Southern Christian Advocate

ADDRESS BY OUR BISHOPS.

To the Ministers and Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Dear Brethren: We are impelled by a deep sense of the importance of the matter to invite your attention at this time to the consideration of the imperative necessity of extending the circulation of the periodicals of our Church.

The interest of our people in the work of the Church cannot be greater than their knowledge of its efforts and enterprises. Their zeal for the promotion of the kingdom of heaven must be in proportion to their information concerning its needs and progress. Their religious experience and growth in grace must be vitally affected by what they read.

We cannot depend upon any other publications than our own periodicals to serve the high ends of informing our people accurately concerning the interests of our Church and instructing them in righteousness and true holiness. If one or more of our papers were read regularly in every home represented in our membership both the piety and prosperity of our beloved Church would be immeasurably advanced.

At Nashville, Tennessee, our Publishing Agents, Smith & Lamar, publish the Christian Advocate, our general organ. This paper presents weekly reliable accounts of the work of the Church throughout the connection in both the home and foreign fields. In its columns appear also carefully prepared articles in which the current topics of the day are ably discussed.

At various other points are issued the organs of the Annual Conferences. All these papers are worthy of the patronage which they seek, and which they need to secure their highest efficiency. We are informed by our brethren who are in charge of these periodicals that only about one-third of the membership of the Church is reached by them now. If they accomplish so much while reaching so small a part of the Church, what would they not achieve if they were read by all our people? We fear that with their present circulation they fall far short of reaching all the official members of the Church even. Surely we cannot be satisfied with this condition. If the official leaders of the Church do not take and read our papers, how can we expect our people to become the intelligent and fruitful Christians they ought to be?

Our Quarterly Review, a periodical of great value and high character, ought to be found in the homes of our official members at least.

We believe that our preachers would make their own work vastly more easy and effective if they would put forth earnest and persistent efforts to introduce these publications into the homes of the people committed to their charge. One round of pastoral visitation, in which this matter was emphasized, would result in great enrichment of the spiritual life and quickening of the religious energies of the members of the Church throughout the entire connection. It would be difficult to overstate the immense good which would follow such a Church-wide campaign in this interest.

We entreat, therefore, our pastors, official members, and all our people to whom this word of exhortation may come, to unite in the endeavor to bring to pass the great good which may thus be accomplished.

We shall be most happy if in the pastoral reports made to the Annual Conferences of the year 1913-1914 we find that every preacher has done his duty faithfully with respect to this important matter. If such shall be the case, we are confident that cheering progress will be reported in all other departments of our work.

The reports made at the last session of the Annual Conferences show that our total membership is now approximately 1,950,000 souls. Let us aim at carrying the figure above 2,000,000 during the year now at hand. Let sinners be called to repentance and multiplied thousands of wandering souls be gathered into the fold. And while the flock is increased, let us be careful also to provide wholesome food for it. To the accomplishment of these high ends let us bring to bear the power of our own press.

Detailed plans for extending the circulation of our periodicals will be published in due time by our brethren to whom the Church has committed this important interest. We earnestly ask and confidently expect the hearty co-operation of our pastors and people in carrying these plans to successful fulfillment.

With gratitude to God for the unspeakable blessings of the past we invoke the favor of our Lord upon all our people in the days to come. Let His work appear unto His servants and His glory unto their children. "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

A. W. Wilson.
Eugene R. Hendrix.
Joseph S. Key.
Warren A. Candler.
H. C. Morrison.
E. E. Hoss,
James Atkins,
Collins Denny,
Jno. C. Kilgo,
W. B. Murrah.
W. R. Lambuth.
R. G. Waterhouse,
Edwin D. Mouzon.
J. H. McCoy.

Dallas, Texas, May 8, 1913.