The life of Robert Paine, D.D. , bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

Front matter

THE LIFE

ROBERT PAINE D.D.

Bishop of the MetMist Episcopal CirnrelL Sontti.

Preface

Bishop Paine, years before his death, selected the author as his biographer on condition any biography should be written. He said : " I am not worthy of any thing more than an obituary to be published in our Church papers ; but if my friends should think otherwise, I would be glad that the work of writing my life be placed in your hands. You have my entire confidence, and I am willing to trust you." He afterward wrote to me to the same effect. After his death the family, knowing his views, requested that these views be carried out. In addition to this, the Bishops, at their annual meeting in May, 1883, concurred in the request of the family.

In January, 1884, diaries and other papers were placed in my hands, and in February the work was begun. A heavy charge was on my hands. I had to devote a part of each day to pastoral visitation. Two sermons were to be prepared for each Sabbath. A weekly prayer-meeting was to be attended to, at which a suitable talk was to be delivered. All this demanded labor — earnest, constant, and often exhausting. The diaries and papers were to be carefully examined. The work was completed on June 1. From February till June I was in company with the Bishop. It seemed to me that he was always present. I was reminded of an artist who was called upon to take the likeness of a deceased friend. He shut himself up in his studio for days, and communed with his departed friend. That friend came and sat for the picture. He saw him. He seemed to converse with him. He caught the expression of his countenance, the flash of his eye, and the contour of his features. The result was an excellent likeness. It was life-like and exceedingly accurate. So it has been with this writer. While alone in my office it has seemed to me that my dear old friend and teacher was again by my side, and that I could almost hear him speak and touch his noble form. At night he was present in my dreams. Indeed, I could not sleep. I hardly became unconscious for weeks. So near was he to me both by

6 PREFACE.

day and by night that it was difficult for me to withdraw my attention from him. I showed this in the frequent references which I made to him as I appeared before my people. My attention was thoroughly engrossed. I accompanied him on his trips. I sat again in the recitation-room and listened to his lectures, delivered in that clear, ringing, musical voice which I can never forget. I listened again to his thrilling sermons, or bowed with him in humble prayer. I got nearer to him than I ever did during his life. I could almost hear the throbbings of his warm heart, and could see as I never saw before his deep religious feelings. Into his inner life, and away down into the deep chambers of his soul, I had constant and it seemed to me perfect access.

Let not the reader misunderstand me. I am no spiritualist, no enthusiast. I simply mean to say that I became so thoroughly and so entirely absorbed in and with the subject of this biography that in thought and feeling I was constantly with him during the months I was engaged in writing the Life. I so expressed myself to some of my friends at the time the work was going on.

To Mrs. Ludie Paine Scruggs the author is indebted for valuable information in reference to that sad part of his life during which the Bishop appears to have kept no regular diary. The book makes no pretensions to give a history of the stirring times in which the Bishop lived. It is simply a Life of Bishop Paine ; and as a man is known by the company he keeps, the characters of those most intimately associated with him are briefly presented. The incidents of his career are usually given in chronological order, and embrace his whole life from his early boyhood to his death at the advanced age of eighty-three years.

The diaries and other papers furnished by the family have been of invaluable assistance in the preparation of this biography. Every fact narrated is believed to be in perfect accordance with the truth. Whenever possible the exact words of the Bishop have been given. When this was not possible, his ideas have been fully and accurately expressed. I therefore ask a candid and charitable reading of this Life of one of our foremost men, and pray that its perusal may be a blessing to the reader.

Introduction

The life of a great and good man is the property of the age in which he lives. "When that life has been spent in self-denying labors, and earnest effort to advance the welfare of the human race, the example should be recorded for the encouragement and instruction of those who come after us. In an age of utilitarian philosophy, and in a country in which the worship of mammon has attained such proportions as to threaten the existence of society itself, we cannot afford to permit the benefactors of true civilization and progress to pass away without monument or memorial of their works.

Making haste to be rich, and coveting the luxuries that only wealth can purchase, the present generation of our countrymen are placing too low an estimate upon the generous self-abnegation which voluntarily resigns the rewards of successful enterprise and the accumulation of wealth for the purpose of devoting time, energy, and talent to the moral and religious culture of the poor and needy. The merchant, who employs every faculty in the acquisition of fortune, finds his reward in the deference and respect which the world has always shown toward the possessor of great riches. The politician, who studies the arts and the principles which lead to success in the political arena, obtains the desire of his heart and finds his reward in the fickle praises which seldom survive the brief hour of official station. In the lives of all men who have attained success, and have written their names upon the pages of history, there are lessons of wisdom which may serve to guide the footsteps of others, or to warn the ambitious aspirant of the dangers that lie in his path.

The career of a Methodist preacher does not present to the superficial observer a theme of absorbing interest. We may expect no startling incidents, no "hair-breadth escapes," no profoundly exciting records of heroic struggles, of battles fought and won. Yet there is abundant material for the biographer and the historian in the lifestories of men whose names are remembered only by the few faithful friends who valued them whilst living, and treasure their memories when they have passed away.

The annals of a nation bear the names of the few who have marched in the front of the army of progress. The great body of the army, to whose endurance, fortitude, and skill the victories are due, are unknown to fame. The wisdom of the great statesman who piloted the English ship of state through the -storms and perils of the French Revolution has been celebrated by the pens and tongues of his countrymen. But there are only a few discerning men who have the ability to see, and the candor to acknowledge, that the Methodist preachers in Cornwall exercised a conservative influence over the elements of revolutionary disturbance, and thus preserved the English nation from the horrors of civil war and anarchy. The destitution and poverty which justified, in the eyes of many, the revolution in France, existed also in England. But in the British Kingdom a great man had been commissioned from on high, and he and his followers preached the gospel of Christ to the poor, the neglected. and the oppressed, and the hopes of heaven and eternal life sweetened the bitter cup of human poverty and gave to the struggling poor of England the power to endure with heroism the burdens of their lot. Thus the Wesleyan Methodist preachers became the. conservators of peace and the prophets of a new and happier era, whilst William Pitt stood at the front and received the credit for the stability and permanence of British institutions.

To no class of men is American civilization more indebted than to the itinerant Methodist preachers. They have been to a large extent the educators of the people. Following the footsteps of the pioneer, the log meeting-house was the first building erected for the use of the community at large by the zeal and fidelity of the itinerant preacher. He carried to the remotest corners the message of salvation. By his instrumentality neighborhoods were bound together in religious ties, and the ambition to excel in every department of human effort was fostered by his precepts and example. Few graduates of colleges were among these evangelists, but they were students whose diligence and energy overcame all difficulties. Early opportunities for gaining knowledge they had not, but they improved every moment of time ; digested well the books they read, and employed for the highest purposes the learning they acquired. Their advent was an era in the history of the little communities planted in the great forests of the West and the South. A higher tone of public morals and a nobler outlook for life itself resulted from their labors. They were men of the people, and spoke the language of the people, but that language was ennobled and refined by the glorious truths of the everlasting gospel. The Bible was the one book found alike in the cottage and the home of the prosperous man. The words of inspiration became a part of the speech of common life, and the doctrines of the Bible were the laws of society.

It is due to the truth of history to declare that the American pulpit has laid the foundation and constructed, in a large degree, the edifice of civilization upon this continent. The school and the schoolmaster have followed the itinerant preacher, but they have come only in answer to the demand which has been created by the preachers of the gospel. The high estimate in which the pioneer preachers were held by the rude, adventurous, but enterprising settlers in the wilderness was due to the intrinsic merits of these men of God. Not a man among them had any expectation of acquiring money, or social influence, or political power, by performing the duties of the ministry. A life of poverty and toil, of hardship and self-denial, presented itself at the threshold of his career, but the young preacher's heart was aflame with the love of God, and the love of Christ constrained him to labor for the souls of men. Feeling his insufficiency for this great work, his constant appeal was to the throne of grace, and the Holy Spirit clothed him with the armor of a warrior, and he went forth to victory. Conscious of his want of literary acquirements, and knowing that the Holy Spirit imparts no gifts to encourage human idleness, he seized every moment of leisure to improve his mind. Books of real worth that were accessible to him he studied with diligence, and the knowledge acquired was given to the people whom he served. The example was contagious. In every department of intellectual development and distinction, in all the walks of life, there are men who owe to the example of these itinerant preachers the ambition to excel which has resulted in the highest and grandest victories, to the greatest benefit and glory of the commonwealth.

Among those men who have become the chief factors in the sum of moral and intellectual progress in this century, no name stands higher than that of Kobert Paine. Beginning life with the dawn of the nineteenth century, he has been a principal figure in ecclesiastical history for more than sixty years. A youth of great promise, enjoying the few facilities of education accessible in his time, he devoted himself to the work of the ministry. He came to legal manhood and to full membership as an itinerant preacher nearly at the same moment. "With tireless assiduity he applied himself to the acquisition of knowledge. The lonely ride through the forest; the cosy nook in the cabin by the light of the blazing fire; the solitary spot where the overhanging boughs formed a grateful shade for his forest study — everywhere and at every time, when public duties did not engross his thoughts, he improved the opportunity for increasing his stores of knowledge. He studied the great book of nature, and communed with God whilst reading the volume of his works. Rocks, mountains, valleys, rivers, all had mysteries to be solved and lessons to be learned. He learned them well, and brought their testimony to the support and vindication of the volume of inspiration.

He entered upon the work of the ministry in one of the most eventful periods of Methodist history. The American Eevolution was a protest against the establishment of monarchical institutions in America. Jealousy of kings and kingly power and aristocratic pride and presumption had been deeply inwrought into the fabric of American society. The establishment of a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," had created a distrust of every proposition in Church or State which looked toward the centralization of power in the hands of one man, or in those of a few men. Fearing the tyranny of one, communities often surrender themselves to the tyranny of the many. It was very natural that the republican politics of the nation should manifest itself in the government of the Church. The English Bishop, with his seat in the House of Lords — a temporal as well as spiritual ruler — was unknown in America, except by the unenviable reputation which belonged to many of the prelates in the mother country. But the name was, in many quarters, the object of suspicion and dislike. That some prejudices should be formed against the Methodist Bishops in the United States is by no means remarkable. The plea that a scriptural name ought to be given to a scriptural office was sufficient with the wise and the reflecting, but there were many intelligent men who, for purposes of their own, found it profitable to use the prejudices of the ignorant and the vicious. It required no little heroism in the early Bishops of American Methodism to face the criticisms of designing men and the unreasoning opposition of the multitude. But Francis Asbury was a man of nerve, and sustained by the consciousness of a pure purpose, having the glory of God and the good ef men only in view, he endured misrepresentation and petty malice and merciless persecution as a man who had a charge committed to him by the great Head of the Church.

Early in the last decade of the eighteenth century, James O'Kelly had withdrawn from the Methodist Church, and the standard of revolt which he set up had many followers. He claimed that the power of appointing the preachers to their circuits and stations ought not to be lodged in the hands of one man without some court of appeal. The Annual Conference was this court. Having failed in his effort to incorporate this measure into the economy of the Church, he withdrew, and carried many with him. The political situation was decidedly favorable to O'Kelly. There were many leaders of political opinion who were suspected of harboring the purpose of overthrowing the Republic, and introducing a Monarchy. Washington himself did not escape from this charge of treason to American liberty. The fierceness of this political warfare has never been excelled in the history of the country. But, in the midst of civil commotions, ecclesiastical dissensions, and clerical secessions, Asbury remained firm and patient, keeping himself to his one work, disputing with no one, but approving himself as a man of God and a true Bishop and shepherd of the flock.

"When the declining influence of O'Kelly became manifest, and the failure of his seditious movement was no longer a matter of doubt, the controversy assumed a new phase. It was claimed that the preachers who were appointed to their stations ought to exercise a controlling influence over the men who were authorized to make their appointments. The presiding elders, therefore, should be recognized as the Bishop's cabinet, and they should be elected by the Conference from among a specified number of persons nominated by the Bishop. As a measure designed to give peace and rest to the Church, this dangerous proposition was adopted by the General Conference of 1820, and Joshua Soule was elected Bishop a few days previous to the passage of the resolution. After mature consideration the Bishop elect sent in his resignation, refusing to be ordained to an office whose responsibility was not lessened whilst the discharge of its duties had been seriously embarrassed, if not rendered impossible, by the action of the Conference. Thus, from 1820 to 1824, the question was kept open until a growing spirit of conservatism caused the General Conference to recede from its dangerous position. The election and consecration of Joshua Soule, in 1824, settled this controversy, so far as the great body of the Church and the majority of her ministers were concerned ; but the flame of dissension was still burning, and the severe contention resulted in the withdrawal of several thousand members in 1828, who organized a non-episcopal branch of the Church.

The progress of events has fully justified the action of the eminent men who resisted the appeals of friends and the threats of enemies in defense of cardinal principles which were involved in the measures of 1820. The best form of government, in Church or State, may become an engine of oppression in the hands of wicked and designing men. The worst form of government may be so administered as to postpone for ages the efforts of reformers, because the people are not conscious of the burden to which they have submitted, or because they fear the introduction of evils greater than those to which they have been accustomed. But in a system of Church government which deposits in the hands of the people the means by which the authorities of the Church subsist, there can be little danger of depriving the people of their rights. The voluntary principle which, prevails in all denominations of Christians in the United States is a sufficient safeguard against clerical oppression. Especially is this true of the Methodist ministry, who have no legal means of enforcing an obligation for the payment of a salary. If the people repudiate the claim, there is no recourse, there is no court of legal jurisdiction.

There were good and true men upon both sides of the controversy, the leaders in all instances being ministers. It is not a little remarkable that the first attempt to remodel the Methodist system of government was a movement in behalf of the preachers, whilst the issue which was presented in 1828 was made in the name of the people. That there was no great popular demand for the representation of the laity in the legislative department of the Church was proved by the results. That there was no serious defect in the organization of Episcopal M Mhodism has been demonstrated by the history of the Church. The superiority of our system of Church government, as a conservative and preservative polity, is clearly shown by comparison with the fortunes of Methodism in Great Britain. Among the Wesleyans, the most jealously guarded and the most wisely tempered system of making the appointments of the preachers has not secured the body from internal discord, and the erection of independent Churches. The dissidents from the Wesleyans number more than one-third of all the Methodists in Great Britain. The non-episcopal Methodists of the United States do not exceed one in twenty of the membership in Methodist Churches.

The fact which causes the minister to be prominent in all efforts for change in the government of the Church is his constant care and meditation upon the interests of the cause to which he had devoted his life. By degrees, and at the earnest solicitation of the clerical members, the laity became connected with the business of the Church through the financial boards at the sessions of the Annual Conferences. The gradual growth of the lay interest, and the demonstration of the usefulness of these wise and prudent helpers, produced at last a quiet revolution in the mind of the Church at large. In 18C6 the singular spectacle was presented to the world of a body of ministers, forming a General Conference, admitting an equal number of laymen to the legislature of the Church without a petition from the laymen, or the serious agitation of the question by those who were most deeply concerned in the movement.

Robert Paine, a young man of twenty-four, was a member of the General Conference of 1824, and soon became the friend and assistant of Bishop McKendree. By these fathers of Episcopal Methodism, McKendree and Soule, the young preacher became thoroughly instructed in the principles of the Church constitution, and when, twenty years later, the people of the South were driven to the necessity of assuming an independent position, Bobert Paine was among the most prominent in the movement which preserved the institutions of Methodism in the Southern section of the United States. It was in the natural order of things that he should become one of the rirst men elected to the episcopal office by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

For thirty-six years Bishop Paine exercised the office of a Bishop in the Church of God. How faithfully he filled this office the following pages will testify. The record connects his name with every Annual Conference, and his memory is precious to thousands of preachers who loved him for his own sake, and esteemed him for the many qualities which distinguished his official life.

No estimate of a Bishop's labors can be formed by those who are unacquainted with the difficulties of what is called the "stationingrooni." It is impossible that one man should be acquainted with the gifts, graces, and qualifications of a thousand itinerant preachers. Nor can he possibly know the peculiar circumstances which exist in the hundreds of circuits and stations to which the preachers are appointed. It is necessary, therefore, that the Bishop should have godly advisers, men of sound judgment, disinterested motives, and a controlling desire for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. It is essential, moreover, that the person who is responsible for the appointments he makes should have the right to select the men who are to help him in making them. If there is one man in the service of the Church who ought to be thoroughly impartial in the distribution of these appointments, it is the Bishop who is responsible for them. If he be a man of God, he dare not allow any selfish motive to control him. If he be a wise man, he will not allow himself to be controlled by any other motive than the welfare of the Church. The Bishop is dependent upon the voluntary contributions of the people for his support. It would be an act of folly to allow himself to be governed by any unworthy influence, for he must know that there are critical eyes upon him, and no decision that he makes will be accepted simply because he has made it. It must commend itself to the judgment of those who are acquainted with the facts, and the slightest appearance of favoritism would be instantly detected.

It will be seen, therefore, how weighty this responsibility is, when the mere error of judgment may be taken for the perversity of an uncompromising will, or the gratification of a personal motive. Nothing but thorough consecration to God, and continual dependence upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can qualify a man for this delicate and difficult work. That Bishop Paine was a man of thorough consecration to the service of the Church, his biographer has fully proved in this volume. Beginning his career with ample means, whose natural increment would have placed him without effort among the wealthy men of his generation, he gave his time and his property to the Lord of the harvest, and quietly endured the reverses of fortune which followed the civil war. Denying himself the delights of a pleasant home, he entered upon long and fatiguing journeys, in perils by land and water, often under circumstances that would have justified his absence from the sessions of his Annual Conferences.

A Methodist Bishop ought to be a good judge of men. He should have a competent knowledge of human character. There are many occasions that call for the gift which approximates the apostolic power of "discerning the spirits" of men. There are times when modest merit needs encouragement, and, in some instances, it must be discovered and brought forward into the sunlight of opportunity.

Some men are never promoted to places for which they are fully competent, because they lack that self-assertion which is frequently mistaken for talent. A Bishop rarely enjoys the privilege of listening to the sermons of beginners in the ministry. It is doubtful if he could acquire much information concerning the real abilities of those young men whom he chances to hear. Embarrassment is the prevailing virtue of truly great men when they feel themselves in the presence of their superiors. I have called it a virtue, for it proves the absence of that personal vanity which is detestable in a minister, and because I believe that Bishop Paine was one of the finest examples of real pulpit power — greatest when recognizing his responsibility most, but trembling in the presence of a great occasion. He feared not the face of man, but he realized the presence of his Master, and trembled lest the duty of the hour should be imperfectly jierformed. More than most men who are capable of lofty flights of oratory, he was dependent upon the sympathy of his audience. He knew, therefore, by his own experience that a certain measure of embarrassment in the pulpit is the necessary requisite to the highest success, and he was never inclined to form a judgment of others from opportunities which would have given a false impression of himself. In his intercourse with itinerant preachers he was always studying them, as he studied every thing around him, that his knowledge might be made available for the advancement of the cause of Christ.

One of the qualifications of a Methodist Bishop is the ability to appreciate, by practical experience, the sentiments of the Apostle Paul, when he said: "I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound ; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." The man who holds in his hands to a large extent the temporal welfare of helpless women and children should understand what it is to be hungry and to "suffer need." He who has never heard the howl of the wolf at his door-step can scarcely understand the pressure of that pinching want which frequently incapacitates a minister for the work intrusted to him. It is easy to preach endurance of the winter's cold when the preacher prepares the sermon by the warmth of a genial fire. It is no difficult matter to exhort men to trust in Providence when our barns are full and there is no reasonable apprehension of lacking bread to-morrow; but he who knows how to be abased — he who has looked into the faces of wife and children, after revolving

JG Introduction.

the problem of periling his integrity by accumulating debt in the face of stern doubt as to the ability to pay — he is thereby better prepared with tearful eye and prayerful heart to commend to others the example of the birds that have neither barn nor store-house.

On the other hand, the absence of the ability "to know how to abound " must tend to narrowness of views and that depression of the soul which leads to poverty of mental and spiritual resources. He who has the knowledge of which the apostle speaks is prepared for any enterprise which the Spirit of God presents to his courage and endurance, assured of the bounty that has never failed to honor the largest draft which faith has ever drawn upon the bank of Providence. "To know how to abound" is, therefore, to make a right use of the earthly riches which God has placed in our hands, not using them for the gratification of selfish appetites, but as stewards of the Master, distributing to others as freely as we have received. It is not necessary that the name of the donor should be recorded on subscription lists or engraved upon marble in commemoration of princely gifts. It is enough if the hand has been ever open to the appeal of the poor and needy, and that the grace of charity has been enhanced by the kindly voice and the tone of sympathy which color the gift of silver with the ruddy radiance of gold.

Of Bishop Paine it can be justly said that he had the knowledge of these two extremes of abundance and want.

At the termination of the civil war he, in common with many thousands of our Southern countrymen, was deprived of the larger part of his property, and the remainder was so greatly depreciated in value as to make its possession a tax upon mind and heart, whilst it continued an uncertain source of income. Added to this stroke of adversity was the burden of an obligation assumed in behalf of another, which by patient and persevering industry he was enabled to discharge. To the man of honor there is no greater trial than the struggle for the payment of debts for which he has received no equivalent whatever. But bravely facing the issue, Bishop Paine endured the toil and anxiety which for himself and family he before had never known. This "service of tables" was exceedingly distasteful to a man whose whole heart was in the work of the ministry, but it gave no occasion for the diminution of his labors in the episcopal office. The rest at home was alloyed by the burden of care, but it was not made the occasion for the postponement of the engagement or the excuse for the neglect of duty. It was only among his familiar friends that mention was ever made of the hardships of the dark and perilous days whose anxieties added many a furrow to his brow. He had known, in other days, " how to abound." The Providence which had guided his footsteps hitherto was leading him, in the evening-time of life, by a way he had not known.