Revs. F. A. Chapman, C. M. Davis, C. C. Matthews, Flint Station; G. W.
Garth, Crowton; R. Wilhoit, Cedar Plains; B. M. Key, D. Ward, S. M.
Robinson, Somerville; A. Brown, S. Gains, A. R. Eason, Huntsville; C.
Davis, Whitesburg; W. T. Connor, Madison; E. Powell, Hillsboro.
The writer has greatly enjoyed their quiet spirit and earnest labors.
However, he saw at their last session (1894) a rather ludicrous point
or gesture in the pulpit exercises. A brother, who is known to be an
upright man, as well as a very earnest and industrious man, was making
some remarks on the closing sermon of the session, when, becoming
very happy, he made a leap upward, which caused his brethren to fear
lest there would be a bruise, either in the ceiling, or on top of the
minister’s head. I would have, if I could have done so with propriety,
urged the brother to remember that “bodily exercise profits little,
while godliness is profitable unto all things,” and that “the spirit of
the prophet is subject to the prophet,” and “let all things be done
decently and in order.” However, I remember the day when most of the
white preachers in Alabama had in their sermons what some people are
disposed to call “the holy tone,” which was often accompanied by quite
a lot of physical exercise. This has become a thing of the past with
them in proposition, as they by culture, have been raised to see that
Christianity is Christly believing and Christly living. By the same
process, the same conditions will come upon us. So, we will still labor
and still wait.