Varieties

The custom which now prevails in the South Carolina Conference of fixing the status of Districts, according to the success of the preachers, in farming the revenues of the Church, is turning circuits into yeasting seas, and Quarterly Conferences into instruments of torture. J. E. W.

We were on — circuit. That year a portion of the country suffered from a severe drought. We were going to an appointment, intending to spend the night at a brother's house, and as we came in sight, saw him, bareheaded, pacing up and down the road, every few steps stopping and looking up at the heavens. As we drove up we greeted each other, and the next question we asked was, "What is the matter?" "I am watching the clouds," he said; "if it don't rain soon, we are ruined." His countenance told how earnestly he felt what he said. The rain did come; and tho' injured by the drought, the farmers gathered from the fields enough and to spare. Our brother's words have rung in our mind through these years: "I am watching the clouds." The church is cold—the people lifeless—Zion languishes; without a "gracious rain" desolation follows! What wonder if the minister watches the clouds? But we must not so watch as to lose our joy. We must watch in hope. Don't worry. Somebody has said, "ministers often worry about the church, worry over sinners, and are worn down more by worry than by working. If they can learn to lean on Christ and feel the force and value of 'Thine is the power,' they will work with more ease, endure more, have more power over others, sleep more sweetly, and enjoy constant blessings. G. H. W.

The danger which most threatens the Methodist Church in this age, is not so much in the forces, singly or combined, of the world, the flesh and the devil, as they exist beyond the pale of the Church. These she expects to meet, and by grace to conquer. But sin made popular, sin, which stalks abroad in the Church; sin, showing itself in dress, dancing, the wearing of jewelry, dram drinking, gaming, worldly amusements and all such indulgences, which, if allowed to be sins at all, are held to be such slight violations of the law and spirit of the gospel, that they ought not be noticed by those in authority. Indeed there seems to be a growing spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction on the part of large numbers of Methodists against a fair and impartial administration of the law of the Church. If a brother drinks moderately, or a sister dances only occasionally, or there is a church fair, concert or tableau only once in a while, a great many of our people appear to think that these things ought to be looked over. Other churches allow these things, and why not we? Are we any better than they? Can't we afford to go as far in these things as our sister churches? And in this way the people called Methodists are being eaten up. To yield in these matters is to be destroyed. Our fathers did not yield, "Immediately they conferred not with flesh and blood," ministers and laymen stood up shoulder to shoulder, and oh, how the Methodist Church triumphed in those days. "Let us walk by the same rule." G. H. P.

Rev. Dr. Dale, in his Yale lectures on preaching, advises young men to be certain their text is in the Bible, and relates an amusing incident of a friend of his who preached an elegant sermon from a passage in the prayer book, thinking that it was one of the wise utterances of Solomon. This reminds us of a similar mistake made by the Rev. Jeremiah Jacob Solomon, a colored gentleman, who used to hold forth in the log church at Piney Flat. The congregation to which Rev. J. J. S. statedly ministered had woefully back-slidden since the "big meeting" of the previous fall. A general state of luke-warmness and indifference had succeeded the fervor of those happy days. Even the stewards and class leaders seemed to be "at ease in Zion." This deplorable state of things distressed brother Jacob very much. He determined to preach a grand rousing sermon the next Sabbath, to see if the old ship could not be moved off the sand-bar upon which it had stranded. The occasion was auspicious. It was the regular time for the quarterly meeting, and as the presiding elder was sick, brother Jacob would be able to preach to an unusually large congregation.

The next day we met him and inquired about his meeting.

"Oh, we had a powerful time, Boss; a mighty powerful time," was his glad reply.

"What did you preach about?" we asked.

"My tex wus as follers: 'An de Lord said, Let us all put our shoulders to de wheel, an dis boat will surely swim.'"

"Why, Jake, that text isn't in the Bible; and besides you have mixed up your metaphors terribly, unless your boat is a regular side-wheel steamer."

"Well, I don't know 'bout dat, Boss," said he, scratching his head and looking confused. "'Peared to me it wus in de book. But anyhow I enjoyed 'mazin liberty." U. U. D. Kay.