Cp 283.03 t * • .' « of lijc nibergttp of JJortf) Carolina From the Library of . THE SERMON T Ai*r> ADDRESSES DBLIVBKED ON THE OCCASION OIT THE CONSECRATION OK. TRINITY CHURCH SGOTLtAND NECK, N. C. SUNDAY, JULY 5th, 1903. EXAM & DOOLEY, PRINTERS, CHARLOTTE, N. C. 1903, i ■ TRINITY PARISH, SCOTLAND NECK, N. C. ADMITTED TO THE CONVOCATION IN 1833. THE REV. GIRARD W. PHELPS, Rector. VESTRYMEN: Richard H. Smith, Senior Warden, James S. Panll, Junior Warden Arthur Luther Purrington, Dr. James Edward Shields, Charles H. Herring, John Y. Savage, Edward W. Hymau. The first Church was consecrated in 1832, the second in 1855, the third was opened for service in 1886, and was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Jos. Blount Cheshire, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 5th, 1903, having- been erected under the direction of Mr. Peter E. Smith, in conjunction with the other members of the building committee, Richard H. Smith, Sr., William H. Shields and Isaac H. Smith. The Consecration Sermon was preached by the Rev. Theodore D. Bratton, D. D., Rector of St. Mary's School, Raleigh, N. C, and Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Mississippi. The Request for Consecration was read by Mr. A. L. Purrington, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Walter J. Smith. In the afternoon of the same day an Historical Sketch of the Parish was delivered in the Old Church by the Rev. Walter J. Smith, Super- intendent of the Thompson Orphanage, Charlotte, N. C. At night, in the New Church, a Memorial Sermon was preached by the Bishop. 3o 00 IN THE SERMON A N J > ADDRESSES DELIVERED OX THE OCCASION OE THE CONSECRATION OK TRINITY CHURCH SCOTLAND NECK, N. C. SUNDAY, JULY 5th, 1003. Islam & doolev. printers, charlotte, x. c. 1903. THE REV. THEODORE D. BRATTON, D. D. CONSECRATION OF TRINITY CHURCH, SCOTLAND NECK, N. C JULY 5th, J 903, FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. I Chronicles, xvii, 1, 2. "Now it came to pass as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, L■ .«? ■ ' « - f . ,,. .„■ ,«, -* - THE OLD CHURCH. 21 Episcopate. In April, 1834 the Rev. John Singletary took charge of the parish, and officiated two Sundays in each month. In February, 1838, the Rev. John Morgan begun to min- ister to the congregation, but discontinued his services the following spring. "In the year 1841, on February the 5th," Mr. Smith says that "God put it into the hearts of our people to call to the rectorship the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, a young man full of missionary zeal and energy, and above all, en- dowed with the true Christian spirit. For twenty-eight years he officiated two Sundays in each month, laboring "in season, out of season," until disease broke down his constitution; and his medical advisers recommended rest as the only means of saving his life." In the year 1861, the Rev. Angelo A. Benton became his assistant, and took charge of a colored congregation in connection with his other work in the parish. Under the inspiration and g-uidance of their beloved pastor, the three brethren, Wil- liam Ruffin, Richard Henry, and James Norfleet Smith, with some assistance from a few other persons, erected a handsome brick building just a mile north of the present town of Scotland Neck. The building was beautiful in its proportions, and complete in all of its appointments. For nearly thirty years its sweet toned pipe organ assisted the worshippers in their regular devotions, while as occasion arose it would lead a happy bride to the altar with the in- spiring notes of the wedding march; and then again, its subdued and mournful tones would thrill with emotion the sad hearts of those who followed some loved one to his last resting place. On the 27th day of May, 1855, it being Whitsun-Day, this Church was consecrated under the name of "Trinity" by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, Bishop of the Diocese, in the second year of his Episcopate. In September, 1860, much to the regret and sorrow of the congregation, the Rev. Dr. Cheshire resigned the charge of the parish. During his ministrations the number of communicants increased tenfold, and a brick church was built, with ample and beautiful burying grounds surround- 22 ing it, laid off and adorned with shrubs and flowers by the devoted rector's own hands. In his letter of resignation, Dr. Cheshire stated that the only unpleasant thing- that occurred between him and his people throughout his long rectorship was the fact of his resigning, and the congrega- tion truly felt that his place could not be filled'. To quote his own words, he says: "After a ministry among you of 28-years, I can truly say that this is the only unpleasant- ness that has ever occurred to disturb the harmony that has ever existed in our intercourse as minister and people. You have always yielded me the greatest respect and con- sideration, both as a man and as your minister, and have received my teaching, however imperfect, as the instruc- tions of heaven for your salvation." [It is interesting to note that his faithful old sexton, "Ben," who taught the colored children in this Church in the afternoons, is still a member of the parish, and was present in his place at the consecration services this morning.] After repeated efforts, and after three years of patient waiting, a good and faithful man was found to take Dr. Cheshire's place. The Rev. William S. Pettigrew, the Rev. F. J. Murdoch, and the Rev. J. J. Norwood having been successively called, and all three having declined, the last named clergyman reconsidered the matter; and accepted charge of the parish October 1st, 1872. During the vacancy in the rectorship, regular lay ser- vices were maintained by Mr. Richard M. Smith, Sr., and, to the credit of the congregation be it said, the attendance was almost as good as when a clergyman officiated. As a resident minister, young and zealous in the cause of his Master, with no family to look after, Mr. Norwood thoroughly organized the work of the parish, and gave an impulse to its life which it continues to feel to this day. After two years of active and efficient service, he resigned his charge and moved away. The vestry then made the fatal mistake of calling a clergyman who was not only well advanced in 3'ears, but who lived thirty miles distant, and was, moreover, to give only two services a month. No one, surely, will for a moment question the piety, zeal and 23 deep learning- of the late Dr. Aristides S. Smith, and yet from the very circumstances of his position, the parish lost ground which it has never since recovered. Dr. Smith became rector of the parish on March 1, 1875, the letter of invitation from the vestry having been borne to him by my own hands. From that time till the da}- of his death, I regarded him almost as a father, and I shall always feel that it was a great privilege to have been so intimately associated with such a pure-minded, godly and learned man. After Jan nary 24, 1878, he gave the parish only one Sunday a month until January 1, 1881, at which time, I presume, he resigned the rectorship. He gave after that occasional services until October 1st, when the Rev. Horace G. Hilton, an earnest, devoted man, took charge of the parish. It was during his rectorship, March 27, 1884, that the parish church, with all of its contents, including the parish register, was destroyed by fire. Steps were im- mediately taken towards building a new church, but before it was completed the old church was restored sufficiently to be used for services, through the Christian liberality of a former parishoner, Mrs. Martha Clark, of Baltimore. The resignation of the Rev. Mr. Hilton, to take effect October 1, 1885, having been accepted, the Rev. Herbert W. Robin- son, of Ontario, Canada, was called in January of the fol- lowing }'ear to take charge of the parish. It was during his rectorship, April 14, 1886, that the new church was opened for the first time for divine service; and on Christ- mas day of the same year he introduced a vested choir of men and boys. Under his direction the music of the choir was much improved. Mr. Robinson resigned the rectorship on March 1. 1888. and on June 19th a call was extended to the Rev. Walter J. Smith, at that time in charge of St. Mary's Mission, Edge- come County, and St. Martin's farish, Hamilton. The call was accepted, and my first service as rector was held on the first Sunday of the following month. For the first six months after my election, I continued to reside in Edge- come County, and gave the parish only one Sunday a month. In January 1889, however, I moved with my fam- ily into the rectory, and devoted all of my time to the work 24 of the parish, with the exception of one Sunday given to Hamilton, and another, temporarily, to St. Mary's. After a time both of these points were given up, and one Sunday a month was devoted to St. Mark's Church, Halifax. In June, 1898, I was elected Superintendent of the Thompson Orphanage and Training Institution, at Char- lotte, and feeling it to be my duty to accept the position, I very reluctantly moved my family to that city and assumed charge of the work. As it was a new and untried work, and the issue uncer- tain, the vestry of the parish kindly granted me a leave of absence for one year, with the privilege of returning and assuming charge as rector before the expiration of that time. At my suggestion, the Rev. Girard W. Phelps, then residing at Littleton as missionar}^, and also Evangelist of the Convocation of Tarboro, was requested to supply the vacancy caused by my removal. At the expiration of the year, I having decided to remain at the Orphanage, the Rev. Mr. Phelps was elected rector, and has remained in charge of the parish to the present time. For some time after moving to Scotland Neck, he continued in charge of the Missions of St Mary's and Grace Memorial Church, Edgecombe County, but afterwards con- fined his labors to the parish proper, with its two Missions at Tillery and Spring Hill, together with occasional visits to the State convict farm near Tillery, where his efforts in that most difficult work have been blessed with visible and most gratifying results. This hurried sketch brings the history of the parish down to the present time, and if you will bear with me I will add a few statistics of the work under the present and former rector; but in doing so I am reminded that this is an age of statistics, and that we must be warned against the danger of laying too great a stress upon mere numbers. I am reminded, too, that on one occasion God rebuked David for numbering the children of Israel, and as a punishment for his act He sent a pestilence which destroyed sevent} r thousand of his people. The tendency of the age, I repeat, is to measure everything by numbers, but we should re- member that the work of God's Holy Spirit can not be 25 measured by the rules of arithmetic, nor can it be valued ill dollars and cents. "Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but God alone can give the increase." A faithful and devoted pastor may toil on for years in a particular field without any great visible results of his efforts, and yet we dare not say that he has labored in vain. All the while he may have been sowing* good seed, and we know not what the harvest may be, by and by Our part then, my brethren, yours and mine, is to do our duty wherever it may please God to place us, and then leave the results with Him. We are not responsible for results; we are only re- sponsible for the work that has been committed to our hands. Let us see to it that we take it up bravely, and not shirk it and run away from it. Glancing, then, at the two periods covered by the present and former rectorships (it not being possible to give full statistics for the whole time, owing to the destruction of the parish register) let us see what may be found for our encouragement, or reproof, as the case may be. During the ten years covering the first period, there were 69 baptisms, 40 confirmations, 27 marriages, 90 burials, and 58 communicants added to the list. During that period, too, the grounds around the new church were inclosed with a neat fence, the tower was finished, and a bell placed in it, the gift of Mrs. Bessie Leak, and Miss Sadie Smedes, in memory of their parents, the Rev. Dr. Aldert Smedes, and Mrs. Sarah Lyell Smedes. The roof and exterior walls of the church were painted, a pipe organ purchased, the gallery built, the rectory painted, and the debt on the church, including interest, was reduced from $900.00 to $400.00 — much of all this work having been done by the ladies of the parish who were then, as they are now, ever active in good works. During the five } ? ears of the present rectorship, there have been 29 baptisms, 43 confirmations, 9 marriages, 29 burials, and 33 communicants added to the list, making the present number 125. During this period, too, the bal- ance due on the church building and the former rector's salary has all been paid, the chancel has been partlv re- modeled, the interior wood-work stained and oiled, the 26 walls tinted, the chancel and aisles carpeted, and a set oi chandeliers purchased. These details do not, of course, express all of the activity of the parish, and I may have- omitted some thing's that ought to have been mentioned, but what I have stated will give some idea of what may be done Where there are consecrated hearts and willing- hands to take up. and do the Master's work. Many of those who have been active in this blessed work, together with many whom they have been instrumental in bringing into the fold of our beloved Church, are now sleeping their last sleep beneath the shadow of these sacred walls.- And after all, dear friends and brethren, what will, all of our labors amount to if they are not done in that spirit of love and devotion and self-sacrifice which will make us worthy of the companionship of all the saints who* have gone before us? May we, with them, have our per- fect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in the eternal and everlasting glory of our God and Father,, through Jesus Christ our Lord !. Amen. THE REV. JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE, D. D. BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA. "Perfect and upright: That feared God and eschewed evil." A MEMORIAL SERMON. BY THE REV. JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE, D. D. BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA. "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and uprig-ht, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this was the greatest of all the men of the east " — Job 1: 1, 2, 3. The Bible is the word of God. And the word of God to us is about man. God speaks to us. He condescends to the narrow limitations of our life, and interests Himself in our affairs. We are His creatures in our origin; He makes us His own children by adoption and grace; but — almost more than that! He makes us His associates; "Jacob whom I have chosen!" "Abraham my friend!" How great a part of His blessed Word is taken up with the domestic life and fortnnes of those whom He thus dignified and blessed! Abraham's wanderings; his relations with his kinsman Lot ; the dissentions between their herdmen; the sending back to his own family for a wife for his son Isaac ; the parental weaknesses of Isaac and Rebecca in bringing up their sons; the curious and, to our very short and imperfect vision, not always edifying domestic affairs of Jacob's household; these and many like passages are part of the revelation of God's Holy Word! And all this is intended to impress upon us the realty and the closeness of God in our lives. The infiniteness of the divine nature, and the breadth of the divine purpose, are manifested in this relationship between the most familiar and, we may say, the most sordid things of our daily life, 29 and t"he presence and providential ordering- of God. And 'God's presence and purpose, being - thus associated with our whole life in all its interests and experiences, we see and feel that our whole life is thereby ennobled and sanctified, and made to show forth that presence and that purpose. Man ceases to be merely a creature of earth, and becomes by anticipation a citizen of the heavenly city. He develops here the qualities which shall adorn the life above. He is seen to have in him the promise of the divine. He may well be even now the object of God's care and solicitude, since he is thus to grow into the divine nature, and to real- ize the heavenly destiny. And so God delights in man, and God's inspired Word teaches its best lessons and its profoundest truths by set- ting before us the lives of men. And the men whose char- acters and experience the Bible portrays for us are not so different from the men we see and know in the world to- day as perhaps we think them to be. We are especially told that the best of them were of like nature and with the same weakness as ourselves. They were not necessarily more intimately associated with the divine purpose than we are, and we can not be at all sure that they enjo} T ed a more real presence and blessing of the divine than we do. The Bible sets forth for our instruction their inner life in its relations with God, and depicts their spiritual experiences, so that we may see how God dealt with them, and how they responded to the divine call, and in what way they developed under the experiences of life. But the same thing is implicit in all human life, and is going on all about us to-day. It is quite possible that in the pages of Holy Scriptuae we have a clear view of this inner life of God's servants, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and others, which was hidden from the men of their own time. It is not certain that these men themselves had at all the same full knowledge of their own lives which we possess. Human souls are as precious to God now as they ever were. He chooses his instruments now, and He has still His friends among men, little as we may be conscious of it. He is the same yesterday and to- day, and forever. 30 There is no more beautiful picture' in the Bible than that presented to the mind's eye by the words of the text, taken along - with all the associations of thsee words. "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hun- dred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east." This scene of human felicity and worldly prosperity is a. manifestation of God's dealings with men. The divine goodness expresses itself in material blessings. In the simpler state of patriarchal society, before life had become complicated with the dark procerus involved in the crowd- ed populations and the artificial conditions of a highly civilized community, there seems to have been a closer and more direct connection between a virtuous and upright life and the temporal blessings of God: "He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, rilling our hearts with food and gladness." From Him cometh every good and perfect gift: and so we have this beautiful picture of the great man of the East, living in patriarchal abundance and simplicity, his house rilled with troops of happy children, seven sons and three daughters, who presently grow up to maturity, and have houses of their own, where they enter- tain each other, and feast, with perhaps something of the extravagance and folly apt to be associated with such cir- cumstances of youth and affluence. He has many flocks and herds, and is largely eng-aged in the business of that pas- toral country. He has also a very great household, by which we are to understand that he had many slaves. And in that simple condition of early society slavery was hardly a state of degredation and misery. It was rather the nat- ural relation of the less intelligent and poorer class to the great families and local chieftains, to whom the weaker sort had to look for support and protection. They were members of his family in an humble way, sharing in the 31 personal care and kindly regard of their master, valuable to him for their services, but also receiving - from him the supply of their wants and protection for the weakness; and through him enjoying a humanizing and elevating re- lationship with that which was highest and best in char- acter and in social development. We have an interesting side-light thrown upon the con- dition of Job's household, and the relationship between him and his slaves, in the beautiful and pathetic passage, in which he appeals to God in witness of the integrity of his life: [* "If I did despise th,e cause of my manservant, Or of my maidservant, when they contended with me: What then shall I do when God riseth up? And when He visiteth,what shall I answer Him? Did not He that made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?" This great wealth and this great household made Job one of the great men among his people: "This man was the greatest of all the men of the east," we are told. He seems to have lived in the country, in the simplicity of rural society, removed from the bustle and roar of the city. But we catch glimpses of a background of commerce and politics; and even Job is brought into some connection with the busier life of the communit}-; and we see him honored and respected among the magnates of the land, when he chose to show himself in the city, and to claim his place among his equals. "When I went forth to the gate of the city, When I prepared my way in the street, The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the ag'ed rose up and stood: $ $ $ $ 4° - >K $. .$ $ "For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; And when the. eye saw me, it gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor that cried, The fatherless also, that had none to help him: The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, 32 And I caused the widow's heart to- sing for Joy."" He sums up his former condition in this beautiful retro- spect : "O that I were as in the months of old, As in the days when God watched over me; When His lamp shined upon my head, And by His light I walked through darkness : As I was in the ripeness of my days, When the secret of God was upon my tent: When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were about me: When my steps were washed with bntter And the rock poured me out riversof oil." - This is a wonderful picture of the love and goodness of God. manifesting - itself in temporal blessing's, poured out upon a man who showed himself worthy of this love and goodness. God Himself commends him, and points him. out to the accuser, Satan, as an example of human virtue: "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" Here was truth and purity and goodness. God saw it and loved it, and held it up to the accuser as a proof of that virtue in which the evil spirit and evil men do not believe. The book of Job is an inspired testimony to the reality and the preciousness in God's sight of human virtue. It has many lessons for us; it illustrates some of the profound truths of God's govern- ment and of man's experience; but first of all it sets forth God's recognition and God's estimate of human character; and it stamps its divine condemnation upon those, whether men or devils, who, with the wisdom of Satan, belittle and deny the goodness of God's faithful servants, and scornfully ask: "Doth Job fear God for naught?" I shall not attempt to enter upon the real question which is developed in the grand tragedy of Job's bitter experi- ences. I am endeavoring to elucidate only one aspect of the case. In all this early part of the story God's goodness shows itself in the pleasing scenes of prosperity aud felic- ity; and under this dispensation of happiness Job justifies 33 the goodness of God to him. And then, for wise and great •ends to be attained through suffering - , but for ends wholly beyond Job's knowledge, that same goodness and love of God manifests itself in calamity and loss and bereavement and suffering and humiliation. Kvery element of good disappears; the edifice of his felicity crumbles under him; his wealth shrinks and shrinks, and then is swallowed up in the voracious maw of encompassing adversaries; his child- ren are taken from him; and houseless and homeless he be- comes a spectacle to those base natures, who, having no true nobility in themselves, vainly suppose that their sordid gains have raised them to the level of that fallen greatness. And it was only in these sad circumstances of sorrow and loss, and it was by these experiences of affliction, that the good- ness and greatness of this noble man was perfected and made known. All his wealth and happiness would never have gained him a place in God's inspired volume, nor pre- served his name and example to us, but for that fiery ordeal through which he passed, and which, burning up the dross, left only the pure gold to shine out undimmed to all ages. When the storm fell upon him and swept from him all of his wealth and prosperity and glory and domestic felicity, this is the record of him: "And Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped; and he said. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: Blessed be the name of the Lord In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." Here is a spectacle which all ages look upon with won- der and admiration. I believe that, next to the incompar- able character of our blesseed Lord Himself, no character in Holy Writ has commanded such universal homage from the hearts and minds of the greatest men as the character of Job; of Job, tried by prosperity and not debased or cor- rupted thereby, aud tried by extremest suffering, and still maintaining his integrity. The testimon}* of God to him remains unaffected through all changes of fortune: "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, aperfect and an upright man, one that feareth 34 God, and escheweth evil," Human nature is dignified and ennobled and justified before men and devils by his ex- ample. But what I wish you to observe, my dear brethren, is that the characters in Holy Scripture are exemplary. They are exhibited as illustrating- certain permanent qualities. in human nature. It is because Job was a man, such a man as we; it is because there are the same possibilities in us* that the book of Job possesses snch interest and value. And human life to-day is the same; and God's servants- now, upon that secret and hidden stage, in which their characters appear in his eyes alone, act their parts through the same tragedies of suffering and pain, and triumph over the suggestion of Satan, and bless the world, and encourage their weaker brethren, by helping us to believe that human nature can still show forth divine power, can fear God and eschew evil, and maintain its integrity in the midst of worldly loss and sorrow and ruin. My dear brethren, I have not taken my text so much as- an act of free choice, as by a sort of moral compulsion. I have for some years had it in my mind to speak to you of the old life in this community, as I remember it; and think- ing of the men who to my boyish mind represented Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, and contemplating the pastoral simplicity of their life, and the sad trials through which the integrity of their Christian character manifested itself, the opening verses of this wonderful book of Job forced themselves upon my mind, as embodying the essential feat- ures of their lives and of their experience. I make no apology for putting them along side of Job, and claiming for them something of his humility and simplicity and godliness and uprightness and generosity, in their days of prosperity, and of his noble patience and dignity when the hand of God was laid upon them in love, which chose suf- fering for its method. Unless Job's life is still to be re- produced among men, I see no use for the book of Job in the sacred volume; and if Job's nobleness and Job's virtue and Job's patient endurance of affliction were ever repro- duced upon the stage of that world which you and I have seen, I say without hesitation that these qualities showed 35 themselves in the lives which to-day I have especially in mind. And I name the men, not as excluding- others, but as representing theibest type of our older generation, William Ruffin Smith, Richard Henry Smith, James Norfleet Smith. To-day, as your representative and speaking for this Parish, and as your Bishop speaking for the Diocese of North Carolina, I thank God for their godly lives, for their simple faith, for their patient hope, for their noble humility, for that having finished their course in faith they do now rest from their labors I think I could easily set forth at least some of the qualities by which these brothers manifested each a special personality, but I prefer to speak of those qualities which they possessed in common. In- deed I have not time or space at command for any- thing else. They stand out in my memory very distinct the one from the other, in ph} r sical appearance, in. mental characteristics, in personal flavor, so to speak; but they had their best qualities so much alike that I may well speak of them in common. And in speaking of them I shall have in mind others, their friends and associates, men and women, whom, for want of time, I can not name, whose memories I love and venerate as part of that past which in the person of these three representatives I now honor and commemorate. In the first place they were rich men, certainly among the most prosperous and influential in their own section. God had blessed them with wealth. They had not acquired it by an eager or absorbing pursuit; it had come to them by inheritance, and had been augmented by industry and prudence, and by their contented and unostentatious life. Their early period w^as one of general prosperity, and all values largely increased by the general advance and devel- opment of the country. The broad bottoms of the Roanoke, dyked against the spring freshets, }*ielded them great crops of corn w T hich, besides supporting their large and increas- ing families of slaves, gave them a profitable staple for the market. Living themselves in spacious residences built upon the pine lands back from the river, surrounded by smaller cultivated tracts, the} T enjoyed the benefit of the 36 tetter air and water, while retaining- to. a great extent the personal direction of their extensive farms and plantations. They married early, and had large families. Their spacious houses were full of boys and girls, and the g-uest chambers were seldom unoccupied for long. Their hospitality, like themselves, was simple, generous, without effort or self- consciousness. There was abundance for all, and all were welcome. And g-uests and family formed for the time one household. The guest soon forgot that he was being- en- tertained, and found himself a member of the family. All were friends and brethren to those big hearts: "The stranger did not lodge in the streets: they opened their doors to the traveler." There was the same spontaneous and unconscious gen- erosity in their relief of the few poor about them. Their pastor used to say that if any case of want came to his knowledge within miles of them, he had only to make it known to any one of the three, with a suggesiton of the character of the help needed, and the next morning a servant with a cart would be sent off with bountiful supplies to the disabled man or poor widow, and nothing more was said about it. If any men, they surely could sa^y with Job: "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel alone, And the fatherless have not eaten thereof. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering; If his loins have not blessed me, And if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, Because I saw my help in the gate: Then let my arm fall from the shoulder-blade, And mine arm be broken from the bone." And a word must be said of their relation with their poorer and less cultivated neighbors. I have heard, and I have read, of the "Aristocratic South," and of the pride of ancestry and the contempt for the plain and poor people 37 felt by the Southern aristocrats. Some Southern writers give us such representations of our former social condition. To the best of my memory I never saw anything- of the kind. These men of whom I speak, and their associates of other families in the community, were aristocrats, if there were any aristocrats in the country. They were far above the mass of people in wealth and education, in influence and social culture. Their persons and their characters were known throughout the State. The bare mention of their names commanded immediate attention and respect from one end of North Carolina to the ohter, not to extend the assertion. Yet I undertake to say that the idea that this fortunate circumstance of the worldly position made them better than their poorer neighbors, or would excuse in them any want of respect or of courtesy to any man, never once entered into their minds. And they did not show their respect and courtesy with that condesension which makes it worse than insult. They were uniformly courteous and respectful to all, because in the noble simplicity of their nature they knew no other way of behaving. I have spoken of the natural, and the practically neces- sary existence of slavery in the patriarchal age, and of the mutuality of the benefit arising - out of that relation be- tween master and slave. I am not advocating slavery. I thank God that it has been abolishad. I believe the men of whom I speak had no desire that it might be otherwise. But I assert, that, in the case of such masters, slavery re- tained much of its patriarchial character, and that the bond between the two was a kindly bond, and that the ben- efits arising out of it were mutual. Is it quite certain that, taken as a whole, the present generation of negroes in Halifax County are happier, more virtuous, in better condi- tion of comfort, than their fathers and mothers were? Let us hope that there are advantages in the possession of free dom. But when I go out of this church, and stop to receive the kindly greetings of old friends and kinsmen, and when I find in the crowd, as I always do, some dark faces familiar to me since my boyhood, it seems to me that there is some- thing of goodness and intelligence, and of refinement of feeling in them which I miss in the younger members of 38 their race. Aand certainly those men are not unmindful of the religious interests of their servants. In the forenoon the services of the Church were attended by the white peo- ple; in the afternoon the same minister in the same church officiated for the colored congregation, which crowded the building. At the visitations of the Bishop the candidates for confirmation, white and black, kneeled at the rail for the Imposition of Hands; and at the Holy Communion the colored communicants followed their masters and mistress- es, and received the Blessed Sacrament at the same admin- istration. I am not sure that either race has gained by the change which has separated them in public worship. I have said that these men were men of wealth; and certainly for two or three generation, perhaps even further back, their progenitors had been among the rich men of their section. But this should be observed in regard to their wealth; it had come to them, we may say, in the way of nature. They had not made their fortunes, nor had they augmented them by any special efforts. And their possessions were of such a character, being extensive land- ed estates, and numerous families of slaves, that along with their increase, there were a visible increasing respon- sibility, and a demand upon their personal interest and at- tention, which gave very little opening for self indulgence or other ordinar}- temptations of wealth. They had no passion and habit of money-seeking. They possessed their wealth: it did not possess or engross them. As the owners of their laborers, they were first of all dispensers of their wealth to others. The surplus they enjoyed in moderation, and gave with generosity. In their greatest prosperity they were earnest, serious, industrious, frugal, hardy and robust men, abstemious in habit, living much out of doors, simple in their tastes, intirely indifferent to the luxuries to which they were accustomed. When their wealth dis- appeared, it took from them nothing essential to their self respect and dignity, I might almost say to their com- fort. I cannot omit to say that these men were Church- men. In a sense they were Churchmen by inheritance, for 39 their ancestors were Churchmen, and the traditions of the Church had' not altogether died out in the community. That godly woman, who in the generation immediately preceding them had been the nursing mother of the Church in Scotland Neck, Mrs. Rebecca Hill, was of the same family connection, and she, and a few like her, had kept the spark alive. But with an inherited inclination to the Church, they had all been baptized in adult years, and their attachment to the Church was upon mature conviction as well as upon inherited sentiments. They were truly godly men. They made no boast of their religion. The}- might have answered with good Bishop Griswold, when question- ed by an impertinent as to his vital piety, that they "'had none to speak of." They would have been unable to hold their own in pious professions with many a new convert of our modern revivalists and so-called evangelists. But they at least suggest to our mind something very much nearer the inspired description of Job, than most of the class I have alluded to: "A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil." If that be a just description of the men whom God ap- proves, then may we claim that the}* - belonged in that class, though they would have been deeply shocked if required to make such a claim for themselves. Let me mention one matter as illustrating their way of doing things. The small church, built chiefly, I have been told, by Mrs. Thomas B. Hill before mentioned, had grown too small for the congregation in 1854; or at least they felt that they should erect a more suitable one. The Rector of the Parish, by their consent, selected what he thought the best site for the new church. As much land as he thousfht necessary was conveyed to the vestry for a church-yard. The Rector then corresponded with one of the first archi- tects in the county and had plans and specifications pre- pared for such a church as he thought necessary. These plans and specifications were put into their hands. The} T set their negroes to work burning brick and cutting timber. They employed such skilled laborers as were necessary to direct the work, and to do what their laborers were unable to do. They had the church built and they paid the bills, 40 and if any person desired to contribute he did so. They received what was offered, and some other members of the congregation did contribute to the work. But there was no soliciting - of contributions, no contrivances to extract money from the unwilling. They built the church and paid for it, with such contributions as were offered, and when they had done this, they did not imagine that they had done any great thing. Perhaps very few people in this congregation know that such was the method of their fathers. Well as I knew them and their families I did not hear it from them. They were Churchmen, and being Churchmen they illus- trated the broad and catholic spirit of the Church. There was nothing sectarian in their character or in their conduct, or in their Christianity. There was no such thing among them and those of their kind as dividing the little com- munity into cliques and parties, and portioning out their favor and patronage according to lines of religious opinion. I have heard of such things in these days. Perhaps some people think such a spirit is in accordance with the will of our Lord. These men and such as these did not think so. But narrow souls love their very smallness, and cherish their limitations. It is only by keeping in very small quar- ters that little men can keep up the illusions of their own greatness. I have described these men as I remember them, and as their characters were interpreted to me by one whom they loved and trusted, their faithful Pastor and Parish Priest. For nearly thirty years he ministered to them, and to the end of their lives remained their true and trusted friend. One of them has recorded of this long and intimate associ- ation, that the only thing that had given a moments pain or unhappiness on either side, was that it had come to an end. He said of his Scotland Neck people, and especially of these three, that he felt that they would have plucked out their eyes for him. He loved, he admired, he trusted them all. He had special relations with the youngest, with whom he had been at school. I never could tell which of them he admired and valued most highly. I do not believe he knew. He discriminated between them 41 in his judgment in some respects, but each one com- manded his perfect confidence and his unqualified respect and love. I have dwelt upon the pleasing- picture of past times until I have left myself no room for much that I would like to say. The men whom I have ventured to liken to Job, in their in- tegrity of character and in the happy fortune of their pros- perous days, had also in some measure Job's experience of adversity. Nobly and beautifully they stood the test. I had not dared to speak of them as I have done, except that I had seen them thus proved. They had not to endure Job's extremity of suffering and loss, but they endured enough to show that their virtues were rooted in a nature beyond the mutations of time and fortune. I have never known men who seemed to me to have lost so little in losing their fortunes. One of them was speaking to me of his changed circumstances, and the only regret he expressed was, that it seemed to him that in his days of affluence he had done so much less for others than he might have done. And while he was saying this to me, I knew, though probably he had forgotten it, that in a measure, I owed my position in the world to him. He had advanced to my father (and doubtless would as cheerfully have given it, had it been necessary) the money with which I first went to college. I said to him, in reply to his reference to the change in his fortune, that when he was rich he had not thought that his money made him better than other people, and now that he was poor, others did not think that poverty made him any less. Money had never been the pedestal to elevate him, and when he lost it he stood no lower. I find many passages describing Job's happiness and prosperity, and setting forth his virtues, which fit my sub- ject as if written for it. But the picture of Job's suffer- ings fails me in two particulars. In the first place, the Book of Job, being a true picture of those early times, knows nothing of womanhood as developed under Christ- ianity. The simplicity and comparative purity of the patriarchal age knew no such character as the Christian wife and mother. Job's misery was only full when his wife bade him curse God and die. These men of whom I 42 speak were not tried by any such experience. Their wives, coming of the same true hearted and wholesome stock as themselves, shared their virtues and were their help and strength and comfort in all misfortunes. In the second place, they had this further advan- tage over Job. In our Lord Jesus Christ they had learned how suffering and loss may be the most precious experience of a Heavenly Father's love. I have searched through the Book- of Job for some words of his which might express the simple unconscious grace and patient magnanimity with which they endured the sorrows and misfortune which came to them. I could find no such pas- sage. With all of Job's greatness and goodness, there was something lacking in him which these men had. It was their knowledge of Christ and the life revealed in Him. "I say unto you," says our Master, speaking of the last and greatest of the Jewish prophets, "that among them that, born of woman, there hath not arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Nevertheless, he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven," that is, the least of those who truly love and truly follow Christ, "is greater than he." It seems to me that there is no nobler or more pathetic pic- ture in the gallery of my memory than that of the youngest and last survivor of these three brothers. He lived long- est, he suffered most; in him was concentrated the tragedy of the generation and the old order which he represented. Noble in figure, dignified and gracious in manners, patient yet brave and generous in spirit, of a heart which had never grown cold or narrow, he had lived to see his five sons all laid to rest before him, and to feel the burden of providing for the widow and the fatherless laid upon his aged shoul- ders. And as the last remnant of his fortune seemed to be slipping from his hand, he said to his niece: "The world is too hard for me. If I could see how my wife and my son's widow and orphans could be provided for, I should be glad to lie down and die." It was not the want of courage or of faith. It was that strange prescience which approaching death sometimes gives. His work was done. His death came instantaneous, painless, without weakness or suffer- 43 Ing-, awful in t"he first shock, but merciful and provi- dential when properl}- considered. And his death pro- A r ided for the widows and the orphans as his life could no longer have done. Job had his vindication and his reward in this life. That simpler age doubtless needed visible evidence of the divine favor. The Christian looks above the world of sense, and finds in his consciousness of God, and his faith in the divine goodness, his stay and his comfort. Those happy limes of the past, that old world of our youth, these noble men and their fellows, save two placid and faithful souls, all are gone But the world is better because they lived in it; and we are prouder of such memories than we could be had they left wealth and splendor behind them. They rest from their labors- may we all attain unto their rest. '■:■■■»;■■ \. j -:^,W-.: : ^-A'\>.):ti ,-k ■>..■ ' '.'-J. > ; >. UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00034020951 FOR USE ONLY IN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION Form No. A-368, Rev. 8/95