Senator Plumb has stated that the assessment in Alabama for pistols, guns
and dirks is four times that on farming implements, and Kentucky's record
of crime is far worse than Alabama's. Who of us can say that he is
innocent of this shed blood, unless he is doing something toward sending
the only cure--a Christian civilization? Because the work has many
discouragements, are we excused? Because the people are prejudiced
against us and our principles, shall we withdraw, and let them sink lower
and lower?

But the question is asked: "Have you no public schools or churches in
this large section of the country?" Yes, schools for a few months in the
year, taught in little log school houses, some with floors and some with
none; some with a tiny window and some without; some have doors and some
haven't. Very few have desks; in most there are but slab benches. But
worse than the school house and its surroundings is the illiterate,
immoral teacher who attempts to teach the children. As for church
organizations they are numerous, and a large majority are church members;
but alas for the Christianity taught and practiced. Religion and morality
are divorced. With most of them, religion is the thing of a moment and
not of a life. Meetings once a month during the summer, and that is all
the Christian institution the people have, and we call it _instruction_.
We are inclined to smile at the thought of a preacher prefacing his
sermon with the boast that he has no learning; that his "jeens" coat has
never brushed the chalk off college walls, and what he has to say is "no
fixup" of his own, but direct from "_sac_-rid writ" or an "inspiration of
the Speret." But our smiles end with a sigh when we see that there is not
only _ignorance_, but "the poison of asps is under their lips." Their
hatred for all other churches than their own is intense. They have no
charity for any religion outside of their own church. The excitement and
strife for membership is unequalled even in the craze of their political