We clip from a colored religious paper, published in Georgia, the following extract from one of its correspondents. The style of the writer, and also his facts, are strong arguments for education at the South. The schoolmaster is evidently abroad:
We are trying to come out of darkness down here by the little at a time. In the great upheaval publicly, and religiously too, some of our churches and people are suffering much in these parts for the great need of consistent, Christ like living preachers, and also teachers. Some or half of our churches are warring about preachers, and yet we have so many that they are really in one another's way. A licentee preacher and exhorter preacher became enraged about setting some gate posts in Lee County a few days ago; it ended in a fight in which the licentee preacher had his under lip cut completely off for life. I am sorry to say that generally you can find in our community preacher against preacher and members against members of the church. We have four churches here and no conversions hardly at all in the four churches. Last year there were not a dozen baptized out of the four, and yet some think they have as good preaching as any community has. The trouble seems to be this that new wine cannot be retained in old bottles any longer.
The Mount Zion Church is trying to organize a preacher night school with some success.
The above sex has suffered much in our community in the last three months and are not out of it yet, suffering at the expense of ignorance and intemperance, saying nothing about the kind of the men that one sees going heedlessly into the vortex. We saw a horrible death of a drunkard a few days ago right at our doors, leaving a smart young wife and six little children to mourn and grope their lives through an unfriendly world. Such we think ought to solemnly warn the people against living the life of intemperance though it seems at times that some one has not heeded at any manner of intemperance.
"A short, heavy-set, black man," "A good carpenter," "A man who can turn his hand to 'most anything," "None of your trifling fellows; somebody you can depend on every time." Such are the descriptions given of Deacon Jeremiah Edwards by the people among whom the chief part of his fifty years have been passed.
