcl
is not bad. We don't believe its IN
situations in Georgia deserve to be
pulled open and examined at tho
change of every moon to see if young
women are bound there to remain al
prisoners to do the bidding of IA
pacious priests. Their schools are al
ready wide open,-no Imprisonment
or even the suggestion of keeping
one against anybodys will. That's
what the grand juries are finding nov
in their Investigations. But what
shame that statute should go Oh
the books requiring that any legally
constituted body should have to ex
amined the customs of any established
church in liberty-loving Georgia!
But pass this now We are after
another point. Shall we join Tom Wat
son and condemn the Christian church
on this single example? Not yet.
fallen minister is rare thing,-it ar
CUES nothing against the church. Here
and there one of the clergy will bt
found off the straight and narrow
path as long as the world stands, Tol
the clergy, be it remembered, is made
I'D of human beings. They have theiI
trials, their struggles, modification
and sorrows. They are men. And the
Catholic priests are, too. You can
bring an indictment against a whole
church because one man goes wrong
Watson's followers around us poke
back at us hard because we say it is
wrong to emphasize the exceptional
cases They don't listen when we sa!
that the minister is the rarest back
slider in all the world. They are moro
pleased to believe the proper thing
to do is to call all of them Schmidt.
and Worthingtons. But the man who
makes such wholesale condemnations
so far as Christianity and the churcl
are concerned, is all "out of gear
The real church doesn't rejoice at the
downfall of anybody,-be he clergy
man or layman.
You can't make Tom Watson ant
the readers of his hickory Hill liter
allure give the Catholic church credi
for all the good men and women il
Inc membership ranks. BY the same
toten you cannot make them give the
Protestant church credit for the goot
people in its ranks. On the Other
hand you will find them rather hold
ing the churches responsible for tbs
hypocrites that get in. We want to
say all the time that it is wrong to
tear a single stone from the greaj
structure. We want to stick to tbs
belief that it is better to Try to put
back the stond that has perchancc
slipped and fallen.
There is not a church among Us
that doesn't deserve TO Iive.-eXcept
possibly that one which teaches big
otry and hatred of another church
The scope of the Masters call is Ger.
tainly wide enough for all Of them. i
was his idea to commend rather than
condemn. He never preached intol-
erance.-doesn't YET. 1t is simply
practice of imperfect mankind. Tn,